When it rains, it pours– at least for Joe fans.
Hot on the heels of recent news about the rescheduling of G.I. Joe: Retaliation’s premiere from June 29, 2012 to March 29, 2013, Variety.com ran this bit of news:
Yanking G.I. Joe toys with retailers
Reversal causes spirited round of musical shelves
By MARC GRASERAt major retailers nationwide, something is missing from the toy aisles: “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” action figures. In their place, an empty space.With Paramount moving the actioner from June 29 to March 29, 2013, to give it more muscle at the box office with 3D, retailers are being asked to send back the line of Hasbro toys that were starting to appear on shelves.Some Walmart, Toys R Us and Target locations had started to stock the toys this week, although they weren’t supposed to make them available until next week. Those that did wanted to get a jump on demand, and some of the 47 items that would’ve been sold are expected to show up on eBay at inflated prices by the end of the weekend.
In a statement, released Friday, Hasbro said: “G.I. Joe is an ongoing consumer franchise and therefore there is merchandise available to consumers. There is a limited amount of ‘G.I. Joe Retaliation’ product at retail now, but in light of the movie moving out to March 29, 2013, the majority of the movie line will be made available early next year in time for the film’s release.”
