Q & A Archive for week of May 1, 2000
Another slow week


Questions for May 1, 2000

1
Hi Adam! I have some questions for you.

1. I have a Han Solo (found it) disguised as a Stormtrooper. How can I know if it is the one that came in the mailbox offer (the first figures of the POTF2) or the one that came in the Cinema Scene with Luke also as Stormtrooper and pretend-to-be-handcuffed Chewie?

2. How many Darth Vader figures have been made in the POTF 2 line? Including Cinema Scenes, and, well you know.

3. Is the Mace Windu exclusive figure still available? I know this is a hopeless question, but, well, you never know.

And, last:

4. Maybe you already answered this one. I¥m not sure. What is the space under the A-Wing vehicle for? Batteries? What for? They decided not to added electronic sounds or lights and didn't know what to to with the space there?
  -Miguel

OK...

1. Check our photo archive for images. It's the easiest way to know what you've got. In this case, aside from the different poses, the 3-pack Han has paler skin and, of course, a gun.

2. Available on our checklists area. My count is currently a grand total of 10. Of those, 4 are regularly carded figures, 3 are from vehicles and/or games, 2 are from multi-packs, 1 is electronic, and there is at least one as of yet unreleased carded figure. (Actually, more like two or three more.)

3. Not directly from Hasbro. We at Rebelscum may give a few more away, it's entirely possible that Entertainment Earth or the Fan Club may get some more (they don't have any as of today), and, of course, many are available on the secondary market. On Ebay, they've been selling for under $10 a pop, before shipping. So if you can't get one in a sealed box for under $15 shipped, I'd be genuinely surprised.

4. The compartment on the original release of the A-Wing (around 1984/1984, in the Star Wars: Droids line) was for a couple of batteries that powered a crappy sound effect. Because Hasbro is habitually lazy when it comes to Star Wars vehicles, they opted to leave the battery door intact.


2
Is the Ewok that comes with the Complete Galaxy Endor Lumat or Warok? Also, in Return of the Jedi, during the scene with the Sailbarge. I noticed what appeared to be Bossk as one of the many aliens. Upon freezing my screen and examining it closer, it really looks like him right down to the ESB outfit. How come I have never heard of this mentioned before?
  -Jim

The character is simply "Ewok." While a repaint of Wicket, it holds no intentional resemblance to a named, previously released Ewok other than that which is coincidental.

Bossk, Dengar, and other previous-SW flick aliens appear in the background of ROJ's Jabba Palace and Skiff sequences. Why haven't you heard it? Well, heck if I know. Why not?


3
Is it safe to say that the Vader buddy's probably not coming out?
  -Brian

I would agree with that statement, but Hasbro has yet to officially dump any of its unreleased SW products for good as far as I can tell. (Key word: official.)

4
Will other Expanded Universe figures make it into the fan club? I don't want to pay $30 for Clone Emperor and Kyle Katarn but I'll have to if I want to finish my collection.
  -Neil

I believe I recall hearing the FC is looking into offering a Mara/Katarn 2-pack in the near future. Not sure about any others.


5
I was wondering if you could tell the difference between the 12 inch exclusives and the re-releases of the same figures when they are out of the boxes? For example the greedo J.C. penny and the other greedo that was shipped to all stores? Or barquin D'an and the second release of the same figure?
  -Steve

Well... it depends.

In one case, there are no differences. For instance, I couldn't find any changes in Greedo between the releases.

However, everything else is a different story. Every other figure that was issued in an individual box had some small change. ANH Assortment: The Sandtrooper had new deco and a probe droid, Tarkin's uniform was recolored and a torture droid was included, Ceremonial Luke was new, Greedo had no change.

ESB: Snowtrooper was new, Luke & Han both had new snow deco (and looked great) as well as added firing weapons, and the AT-AT Driver had some minor changes.

ROJ: The Emperor doesn't talk, Jedi Luke has a glowing saber, a bone, and no cloak, Barquin has a new instrument and a slightly different outfit, and lastly, and Chewie's got chains.

6
First, were any of the figures from the FAO exclusive epic force 3-pack ever releasd individually in the US? Second, I think I've heard something about a K-B Toys exclusive epic force pack. What is this?
  -Damon

The FAO set was never released individually in the USA. However, some comic shops were able to buy the 3-packs via wholesale means, cracked them open, and sold them in their individual boxes.

Kay-Bee never had an exclusive Epic Force product.

7
Hey Adam, I was looking at my FF fig of Pote the other day and I noticed the caption on the slide read, " Pote Snitkin's view of the Jedi Luke Skywalker cleaning skiff."  I found that to be pretty damn odd.  I was curious if anyone else out there had that on their slide.
  -Dave

I believe it's just a slang term. All of the slides say that. It's possible it was a typo, but "cleaning" something is often used instead of "kicking [butt] and taking names."

8
How does Hasbro officially justify (e.g. a position statement) selling the Skiff and Y-Wing only to American customers at Target? I didn't mind some of the other past exclusives, but these are core items that I need for my collection. It will cost me $70 Canadian to buy a Skiff and have it delivered from Ebay. Is that fair? Would you pay $70 for a Skiff?
  -Steve

Just so our readers know, $70 canadian is the price of a gumball there as well.

Hasbro doesn't have to justify anything. They had an item and offered it to many business. Few were generally interested, so it became an exclusive. So either Hasbro would be stuck with unsold product, or could make it an exclusive to guarantee its popularity. (Consider original retail on the skiff was gonna be USA$30... which I considered nuts.) So this item sees any release, it pretty much had to be an exclusive. And keep in mind despite what you're hearing, THERE HAS BEEN *NO* OFFICIAL WORD ON THE SKIFF. Everything has been second or third hand so far, and until a Target rep or a Hasbro rep say something, there's no reason to panic.

9
In your last update, you said that there are two Endor Lukes. I only have one. Did I miss it?
  -Jack

There's a Speeder Bike version and a Coin version.

10
Since Hasbro seems geared to only make figures w/incredibly sucky commtech chips from now until the next dumb idea comes along, what are the odds that more characters from the original trilogy, with non-speaking parts ,will be made? I know that some of the E1 figures had no lines, yet the still have a CT chip w/lines. I can't see Hasbro pulling this off w/say BoSheck.
  -Chris

Good question.

For E1, they recorded some of their own lines. (Adi Gallia, I believe, is the best example.) If CommTech continues (and rumor has it that it won't), they'll either make stuff up or feature dialogue from other characters. The Pit Droids feature Greg Proops voice as the Pod Race announcer, for instance. There's options.

(And BoShek still sucks.)

FIN
Sorry, but I'm gonna be away from the ol' Mac of Doom for a few days, so I can't update until the weekend. Hope this'll keep ya for a while, though!