Loki God Of Mischief wrote: The point I'm trying to make is that one would assume that Hasbro/TakTomy uses KOs and third party toys to gauge the interest in the fandom. If the bootleggers are using molds that they still have they're going to be reissued. The way I see it HasTakTom uses the KOs as a test market.
I don't think they do that at all. I'm sure there are more effective ways of gaging fandom interest. And while there may be a vocal crowd on these forums that want Headmaster Warriors reissued, it's barely a drop in the bucket of the total fandom. I'm sure the vast majority of the fandom (which are casual fan) have never even heard of a Headmaster Warrior, much less want one. Especially since these are toys that weren't even released outside of Japan. So, that right there all but guarantees they wouldn't be re-issued by Hasbro. That leaves TakaraTomy. While anything is a possibility with them, I can't see any way that a Headmaster Warrior re-issue would be worth their time. We're talking about an incredibly niche group here. Which means even if they were re-issued, they'd probably have to charge a good deal of cash just to break even. Of course, that's assuming they even know where the molds are or if they even still exist. It's a good chance they don't.
And, for those that said the KOs wouldn't affect the value of the originals, you were dead wrong. Five Headmaster Warriors (no Shuffler) were sold last week on ebay for less than $100 each. I'd say that qualifies as a serious diminished return for those that purchased Headmaster Warriors before the KOs were released.