[SmokeBellew]

This really all comes down to what kids want and what their parents are willing to pay. The problem is what they want is constantly changing rapidly, the average age of children into action figures (and toys in general) is shifting downwards and no one in the toy business seems to know what will work when they need it to work. The market will indicate that "this" works right now, but by the time they get product developed, produced and in stores, "that" is no longer what the kiddos want. For action figures, this means the adult collector market matters more than ever, and that means toy manufacturers concentrate on properties with broad enough appeal to sustain a line and justify the cost of development and production. Like all business, it's all about ROI.

So, when discussing scale, it's important to note that companies like Hasbro have experimented with scale to a ridiculous degree over the past decade, just trying to pin down what works for kids and what works for adults. For example, he 2.5" scale Hasbro kept trying to push for a few years was an attempt to give kids vehicles at a sustainable price-point because the 3.75-4" scale was getting too pricey. As amply noted in this thread, 6" & highly articulated appears to be what the adults want, but it doesn't work for most kids. Price comes into play here as parents aren't thrilled with paying $20+ a pop for junior to have his superhero figures...there's a reason BvS/WW/Justice League Multiverse highly articulated figs still clog the shelves and ML figs can pegwarm after the adult collectors have nabbed what they want. So the trick is to give the kids the toys they want, but at a low enough price-point parents won't balk at buying multiple figures of (the idea, after all, is to have a line of toys kids feel compelled to "collect 'em all" and sustain for more than a few months).

It appears that as the average age of children into action figures decreases, the toys aimed at them increase in size. That increases cost of production which has to be offset by a decrease in manufacturing complexity. That's why we've seen Marvel Titan 12" figures with barely any articulation and the Black Panther and Infinity War lines of 6"-ish figures with dumbed down articulation. Those toys were never meant for adult collectors. Matter of fact, the days of a toy-line that is targeted at--and appeals to--both kids and adults is pretty much dunzo.

What this all means for G.I. Joe is that a 6", highly-articulated scale is unlikely. Most Joe fans want 3.75-4" highly-articulated figs with a decent amount of fiddly gear and that makes for an expensive figure. The perceived value isn't there because all parents see is a small figure with a lot of choking hazards that costs almost as much as the 6" figures they already find too expensive for a toy. As I said, for most adult Joe fans, the 3.75" scale is integral to the experience. I know I wouldn't buy 6" Joes. Not only do I not like the scale (they take up too much space and no vehicles), but it just isn't "my G.I. Joe". Are there enough adults who would buy them outside of the Joe fandom to make it viable from an ROI standpoint? Doubtful. G.I. Joe just doesn't have a comparable level of popularity among adult collectors. Marvel collectors are spending their cash on Legends and Star Wars fans are buying Black Series, and some are buying both those lines plus other stuff. I don't think there's enough cash, or interest, to go around without roping the kids into G.I. Joe. Which means, the next iteration of G.I. Joe must be something that appeals to kids (and their parents) first and adults second. That means if they are 6" toys, they'll be more like the dumbed-down Infinity War toys than Marvel Legends.