As part of Hasbro's bi-weekly Q&A session, Rebelscum passed on 3 of your burning questions and now we've got the answers for you.
Rebelscum: Whatever happened to the Max Rebo Band? It was announced last fall that Jabba's Band members would be on hold for an exclusive for 2008. Is there any more you can tell us about this?Hasbro: Details will be revealed at Comic Con, next week.
Rebelscum: A lot of collectors like soft goods kamas and cloaks because of added posability (like sitting), but cloth doesnt behave on 4" figures the way it would on full sized people, and so we see figures that look like they are wearing puffer jackets or parachutes for cloaks (or clothing crochet knitted for them by their grandmothers). On the other hand, the better looking plastic cloaks and kamas restrict movement. Now here's the idea: you pack figures with plastic covered wires that can be positioned and hold the position. why not insert them into soft plastic cloaks and kamas so we can have posable clothing that holds its position?Hasbro: We are always looking for ways to mske soft goods as aesthetically appealling as possible, though - as you say, in 3-3/4" scale it's not the easiest task. What you have suggested is a great idea that we are pursuing for some things for next year. Pending clearance of any child safety and age grade issues that might prevent the idea, look for it in late Spring on some figures.
Rebelscum: The difficulty in locating certain "tools" for the Saga Legends collection has highlighted an apparent gap in Hasbro's tracking of these assets. An analogy might be a recording studio that has misplaced some of the master recordings of certain of its hit songs. Has this experience prompted Hasbro to implement improved methods and procedures for the tracking and warehousing of its tools to eliminate these problems in the future?Hasbro: We are always working on systems and procedures to keep track of our tooling database, not just for Star Wars but for our entire business. Star Wars, more than most brands, is tricky because we are often searching for tools from the distant past, where most brands are focused more in the recent past (and we search for a lot of tools). As a result, we have switched vendors and lost the ability to quickly get to some tools, mislabelings have occurred along with occasional parts being misplaced or lost in the shuffle, some databases haven't been updated to reflect the latest project numbers, and the like. It takes time to straighten these out and sometimes we aren't as nimble as we'd like to be in reacting to market forces, but we are always looking for ways to improve and experience helps us get better at managing the process.
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