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[Mastermind]

Just curious what other Canadians think about Joes these days. Maybe it's the fact that another year has gone and very few Joes (and Joe knockoffs) have made it to Canadian toy shelves that has left me kind of disillusioned. I know that we can order online or hook up with someone in the States to pick up things for us but am I the only one who actually enjoyed walking into a store and finding something new? When I was a kid I collected the Adventure Team (waaaaaaaaaay back in the 70's) and there were tons of figures and accessory packs to be found. Even Super-Joe was easy to find after the 12" figures went the way of the dinosaur. When the 80's came and the 3 3/4" figures and vehicles came out they were everywhere. I remember the drugstore in my small hometown getting all of the figures and most of the smaller and mid-sized vehicles. Of course, with the success of the Joe figures came the various companies who made knockoff figures which sometimes were just as cool as the Joes (remember General Patch?).
These days I walk into Toys R Us and find a few leftover Corps sets which have sat in the same spot for two years and no new Joes. Actually that's not entirely true. The manager of the Toys R Us closest to me said they go in one case of the figures with Venomous Maximus for Christmas. hooray.
For some reason we are being left out of the army builder sets, the Toys R Us repaints such as the Cobra Ninjas and other six packs, almost all of the vehicles and there isn't much out there to replace it. Walmart gets a lot of Transformers and Batman figures but not much else.
After thirty-some years of collecting Joes I think I'm finally getting tired of looking anymore. Just curious if anyone else is in the same boat.

[Redmao]

its sure is depressing to walk into a store to see the same old figures hanging there seasons after seasons. it sure ain't the 80's anymore where Joe was everywhere in Canada. Today the only joe that we see in stores are remains from VvV wave 3 and most of those are Jinx or the Wild Bill packs.

The problem is the packaging, I think. Up here the packaging must at least be bilingual while in the states, they won't even touch a product whose packaging isn't just in english...that crazy detail might be the stick in our wheel...If Hasbro only had to do one packaging than they might distribute a larger quantity of figures...maybe

[BHMike]

I don't think it's dying at all. Speaking from 'behind the counter'.
I did more in sales this year on Joe than any other.

I think it lies in promotional items.

So much is exclusive and only available in the U.S. - that us Canucks get fed up and pissed off.

That, and we're cheap. No one wants to pay more than retail for something, and sadly, the major chains (TRU, Walmart, etc) don't carry most of the line. Therefore everyone is left with buying from a shop like mine or Legends or such.

When we have to get them from the U.S., we have to pay shipping, duty, and  taxes on it. Then folks balk at having to pay nearly double the U.S. price.

This is the main reason I don't bother carrying alot of new items period.
Wrestling saw it's BIGGEST year here in the store, and I attribute it to the fact that I can now buy directly from Jakks (the company that makes it).
Hasbro will not allow me to buy directly from them UNLESS I buy from Hasbro Canada - which means I will only get items that are already up here - and what good is that?

I prefer to help out the collector and carry items that we don't / can't get up here. But if no one buys it as soon as I get it, I don't want to carry it.
I can't run a business selling at 'cost', or worse yet - at a loss.

 :shock:
Ok... apparently I went on a rant there - sorry.
Mike

[Pete The Greek]

I have accepted the fact I can't find most of the stuff I want in Canada.  I don't make an effort any more to search for them.  The bump in the Canadian dollar has lessened the blow for Canadians but it's not enough.  I would be nice to get some of the 6 packs in Canada but it won't happen unless Canada TRU decides that.  Look at it this way, collectors from other countries (minus the USA) are having the same problems as us.  

I know the feeling of finding a ton of Joes on the pegs.  You can't beat it.  At least Miko and Samko bought up a ton of the Hasbro Canada leftovers for sale this year.  It was cool to go toy hunting their, even though 95% of the packs I bought I didn't keep.

[Spillspleen]

Yup...Joes in Canada are dead...at least when you look at the whole picture. There is one store that sells older vintage and new joes...and they would say the same as BHT...."Joe sales are up....record season"...but thats nothing compared to the 80's when every store carried G.I.Joe if they carried any toys at all...!

But I do see the U.S. market growing...and the two packs are showing up everywhere....even super markets out here....so maybe we will see something new in the next year or two.  :thumbsup:

[Pete The Greek]

Based on the Miko and Samko warehouses in the Toronto area, I noticed one thing with the GI JOE section: Constant turnover, every day, which means people were buying the 2 packs.  This wasn't some one or two peg row of packs like TRU for their waves but 20-30 rows. I heard some parents say I won't buy those toys for my kids (because they had plastic guns).  Other didn't care as they were a bargin.  Forget the so called war and the American military theme of the toy brand as GI JOE will sell in Canada. But not at the TRU and Walmart prices.  Hasbro Canada better not use that excuse as Miko/Samko will tell you otherwise.  I observed it for a couple of months.  I just makes more sence to bring out the single packs again as people are dictated to the bottom line...which is cost.

[Colonel Abernathy]

when TRAHC figures started showing up in Canada it was great, despite the generic packaging.  the fact we only got wave 1 & 2 was the harbinger of doom...no hiss 3, no wave crusher (really wanted this as the SHARC was a childhood favourite) etc.  I was surprised to see the Night Rhino show up.  actually maybe 1997 was the start of it all when I had to make a trade for the stars n stripes box (no Canadian appearance due to the huge US flag)

regarding packaging...hasbro started putting tri-lingual packaging on their TFs in 2001 with the RiD line (english, french, spanish).   I wonder what the reason is for not ddoing this with Joes?

also, Canadian TRU has carried english-only TFs since at least 2002 with the TRU-exclusive G1 reissues (although I did see a few "Euro" packages of the 1st wave {OP, Magnus, Rodimus} about a year later) so I wonder why we can't get english-only TRU-exclusive VvV 6-packs

anyway the whole situation is odd...it seems Canadian distribution could be way better and is crappy for no real reason, but who knows how these toy companies really work.  Maybe they've had numerous board meetings and determined it would be in the company's best interest to not get our money  

[BHMike]

Yup...Joes in Canada are dead...at least when you look at the whole picture. There is one store that sells older vintage and new joes...and they would say the same as BHT...."Joe sales are up....record season"...but thats nothing compared to the 80's when every store carried G.I.Joe if they carried any toys at all...!

Actually, I was talking mainly about the NEWER stuff.
Back in March/May I bought a HUGE collection of mainly newer items.
They're ALL gone.
Everytime I buy 'new' items, they sell immediately.
Heck, I'm the guy that helped Pete by taking all those 'extras' off his hands.

Most of them are gone now. That wasn't even a month ago! (and there was ALOT!)

New Joe product WILL sell and DOES sell in Canada - it's not dead. It just hasn't been given a fair chance.  Hasbro doesn't push the Joe line as well as they do Star Wars. The funny thing is, they don't HAVE to push Star Wars, buy they should push Joe more.

The Canadian Toy Fair is coming up in January. I'll start a thread for it in another post, if anyone has any questions for me to ask them, I will.

Every year however it's the same thing. I don't know how many of these threads I've seen.

Bottom line, the new Joes DO/WILL sell, it's Hasbro to blame for not giving a crap about the collector (the ones buying the line), and catering to the 'big chains' wallets. :-)
mike

[AlleyViper]

I think its dead only due to the major retailers.  We know that there are collectors who buy the new stuff, online because thats the only way.  I was even in a TRU during the pre-Christmas shopping rush and overheard a woman asking for GI Joe's, and since TRU around here at least, are not carrying much of anything for GI Joe the employees had to tell her to go elsewhere.  They named the overpriced specialty store in town, and I mentioned Superstore since at that time they had just gotten some wave 4 figures in.  Which, I might add, are all gone now.  And that included the wave 3 figures that were peg warming in every Walmart in town.  

So I think Joe's did pretty good for Christmas, which may convince retailers to bring more in, in terms of variety and bulk.

But it is kind of depressing to be a Joe collector in Canada.  Without internet shops or people who sell stuff to us Canucks for cost plus shipping, we'd be out of luck.  And we are buying it, but it would be so much easier if you and I could walk into a local Walmart, TRU or Zellers and pick up all the new Joe stuff.

[Spillspleen]

I have mentioned this before but here in the lower mainland there is a store called Toy Traders?.own and operated by Mathew Purdy?he also runs Darkside Collectables?anyways he has more Joes at any one time than eBay has listed?and if you do not believe me go have a look!!!! Anyways his store is a center?this draws the collector from far and wide?he sells old and new and he will tell you that even though Joes, again old and new, are selling they do not even keep up to the sales of other toys like Hot Wheels?Playmobile, and Star Wars. And all of this matters very little compared to the giant retailers Zellars....Wal-Mart....the Bay....Sears and so on?.does anyone here think that if a toy flies off the shelf and is considered a hit that any of the big retailers would not carry it? They all carried Joes in the 80?2 when they sold?.now they do not sell?I see Marvel Super heroes in all the stores?they sell?.I do not see Joes in any significant numbers at any of these stores (maybe a peg or two) there for it is pretty clear to me?they do not sell?!

Joes are dead and will ever be in Canada. The only way Joes will sell in Canada is if kids want them...and that means parents going out to buy them for birthdays and so on. Most kids can buy a few items here and there?but parents buy the lions share?and women now account for 80% of the purchase decisions made within the Canadian home. So if kids want them they ask mom?and she goes and gets them?.with or without the kid Also with the toy market diluted to the point of insanity no one toy stands out...and besides toys there is now the age of 'mass media', if you will, including computers, cell phones, game systems and so on?.so what chance does ?Americas? greatest heroes have in Canada?not much?as an example the reason why Joe two packs (priced at $12.99) sit on pegs in Toys R Us?right besides the Star Wars single packs (priced at $11.97) which fly off the shelf is because people want one and not the other. I hate this idea of Joes not coming to Canada?being a Joe collector it hurts?o?well mail order from the states if the safest way!  :thumbsup:

[AlleyViper]

I've been to Toy Traders in Langley, its a damn cool store.

But I don't think its fair to say that Joe stuff doesn't sell in Canada.  Sure, it hurt us when TRU only carried the non-oring stuff way back in the day, and didn't sell.  But at one point TRU was carrying VvV wave 2 and 3, but nothing since.  And when they did, they ordered way too much of it.  You can effectively sell 10 cases of one wave, at least not weak waves like VvV 2 and 3.  How many touque wearing Zartan's do you need?

I think if retailers carried the full Joe line, with up to date stock, that the Joe stuff would sell really well.  Unfortunately, we get scraps from each wave, with an occasional vehicle, which isn't enough to keep it from moving quickly off the shelves.

[custo]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned this yet; in the 80s GiJoe had a Cartoon, now they don't. Star wars has movies and a cartoon, spider man movies and a cartoon, x-men movies and a cartoon, pokemon movies and a cartoon......

When I was a little kid the toys that I wanted were ones related to my favorite TV shoes, GIJOE no longer has this advantage.  I'm sure that if Hasbro got off their asses and finally put out a decent cartoon, instead of these DVDs (which I like but really :roll: ), that GIJOE would GROW in Canada.