Thread 11598179

>Check the toy aisle at walmart
>Legends/Black series are $30
>Those shitty pokemon figures are $17
>a single beyblade is $15

this is not sustainable. The hobby is going to die.

It's bad. It's real bad. And it's only going to get worse.

>>11598179 (OP)
It's absolutely not sustainable. Prices have been rising for years now, but now I think they're reaching a point to where it pushes out too many buyers.

>>11598179 (OP)
Inflation has been a thing since Roman times. Prices will continue to climb, people will continue to spend and both will continue long after we are gone.

>it's another whining about pricing episode
I've already seen this one. Can we change the channel and watch something else?

>>11598219
When prices rise above inflation rates is when it's a problem. And it's doing that now.

>>11598258
Not everyone's as well-off as you are, Michael

>>11598220
All the shows have the same writer, so it wouldn't matter anyway.

>>11598179 (OP)
Americans need to realize they are the most pampered little princesses on earth. It's 2-3 times more expensive where I am and people still buy toys.
The tariffs are short term and that's the only real difference from the past.

>>11598179 (OP)
I doubt it's going to die anytime soon, but I do think it's on the way to becoming more niche again. From what I'm seeing, the tariffs combined with prices that were already getting fairly high beforehand have a lot of collectors checking out or at least taking a break on the hobby. Especially newer collectors who got into it during covid. I'm seeing the same thing in the anime figure/statue hobby where a lot of people are selling off their collections.

>>11598220
>>11598258
>Clicks on thread that's obviously griping about prices in the OP
>"Guys, can we stop talking about rising prices?"

I've already passed on 10+ figures I would've bought under the old MSRPs.

McFarlane Toys' MK Klassic line just isn't worth the prices so it's easy to just not collect that line.

A couple legends and a couple more DCMV that were edge cases I also skipped due to being either $28 or $35(!)

I waited for M. Bison to drop to $20 since I didn't like the way they did his eyes and it was worth it at that price. At $20 I probably would've bought Jada's Akuma, but given it's starting at $30 instead of $25, I doubt it'll get down that far. It just doesn't feel worth it given his design is mostly Ryu/Ken's and only one of his headsculpts looks decent.

I think the psychological barrier past $25 really shoots up, since $25 is a quarter of $100. Once you get past that you start to really think about how much money you're wasting on figures.

It's easier to justify high prices for a high end figure like Inart or some Yamaguchis that have a wow factor, but for domestics its very hard.

>>11598179 (OP)
Don't act like you actually wanted any of those peg warmers anon

Anyway, now that I've started collecting imports, I don't really blink at anything that's around $30. It's like two fast food meals

>>11598179 (OP)
Kids don’t buy toys, only 30yo programmers who make 7figs do

I'm buying more old stuff on the secondary market, but i was already head that way before, because I don't like the current trend of toys. So it's actually surprised me on how much more expensive things are now, thanks to these threads.

Hasbro pushing 1:12, especially with GI Joe, basically made me stop buying anything Hasbro. With STar WArs basically being dead, it's very hard for me to buy anything in their 3.75" line because of how much Disneyshit they release and re-re-re-re-remakes of old figures aren't necessary.

NECA and Mezco still release cool shit from time to time though, but they're releasing less shit now than they used to and I'm not really a fan of nostalgifagshit.
McFarlane does some cool stuff, but since I'm not a big DC fan, i pass a lot of what they produce.

With imports, Figuarts have shit up their engineerig, so I don't pay attention to them anymore. Figmas release something cool from time to time. Most imports are kinda shit in general, but that's mainly because there's not a lot of anime/manga shit i'm excited about lately.

So I have less new shit I buy... so it's made me look back on what i missed out on over the years. Been buying vintage McStatues. Army building older figures. Old imports that aren't expensive anymore because they were only flavors of the month. Robots. Looking at various other lines because they have pieces/accessories i want to give to another figure or be part of a diorama.
So i've been making people who want to get rid of their old shit happy and I'm actually enjoying my hobby more, because it's made me look at what I already own and enjoying that. Less hunting, more playtime.

>>11598219
Rome fell lol

>>11598179 (OP)
>>Legends/Black series are $30
>>a single beyblade is $15
Good thing I don't collect those
>>Those shitty pokemon figures are $17
All that's left are the bad ones like Zeraora. Also Sonic, Mario and The Simpsons are like $11 each

>>11598220
you choose which threads you click on

I'm noticing there's no good online deals on desirable figures anymore either. It's always obvious stuff they are trying to get rid of

>>11598786
You mean barely 6 figures

>>11598179 (OP)
>what are discounts
Cmon guys

I'm not a collector, but this market is kind of confusing when manufacturing is cheap enough that hobbyists are printing plastic junk en masse. The fact that plastic pricing has stayed consistent, or dropped in price over the last few years adds to the confusion.

>>11601654
3D Printing is not how companies make real action figures. It is much more expensive than that. 3D Printed figures are inferior and easily fall apart.

>>11602480
Okay, but you can still print your own molds and cast them from a durable resin yourself?
It's not like the process is classified or copyrighted, the Kenner patent is lapsed.

>>11598179 (OP)
>a single beyblade is $15
For a CX starter, maybe. BX boosters are much cheaper.

>>11598219
>Prices will continue to climb
Until a major economic collapse ya dumbfuck

>>11598789
>Hasbro pushing 1:12, especially with GI Joe, basically made me stop buying anything Hasbro.
1:12 has been the standard for decades now. If anything it's more shocking they took this long to do a 1:12 Joe line.

>>11598219
>muh death and muh taxes
doesn't mean industries don't die along the way you raging faggot

>>11602740
They won't be durable. Resin is not as durable as PVC/POM/ABS

>>11604707
IT's not shocking at all, given most of the market for GI Joe is in 1:18 and Hasbro is relearning that, with how poorly the Classified is doing that right now. "Relearning" because Hasbro has tried to up the scale for their GI Joes nearly every decade with disastrous results. The upscale EXtreme GI Joes in the 90s killed the toyline. Sigma 6 (8" figures) in the 00s almost killed the franchise too, if it hadn't been for TRU and Target's support for 1:18.

With Classified, sales seem to go further and further down every year, to the point where many Walmarts aren't even carrying the line and the line showing up at Ross for $5-6 every year. Plus, indie stores keep stock for most of the waves for years, which is pretty bad given how few toys they actualy release.

I think Hasbro came in at a really bad time to try to push a 1:12 GI Joe line, with a shitty movie as its main marketing tool and then the economic downturn + tariffs situation. Even if we were in a better situation, the GI Joe line wouldn't be flourishing, since most fans want it in 1:18 scale.

If Hasbro weren't hard up for money, right now would be the perfect time to sell 1:18 lines, since it's a more affordable option. IT's literally what they did in the 80s and 00s.
For whatever reason, they refuse to lower prices or offer cheaper options. And we also see this with food, entertainment, and other luxury good markets (luxury good market = non-vital shit, not in the gold/premium sense).

>>11605371
>IT's not shocking at all, given most of the market for GI Joe is in 1:18
*Was in 1:18. The 1:18 market is nowhere near as big as it used to be, and 1:12 is the dominant scale now.
>with how poorly the Classified is doing that right now.
Classified is doing pretty well considering the line had been dead for a decade up until that point, and had been on life support since the 90s.
>The upscale EXtreme GI Joes in the 90s killed the toyline.
That had less to do with the scale and more to do with the toys just not being very good.
>Sigma 6 (8" figures) in the 00s almost killed the franchise too
Franchise was already pretty past its prime by then, and Sigma 6 does have some fans, unlike Extreme, so they must have done something right.
>Even if we were in a better situation, the GI Joe line wouldn't be flourishing, since most fans want it in 1:18 scale.
"Most fans" stopped caring years ago, hence why 1:18 is vanishingly rare these days. G.I. Joe was a flash in the pan all things considered; Transformers also died off at the end of the 80s, but managed to completely revive itself with Beast Wars in the 90s and is still going strong today. Classified is honestly doing pretty well for a Joe toyline, probably BECAUSE it's 1:12 and thus has more appeal to both the remaining Joe fans (who care more about the characters themselves than "muh scale") and also newer fans (who will prefer 1:12 offerings due to them being more common nowadays).
>If Hasbro weren't hard up for money, right now would be the perfect time to sell 1:18 lines, since it's a more affordable option.
That's exactly why they won't. 1:18 is only slightly less expensive to produce than 1:12 but consumers expect much lower prices, thus making it economically unviable. 1:12 sells and is profitable, 1:18 doesn't anymore and isn't.

>>11605585
oh look, it's the newfag who has no idea what he's talking about and needs to make shit up just to argue

Remember when Hasbro didn't even need to pay Target for a front cap, at the front, because GI Joe was a hot seller just like STar Wars was back in the day?
I remember.

You don't remember, because you're a zoomer from a third world country.

>>11605638
Oh look, it's Subjectanon pretending everyone not from his particular part of the US is a "third worlder".

>>11605371
Classified is doing fine. Rarely do you see new Classified figures drop to under 17 bucks or so. Occasionally you get an outlier but they tend to keep the prices up there. A toy line in freefall like the Sorny Shapes collection drops to like 14 bucks from 50 or 12 from 30.

Star Wars Black Series is another example of a line in freefall which I am heavily taking advantage of in many sales and at Ollies. $10 was literally too much for Black Series at Ollies so they had to drop them to 4.99

>>11606340
Also it's not just on major retailers either. I see people offloading ANH Leias and RotJ Palpatines for 5 bucks. I have no idea why Hasbro renewed SW unless it was required to renew Marvel.

So yeah, Classified is fine.

>>11606340
I take it you don't follow GI Joe then.

Classified has been found at clearance and places like Ross and Ollies every single year, and places like BBTS have stock from years ago on sale without selling out.
Like, every single wave goes for insane discounts that you don't see for anything but failed toylines like Overwatch.

Star Wars and failed movie toys from Marvel only reach $2-6 after shelf warming at Ollies for months, but GI Joe comes to the stores at those prices the day they're put on shelves.

Its all gonna shrink back to 3.5 again.
Much cheaper to produce and make vehicles

>>11606699
I do follow Gi Joe. You're showing exceptions, not the rule. My Ollie's only has Origins movies figures left, no new classified figures, and my Ross' has literally nothing.

And the origins stuff at Ollie's is still at $7-8 unlike Star Wars at 4.99

>>11607064
>Exception
uhh... if they're being found in NATION WIDE CHAINS like Ross and Marshalls, that's not an exception. Nevermind you can find nearly every wave at these nationwide stores every single year since launch. Everything is ~75% off, instead of the 50%-25% like you usually see Marvel Legends, Dragonball, TMNT, or DC Multiverse lines if they show up at Ross.

Go look at the older GI Joe general to see deluxe sets for as cheap as 1.99 when they were originally $35.

Also, take a closer look at that image i posted. Those GI Joes are 4.99, not "$7-8".
In many photos in the GI Joe thread, you can also see that the MSRP is $15-$12, which means Ross/Ollies got them when Amazon/Target/Walmart dumped their stock at clearance prices, instead of being remainders from a distrubtion warehouse somewhere (actual MSRP would be listed).

STores dumping their stock like this is why a lot of Walmart stores don't even carry GI Joes anymore. In my area, 3 Walmarts don't carry the line, and i have to travel further out to an actual Super Center WAlmart to find them. These "distribution" issues have been an increasingly common report since the movie line failed (it's not a distribution issues, it's simply these specific walmarts no longer being able to carry GI Joes due to poor sales).


And the reason you probably have trouble finding Joes in your area is because deals like this are hard to pass up for resellers. Even if they sell them at 50% off MSRP, they make a good profit.

>>11607109
They're still $7-8 at my Ollie's. Also my Ollie's literally never gets any new Joes and I never see Joes at normal stores like Walmart or Target. The line is mostly online exclusive now and that is where the prices stay high.

>>11607162
>and I never see Joes at normal stores like Walmart or Target.
.... you realize that's a really bad thing, right? And if places like BBTS are putting their GI Joes on sale (for indie stores, this is basically a clearance) and having a ton of stock left over from previous years, it's a sign of poor sales.

Also, Targets universally were the same from store to store (unlike Walmart). So if one store carried a product, every single store would (to the best of their distribution). Maybe something changed since COVID. I haven't gone to a Target in months now, but that was only the store i would always see Classified in. So if some Targets are no longer carrying the GI Joe line, that's even worse than the Classified line was a year ago.

At this point, this is probably the third worst the GI Joe line has sold. Sigma 6 and GI Joe Extreme were better off, because those two lines had full blown retail support that would rival major movie line support from today.
And the last GI Joe movie didn't get major movie line support.

>>11605638
>All of those red shelves were destroyed in the riots

>>11605155
>Resin is not as durable as PVC/POM/ABS
Except for the resins that are. Plenty of engineering grade resins that don't break the bank per part.

I LOVE discussing 3D printed toys here. The absolute malding that results from the anons that know nothing and swear what can't be done despite the fact it can.

Are you throwing your toys against a wall as hard as you can? Hopefully not. I have seen videos of people doing this while testing resins that just won't break.

Bottom line, look at what the miniatures groups are doing. Instead of giving in to Games Workshop pricing, they're printing their own minis. No reason action figure enthusiasts can't do the same. You honestly CAN print a super-articulated figure with no problem, and if that's still an issue, you can just print heads and use existing bodies.

I'm not "priced out" on toys, but I don't see the value in much of them and I'm tired of a lot of the BS. I just printed 3 figures today under 3.75" and my total resin cost was $2. I can't wait to paint them!

>>11607661
Anon, users here (and in general) hate being provided an answer that requires effort on their part. 3D printing is absolutely fun, but you must also agree that it leads to a money black hole. Printer and filament is a fair setup cost, 50+ hours minimum in blender or, even worse, zBrush to get anything half decent. Silicone and raw resin aren’t cheap in bulk, accounting for trial and error, failed prints and molds, fitment issues due to multiple reasons, more filament, let alone finishing tools? I’m probably close to $2k deep for materials and printer, and I’m still only doing static statues and modified figures with it. It’s ABSOLUTELY fun and a multi-faceted/skilled hobby, but it’s never gonna replace the immediate dopamine hit of just getting that figure you want right now. You’re probably the type to run a storefront which sells to users which is ok. Technically that gives you a market advantage if you can market your work (and if you wanna try a new skill of making money off of your other skills).

>>11602789
The CX starters suck. Someone should go and beat up whoever is still putting protolaunchers on those.

>>11607673
>it leads to a money black hole.
Less than the money black hole of collecting toys, and you don't need Zbrush at all, Blender is free, Nomad Sculpt is $15. Plenty of free and cheap stuff to make before you even dive in to making your own stuff.

Those needing their dopamine hit simply lack discipline.

>>11606699
Overall it's doing well enough to keep it going in spite of the misses.

I don't get why Dusty flopped. It's a great figure. Zarana flopped 100% because of that shit face. It's a shame because she's one of the visually-cleanest figures in the line with such well-concealed articulation. If it weren't for that shit face she'd be a top-5 figure in the whole line. They could make one sell better simply by doing a retro version with a better face. Throwing in skin that changes blue in sunlight would be a nice touch, too. The origins figures are fairly decent, but a sinking ship takes everthing on board with it down with it, and the movie really did suck.

>>11607640
Sometimes Hasbro trips over itself with doing figures they want to do at the expense of pushing figures they know customers will want to the back-burner. Are a lot of people gonna guy Big Lob, Zap, ninja Zartan, and Lifeline? Probably not. But we're waiting that much longer for something else that might catch our attention because of those figures.

Reaction+ has been guilty of doing this too.

>>11607920
That's not how it works.
Zarana didn't flop because she was ugly or whatever.

The ENTIRE WAVE flopped... and the wave before that and the wave before that, because all of them were found at Ross and other discount stores. Nearly every figure that Hasbro has released has sold so poorly that they've all been found at Ross, ollies, etc.

Since you don't seem to know, American toys are shipped in waves, with 3-6 different figures in a case. GI Joes are not released individually.
So in Zarana's wave, 2 of her came with 2 Dusty figures and 2 Crimson Guard figures.

>>11607930
Zap and Lifeline were extremely hard to get when they were remade for the 25th+ 1:18 toyline because of how popular they are and they still go for $50+ on eBay. Ninja Zartan was an exclusive in the 1:18 line and he goes for $200 now.

Whether they'll sell in 1:12 or not......
...and given how almost everyhting else doesn't sell and goes for clearance regularly....

>>11607109
Exception meaning that figure is particularly disliked or not cared for and so it went to Ollies or Ross or Marshalls. The figure is the exception not the instance of figures appearing at the nationwide chain.

>>11607954
>Crimson Guard was a flop
In all honesty no I didn't know. Every collector I personally know in real life has at least one for his Cobra troops, and it seems to be one of the ones pretty much everyone into Classified has. I'm thinking that one might be over-produced, and not a technical flop.

>>11607963
see >>11607954 >>11605782 >>11601702 >>11600788 >>11600278 >>11603482
You're ignoring the fact that nearly every single wave has been found on claerance and discount stores for the past 4+ years

And as said in >>11607954 there can't be some individual exception like you're trying to say, because GI Joes are found in wave with a bunch of other figures

>>11607661
>Except for the resins that are. Plenty of engineering grade resins that don't break the bank per part.
So what would it cost to make a figure as durable with the articulation of a GI Joe Classified for example as far as man hours on your part and materials?

>>11607964
>over-produced, and not a technical flop.
it's both overproduced and a flop, especially in the case of GI Joe, because these aren't movie lines where stores overorder based on projected popularity of a movie.

GI Joe is sold on its own merit. Stores order based on history of sales and since every year a ton of stock is clearanced/set to Ross/ollies every year, that means orders are lowered every quarter. Hence the line losing a ton of physical store support, where many stores no longer carry the line, to the point that people like >>11607162 thinking it's an online exclusive now.

If this Classified came out 10 years ago, it would be considered a flop. Hasbro has lowered their expectations a ton.

>>11607969
Those clearly aren't every single wave. And with the way there's huge bulk of one particular figure, there's no way the entire wave went to Ollie's or else we'd see less huge stacks of one figure and huge stacks of an entire wave. Instead they took the figures that didn't sell at Walmarts or Targets and shuffled them off to Ollie's. I go to Ollie's looking for scores, but I have never found a good classified figure at Ollie's. They simply don't exist. It's all the ones no one wants or the ones that were from the closed box era where it was too risky to buy them and get a swapped figure or nothing.

I would argue that there just isn't much of a market for GI JOE in today's political climate in general.

>>11607969
>>11607974
If it wasn't profitable overall then the line would have been cancelled by now. I personally feel like Hasbro is starting to take a "make the customers pay for the figures they DON'T buy" approach, which would explain the $40 Ghost Viper for sale at $60.

>>11607978
nta a big company like Habro can afford to take a few losses.

For those saying all waves go to shitholes like Ollie's, Ross, Marshalls, find me an image of a Darklon, a Retro Card Cobra Commander, a Retro Card Mindbender or a Retro Card Cover Girl at one of those places. You will never see them. Only figures people don't want go to Ollie's/Ross/Marshalls.

>>11607976
I disagree. After the initial wave of Ghost Viper sold out, I think Hasbro went "Keldar and trapjaw" and responded with increased production that now seems to flood the market. I think they do that quite a bit, which is how figures like Crimson Guard end up with surplus. Another example is Cold Slither selling out fast in spite of the price, and now Pulse seems to get stuck with an abundance of them when they restocked.

They don't know their customer numbers. No company really does. Finding that equilibrium number of the exact quantity for the exact number of customers is proving elusive. So they see a high-demand figure, and respond with overproduction.

>>11607980
And that's because the cost of producing this stuff (even with tariffs) isn't as high as people think.

>>11607109
>And the reason you probably have trouble finding Joes in your area is because deals like this are hard to pass up for resellers. Even if they sell them at 50% off MSRP, they make a good profit.
I noticed that too. The sellers who are selling this stuff online for around $15 aren't taking a hit at all because they bought it for even less at Ross and Ollie's.

>>11607974
This is just patently untrue. If they were ordering less and less every quarter, the line would have ended by now. You've created a paradox in your own mind, because you simultaneously want a narrative where literally no one is buying this stuff, nor have they ever, yet you also want people to believe that these things are being produced by the truckload constantly, and being dumped off at liquidation retailers. And at this point, the line is 6 years old. If it was doing as bad as you claim, they would have axed it ages ago.

We're also apparently ignoring that they've literally launched a campaign to have huge displays in Walmart with all of Hasbro products. Which is another thing you totally ignore and discount and want to argue that "well, not every store is getting them, in fact almost none of them are" while also arguing that all of those stores (which aren't getting the product according to you) are also somehow getting the product and sending it to Ollies....it can't be both ways.

>If this Classified came out 10 years ago, it would be considered a flop. Hasbro has lowered their expectations a ton.

I mean, basically every company regardless of product has lowered their expectations over the years. And again, Classified is nearly 6 years old. And the pre-Covid world was very different anyway.

>>11607975
>implying i'm personally photographing everything i see at stores just because someone doesn't understand how retail works
Stores like Ross are nation wide chain stores. They get all their stock sent to a centralized distrubtion center (or 30) and that's sent out to thousands of stores in 50 different states. So if one store gets stock in, that means there's going to be enough stock to supply at least 2,000 stores.

Ollies only has 600 stores and they're regional, so I've never seen anything they have because I don't live in the 3 or 5 states they operate in, yet they get the same shit I've seen at Ross.... so....
And people talk about seeing the same shit at Burlington Coat Factory, TJ Max, and other discount stores.

Personally, i visit 6-5 Rosses every week, because they're near where i work, where i eat, and other places i like to shop. So I've personally found almsot every wave, plus deluxe sets. Buuuut, I rarely buy anything.

>>11607978
OF course it's profitable, but like i said, they just lowered their standards by a ton. If it's basically become an online exclusive, it's probably the 3rd worst selling GI Joe line since the TRU/indie shop exclusive and the first Anniversary line from the 90s. Sigma 6 and GI Joe Extreme had a much stronger retail presense, yet because it didn't meet sales expectations, they killed those lines.

>>11607981
which waves are those in? We're only now seeing newer figures trickle in at Ross. IT takes a while for stores like Target/Walmart/amazon to dump their stock. Stuff like pic are only showing up now and it was released in 2024. Same with those deluxe army builder sets that showed up a couple of months ago.

>>11607996
>This is just patently untrue.
In what world do you live in? It's literally true if you can't find the toyline in every single Walmart and Target, because people have literally been reporting their Targets and Walmarts no longer carrying the toyline more and more every year.

>>11608004
>In what world do you live in? It's literally true if you can't find the toyline in every single Walmart and Target, because people have literally been reporting their Targets and Walmarts no longer carrying the toyline more and more every year.

I live in reality. The place where you need more evidence than an anonymous goon who's source is: Trust me, bro.

>>11608004
>people have literally been reporting their Targets and Walmarts no longer carrying the toyline more and more every year.
I've never heard or seen that. There is the issue of uneven distribution where stores like WalMart will send more of a given item to "Store A" than to "Store B" because previous similar stuff sold better in the first store.

So one WalMart gets this:
>>11602972

And the next WalMart gets this:
>>11604214

>>11607976
The political climate in the 00s was worse, because soccer moms and hippies were very anti-war back then. First with Bush and again with Obama.
Yet GI Joe experienced a renassance and was massively successful with the GI Joe Vs Cobra line in the early 00s and then again with the relaunch for the 25th Anniversary.

There's no real anti-war sentiment right now and video games like Call of Duty and Battlefield aren't experience any negativity, so why would a military line like GI Joe be affected by politics?
The real reason gI Joe is doing poorly is because most fans want it in 1:18 and the fact that toys have become too expensive.... which is funny, given that GI Joe shelf warms at places like Ollies despite being $6.

>>11608007
Brah, it's been reported in the GI Joe General for the past 4 years now. IT's been reported on reddit, hisstank, yojoe, and other forums. There's even someone in this thread who was arguing with me who said he can't find GI Joe at his Walmarts or Targets anymore.
Don't be a schizo and claim I'm samefagging. Sorry if you don't like that reality doesn't line up with your ignorant beliefs.

Speaking of which...
>>>11608009 uneven distribution
Literally doesn't exist the way you think it does, because individual stores no longer carry stock IF they didn't sell their old stock. Walmart has had that policy in place since the 00s. If stores get as much stock like the pictures you're pointing to, it's because they actually sold enough in the previous quarter/month to justify stocking that much.
If the store doesn't sell that, that's literally customers not wanting them and that's why sales are gonna be lowered the next month/quarter and why stock shows up at Ross/Ollies/etc.

This is business 101, dude.

BTW, if you haven't noticed, stores have been setting up their christmas shit.

>>11608017
>BTW, if you haven't noticed, stores have been setting up their christmas shit.
That's sort of an irrelevant point. It's also irrelevant (but necessary) for me to point out that soon Halloween candy will be on sale cheap. And for the record some stores have already begun pulling out their Christmas stuff.

>Literally doesn't exist the way you think it does, because individual stores no longer carry stock IF they didn't sell their old stock. Walmart has had that policy in place since the 00s. If stores get as much stock like the pictures you're pointing to, it's because they actually sold enough in the previous quarter/month to justify stocking that much.
If the store doesn't sell that, that's literally customers not wanting them and that's why sales are gonna be lowered the next month/quarter and why stock shows up at Ross/Ollies/etc.

You just said "uneven distibution doesn't exist because of reasons why it does indeed exist." And that's part of the reason why shit ends up unsold. I've mentioned it way up in the earlier parts of this topic with some stores getting an abundance of stuff other stores not getting it at all or very little of it is what causes high-demand stuff to end up on clearance. I didn't find Croc Master in my area until at Ross, and I was willing to pay its full original retail price for it but other stores within the area just didn't have it until it was on clearance. And I look forward to the Ghost Viper being a similar case of overstock because fuck that price.

>>11608017
if it were easy to get any figure at Ollie's or Ross' people wouldn't be preordering and these things would have their prices dropping online--like what happened with the Shapes collection or what happened to DC Multiverse in 2020-2021 before they drastically reduced their manufacturing runs

>>11607970
>as far as man hours on your part and materials?
Depends on what you mean. Man hours??? I've bought files for under $10 for o-ring figures that are now mine forever and my favorite flex resin is 62 cents per figure with the engineering grade around one dollar per figure. I can literally print out as many Cobra Troopers, BATs and Crimson Guards as I want. For Classified, I haven't looked, there are a ton of ML designs out there. I can upsize my O-Rings to classified scale with no problem. If you want a true Classified there are ways about it, and if you want to sculpt your own, the best bet is to build off of someone else's "buck" that you can get for under $10 digitally.

I'm sorry, but you sound like you think this is insurmountable and somehow requires hundreds of man-hours. Scores of designers are selling their work for very reasonable rates, and it doesn't take much for you yourself to "get good" and make your own. I mean, shit, if you sculpt a pair of military pants, how many figures can you re-use those for? Arms? How much re-use does Hasbro do? I've modified some other designers files for my own tastes and spent minutes to under an hour doing so without knowing much about the software itself. I'm planning on the winter to get more time in with the software personally. There's a resin for the "Ball Joint Dolls" makers that works very very well because it can handle friction without turning the resin to powder. I haven't tried that yet, but the tough resin I use doesn't powder either.

Also, there are a ton of designers making vehicles for Classified, and their prices range from reasonable to ridiculous to free. Those are best for FDM printing. I literally have the files for the USS Flagg, and while I haven't gotten to it yet, I plan to take my time and only print a little per month so I'm not spending tons on filament. You could do whatever you want. I'm going to scale it for 3.75" and make it fit on a shelf but cutting away sections.

>>11608030
so....uh.....pictures? I want to see 3-D printed Joes. You'll make some money if you extend the legs 1/4" for an even 4" figure, which would even out the proportions of the originals.

This "Everything goes to Ross and Ollies" guy is doing a good job at making me believe I'm getting ripped off when buying toys at full price and I should just only buy at 50% or lower. Problem is that'd probably mean buying nothing since I never see any figure I want that low at Ross or Ollie's or online with about 5 or so exceptions.

>>11608049
A lot does, and some of it's good stuff worth buying. But it's dishonest to claim it all goes to discount resellers.

>>11608083
The big problem is there is no red flag indication of when to go to Ollie's or Ross' to find a new drop, or if the local ones near you even get new drops. Eventually the gas spent would equal the cost of just buying the figures online.

Like my Ollie's I last checked about a year ago and I went again recently--it still has basically the same figures, just less of them. I don't really believe it got a huge drop of a bunch of new Legends or classified figures in that period based on the fact that no figure there is newer than like say 2022 or so.

Not to mention when I went recently it had a Hasbro box sitting at the end of the aisle that wasn't there before looking like it was ready for some employee to put out. It was labeled "do not open before (some date in 2021)". It's like they're still restocking old Eternals figures they have in the back as the shelves slowly get bought up.

My Ross had super mario movie figures, nothing from DC, Marvel, Star Wars or GI Joe.

>>11608107
I never see anything at any of those places either. I think people who do supposedly see stuff all the time either go every day or live in the sticks where hardly anyone is buying anything anyway.

>>11608028
>That's sort of an irrelevant point.
Are you retarded? Or are you some contrarian bot? It's entirely relevant, because they're going to start overstocking for Christmas, so it's not even considered overstocking. It's literally "having enough stock for christmas" because that's how much stock they need if they need to cover Christmas sales.
If you can't acknowledge and accept this, you're a retard not worth talking to and everything you said is gibberish you made up to argue.

>>11608029
People preorder downloadable software and that's functionally unlimited. People are stupid like this.
Collecting and FOMO is brain rot in general. Peak consumerism, yet here we are, doing it despite knowing how bad it is.
So if people want to preorder shit, paying full price, for things that have continually shown up on clearance and discount stores, that's their own hang up. Pic is a amazing figure that people bitched a ton about being overpriced, yet people are still buying the same type of figure that are even more expensive today.
.... and that's another thing, because if you argument had any water, does that mean people DON'T think toys are too expensive now just because they continue to buy even more expensive toys? No, they're just addicts.

BTW, this toy was originally ~$45 and here it is at a 70% discount for only $14.99 (Ross lists the MSRP at $20, so this also means that whoever they got the stock from had clearanced it down to that price before dumping this unsellable stock).
BTW BTW, this is a popular character, who sold extremely well when he was remade 3 times in the 00s. First time as a comic pack figure. Second time as a DTC figure. Third time for the 25th line (re-released 3 times in the 25th line).

Why would a popular character shelf warm and then need to go on clearance in the Classified line? What kind of mental gymnastics are you going to make up now just to pretend that GI Joe Classified isn't selling poorly?

>>11608049
>>11608107
>>11608110
yeah, you're competing with resellers if you want to find extremely cheap stock like this, so you need to visit multiple stores a couple times a week to find them.

COVID drove resellers into a frenzy and its still not letting up. You basically need to be lucky to get there before a reseller does

And if you notice in some of the pictures I've posted, people are putting ALL THE STOCK into their carts, because some of these people are customizers/army builders.

pic is a $35 deluxe figure going for $9. And he has about 8 cases worth of toys. EIGHT CASES at 72% off.

And just to point something else out, stores like Ross, Burlington Coat Factory, etc almost always sell their stock at 50% off. So when Dungeons and Dragons, Marvel Legends, DC Multiverse, and Star wars figures show up, they're $10-14.
So when GI Joe Classified to show up at $5-6, that's failed toyline prices like Overwatch and other lines that bombed on shelves.

So I'm surprised that Hasbro didn't killed the line after the first year this happened... and it's surprising that Hasbro has lowered their standards that nearly 5 years straight of this happening hasn't led to them canceling it either.

That Beyblade price is fine, those shitty figures clogging up the landfills should die though.

>>11598179 (OP)
It's all his fault.

>>11608476
>And just to point something else out, stores like Ross, Burlington Coat Factory, etc almost always sell their stock at 50% off. So when Dungeons and Dragons, Marvel Legends, DC Multiverse, and Star wars figures show up, they're $10-14.
>So when GI Joe Classified to show up at $5-6, that's failed toyline prices like Overwatch and other lines that bombed on shelves.

This isn't really true, the starting point for a lot of these figures at places like Ross is $7.99, which is 60% off of a $25. You're cherry picking, because you can see these same things in the Star Wars, Marvel, Wrestling, NECA, DC, etc. figure communities where they're regularly finding these figures for 60%-75% off.

All you have to do is peek your head into other communities, or see videos from people who do regular Ross hunts to see that these are all true for the other lines as well, not just Classified.

>>11608547
>the starting point for a lot of these figures at places like Ross is $7.99, which is 60% off of a $25. You're cherry picking
I wish i was, because then stuff like this would be much cheaper than i bought it for (lhalf off btw (and not BBTS prices, who tends to inflate their prices over MSRP for some lines)).

Like i said, i go to multiple Rosses a couple times a week, so know all the prices. I can confirm what people say and the dozen pictures I've posted confirm everything i say.

And also, prices have been wonky since COVID. So of course prices are starting to go up at Ross, because they also went up at Walmart/Target/Amazon/etc. When i bought GI Joes at Ross back in 2022 or 2021, they were $5 each. And now they're $6 and are going to probably cost $7 since the newer Joes are even more expensive than they were a year ago.

Still, ~60% off isn't ~75% off. And this isn't to say you can't find Star Wars figures or DC/Marvel movie lines for even cheaper, because even those can fail too
And that's the keyword in all this: failure.

The level of discount you're getting is indictative of the level of how poorly the toyline sold. And GI Joe has been found at Ross/Ollies/Marshalls/etc for $5-6 for consequtive years since it relaunched in 2020, nearly every wave. And not only"exceptions", like some ignorant people in this thread have tried to say, because Ross/etc get their GI Joe Clasified figures in assorted cases, not individuals.

... nevermind that normal retail is ditching selling GI Joe Classified and that's an even bigger sign of poor sales, because places like Walmart and Target make up the majority of majority of toy sales.

>>11608552
normal retail is ditching a lot of toys in general. Both Walmart and Target are planned to shrink the toys section another sizable chunk next February with some reports that Walmart's might liquidate the toy aisle down to just four being just slightly bigger than a Walgreen's section because they will not put up with the tariff tornado anymore.

>>11608518
Obsessed, unironically.

>>11608476
>>11608452
You're always posting pics of the same figures though. Sgt Slaughter, Zaraya, blue ninjas, crimson guard, 60th annv figs, copperhead, shipwreck, origins. About the only figure you have posted that surprised me going to ross was the single Helix figure (and not bulk like the others) and even that could be justified due to the closed box effect.

>>11609108
>You're always posting pics of the same figures though.
uhhh.. WAT?
How are they the same figures if you listed over a dozen figures and all o them from different years and waves? Practically every year is represented and different quarters/waves/months too. Nevermind the links i posted that include other figures like the generic deluxe army builders from last year and other deluxe/combo figures, plus exclusives that are created to make specific stores carry the line. Exclusives should never sell this poorly.

You're just showing how you're ignorantly defending the line, knowing nothing about it.

>>11608587
That's next year though. GI Joe had been removed from certain stores since the movie line bombed back in 2021 and over the years/months, more and more stores started removing the line to the point i wonder if even half of Walmarts even carry the line anymore.
Someone in this thread said that his local targets don't carry the line anymore either, and that's surprising to me, considering Target never had Walmart's policy.

So if GI Joe Classified was already being removed from shelves before the tariffs, it's solely because it's a poor seller and not anything to do with costs.

And if toys are selling that poorly, it's no wonder, because Hasbro refuses to offer cheaper options. Back in 2008, during the financial crisis, they switched over to 1:18 scale and enjoyed huge success from the Marvel lines being shrunk down in scale. We've entered another economic downturn and all they 've done is increase prices.

>>11609362
Out of over 250 figures in classified, evidence of the Ross/Ollies provenance of only around 12 figures-- ones that most who collect the line can identify as low desirability-- is not bad.

And there's no prices on the ones you posted in that pic although I recognize Croc Master as a poor seller.

>>11609383
>if you don't provide proof for every single figure showing up on clearance and their individual prices, then it's not failing
>and it doesn't matter that many Target/Walmart have stopped carrying the line because
ok retard

I seriously could have bought almost every single figure from the GI Joe Classified line through Ross and Marshalls at 75% discount. Of course, i didn't buy 99% of what i did see, despite being a giant GI Joe fan, because it's not the scale i want it in.
I mean, I bought McFarlane Call of Duty figures as generic army builders for 1:12 fodder, multiples even, and i still didn't buy GI Joes because they're not generic enough. I saw the generic GI Joe army builders, but i only saw the female versions, which means someone bought up the male versions before i got there.

the only GI Joe Classified figures i own that i paid full price for are Profit Director Destro (who got clearanced out, because everything GI Joe gets clearanced out) and I Was Once A Man Cobra Commander. So two figures out of i think maybe 8, that i got at Ross or were given to me as a gift (i own two PRofit Director Destro because one was give to me as a gift).

>>11609415
The suspicious part is just that it's never the desirable figures with Ross/Ollies pics. Like I guarantee you will never see this Snake Eyes at Ollies or Ross. Only the movie one.

>>11609947
>desirable
>vipers, ninjas, stalker, cobra officers, Cobra infantry, scrap iron, sgt slaughter, BAT, dusty, multiple generic army builders, croc master, outback, crimson guard and many others aren't desirable
Are you even a GI Joe fan?
You sound like a consumer whore, who only wants FOMO figures.

OKAY, if you want to get technical about it, literal years worth of GI Joe Classified figures shelf warmed, were getting clearanced out, and then got dumped at Ross and Ollies, it literally does mean that these figures aren't desirable, but only because they're in 1:12.
Fans think GI Joe works best in 1:18, hence all the characters listed being hugely popular before.

BTW, i like how you keep ignoring the fact that that almost literally everything was found at Ross/Ollies/Marshalls, because the line is such a poor seller. Multiple Snake Eyes have always been found at Ross, not just the movie ones.
The only thing stopping the one you posted from showing up at Ross is the fact that it's too new to be dumped yet. So only figures from 2020-2023 were wide spread found at Ollies and Ross. The 2024 figures are barely showing up.

Maybe the 2025 figures won't show up at Ross, because stores halved the orders they made in 2024, which was halved from 2023, which was halved from 2022, etc etc, because fans kept rejecting the toys year after year. And that's pretty sad that the best selling GI Joes were the ones that were hated the most (the updated 2020 designs, before they started catering to nostalgiafags).

>>11610146
It doesn't matter what you think should be desirable figures based on your impression of the IP. It matters what actually sells and what doesn't. Blue Shirt Sgt Slaughter gets put on sale even online, so he is clearly not desirable, either due to being overproduced, something about the design (the blue shirt design is off-putting to me so I'd attribute it to that IMO), or any number of other reasons. I also have a Crimson BAT I got for under 15 bucks online. Clearly not that desirable (especially with how much reuse that mold gets, leading to people not wanting to buy it every time they make a new one). Online prices of course won't typically drop to Ross or Ollie's levels, but typically desirable figures don't get online sales that drop them down to say 11 bucks from 25.

And since I don't have any of the FOMO figures, because they're simply too much trouble to get, or too expensive, you're gauging me inaccurately. I don't have Snake Supreme Cobra Commander, I don't have Deluxe Mindbender, I don't have Master of Disguise Zartan, Serpentor, Once a Man CC, etc. because they either required jumping through hoops or were unreasonably priced. I bought a regular Cobra Commander, but I am certainly not going to shell out 50 or 60 or whatever they wanted for that crazy Snake Supreme pack.

Frankly I think it'd be great if we could all go to Ollie's say a year after every regular figure's release and find them for 5 bucks. But that just isn't my experience at all, so I don't buy your position. You show figures of lesser desirability, deluxe packs that went to big box stores for high prices ($40+) that people at Target or Walmart didn't find desirable enough for the high price, or figures that were overproduced and thus didn't have an audience for all the units made. These are what Ollie's and Ross tend to have.

Why does everyone talk like all Ross and Ollie's carry the same toys
My Ross only ever has clothes, you talk like you can see into ten thousand locations at once. I don't even know anything about GI Joe its just annoying to scroll past you know it alls constantly who think you're big shit when you don't even feel confident to post somewhere with a name

>>11610193
From my experience all Ollie's do carry the same Hasbro figures:

-Eternals
-Black Panther 2 movie figures
-A wide variety of Star Wars slop from after the ST destroyed the franchise
-G.i. Joe Origins figures
-A variety of figures from the sealed mystery box package (no window) era of Hasbro where you were likely to get a box of rocks if you tried to buy something in store, so people didn't buy it. This includes D&D and Indiana Jones figures.

Looking for anything else there is taking a risk.

>>11610193
Ross is a nation wide chain. They carrying 99% of the same shit across 50/49 states in 2000+ stores. They have centralized distribution centers, which ships shit out to their stores that they get from other places in the country. Hence people reporting the same toys showing up at their stores from one end of the country to the other.
They're not a remainder store, which deals with returns/damaged/clearanced shit that didn't sell in regional areas and specific stores. Ross, Marshalls, TJ Max, Burlington Coat Factory, Ollies and others get their stock from distribution warehouses, not individual stores.

>>>11610192 It doesn't matter what you think should be desirable figures based on your impression of the IP.
No shit? Hence me mentioning actual popular characters that have gotten multiple releases and redecos, because they were proven to be desireable figures before.
>you're gauging me inaccurately.
Nah, I think i pegged you completely correct. Here you saying Sgt Slaughter doesn't matter because he blue. Or Crimson BAT doesn't matter because it's red. Do you know how many fans don't actually give a shit? In fact, redecos like that used to be super popular.
You can argue that trends change, but it's weird that it only happened when they changed the scale.

Still, you're ignoring the fact that popular characters are no longer desireable, despite being nearly identical to their past popular selves.

> But that just isn't my experience at all
Sucks for you, but the fact that there's thousand of these types stores nation wide, more than there ever were of ToysRUs and Target combined, means a literal ton of stock was commonly found. The fact remains that nearly every single GI Joe figure has shown up at Ross/Ollies/etc, due to selling poorly, despite stores lowering their orders year after year after year.

Also, modern internet is shit. Tons of videos showing all the different types of GIJoes you can find at Ross vs way fewer pics

>>11610243
Given how autistic the average toy collector is, and the outrage at the 'modern interpretation' designs initially in the line, I can assure you Sgt Slaughter having the blue wifebeater isn't going to sell as well as either the black or looks that appeared in the cartoon. Because everyone is going to go for the black and the only way someone will go for the blue is if they have to settle for it or repaint it themselves.

And I didn't say Crimson BAT was unpopular because it's red, but rather by that point the mold had already been reused for multiple BATs and most already had however many BATs they needed. It makes it easy to pass on.

There's plenty of cases of popular characters not being desirable due to the look being wrong. Like the exclusive Jean Grey eternally peg warming at Target now just because they chose a slightly niche look for her that still appeared in the comics and forgot 2 deco hits for her boots.

>>11610286
You're just making up excuses, when the fact is that redecos never really stopped people from buying something if the character was popular enough
Nevermind redecos were almost always for exclusives, which are so popular that fans go visit stores and conventions to get them
Nevermind army builders were always top sellers regardless of whatever excuse you're trying to make.

And again, because you don't know any of this, you don't sound like a fan at all. Maybe you're a newfag fan, so you don't know how popular the line used to be.

Nevermind you're nitpicking at these few outliers, ignoring everything else, including your own previous points that were proven wrong, in your endless goalpost movements.

You can argue that maybe Hasbro is stupid for trying to make any of these toys in 1:12. What was popular in 1:18 is doomed to fail in 1:12. ... hence practically the entire line showing up at Ross/Ollies and probably half of all Walmarts and Targets no longer carrying the line.

Or maybe you are right that 1:12 collectors are more autistic than 1:18 collectors, so a simple redeco is enough to kill an entire release and Hasbro just needs to stop trying to imitate the past successes.
Since the line sold better initially, maybe they need to stop catering to nostalgiafags and continue with the quasi-futuristic laser gun figures from 2020.