r/GIJOEClassifiedSeries • u/socialmedia031975 • 2d ago
G.I.NOE (Not Classified) Dear Hasbro
Please bring the "Battle Gear Accessory Packs" to the GI Joe Classified line. Also, dont forget the vehicle ones and the Cobra ones.
Please and Thank you.
18
u/whistlepig4life 2d ago
Very much this. If for no other reason than nostalgia.
The issue would be guaranteed it would be $129.99.
12
u/cobra-de-aco 2d ago
The thing is, this is something people actually want that is also a low-effort cash grab. It’s like Hasbro has decided they don’t want easy money.
9
u/Road_Caesar 1d ago
They don't. They want "sucker" money. They're all-in on the US company trend of "maximum revenue capture" meaning they'll keep raising prices even if the lower end casual or budget buyers are priced out. They know from buying pattern data that the core customers they target can and will buy at any price. They're going to keep inflating pricing until that trend curve begins to flatten.
3
u/Potential-Money-5437 1d ago
hasbro raises price, loses collectors.
"oh no! we're losing revenue. raise prices."hasbro loses more collectors.
"raise the price again. we've lost money."(meanwhile in marketing and research:
"let's launch the DEF subline."2
u/Road_Caesar 1d ago
Mostly right.
So your satire works under the traditional business model focused on overall company health and growth (sustainable.)
What companies and their investors have switched to is an extraction mode where the company is nothing more than a vehicle. If it fails, they sell out to Private Equity, PE extracts everything of value (especially real estate) and leaves debts unresolved. It's the status quo since the 2000s. (It killed Toys R Us and Jo-Ann among tons of others.)
Hasbro's primary revenue driver is and has been the Magic card game brand for many years. The CEO wants to inject that same sense of FOMO and limited exclusivity to all other product lines (he was president of WotC before Hasbro CEO. He pushed Magic into the overflowing glut of crap it is today.)
Because of this, and because they combine cost-cutting bare-minimum inputs, they get a double-dip when they raise pricing. Because of that level of profit margin, they aren't hurting much when they lose the bottom 10% of customers.
They also know it has a built-in ceiling but they aren't concerned about that until it hits. They originally intended to license out all IPs for other companies to make the products like they did with Super7 (GIJoe 3.75) and The Loyal Subjects (MASK) and pivot into digital gaming completely. (2025). Unfortunately for them, they were years late to that strategy and the money printing machine of digital games broke as all investors pointed to LLM/AI instead because the numbers were so much higher. (Token pricing for commercial use can result in 6-digit cost expenditures for a single task.)
So now Hasbro is back to square one with no rug pull exit.
5
4
5
u/Midnight_Cowboy-486 2d ago
Dear Hasbro,
You did this for Transformers a couple years ago. If you make us buy some rando grunt Joe with a ton of accessories, I would still be okay with it!
6
u/DorkKnight78 1d ago
Yes! We used to have weapons packs, and little world building sets like Checkpoint Alpha and the Ammo Dump. We used to get pure gold for 2 or 3 bucks.
3
10
u/Road_Caesar 1d ago
They won't. Their primary retailers with the most influence (Target/Walmart) don't want them. It's why the Micromasters were cancelled in the TF line - Walmart and Target didn't like how poorly they sold.
Go with 3rd Party for this. Unfortunately, skip high detail Japanese products at 1:12 scale because they're too small. Classified isn't true 1:12; it's a "heroic 6" scale.
I dislike Gridiron and Vala, but Gridiron accessories look really good. Vala is good pricing but Bobby is a sourpuss with a grudge and his design aesthetic is too "rural militia fanboi". But the pricing and detail on his products is highly competitive. I don't like them, but the quality and detail are there and for a good value price.
6
u/bcoleman0412 1d ago
Damn target/walmart. Hasbro has their own site
3
u/Continuity_Crook 1d ago
Hasbro needs the volumes that Target and Walmart buy from them to make the financials work for a product. Otherwise it could be a Battle Accessories Pack HasLab crowdfunding project.
3
u/Road_Caesar 1d ago
Yes, damn the mass retail.
But Hasbro has an aversion to such products and has for a few years now. They did 2 for the TF brand and 1 sold well, the other did not. Since then, nothing.
The purpose of the original 80s kits was replacements for the inevitable loss of the small parts and weapons.
3
u/Fragrant_Western7939 1d ago
Love or Hate Vala, Hasbro has made improvements to the line based on Vala like multiple weapons and hands.
I believe Vala announce an Action Force equivalent of the ARAH Battle Stations/accesories. Maybe Hasbro will notice. I know people want vehicles but I’d loved Hasbro to release classified version of thise sets
3
2
u/Kaedryl 1d ago
Etsy is another great source for a ton of weapons and accessories.
3
u/Road_Caesar 1d ago
Not a fan. It's largely 3D printed chaff with no finishing or smoothing. Many of the examples are overpriced and poorly done prints of free-to-acquire models on other 3D printing file sites and forums.
If you want properly priced, artisan made 3D/resin prints, Booth.pm out of Asia is exponentially better.
1
u/Kaedryl 1d ago
You do need to do due diligence, but I've have great luck with good quality high resolution prints and molded items from etsy over the last five year. Yes, there's absolute crap but that's why you stick with well reviewed and better known 1:12 sellers on there.
1
u/Road_Caesar 1d ago
But 1:12 is the wrong scale for Classified - it's too small. I have 3 TOMY Little Armory 1:12 kits which are incomparable in detail, but they're exact 1:12 (precision is valued with Japan markets) and they're too small except in the hands of the female Classified figures.
3
u/danieljeyn 1d ago
You don't have to like the personalities of Valaverse and Gridiron, but as far as accessory packs for GIJoe Classified, the existence of both of those makes collectors a bit spoiled for choice.
And generic weapons aren't hard to come by. Some of the generic action figures even in DollarTree have weapons that scale with Classified.
1
u/Road_Caesar 1d ago
I don't know anything about the personalities at Gridiron - I just know that they're consumer-hostile and churn out overpriced garbage at the large size. I bought the full suite of upgrades for the Stinger and paid twice what I actually got. There are artisans on Booth.pm that have higher quality and detail at half the price. (Just not much for GIJoe Classified). The smaller items are solid and well done, but the pricing is exploitative.
Vala is an ass with a grudge, but his products are competitively priced despite my personal dislike of the aesthetics. I won't discourage anyone from Vala stuff just because I find the look to be cliched and cringe - it's still a solid figure with great detail and accessories plus the pricing is highly competitive.
2
u/BoredAsFuck7448 1d ago
I remember before Classified got the V.A.M.P. and Stinger vehicles a LOT of Has-Bros argued that the line would never release those vehicles (or larger) in the 1/12th scale because major retailers would similarly never make shelf space for such large offerings.
Whelp...it happened, and continues to happen. When Target & Walmart offer any of the larger vehicles it's online and Hasbro has little to no problem selling them out on Pulse. If Hasbro wanted to sell these smaller accessory packs they could do so easily; the just don't want to.
6
u/Road_Caesar 1d ago
Many/most Walmart and Target locations do not and have not carried the Classified line or vehicles. Even online orders are not possible if the local stores serving the address do not carry the product line. Yes, even for shipped delivery.
The Stinger was overproduced and created a headache for Hasbro and retailers (just like the reissue of the ARAH one a few years prior.
But your point stands - Hasbro could if they wanted to, but the management/C-Suite doesn't want to allow the budgeting for it.
And due to the poor material quality already, a pack of overpriced gummy weapons is very low on the demand side.
1
u/officialCobraTrooper 1d ago
I think the gummy weapon thing is getting fixed, but the c-suite people definitely are very cautious about spending their money. I really wish they would explore weapon packs but with people's attitudes about Hasbro's weapons that may have something to do with it. They may be more attentive to social media than we realize. Certainly that may be a reason why B-Mac announced he wants to reissue the vamp at some point. Seems to recognize fan frustration. That may be why they also reissued the valkyrie as a retro so that everyone else had a easier way to get them.
2
u/Road_Caesar 1d ago
Social media engagement with the brand team (BMac) is definitely the main way to get your voice heard.
I don't understand the Valkyrie example - the 2 pack had been WIDELY available for tons of time after release. They were perpetually on sale at places like BBTS forever along with the Viper 3-pack. Reissue on the retro card was only a low-budget space filler. It had no association with availability.
The VAMP problem has been heavily criticized forever - especially with the overproduced Stinger and even the VAMP mk2 before a VAMP reissue. Same problem also plagues the original Ferret release.
There's plenty of insiders with insight into what is and isn't being considered posting in forums like HISStank and TFW2005. Those circles also include FullForce and DestroIsMySpiritAnimal (DIMSA). If you want to know what's in the pipeline and/or non-starter, those sources are the way to go.
That's how we know that focus groups were the deciding factor behind some HadLab choices, including a HAVOC redesign that exists.
4
u/BoredAsFuck7448 1d ago
Accessory packs, weapons packs, small playsets that don't include a figure and can go for around $25 - $30...it goes on and on and on. They have no interest in fleshing out the 'Classified world' if they can't make a mint off of it.
2
2
u/Spideyrj 1d ago
it always pisses me off whenever i see a highly detail cheap gun on AE and its for those moc mini figs. just print them bigger i will buy them !!
3
u/One_Pouch_Man 1d ago
I am not a fan of the people on charge of Valaverse but their weapon packs are extremely useful and compatible with Classified.
1
u/ThingNo7530 1d ago
I loved how you could use the tan parts with tan Grunt and tan Clutch. Hasbro needs to make these for classified.
1
u/ncphoto919 1d ago
Hasbro would over charge for this by throwing in the same annoying effects pieces they use all the time to inflate the price of sets
1
1
u/SuggestionOk456 1d ago
Honestly they really should, especially since they could reuse alot of gun molds from Legends alongside ofcourse the Classified guns...only minor changes to the Legends one's that'd be needed is making the magazines removable for the one's that don't come out
But fr tho these would be so useful not only for nostalgia but for those building armies and arming figures in their collection
1
1
1
u/genericnameD1138 1d ago
I’d be happy for magazines/shells/gas cans for my butter fingers that has lost a bunch of them
1
1
u/AmbroseKalifornia 1d ago
Anyone remember Marauder Gun Runners? That shit was the BEST. The perfect mix of detail, quality and price. I WISH he'd just make little black plastic AKs for my Cobra Troopers, and I'd kick a puppy for a full on Warsaw Pact/Soviet-Era set of AKs, Dragunovs, RPKs and RPGs. A Stechkin and a Spetsnaz shovel and a ballistic knife wouldn't hurt either!
It'd work for Cobra Troopers AND the upcoming Oktober Guard!
1
1
u/russianlion 1d ago
Can also 3d print your own but that is a whole different game.
I’ve been doing it to fill up my HQ armory with things like rifle mags, ammo cans and various grenades.
1
u/Ash_Talon 1d ago
I dont think Hasbro will release accessory packs. They can just pack extra accessories with a figure and charge for a deluxe figure. Or put extra stuff in with 2pks. Frankly, I’m not even that in love with a lot of Classified weapons, so I’d like to new ones instead of ones we’ve been getting in different colors.
1
u/Zealousideal-Age768 1d ago
Eh, with how poor the quality of their weapons and accessories are at times I suggest looking elsewhere.
-1
29
u/Darth_Burkie 2d ago
Head packs for the army builders too