Also, what does this mean for future waves?? What are they going to do? Put of wave 1 of everything and then say "sorry, wait until next year with no new product for 6 months" If they still go forward with the line, what does that mean for when the movie finally hits? Rehashing waves 1-3 in the hopes people won't notice that it is the same stuff from 8 months previous? Invest more money into new items?
Man this is a mess from top to bottom.
If you really want to damage a brand, this is how you'd do it.
The sad truth that every GIJOE collector ( all scales) needs to come to grips with is that their beloved toy-line is the largely, unwanted red-headed step-child of the toy aisles. Its been the case for a long long time now, and the mid 1980's are long past us all. GIJOE is definitely at or very close to its nadir.
I'm not one to seek to doom-say......but...........this is doom-saying.
The brand is an ugly political football for Hasbro-licensors, retailers and broadcasters.
What's gone right in the past decade?
Nothing.
Oh the quick ones point out POC, and 25th Anniversary, but those were good product that was sometimes bizarrely marketed or distributed. In all practical terms, you cannot say a sub-line is a success when you can find it, but many fellow collectors cannot find it at all in different parts of the country.
You look at Sigma Six, 40th Anniversary, DTC, Renegades, Resolute....ROC...........and something about the stuff was excellent and something about it was completely half-assed. The property just can't win.
And we are looking at a street-date going live in 5 days for a movie-tie-in toy line that.....now has no movie to go along with it......for 9 more months.
hey, how many retailers are going to loyally sit on all that stock and follow-up shipments for 9 months? And then gladly place order the next time something with the name " GIJOE" comes along??
Where the incentive? What's the track record? There's probably no more than a couple grand worth of stock going onto the shelves in a few days.......not a lot of dollars in terms of the daily take of these retailers.....but its also not a product line that carries any weight in stirring up orders. GIJOE is just not a brand-name that very many of Joe Q. Public give much of a damn about.
Man, I've loved me GIJOE toys and stuff for a long time now, in various incarnation for 45 years now--since I was a we lad. I have followed the travails of this toy-line since the early 1990's--learned some sobering things along the way. Seen some great toys made, seen a LOT of frustration take place.
This push-back move by Paramount is an act of desperation, and that is the hallmark of something disastrous. Its going to affect everything to do with this brand.