>>5898411Lots of poor decisions on Hasbro's part probably kept GI Joe in a shitty state. Much like many of their other lines.
Hasbro is pretty shit when it comes to distribution of practically everything. I think GI Joe is largely an adult figure line now anyway. They haven't had a "massive" retail presence with Joes since the late 2000s. Basically, once they revived the franchise in like, 2006 or whatever with the 25th Anniversary line (before then, GI Joe had been DTC for three or four years) the pegs were overflowing with merchandise.
That carried into the Pursuit of Cobra line, but supposedly the first GI Joe movie line didn't do the greatest, and every line after got weaker and weaker. Places just weren't getting any stock, often times, once a line got about 3 waves in, the later waves either barely got shipped out, or cancelled altogether.
The Retaliation line hand a bunch of figures integrated into it that were meant for the 30th Anniversary/Renegades line. Even then, after wave 3 or 4 the line petered out.
Also, Hasbro had a tendency to show off shitloads of prototypes at conventions that they pretty much never intended to make, and all the Fanclub/con exclusives that they were trying to peddle at $50 per figure.
