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[canprime]

Can't do it. $400 before shipping and taxes. I love the oktober guard, but not that much. I suppose I could sell the iron grenadiers to get some of that back, but I can't just drop $500 right now.

It is a shame really.  The club has been slowly, steadily increasing the price of the sets over the past few years.  I understand the costs involved and the increases worldwide for materials, rent, etc. 

However I really do wonder what, if any, breaking point there will be for both the Joe and TF fandoms?  I mean how much will it take for people to balk at the price?  $400?  $500 a set?  That doesn't include the other attendee exclusives, and now the club has added "golden ticket" premiums?  The club has been very lucky since the dark early days when both the ARAH and TF sets were lucky to sell (minus the orginal Crimson Vipers) and have little aftermarket value.  The past 5 years for TFs and the past 4 for Joe have been sellouts (mostly) at the show.  That is partly good planning, but also a bit of luck. 

The club is due for another "meh" year with one of the fandoms and the con set.  Not that I am wishing for that, but the law of averages is starting to weigh against them.  Sooner or later they will hit on a set that doesn't, or just barely, sells out.  I honestly think that IGs in this years set would not move if brought to retail, and the Oktober Guard are what is selling this years set.  The subscription service is another example of this where, if we are honest, the ARAH updates are really the only ones that will hold their value aftermarket.

Like others, I am glad to see the club doing updates that Hasbro either won't, or can't be bothered to do.  As well smart choices like the PP Stinger last year, are fun, but I still wonder about the future and pricing.

[Emags]

I hear you Canprime, but the non attendee sets sold out in less than 3 hours!  Got mine, so I'm happy about that. 

You are right on the price....it ain't cheap.  I'm not much into troop building, so for me the only value is in the individual characters (e.g. Daina, Horror Show, etc.).

There were 7 individual characters, but one was just created for the set.  So, 6 guys you have heard of.  So basically, $350 / 6 figures = $60 per figure.  Damn, this is an expensive hobby.......

That said, it is cheaper to buy them now, than to pay $100+ for the non troop builders on E-Bay next year.  Made that mistake last year........

[canprime]

I hear you Canprime, but the non attendee sets sold out in less than 3 hours!  Got mine, so I'm happy about that. 

You are right on the price....it ain't cheap.  I'm not much into troop building, so for me the only value is in the individual characters (e.g. Daina, Horror Show, etc.).

There were 7 individual characters, but one was just created for the set.  So, 6 guys you have heard of.  So basically, $350 / 6 figures = $60 per figure.  Damn, this is an expensive hobby.......

That said, it is cheaper to buy them now, than to pay $100+ for the non troop builders on E-Bay next year.  Made that mistake last year........

You're right of course Emags.  However what is left for the club, Joe-wise, to do for sets?  Tiger Force, Night Force, another International set?  That would cover 3 more years without much effort.  So they probably haven't got much to worry about for awhile.  Then what?  Go the TF route and do an alternate universe set with bad guy Joes and good guy Cobras?   I can see that working for a year or two more. 

So I might have been wrong, they may have a good 5 years with probably high interest sets.

[morgardee]

You guys are looking at the Joe teams. Don't forget when they did the Head Hunter set they made a swat team for the Joes. They can also focus on building sets around Cobra. I'm sure in the next 5 years we'll see the Plague as a convention set.

Look at last years Joe Canuck set. All new characters based off the winter 7 pack and International Scarlet. A lot of dye jobs, hand painting and 3rd party heads and there was all new characters. GIJCC has the advantage that they can pick from any existing mold and get them painted in a factory as well as have new head sculpts made.

Trust me, they are not going to run out of ideas any time soon. If I was in charge I could probably think up about 5 years worth of exclusives in a day time, without much effort.

[Sundance]

year 1: SAS Force
 
year 2: Z Force

year 3: Space Force

year 4: Q Force

year 5: modern Shads

year 6: more South American stuff

year 7: Night Force

less than 3 minutes.

[bandonov]

year 1: SAS Force
 
year 2: Z Force

year 3: Space Force

year 4: Q Force

year 5: modern Shads

year 6: more South American stuff

year 7: Night Force

less than 3 minutes.

Who would go up against them or are you doing all 15 figs the same series?

[canprime]

You guys are looking at the Joe teams. Don't forget when they did the Head Hunter set they made a swat team for the Joes. They can also focus on building sets around Cobra. I'm sure in the next 5 years we'll see the Plague as a convention set.

Look at last years Joe Canuck set. All new characters based off the winter 7 pack and International Scarlet. A lot of dye jobs, hand painting and 3rd party heads and there was all new characters. GIJCC has the advantage that they can pick from any existing mold and get them painted in a factory as well as have new head sculpts made.

Trust me, they are not going to run out of ideas any time soon. If I was in charge I could probably think up about 5 years worth of exclusives in a day time, without much effort.

The point I was making, was not what ideas are there left, but rather, what ideas are left that will sell.

Look at past sets, stuff like the Dreadnoks, or MARS.  They didn't move like recent sets (ME especially) have, and they were cheaper.  Didn't they still have loose sets from years past up until this year?

Like it or not, ARAH "canon" stuff moves, while original ideas are much riskier and haven't done as well both at retail and for the club.

[canprime]

year 1: SAS Force
 
year 2: Z Force

year 3: Space Force

year 4: Q Force

year 5: modern Shads

year 6: more South American stuff

year 7: Night Force

less than 3 minutes.

And in that 3 minutes you hit one series that is North American (Night Force).

Not to repeat myself, but "canon" stuff is still the big seller/draw.  Hence why the huge rush over the Dollar General releases.  International stuff would be nice, but I don't see Space Force or Q Force being big draws for indvidual years.  Combine them and you would probably sell out.

[Emags]

Look at last years Joe Canuck set. All new characters based off the winter 7 pack and International Scarlet. A lot of dye jobs, hand painting and 3rd party heads and there was all new characters. GIJCC has the advantage that they can pick from any existing mold and get them painted in a factory as well as have new head sculpts made.

I'm a big fan of the 2011 CJC set.  It was very creative, the new heads were sweet and I liked the added use of color vs. 2009 and 2010  Do we know when the 2012 sets will start getting previewed?  Curious to see what this year will bring us in the mythos.  I still need to get through the old comics before then to catch up.

[Emags]

It is always fun to speculate on potential Convention Sets.  I wonder if a Ninja Force set could be possible, just based on the sheer # of ninja sculpts that seem to be available.  Plus, it could tie in to the movie a bit (grated that's a stretch).  I liked Sky Patrol too.

Night Force and Tiger Force are fairly obvious / easy ones, I just never got into them.  That was sort of at the end of my initial collecting days and they just felt like cheap repaints.

Some, we will probably never see.....BattleForce 2000 and Mega Marines come to mind.  Frankly, I'm okay with that !

[morgardee]

I'm willing to be 2013 will be Night Force. I'm an active member on the GIJCC message boards and there was a lot of people asking for Night Force and the Sky Striker (Night Boomer). They have a (or had before the web site went down) a section for suggestions for future convention sets. It's been on going for years and if you read through it all you can see how some of the ideas have made it. Take for example a few years ago the Coil being part of the convention set with Major Bludd. There was some very load requests for the Coil, and they got it (minus Serpentor). Most recently there was seferal threads of people asking for Night Force, including myself.

Before they released the information on this years set being Oktober Guard I was mentioning Night Force as a possible idea and they responded with something like "this years set has been in the works for a long time" or something along those lines. They were saying that the current set was in production before everyone started to ask for the Night Force set.

In regards to ninjas, there has been a fairly loud anti-ninja message sent to the club. I doubt we will ever see a set based on ninjas.

[Sundance]

year 1: SAS Force
 
year 2: Z Force

year 3: Space Force

year 4: Q Force

year 5: modern Shads

year 6: more South American stuff

year 7: Night Force

less than 3 minutes.

Who would go up against them or are you doing all 15 figs the same series?

SAS Force set: Eagle, Beaver, Sparrowhawk, Quickfire, Stakeout, five SAS Force Attack Troopers, Big Ben. 3 Cobras of some sort. attendee exclusives: Some redeco Armadillo vehicle avec Hunter, a redeco Dragonhawk avec Chopper.

Z Force set: Skip, Gaucho, Jammer, Scout, The Doc, Six Z Force Infantrymen, 4 Cobras of some sort. Attendee exclusives, Z Force RAM, Z Force redeco Vamp avec Wheels, a redeco Z Force Ferret called the Stoat.

Q Force set: Dolphin, Shark, Phones, 4 generic Q Force Marines, a new Wet-Suit, 6 Eels or Undertows. Attendee exclusives, a redeco Wave Crusher with Surfer, a Q Force redeco 'Fangboat' as the Sawfish.

Space Force set: Sky Raider, Moondancer, Hot Jets, Kiwi, Hawkwind, Payload and Countdown, 6 Astro-Vipers. Attendee exclusives, some new version of the Satellite Defence, a redeco Skystriker in SF colours.

Modern Shads: Black Major, The Baron, Red Laser, Red Wolf, six generic Red Shadows, Skymate, Recondo, Outback and Beach Head in a mission in Australia. Attendee exclusives: Red Jackal and a redeco HISS as a new Hyena, Red Vulture and a redeco Stinger as a Shadowtrak, a redeco AWE Striker.

S American: Fuego, SOS, Sokerk, Biomassa, Biosfera, Biologico, a TF Airtight, Cesspool, six Hazard Viper repaints. Attendee exclusives, Clean-Sweep and a Eco-Striker redo, a redeco Hazard-FANG and a redo of the HISS as the Septic Tank II.

Night Force: Bunch of NF guys, Six Night-Vipers, attendee exclusives, Night-Armadillo redeco, NF AWE Striker or VAMP with another NF guy.