Uh, oh......Secto Viper Repro Gear!

[j_inmon]

Hi, this is my first post and an interesting one to weigh in on. I have a little bit of a different view on the subject. The future of Gi joe (and action figures in general) seems to be in question. One look at all the death of the line posts will confirm this. A good example of my feelings on this is coin collecting. Fifty years ago many people had coin collections. Kids and adults alike would collect coins and complete sets as an easy and fun hobby. It wasnt overly expensive and while some coins were harder to find, they where not so much so that it would discourage casual collectors. This was a good thing for the hobby as well as the US mint. Then, In the 80s The price of silver soared. Millions of coins where melted down for there silver content. Completing collections became to expensive and time consuming for all but the die hard collectors. The hobby drasticly declined and is only a shadow of its former popularity today. Although the price of a rare coin may have skyrocketed, the demand all but died up. If we want new product from hasbro and the hobby to prosper, then these repos are a nesecity. No new collector wants to collect vehicles or figures that are missing major parts with no real hope of ever finding or affording to complete them. The price of anything is determined by supply and demand. These parts are valuable because of a low supply. If the demand dries up, then the how rare they are will not matter because no one will want them.

[hotdog]

And if anyone says that all those repro parts don't affect the value of a figure, then I will laugh in that persons face.

well of course they do, but not just in the way you are trying to portray. take the mauler for instance, 5-6 years ago a shell was worth 20 bucks or less IF the motor, rollers and tracks were all in good order. but with all the parts to rebuild it available cheaply, they frequently go for well over 50 bucks. so while one persons mint complete mauler may loose value, hundreds of other people are finding their incomplete maulers value rise. so I don't see how that hurts the hobby, unless you feel other collectors should revere "purist" collectors for their personal collection of children's toys, and basically stay out of their way? and if that was the case no one would care about vintage joes at all, well except for those few "purists". and I say that chuckling, because we are talking about 30 year old toys that were targeted at 8-12 year old boys, and we are certainly not in that age group. but instead of referring to us as weirdos, dorks or nerds, you are trying to dignify this compulsion with a term like "purist". maybe you should think about MISB AFA high grade stuff- which is another part of the hobby making out from the proliferation of replica parts.

The way I see it,
if you don't care that you don't have original acc for your figures, then you also shouldn't care that it has a color difference.

that misses the whole point, firstly you can't tell someone else how to enjoy their collection (and i'm not telling you how to enjoy yours). by far the majority of collectors that I have met do not collect for profit, they collect for nostalgia and usually to share with their children. those people know that it's not worth putting a lot of money into a toy that is going to be played with (not to mention the wife factor).
Secondly, Hasbro made accessory pack weapons available for a great number of their figures. but it's just a simple fact, people would rather have a black replica crimson guard rifle to display their figure with as opposed to a bright blue Hasbro accessory pack one. this is especially true with kids. one of my personal greatest critics has always been my kid. if he has a hard time spotting a replica, then it's good enough to sell.

[hotdog]

Hi, this is my first post and an interesting one to weigh in on. I have a little bit of a different view on the subject. The future of Gi joe (and action figures in general) seems to be in question. One look at all the death of the line posts will confirm this. A good example of my feelings on this is coin collecting. Fifty years ago many people had coin collections. Kids and adults alike would collect coins and complete sets as an easy and fun hobby. It wasnt overly expensive and while some coins were harder to find, they where not so much so that it would discourage casual collectors. This was a good thing for the hobby as well as the US mint. Then, In the 80s The price of silver soared. Millions of coins where melted down for there silver content. Completing collections became to expensive and time consuming for all but the die hard collectors. The hobby drasticly declined and is only a shadow of its former popularity today. Although the price of a rare coin may have skyrocketed, the demand all but died up. If we want new product from hasbro and the hobby to prosper, then these repos are a nesecity. No new collector wants to collect vehicles or figures that are missing major parts with no real hope of ever finding or affording to complete them. The price of anything is determined by supply and demand. These parts are valuable because of a low supply. If the demand dries up, then the how rare they are will not matter because no one will want them.

I totally agree, although I don't know as much about the specifics of the coin collecting hobby as you do.

[scrapiron]

This got me thinking: why was it that Hasbro made the accessory pack weapons such hideous colours anyway? Would it not have made sense to reproduce the guns in their original colours instead of light blue, etc.? What is the rationale? I can see Accessory Pack #1 with the brown stuff....It's almost desert gear.

[3DJoes]

This got me thinking: why was it that Hasbro made the accessory pack weapons such hideous colours anyway? Would it not have made sense to reproduce the guns in their original colours instead of light blue, etc.? What is the rationale? I can see Accessory Pack #1 with the brown stuff....It's almost desert gear.

Hasbro respected the value and collectibility of the original, so when they made remakes they consciously wanted to distinguish them from the originals, so as to not hurt the value of the originals or piss off collectors. Others don't share such qualms.

[scrapiron]

Hasbro respected the value and collectibility of the original, so when they made remakes they consciously wanted to distinguish them from the originals, so as to not hurt the value of the originals or piss off collectors. Others don't share such qualms.

To play the Devil's advocate, I'd have to disagree. I hardly think that in 1983 Hasbro made different coloured weapons simply to preserve their collectibility. Who were "the collectors" to p*#$ off? 8-year-old kids? The reason the figures have value is because so many were beaten up, broken, or lost during play, leaving the most cared-for figures lower in supply, and thus more valuable.

There had to be a better reason...Perhaps the different colours were more novel and different would sell? I'd like to hear what a former Hasbro employee would have to say about it.

Keep the debate rolling........This is good stuff!

[FireFox91]

Hasbro respected the value and collectibility of the original, so when they made remakes they consciously wanted to distinguish them from the originals, so as to not hurt the value of the originals or piss off collectors. Others don't share such qualms.

Do you really believe this? Come on, Hasbro didn't care about the VALUE of their toys after they left the store. If they did, why on earth would they continue to make the older vehicles and figures available through mail-aways for so long after they were pulled from retail shelves? The proliferation of those older vehicles and figures kept the value down. Where was the respect for collectors on that? To think about it another way, in the 80s those items had no value in the sense of an adult collector because there weren't adult collectors. (Very, very few anyway.) There were kids trying to collect them all for bragging rights, not monetary value. These were kids collecting kids toys. Accessory packs were simply a means for kids to replace their lost accessories because kids actually played with and lost accessories. If the line were made to be kept mint or in the package, then no one would have any lost accessories and therefore there would have never been a need to make accessory packs. You don't like repros, fine. But don't make stuff up to support your argument. Kind of hypocritical anyway coming from a person pushing posters with reproduction images of the original MOC figures don't you think?

[wild weasel tank buster]

Do you really believe this? Come on, Hasbro didn't care about the VALUE of their toys after they left the store. If they did, why on earth would they continue to make the older vehicles and figures available through mail-aways for so long after they were pulled from retail shelves? The proliferation of those older vehicles and figures kept the value down. Where was the respect for collectors on that? To think about it another way, in the 80s those items had no value in the sense of an adult collector because there weren't adult collectors. (Very, very few anyway.) There were kids trying to collect them all for bragging rights, not monetary value. These were kids collecting kids toys. Accessory packs were simply a means for kids to replace their lost accessories because kids actually played with and lost accessories. If the line were made to be kept mint or in the package, then no one would have any lost accessories and therefore there would have never been a need to make accessory packs. You don't like repros, fine. But don't make stuff up to support your argument. Kind of hypocritical anyway coming from a person pushing posters with reproduction images of the original MOC figures don't you think?

Agreed, I've always just assumed that the accessory pack colors was just a way of getting different colored accessories, to get kids to go "this is a different accessory than mine, I want this!". I'd imagine it'd be harder back then to sell the same exact accessories at a time when the figures themselves were readily available.

[3DJoes]

I never wanted the accessory pack weapon. I always knew it was an ugly knock off. I wanted the originals. I was ony 10 years old and I knew I wanted the originals.

[3DJoes]

You don't like repros, fine. But don't make stuff up to support your argument. Kind of hypocritical anyway coming from a person pushing posters with reproduction images of the original MOC figures don't you think?

Wow. Please don't mis-speak for me. I've already said I don't like INDISTINGUISHABLE repros. I've gone further to say I DO like repros that are clearly noted, like the Beggars Canyon cards. So, you've misrepresented me and called me a hypocrite for no reason.

Additionally, my posters are reference tools for collectors. I would never consider them repros because they are no where close to life size and they aren't on card stock. You couldn't even try to pass them off as originals.