[Snowflakian]

I expect GOTG will shelf-warm too mostly. A lot of that has to do with the way the figures were designed.

The more they hinder articulation, especially now that's become expected from previous assortments, the less the newer will sell. Especially when it's part of the same cinematic world.

They need to find a balance. For Hasbro, that means consolidating down some of the marvel movie lines to allow for better distribution and mold re-use as well as covering characters that haven't been covered. For Mattel, that means the same.(which they've got a great start to that in their new multiverse line!)

For other properties it varies property to property. 100s of the same character though time after time after time is not the way. That only creates over-saturation where no one wants that character at all. They need to start including the full roster that's in movies, and retailers need to find a better balance than bulk ordering initial waves that cause the next waves to be forced from reaching shelves.

Ironman has had 3 films, and we've yet to really get a single carded tony stark figure, or Rhodes, or Pepper. Coulson was in the majority of the marvel features, and has no figure whatsoever. X-Men is still sitting on the back burner with no real representation as yet. There's so much untapped within the films the fact we haven't seen them on shelves is annoying. The same to Thor. He has a wide array of characters to his world, yet all we get repeatedly are Thor, Loki, and the one or two bad guys. Sif barely reached shelves, and they have yet to even do a warriors 3 box set. Both of those could do amazing. It's not like they don't have the molds either. They could have done two 3 packs for Thor and they would have sold well. Warriors 3, and then one with Heimdall, Odin, and Sif. They also had the perfect comic one with Valkyrie, Executioner, and thor. Though honestly I'd rather they swap Thor out for Enchantress.

The lack of sales is on both the retailers and the toy makers. They're strangling their own business models with a bottleneck and poor decisions.

They've got hot properties all around that kids and collectors alike want, it's just a matter of how they are approached that's causing the hindrances. Even GI Joe itself could sell truck loads if they approach it right.