1/6 Sideshow GI Joe line on Hiatus

[Rook]

they cant make another joe that will definetly sell!! but they can keep on rehashing the hell out of those stupid star wars clones that are overfilling sideshows warehouse. fact is sideshow cant take on more than 2 projects at a time!! gi joe had to pay the cost. dc superheroes are simple body suit change and a new sculpt, you got a new figure.

 

[spazzy]

This sucks I stopped collecting the 1:6 only have baroness and viper left, had all of them but would of cherry picked a few others and if they redid some older ones....well

price didn't upset me as long as it was justified, I didn't like the artistic license they were taking starting with firefly, at least they added the new head after the complaints, didn't care for destro at all but most of the others were pretty great. These were the last 1:6 scale figures I collect so I pretty much won't get anything else and my interest in 1:6 will completely end.
Obviously with the last few releases of the statue lines all we got were repaints of baroness that was a big sign it was coming to a close, which is a shame as there were so many they could have done and all of them including the dios came out really well, design, sculpt and qc (except for granny panties baroness, but posed from front looks good)
surprised they didn't at least do a snake eyes and storm shadow pf those would be guaranteed sellers, was really hoping for a firefly pf or 1:5 statue

 

[Niltusk]

Yeah, but. . .that's Hisstank. Of course, price is going to be the major issue. Those kids have a hard time shelling out $10 for the Hasbro toys with their allowance money. Now if your argument is simply that high end Joes can't be sustained, then that's a different issue.

 

[Niltusk]

I'm interested as long as it doesn't turn Pee Yellow

C'mon, what do you have against 80s accuracy?

 

[TripleCP]

They should have stuck to one format, either PF's or statues. As there's almost no interest in statues of Duke, Flint, or most other Joes except Snake Eyes, that only leaves him and a handful of Cobras. They can't give that Flint and Zartan diorama away, for example. I really like my CC PF, and might have considered Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow PFs had they made those instead of the statues.

I'd have honestly been angry if they made an ARAH-accurate statue or PF of Firefly. Reserving the most ARAH-accurate designs for the $300+ pieces was a kick in the nuts to the fanbase, and a big reason why supporters of this line lost patience with SSC.

 

[spazzy]

Agree since even their statue line was coming in at around the same price, but either way I am glad to have them all as they are great, the zartan and flint while I knew wasn't going to be a big hit was well done

 

[teemu]

They should have stuck to one format, either PF's or statues. As there's almost no interest in statues of Duke, Flint, or most other Joes except Snake Eyes, that only leaves him and a handful of Cobras. They can't give that Flint and Zartan diorama away, for example. I really like my CC PF, and might have considered Snake Eyes or Storm Shadow PFs had they made those instead of the statues.

I'd have honestly been angry if they made an ARAH-accurate statue or PF of Firefly. Reserving the most ARAH-accurate designs for the $300+ pieces was a kick in the nuts to the fanbase, and a big reason why supporters of this line lost patience with SSC.

GI Joe doesn't deserve to be made as statues anyways so that was always a mistake from the start

 

[spazzy]

Why? Most lines start with action figures..I guess Star Wars doesn't deserve statues?

 

[kl241]

I think the problem is a lack of focus and resources. They always start off with a 1:6 license and then branch off in all directions with statues, busts, dioramas, etc. and then are left wondering why stuff doesn't sell when most collectors who got into the 1:6 line primarily just want to collect 1:6 figures and their funds are all tied up in that. By going off in different formats takes away resources that should have been devoted to producing more 1:6 offerings to keep the line and interest fresh. It takes years to get through so many iconic core characters many of which they never got to yet before they decided to pull the plug and kill any momentum the license had going. There are plenty of other companies like Gentle Giant making statues and busts for those who want them.

 

[spazzy]

You know sideshow makes a ton of statues too right? They are probably top of the game right now

 

[kl241]

Yeah I'm just saying that they shouldn't put all of their eggs in one basket. If they had focused on 1:6 Hasbro could have sublicensed statues to another company like Gentle Giant. The problem is the same as it has always been. Sideshow just doesn't know what kind of products they want to sell. They always sacrifice the 1:6 lines first and go back to their stautes and busts and dioramas (i.e. Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones). They should just get out of 1:6, leave it to the pros who know how to focus on quality and listen to the fans who are paying for them to give them what they want. Sideshow wants to be Gentle Giant Ltd. let them. There are plenty of other 1:6 companies like Asmus showing them how it's done and done better.

 

[Deeznutz6]

I think the increase in price was a major factor, along with poor brand mismanagement. The "Year of the Snake" releases should not cost $40-$50 more than the ones from 2 to 3 years ago, especially as they have less packaging, fewer accessories, and are generally less polished than older figures like Stalker, Beachhead, Firefly, Rock n' Roll, Viper, and Hawk. Releasing four of the five figures over a six month span didn't help either.

Why release a well received Snake Eyes statue, and then go in a totally different direction with the 1:6 figure that was both the most expensive in the line and which was competing with the Hot Toys version? Once they got their various polystone stuff going, it seemed like the unspoken message was that fans wanting the more ARAH accurate designs had to start buying dioramas, maquettes, and PFs.

The Trooper variants would have done better if they were all Blueshirts and all had their own head sculpt (or if they had done like the Ninjas and made a neutral-looking generic sculpt for all of them along with individualized "expression" portraits either included or as an Exclusive). The "Desert Officer" could have been a ARAH-accurate Blueshirt officer, and the Black Dragon Ninja could have been a Red Ninja Clan Leader (or something like that). Hard to troop build in this scale when every release has identical portraits but different uniforms.

I don't buy the linkage with Hasbro's declining interest in the Joe brand, either. The launch of the Sideshow line was almost perfectly timed with the discontinuation of the 25th Anniversary line in favor of the Rise of Cobra stuff. For me, at least, it was an easy choice to leave ROC crap on the pegs and buy Sideshow instead. If anything, Sideshow's efforts gave Hasbro some inspiration for their Pursuit of Cobra and 30th Anniv. lines. If anything, Hasbro's decision to more or less ignore the 50th Anniv. is another great opportunity for Sideshow to attract more Joe collectors. That said, it looks like they lost interest in military-themed figures. The last one they did was SDCC Lt. Falcon, which was largely a kitbash.

It was probably a decision long in the making, with "Year of the Snake" as a tool to wrap up all the stalled Joe products that were "in progress."

But the price increase is not isolated to the joe line, they just suffered the most. SW line is always on gc, price has pushed a lot of collectors away they just have a bigger fan base

 

[rigjiggles]

This is a bummer to hear. I'm new to collecting and was thinking about doing some from this line.

 

[devilof76]

Yeah, that was pretty funny.

So what really happened?

 

[TripleCP]

A while back , SSC said they were working on Destro in two different formats. I'd guess that the second one was a PF which will likely never see daylight, and that it would have been closely based on the 1982 design and not sporting a vest, overcoat, or a riveted head.

The Snake Eyes statue's design versus that of the 1:6 figure was the most blatant example of SSC essentially sabotaging their own action figure line, but it was also present in the silliest instances (like getting the Crimson Guard helmet's paint apps correct on the Cobra Throne Room diorama but wrong on the 1:6 figure).

I wouldn't mind seeing Asmus get the 1:6 line if it becomes available. They took over LotR and deliberately avoided re-doing the figures already covered by SSC among their initial releases. They also make a lot of effort to stay as close as possible to the source material, show their designs early in the process, and respond to fan critiques.

 

[spazzy]

The color on the cgs dio was correct however they did forget to add the silver cobra emblem on the chest

 

[TripleCP]

The color on the cgs dio was correct however they did forget to add the silver cobra emblem on the chest

I know. I returned mine mostly for that reason. I'm guessing that was a factory oversight,though, while the paint apps on the 1:6 figure was a design choice (like using gold cord instead of silver).

[On that note, it took SSC a ridiculously long time to correct the image on their page and show that the CGs were missing their emblems.]

 

[Kibagami]

they cant make another joe that will definetly sell!! but they can keep on rehashing the hell out of those stupid star wars clones that are overfilling sideshows warehouse. fact is sideshow cant take on more than 2 projects at a time!! gi joe had to pay the cost. dc superheroes are simple body suit change and a new sculpt, you got a new figure.

Star wars is bigger. And those dumb movies (third GI Joe movie) coming out aren't helping GI Joe.

 

[ali032373]

Did SSC or anyone in some authority actually provide any explanation? Otherwise this is all conjecture.

And I'll also express my disappointment. I thought the Dreadnaughts, Scarlett, and Gung Ho were an easy lock. I was hoping for the Twins and Mindbender.

 

[King Darkness]

Another wonderfully mismanaged line from Sideshow. Shocked.