Sort of to the topic, but not I guess, but I remember GI Joes just coming out kind of at random in Summer, probably gearing up for the holidays, and then nothing till basically the following year.
I think back to those times though, and how my brother and I used to just sort of imagine what Joes could they make, and then next series they inevitably had 50% of what you were thinking, at least. Sometimes it was even a clean sweep. Talk about having your finger on your market's pulse. "Wouldn't it be cool if they did a snow guy with Skis!?", and next series is Snowjob... Friggin' cool back then when the internet wasn't there to spoil anything, and you just walked into Hills and there was the new Joe wave out, and you just went nuts.