Yeah, I really had to wait until this morning to be able to post my thoughts on it and not worry about being banned. My twitter rants weren't pretty.
It's easy to see what happened, Battleship tanked and Hasbro freaked. They were worried that the film could get lost in the summer grind, as they see it like Battleship did. They don't see it as Battleship was a terrible idea, with a cast that doesn't have a lot of pull. (Liam Neeson aside, but he's not the star) So, instead of having confidence in the film's hype that had successfully been built, the positive industry buzz, the yank the film from a prime summer date (that some may recall was originally Star Trek 2's proposed release date. Parmaount moved Joe to fill that spot when it was apparent that Abrams wasn't going to meet that deadline. So, at some point there was enough confidence in the script and footage to move it up to this date instead of a late August release) so that they can now cash in on two percieved things. 1, Avengers made money because it was in 3D. And 2, that March is now a viable money making release date as shown by the Hunger Games. Avengers made money because it was a good damn movie. (Not saying Joe won't be, I thought it was going to be awesome) And Hunger Games made money because of the successful book series, and also it was a good damn movie. Neither one of these strategies is guaranteed to make more money over the June release date. And you know Paramount is pissed. Probably is not helping their relationship with Hasbro. Not enough to have them give up the Transformers license, no doubt.
It's very reflective of how the company has been handling the toy properties of late. Star Wars and G.I.Joe have been mismanaged for a few years now, with distribution problems galore. Joe has been suffering even longer. As the 25th series was doing very well, they over flooded the market with new waves being released too soon on top of one another and constantly repacking slower moving figures in with them. So, with that many figures shipping, and peg warmers stacking up eventually there was no room to put the figures on the shelves and stores started reducing orders. So, Hasbro decides to kill the line in favor of the upcoming Rise of Cobra figure line. The last two waves never made release, though some were offered as part of two seven packs as internet exclusives. The R.O.C. line had some of the same problems, so when it came time to revamp the line again they actually made some sense. Renamed the line Pursuit of Cobra, scaled it back and lowered the price. Figures were well done, and were loaded with accessories. Problem was once again, distribution. Same as the 25th..shipped low numbers to start with, which sold well, so stores ordered more. By fall of last year they started over shipping older waves and started clogging the shelves. Again. So, when the last two waves were shipping late in the year, at this point now calling it the 30th anniversary, which contained some great new sculpts of ARAH characters not done for the 25th line, stores couldn't put them on the shelves. One of the best representations of Storm Shadow ever made was in limited release thanks to this. Just try and find one on eBay for under 30 bucks. AND, once again they kill this line in favor of the Retaliation line. Which is hitting now. A line of movie toys. With no movie to support it.
Wonder if the line still keeps going after next year.
Sorry for the long rant...It's been 13 hours since I found out and I'm still pretty pissed off.
confused
