[GizmoTron]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trivial Psychic

You're correct that exclusives aren't going to go away, but it's the marketing strategy that Hasbro is currently employing them with. Right now as it stands, nearly half of the G.I.Joe Classified figures in the entire line are an exclusive of some sorts...with the worst offenders being the Cobra Island waves, which has incorporated both core characters and army builders as exclusives, with only one figure thus far (the Infantry trooper) being re-released and no announcements for more in the future thus far.

This was a strategy that's not all that different from the one Hasbro employed in the late 2000s with the Marvel Legends line, where entire waves became extremely hard to find store exclusives, which killed collector interest and ended up shelving the line for years. If Hasbro doesn't change things up and soon with the way their handling the line, they are doomed to do the same with Classified.

The exclusive thing is annoying, but it's nothing new, and right now thing of it is that we live in a time where every single figure in these lines are in high demand no matter what it is or where you have to buy it. Right now it doesn't seem to matter if it's a solid case of Cobra Troopers at Target or two Cobra Infantry in an assortment found everywhere when either way it's going to sell out and people have to chase them down or turn to eBay prices. It's hard to answer that kind of demand, especially when it's with G.I.Joe and that demand seemingly came out of the same nowhere this past year as paper products and Baseball cards.

The only strategy that can really solve that I think is to fix the supply issues, make it so that even if it is say a Major Blood only available at Target and they sell through the first case of him that maybe there can be enough at the warehouse so that that store can maybe receive at least a second case. That's likely easier said than done when dealing with factories and production schedules, but I think Hasbro recognizes that it needs to be done because at least the Cobra Island reissues are on the table. Unfortunately the deal with Target that created the Cobra Island line in the first place is also on that table, and if you're into buying this line than for now we're just going to have to live with it.