Ah, tail enders, one of my favorite things. As a re-cap a tail-ender is a toy produced in the last days of a toyline that are usually in smaller numbers and oftentimes appear at discount retailers. Kay Bee used to be notorious for these. Don’t let their discount price fool you, due to the smaller production run, these types of toys often appreciate strongly on the secondary market in subsequent years.
Today’s tail-enders had originally appeared at Ross stores (which we unfortunately do not have in Ohio). I happened on them at my local Gabriel Brother’s while following up a tip off from a friend of mine that the Easter selection of toys there had GIJoe figures. These “alpha class” vehicles had been intended to retail at a costly $15.99, a $11.99 price-point would have been more reasonable. The CEO of Hasbro even declared in a shareholders meeting that GIJoe Rise of Cobra movie toys “may” have been put on the marketplace at too high a price, leading to clogged shelves.
At $6.99, a figure and a vehicle together, is what I consider a “bargain”. I had been looking forward to the “Lava Pod” version of the “Mole Pod” but thought I wouldn’t get a chance to own it. I now have two, along with the “Tiger Claw” ATV with a Gung-Ho looking Leatherneck, and the “Polar Sharc” with an artic soldier that looks like he bought his jacket at the mall rather than having an arctic camouflage one issued to him. In all fairness though, the Joes in the movie had little time to prepared for deployment to the Arctic theater when they discovered Destro’s hidden base. So maybe they did just throw on civilian attire to stay warm on the impromptu deployment.
A great find, on a Foolish day.
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