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Welcome back... Here's our Question 10 recap:
I recently bought the Applause Luke in Bacta Tank statue. The light does not work on it. I have tried a new set of batteries without any luck. Do you know how to change the light bulb? -Steve
Well Steve, it looks as if you may have stumped everyone on this. Aside from the mandatory, “how many Star Wars collectors does it take to change a light bulb joke,” I really didn’t get a solid answer for you. I’ll try emailing Applause and see what I can come up with. Keep watching the site, hopefully I’ll have something posted for you soon.
On with the show:
 1 At the end of Return of the Jedi, should we not have seen the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn as well as any other (council) member who may have passed on in the bringing about of the redemption of Anakin? Don't you think this should be added to any future "Special Editions”? -Alan Larkin I heard once, about the time the Zahn novels came out, that Lucas put a limit on how long a Jedi could appear in spirit form. I want to say it was three years, just long enough to cover the time between A New Hope and Return of the Jedi. That being the case, no other Jedi could have appeared. The whole Jedi spirit thing is still pretty much a mystery though. Obi-Wan and Yoda disappeared, while Qui-Gon and Vader/Anakin didn’t. Still, Anakin appears at the end of Jedi, which indicates his spirit may have been set free in the funeral pyre… There are many that feel this will be explained in the next two films, but we’ll have to wait and see to be sure. Personally I don’t think more Jedi should be added. The saga revolves around its central characters. Aside from Luke, Han and Leia, Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Anakin are what the story is all about. I’m sure by the time we get to Episode III it will all make sense. 2 What’s the deal with the bonus pit droids? If they were manufactured back in 1999, why have they just recently showed up at online retailers? Have they been sitting in someone’s warehouse all this time without anyone even realizing that they were there? Redpumkin.com said that when they got the first shipment in, they were expecting bonus battle droids. Anyway, do you expect the second wave of bonus pit droids to pop up soon? Are they sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting to be discovered? There is obviously a demand for these figures in the U.S. I assume that if retailers knew where the supplier was that they would order some. -Rick Apparently they’ve been sitting in a warehouse. Until just recently they had been the ‘Holy Grail’ of Episode I figures. However, It looks like Redpumkin was just the tip of the iceberg. More of the sets seem to be showing up all the time and there’s no telling when it will end. If we see these sets in the U.S. at all, they will come through the Fan Club or on-line shops. Originally these 2-packs were foreign exclusives and only ever available here through the Club and a few on-line retailers that imported them from overseas. If you see a set that’s the right price for you, definitely pick them up. Demand aside, I wouldn’t bank on these things showing up at retail. 3 Could someone ask Hasbro why they are, in a sense, making the army builders chase figures in the assortments? I ask this based on the latest case breakdowns according to Entertainment Earth regarding waves 13 and 14. -Eric Leavitt Both the waves you’re referring to are, in fact, second assortments for the army building figures in question. It may look like Hasbro is creating ‘chase’ figures if you just look at those two waves, but that’s not their intention. Hasbro is trying to put more new figures out in their first assortments, thus reducing the number of ‘repacked’ figures in subsequent waves. It’s been working pretty well for single use figures, those most people will only buy one or two of, but army builders are still hard to keep on the shelves. To rectify the problem, Hasbro is planning to release a few make-up cases that are heavy on troop figures. We should start seeing those cases in a month or so, which should make finding Sandtroopers, Biker Scouts, Gungan Warriors, and Bespin Guards much easier. 4 I have seen pictures of the new 12" Han Solo in Stormtrooper disguise with two different head sculpts (one that is new, and the other from the Han in Endor). Do you know which sculpt will be used for the final product? I would assume the new one. Depending on which picture came first, it’s not totally uncommon for a toy company to use existing parts to create mock-ups of the intended product. Usually these pre-used parts are changed out when the new version is completed. If you saw a totally new head, I would be surprised to see them use an existing one for this model. On the other hand, if you saw an older head and mistook it as new, it’s possible Hasbro will use the latest model on the new figure. Time will tell. 5 I am a huge Action Fleet collector and I was wondering what is up with them? Have they quit making them all together? I really hope you can give me some info on this. Also, where is the best place to buy them on the net? Every place I have checked only has a few of the early Episode I items and none of the new. What about any plans for AF for Episode II? -yoda7 At this time, production of the Action Fleet line has ceased. There has been some talk of bringing the line back, but nothing definite has been decided. We could possibly see a few new Episode II ships, as well as some of the canceled vehicles, around late 2002 or 2003, but it’s still up in the air. Right now the best place to look for Action Fleet is DNSToys.com. They have a healthy selection and are very good at tracking down many of the hard to find pieces from that collection. 6 One of the reasons I check all of the Star Wars toy pages on the web daily is to see if any new advanced pictures of future products are posted. Lately there has been a lack of spy/preview photos for the new figures. I've been extremely excited for the deluxe Amanaman and Salacious Crumb, I would have figured that their pics would be up by now considering the set is coming out within half a year or so. Are people lazy finding photos? Is Hasbro not as sharing as they used to be? What gives? Also, about the new Essential Guide to Alien Species book, why is it that my favorite alien race, the Snivians, is not mentioned at all? Takeel/Snaggletooth is a Snivian, if you need your memory refreshed, and I thought for sure they'd have a section about the species in the book. I was rather upset they didn't put them in! Any word on why? -Greg
Two part question? You’re lucky I’m going on vacation… With some of the changes at Hasbro, a lot of the leaks we enjoyed in the past have been “plugged.” Hasbro has also been extremely busy getting ready for next year and hasn’t had the time they would like to put into their own site. They have promised more images and updates, but so far it hasn’t worked out. Bottom line is some of this stuff just isn’t out there like it used to be.
No word why the Snivians were snubbed, but with the volume of aliens created in both film and written form, it’s understandable why some were left out. Hopefully we’ll see a volume two published one day. The book is actually pretty cool, and very informative, but there were a number of obvious omissions.
7 What exactly is Marmit, and what figures do they have for it? I know they have a Boba Fett, but it seems that you can only get them in Japan or online. Is there anywhere in the U.S. that we can get them? Marmit is a Japanese company with a limited license to produce large-scale action figure models. They are not allowed to sell these figures directly to the U.S. market, but several on-line companies have imported limited numbers for sale in the U.S. So far they’ve produced a Stromtrooper, Sandtrooper, TIE Pilot, and Boba Fett. Word is, next they will offer an AT-AT Driver, Darth Vader, and a Royal Guard. Because of conflicts with other toy licenses, we’ll probably never see Marmit figures sold (directly) in the U.S., but continued demand is sure to bring them in via Internet vendors. 8 Hi, I have a question about the Sandtrooper action figure coming out. I read on your website that there will be various shoulder pads. How many different shoulder pads were there in the movie? I mostly recall seeing orange. What are the others? How many will they make? And what do the different colors mean? -girlofgod. The colors seen in A New Hope are orange, white and gray/black, bringing the total to three. The current figure comes with a gray/black pad, but Hasbro will likely produce the same figure with the other colors as well. To my knowledge rank has not been assigned to the different color pads, but it’s possible I missed that memo. If anyone knows, send in the goods… 9 A couple of months ago, I saw a computer generated 3D I-Max movie called CyberWorld 3-D. During the movie, I kept thinking that Star Wars just screams to be a 3D I-Max movie. Do you think George would ever do Star Wars 3D? He wouldn’t necessarily have to do the whole movie even. He could do a handful of scenes.(I would love to see the Millennium Falcon in the asteroid field for ESB, myself!) What do you think? -Jonathan It sounds great to me! I’d really like to see John Williams compose a Star Wars suite, combining themes from all six films into one piece. Putting that to a 3D montage of scenes from the Prequels and Trilogy would be an awesome capper to the saga. Will it happen? It’s hard to say. Lucas seems to be taking the high road with Star Wars, things like the holiday special are likely to happen. I imagine, if it could be done tastefully, we could see something like it a few years after Episode III, but he’s just as likely to close the book and let the films be the final word. Tenth Question: "This one's for you..."
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Master Points have only been used once, in Australia, for the Jedi Braid & Holo. Royal Starship set. I’ve asked a couple times if Hasbro plans to use them for anything in the U.S., but the answer has always been no. I save mine, you never know, but I’ve been told there’s talk of doing away with them altogether.
Announcements:
As I mentioned above, I’ll be on vacation next week. I’m going to try and leave a little something behind to help clear out the old QM mailbox so keep tuning in. The format will be all questions, just like this edition, and the Tenth Question will start up again once I get back. Everyone have a great week, and do something fun. I know I will be!
Until next time...
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