Lanard’s “The Corps” Action Figures at Walmart
Walmart may be abandoning the G.I. Joe brand, but a recent visit to an Austin Walmart showed an increase in Lanard’s The Corps (official site, Amazon.com search*) series of 3.75-inch scale action figures. I’m sure price has a lot to do with it; $2 for a single action figure is a price that almost any parent is instantly willing to spend.
Man, the character art on the site is amazing. It’s really too bad, with a bit of better branding and some minor sculpt tweaks, this line could be a Joe competitor.
@Bill Murphy – I’ve sometimes wondered what would happen if Lanard hired a creative type and let them loose on The Corps series. Or if they spent a little more and dropped mini-comics in some of the sets? Yeah, they could build something bigger than it is now.
There are about 6 ”’mid-phase” figures that are really very cool – T-crotch articulation aside. The earlier ones are a little ”ape-armed” for my tastes and some of the later figures have very limited articulation but for the price the Corps! toys are very good. If you haven’t checked them out, take a look at the TRU True Heroes/Legends line too for similar cheap-but-kinda-cool fun.
20 years from a now a whole generation of kids who grew up on “The Corps” are going to be looking for these…
Funny how Walmart can’t justify stocking GI Joe or Marvel Legends (at least mine) but they’re happy to stock Digimon stuff! Yeah, THAT’S gonna go well (rolls eyes)
@Black Arbor – The Digimon supply at this same Walmart I visited seemed hit pretty hard. The sales appeared to be doing quite well.
And as to how Walmart (and other chains) choose what to carry: It’s based on performance in the past and what new movies are coming up. And G.I. Joe has not done well over the past two years; that second movie — especially the delay — was not kind to G.I. Joe toys.