Hello,
I am writing you to express my disappointment with the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con Sgt. Slaughter exclusive...namely, my inability to buy him. I am a long time Joe fan, and I have literally thousands of dollars worth of figures and vehicles from the original A Real American Hero line to the very recent Pursuit of Cobra line. Further, I try to help you guys out by reviewing both new and old products on the Canadian GI Joe website JoeCanuck.com. According to the "Views" counter on my message board, my reviews have been viewed almost 7000 different times. That's 7000 times someone exclusively looked at one of your products.
I understand that demand for the Sgt. Slaughter exclusive was extremely high, much higher than the demand for last year's SDCC exclusive, which from what I've seen and hear didn't sell that well. There's a few reasons for Sarge's demand. 1. It's Sgt. Freaking Slaughter, one of the most well-known Joes out there, and one of the few characters that has a real life counterpart. 2. Sarge used the fan-favorite 25th Anniversary/ARAH line packaging. 3. At $12.99 the Sarge figures were very reasonably priced, especially for exclusives. Honestly, you guys could have released this figure to retail stores and he would have sold like hotcakes.
After being notified from the official Hasbro press release that "A limited number" of the figures would be released on HasbroToyShop.com after the Con, I got pretty excited. I knew that Con merchandise was usually released on the site the Monday morning after the Con. I got my butt out of bed at 7 am on a day off from work (unheard of for me) and parked myself in front of the computer, checking every 5-10 minutes or so to grab both Sarge figures as soon as they were released. Oh yeah, and I planned on throwing in some Pursuit of Cobra figures, too, so there was opportunity for additional sales. So imagine my dismay when the SDCC exclusives finally came up but the Sgt. Slaughter figures were immediately "out of stock."
Look, I know this was a popular figure and that I would've had to have been quick on the click to get him, but all I ask is a fair chance to get the figure at its retail price without having to go to freaking San Diego to do so. I'm especially annoyed that we were told product would be available and then none was. I know I can get the figure on the secondary market, but I don't enjoy getting price gouged.
I sincerely hope that you guys will either have another production run of this figure, or that next year you will have a better idea of the number you need to meet demand. I also sincerely hope that next year you will hold back a decent amount of product so that all of us hardcore GI Joe fans who can't go to the Con have a fair shot at getting the exclusive at retail price. I know there's a lot of disappointed people out there this morning.
Sincerely,
Jerard Parker
The above is my letter to Hasbro. Took you up on your advice, Morg. I'm very interested to see if I even get a response.