Quote Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime View Post
While I respect McFeely as a very knowledgeable fan, I think his appraisal is somewhat of a hyperbole. G.I. Joe, as a toy franchise, is still being marketed at kids. The toys are still being sold in toy stores and department stores, not collector stores unlike other toys marketed directly at adult collectors like DC Direct, Transformers Sport & Music Label etc. I think there is possibly some truth in that G.I. Joe may have a larger adult fan base, but so would Star Wars. I don't know enough about G.I. Joe or have ever seen any statistics to tell what the child:adult fandom ratio would be - but I would be surprised if the G.I. Joe fandom was completely comprised of adults.

Having said that, Feely does have a point in saying that Transformers does still have a massive child fanbase. And historically Transformers didn't do so well when it became too adult (re: Beast Machines). Hence why I said that the ideal solution would be some kind of balance like we had with Beast Wars - and that we've seen in a lot of other franchises like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Batman: The Brave and the Bold etc. It is possible to have Transformers simultaneously appeal to both children and adults if they try.
Hasbro isn't a small collector toy company, so they barely sell directly to collectors or through collector chains regardless of the item, because they prefer to deal in large volumes to major retailers. They sell to retailers, then they let the retailers worry about how to flog them. The only time they bother doing "direct to collector" nonsense is when it's a convention or HTS exclusive or they can't find a brick & mortar retailer willing to carry the product (for example, the entire GI Joe DTC line). Last I saw, they don't market the 25th Anniversary line to kids. In fact, the movie line will be the first kid-marketing GI Joe line since Sigma 6.

GI Joe is much more dependent on their adult collectors than Transformers, largely why much of GI Joe fiction is comic books rather than kids cartoons.

And last I checked Animated was pretty damn well received among kids and adults.