With all Toys "R" Us stores closing and no new actual "good" blasters since early 2017, is the series dead?
With all Toys "R" Us stores closing and no new actual "good" blasters since early 2017, is the series dead?
There haven't been any Alien Menace blasters or products period since 2017.
Not all Toys "R" Us stores are closing, the ones in Canada are staying open since they are a different chain. I'm not sure what this means for any of the TRU exclusive series, but they are still selling Alien Menace and Sonic Ice/Fire stuff in Canada, so even if they stop making them they will still be sold for a bit while they run out of stock. I don't think the series did too well anyways, as the blasters were quite expensive and some (Ravager) had issues. I would say that it's not unreasonable to assume the series is done, since Doomlands 2169, another series in a similar cosmetic-over-performance style, is not doing too good either with no new blasters this year other than a small Snapfire reshell.
Only time will really tell.
Hey, I realize everyone's definition of what constitutes a "good blaster" varies, but the RayvenFire and the SurgeFire came out in late 2017, and they're both pretty decent IMHO.
Edit: I realize in retrospect you were talking about "good Alien Menace" blasters. My bad. You are correct
As to the Alien Menace situation, it's looking kinda bleak SuperM. For the uninformed, it's a Toys "R" Us exclusive. I know they're still being sold because I saw a boatload of them at my local TRU last night - 40% off. But TRU of Canada is still going to be around, for a while at least. I imagine if they still have inventory, they'll be on the cold frosty shelves up there in the Great White North.
Hasbro hasn't said anything officially, one way or the other, but they did remove the link from their brands page. So that's a clue. Some reddiots think the brand will get picked up by another major retailer. Hmmm, doubt it. They only released one AM blaster in all of 2017. The series isn't exactly "on fire" at the moment.
So the long answer to your short question is, we really don't know. But it looks like this is probably the end of the line.
I would say that it's not unreasonable to assume the series is done ... with no new blasters this year other than a small Snapfire reshell.
But it's a small SnapFire with a high power 1X scope ! Which is way betterer. Or so I've been told.