What is the pulse on the GI JOE Club and the hobby regarding the old 12 inch line?

[MIB41]

I recently went out looking for some information on the various Joe forums that use to be teaming with postings and essentially all things Joe (any scale). To my surprise, allot of that traffic is gone these days. Forums have threads not touched in months (or years). Sometimes entire pages. At first I thought this was a familiar trend reflecting people moving to Facebook, but then I started checking sites like the GI Joe Club site itself which use to be the center of activity for the hobby. I found the latest news pretty spotty. Then I found this interesting open letter to the Club dated 2012 which seem to really underscore some deeply disturbing problems, including their store getting hacked and no one being told which compromised allot of folks.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=9&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFAQFjAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjoebattlelines.com%2F2012%2F05%2F30%2Fopinion-gi-joe-collectors-club-needs-immediately-disbanded%2F&ei=AKqPVN3uPIuWyQStloHICg&usg=AFQjCNFJaHqfwwu7SH0gPFyntuO22cp0HA&sig2=ieSb5HXd3y9UhmvM6sefjA

Is the vintage 12 inch Joe on it's last legs because of the bigger market of high-end military figures in that scale or is it simply in dire need of new organizers? It seems as though it's definitely going through some major changes. Perhaps it's truly all moving to Facebook, but something seems kind of off in the hobby. Anyone here an active collector who can lend some insight into this? Kind of sad.

[ODBJBG]

The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. That said, the GI Joe Club is doing fine, but they moved to 3 3/4 stuff as sort of the "main" part of their attention. That's really nothing new, as it's been that way for several years, but it's become more noticeable in recent years. Part of the problem is that Hasbro has no support for 12 inch stuff, which means the Club itself has to bare the burden of a lot of expense to do anything in that scale. So naturally, they do less. It's sort of a self fulfilling prophecy. 12 inch fans don't buy anything because there isn't much to buy, Hasbro/Club don't make anything because what they have doesn't get bought.

Club had a major hacking issue a year or so ago and it definitely hurt them with most fans.

As for 12 inch classic Joe collectors, I don't think the community is anymore dead than here to be honest. It's smaller, because MM built up a more catch-all for retro stuff, while the Joe sites are just Joeheads for the most part. But there are a ton of active Facebook groups, Twitter accounts, etc. It's quieter because there's less new stuff to talk about, but the community is fine, IMO.

Likewise, Cotswold has pretty much taken over the market and they're doing AMAZING things this year. So in a lot of ways, it's as healthy as it's been in years, it's just not coming from Hasbro or the Club.

[thunderbolt]

and it was pretty lame that Hasbro did nothing to celebrate the 50th this year.

[MIB41]

and it was pretty lame that Hasbro did nothing to celebrate the 50th this year.

Yeah, I found that really surprising since they poured so much into the 40th anniversary. Perhaps the results of that (or lack thereof) made them reconsider. Thanks for the overview and insight ODBJBG. I guess those 12 inch retro Adventure Team Joes released at Walmart years ago turned out to be the last big gasp from Hasbro. You know the biggest surprise I got in that hobby was when I went to get my talking commander voice box fixed and the person doing it turned out to be an actor who was on I Dream of Jeanie. I think it was Bill Daily but I won't swear to it. It's been such a long time ago. I just remember thinking, "Small world!"

[rykerw1701]

Every now and then, I get the itch to buy a vintage Joe, usually one from the 60's, though the A-T stuff is what I had as a kid. I stupidly did a "Buy it now" bid on a German Soldier of the World this past summer, and probably paid $50 too much, though it is mint. The prices on the 12 inch vintage items have really collapsed. There's always exceptions, but just a casual look through ebay and a conversion with a long term die-hard Joe collector and I think prices are less than half of what they were not that long ago. And that reflects interest in the hobby. I think 10-15 years or so ago there was so much GI Joe stuff produced, which was a combination of new stuff and revisited vintage items that the market got flooded. Most of it went at a steep discount, and isn't worth much now. It reminds me of Playmates Star Trek or Simpsons.

As stated above, Hasbro has completely ignored the 50th anniversary. You can't even buy Joe items of any size on their own website. Hasbro let go their long term line advocate, who's name I forget but he's written a ton of stuff about the hobby. You'd think Hasbro would let another company do something with the license other than the disjointed collector club, but many interest just isn't there.

I treasure my vintage stuff almost as much as my Mego collection. But reMego keeps me involved in a hobby that has some life and excitement, while GI has neither. To me, 12 inch GI Joe is the Superman of action figures, and he seems to struggle to stay relevant, too. But at least his last movie was better than any of that lame GI stuff on the screen.

[Godzilla]

There are some very active facebook pages and the Trenches is ok. It's not what it used to be though.

[MIB41]

I treasure my vintage stuff almost as much as my Mego collection. But reMego keeps me involved in a hobby that has some life and excitement, while GI has neither. To me, 12 inch GI Joe is the Superman of action figures, and he seems to struggle to stay relevant, too. But at least his last movie was better than any of that lame GI stuff on the screen.

I really like everything you said in that statement because that mirrors much of how I feel about Joe and Megos. I love the vintage Joe figures, although my preference is the Adventure team era (The National Geographic flavor has always intrigued my inner child). But the major difference in what keeps my Mego love elevated/sustained at this point is the pronounced influx of new retro product. There's only so much a hobbyist can collect from a vintage line until all of that product is either collected in full or finds extended life with newer lines.

GI Joe seem to have that working for him a decade ago, but as you said, so much product saturated the market, it dried up demand. The re-Mego era may be headed in the same trajectory given as much as FTC is flooding the market right now. And, like Joe, when you put that much product on top of consumers it typically does one of two things - it either burns them out or forces them to quit because it becomes too much work to keep up with something that is now common place. Sometimes not having everything you want is a good thing. Perhaps Hasbro is stepping back to do just that.

[skullface]

The joe club screwed over the hobby,between them and hasbro they reproduced everything.The club did high dollar sets,then dumped them on the market for around 50 bucks after all the hard core fans paid around 200 or more for them.I know like 10 guys that just stopped collecting when Brian Savage pulled that crap.At that time I owned a toy store and I had about 100 guys buying 60s dolls and AT dolls,now only two of them still buy and they have almost everything.The hobby has just moved on Dragon,bbi,and others are now taking in money the Joe used to make.

[Bronxboykev]

When I started collecting the toys of my past about 5 years ago Vintage GI Joes were on my Hit list along with Mego, they were the 2 prominent toys of my youth. I thought the Joe Prices were reasonable back then (5 years back), but some of the stuff I see going for now that I missed getting back when I started are STAGGERING in price... and lord knows some of you know I don't shy away from The High End Items, but I have with the Joe's Lately... Yes there are deals out there to be had if you wait and and are Patient, but I think the Vintage Joe market is Well, Alive and Kicking hard with most of the attention moving away from web sites and focusing more on Social media sites (aka Facebook) where you can get IMMEDIATE answers and INTERACTION.

[enyawd72]

The joe club screwed over the hobby,between them and hasbro they reproduced everything.The club did high dollar sets,then dumped them on the market for around 50 bucks after all the hard core fans paid around 200 or more for them.I know like 10 guys that just stopped collecting when Brian Savage pulled that crap.At that time I owned a toy store and I had about 100 guys buying 60s dolls and AT dolls,now only two of them still buy and they have almost everything.The hobby has just moved on Dragon,bbi,and others are now taking in money the Joe used to make.

I fail to see how the Joe club screwed anybody over. If the high end reproduction sets didn't sell well enough, what were they supposed to do? Sit on the remaining stock at a huge loss to keep a bunch of fanboys happy? If they had to sell the leftovers for $50 to cut their losses, that's too bad. Those entitled whiny collectors should be happy they were able to get nice repro sets for less than the cost of an original. Better yet, they could've picked up an extra set to open for $50. That's a win-win.

[skullface]

The net has revealed what is rare and what is just old.True rare boxed items are sky high. Way back when I sold my solid box megos for around 500 each,in high grades...now I could pay off my house with 3 of them. 16 years ago my joes sold for 28 grand,with most going to one guy wholesale. I know that some of those boxed items are worth big money now,but the 500 dolls without boxes would not bring much today. The very late AT stuff is super nuts now....so maybe it would still add up to about the same amount.

[skullface]

The sets they did this with were club only sets,not repro.Brian lined his pockets,then dumped his overpriced stuff after he told everyone they needed to support the club for the good of the hobby.Many bought them as show exclusives and they thought they would never be offered them again. It was very dirty. If I sold you a show only toy for $200, then they went up to 300 and I start selling more on a website at 300 and make a bunch ,then two years later do it again......then turn around and dump the rest at 50 im a scumbag.That is what happened. It was very uncool. It hurt people,they where lied to.....not a good way to treat the heart of the fanbase.

[PNGwynne]

The Club (& I've been a member for about 17 years, mostly to obtain club & con 12" offerings) has been having almost back-to back clearance/holiday/50th-anniversary sales for nearly two years.

Which suggests to me it's struggling. President Brian S. has been questioned for a while now about the Club, it is a sort of family enterprise & cottage industry for him, although he is also organizing the annual con & doing factory items in China. Doubtless this entails some personal risk, but IMO 1/6 GIJ fans are better-served by Cotswold, 3rdSon Books, Modeller's Loft, & DeSimone's JoeLanta.

That said, the Club's 2012 12" offering, the AT Man of Evil/Lost Adventurer, was one of the best Joes I've ever seen.

[skullface]

I have a high opinion of Cotswold,the stuff they shipped in from the UK was always pricey,but they have always run a clean bussiness. I ordered my Kaustic Plastik conan from them and will be buying a few bodies from them after my bank recovers from Xmass. I think I have been getting stuff from them like 20 years.

[PNGwynne]

^Me, too. Their customer service is superlative.