HISS Tank member Nordland has passed along some rather unsettling news from Hasbro UK about the upcoming, or rather, in limbo, G.I. Joe Pursuit of Cobra line in the UK:
Thank you for your email.I can confirm that the Rise of the Cobra toy line was released earlier this year, alongside a large scale marketing campaign. Unfortunately though, consumer demand has not been as anticipated, which obviously impacts retail demand too. As a result, retailers haven’t moved through the waves on the range as we would have liked. With regards to the Pursuit of the Cobra toy line, we are yet to confirm if this range will be available in the UK. Please contact us again in February/March when we receive on new range information for 2010.
With reference to the comments you made with regards to the item, these have been noted and will be forwarded to our Marketing Department. We would like to thank you once again for taking the time to write to us as we welcome our customers’ comments and suggestions, as they are invaluable for future improvements.
May we thank you for contacting Hasbro and if we can be of any further assistance, either now or in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Kind Regards,
ASK HASBRO
Hasbro UK Ltd
00800 22427276
Keep those fingers crossed ‘Tankers! The Pursuit of Cobra impressed many collectors when unveiled at this year’s JoeCon, to some(or maybe most), this line is more exciting than the current Rise of Cobra line. The big question is, will we see it?
Nordland says
I emailed Hasbro UK if they could confirm if we were getting the POC line in the UK next year as US release dates had been released.
This is the reply i got today......
Thank you for your email.
I can confirm that the Rise of the Cobra toy line was released earlier this year, alongside a large scale marketing campaign. Unfortunately though, consumer demand has not been as anticipated, which obviously impacts retail demand too. As a result, retailers haven't moved through the waves on the range as we would have liked. With regards to the Pursuit of the Cobra toy line, we are yet to confirm if this range will be available in the UK. Please contact us again in February/March when we receive on new range information for 2010.
With reference to the comments you made with regards to the item, these have been noted and will be forwarded to our Marketing Department. We would like to thank you once again for taking the time to write to us as we welcome our customers' comments and suggestions, as they are invaluable for future improvements.
May we thank you for contacting Hasbro and if we can be of any further assistance, either now or in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Kind Regards,
ASK HASBRO
Hasbro UK Ltd
00800 22427276
IMO this does not sound good. The part about " the large scale marketing campaign" is rubbish. I only saw three commercials for the movie on TV and never saw or heard of a single advert for the toys or comic. This is one of the main reasons why the toys are rotting on the shelves, along with being £8 ( $12 ) a figure when they came out.
Now i may be reading to much into this, but i find it suprising that an unknown emailer (me) would recieve a reply basically stating the toyline has been a dissapointment for them in terms of sales. i would have just expected a reply along the lines of "we are reviewing sales numbers".
My second reason of concern is that they apparently do not know if POC will be released. I would have thought that to get a Feb/March release, plans for shipping and distribution would have to be in motion right now. Maybe they are waiting to see what happens to toy sales after the DVD is released.
Along with the rumour that ROC toys have been cancelled in Greece, this doesn't seem good IMO.
So us UK collectors will just have to wait and see if we have to pay international shipping on top of inflated prices for those Jungle Vipers. GRRRRrrrrrr!! :(
Steelgrave says
They're hardly selling in the USA (even with a price drop). It's an American movie & it's not even selling here. What do you expect for other countries?
Goldface says
Another nail in the ROC coffin.
I guess the change from A Real American Hero to U.N. Hero didn't pan out to well.So sad.
Goldface says
By the way, there's always ebay. It'll be more expensive but it's better than nothing.
Goldface says
I guess there's nobody left to defend ROC's honor.
Tracker says
there where selling good here until they overload the selves with wave 1&2 and raised the price to $7.99
other waves goes quickly when they pop up
starscream-99 says
That sucks.
Skyw4rp says
We still have alot of Wave 1-3 here in Manila, Wave 4 is just so-so like you can spot a few figs here and there. Well for Wave 5 expect to see 1 set on display.
Jinx723 says
The problem is that retailers wanted way too much of the ROC line on their shelves. Just because it's a toyline from a summer movie, end of summer at that, doesn't mean it's going to sell like hot cakes. It's doesn't matter if the figures are $5.99 or $9.99 the first two Waves are still overflowing after 3.5 months from their release. People who wanted these already have them, now the stores are stuck with all this product that's not going to move even at $2.99. It's not Hasbro's fault or Paramount's fault. The only ones to blame are the stores, Hasbro makes what the stores' want. Retailers are Hasbro's customers not us. I do hope the same stuff I've been seeing for three months does sell during the holidays.
Pursuit of Cobra have some good stuff coming out but like ROC I'll be getting only what I want. I turned in my Completist membership during Wave 11 of the Modern Era stuff. I just hope that the POC items aren't produced in outrageous quantities like the first two ROC Waves or we're just going to wind up with the same situation all over again. Hasbro seems to want a new Wave out every 6-8 weeks which is cool. New stuff comes out and sells leads to newer stuff. But, like I said produce these in way lower quantities so they sell and retailers order more 'sold out' product that leads to newer product.
One thing Hasbro needs to do is stop doing revision cases. We are now getting cases of twelve for figures. We get 5-6 figures per Wave, get two of each per case and whatever open spot should be for an army building character from the previous Wave. Releasing single characters over and over and over is not going to sell. Look at Destro, Baroness, Ripcord, and Heavy Duty how they clogging pegs (in my area). Hasbro needs to work on how they release their figures.
As for POC (maybe) cancelation for other collectors throughout the world this sucks. Though I'm pretty sure many of us 'Tankers' will give a hand to our overseas brothers out there.
Jeffrozup says
There will be plenty of POC toys to go around worldwide .. just be patient and it will all be here soon.
Keep reading: POC cancelled in the UK? - Page 2
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