>>11555459What the hell are you talking about?
GI Joe was still a very popular toyline after 1986. It was one of the few toylines that got a yearly giant playset/vehicle every year because it was popular enough to sell big ticket items. In fact, the second biggest year for GI Joe was either 1992 or 1991.
Nevermind the fact that we're talking about how characters made in 1989 and afterward were still very popular with fans, hence getting remade 2 or more times and being hard to find when they got remade for the 00s and 10s toylines.
These figures don't get remade a million times if they're not popular with fans
And you rely too much on secondary market values to gauge popularity. Tons and tons of examples of people just buying shit just to speculate and going bust on their "investment." Or unpopular shit only going for a lot of money because no one bought it when it first came out and they need to complete their collection.
Pic is an example of a massive shelfwarmer that stayed on shelves for literal years, went on clearance, probably got destroyed when stores couldn't sell them, and then 5 years later was going for $100 more everything else in the toyline on the secondary market.
And you're ridiculous to think that Hasbro somehow made a conscious decision that made Crystal Ball popular. Fact that he's popular is solely beacuse's a joke character that never got remade until now. Hasbro could have released a POS and it would have sold because "hahah, he's so shitty they couldn't even make a new mold for him and that joke is funny enough for me to buy. also, because he never got remade until now"
