So many questions, so little space... Many other
Star Wars collecting sites also submitted questions you need answered, so if you want to know the latest answers from this week's Hasbro
Star Wars Tri-Weekly Q&A Session, here's a handy guide to help you get all the info.
Don't forget to check
Rebelscum's Q&A Session as well!
From CollectionStation.com: 1) If you had to guess, shoot-from-the-hip style, what percentage of Star Wars would you guess Hasbro has covered with the existing 3.75" line? Obviously the EU has a much wider number of characters, vehicles, and settings to address, so you can pick and choose which sources you'd like to answer for - e.g., "out of just movies & tv" or "out of movies, tv, video games, and recent DH comics", whatever works for you. But with so many main characters and even secondary and tertiary characters getting the action figure treatment, how far does Hasbro think they've taken the brand over the last decade?
2) With Titanium Series ending, the opportunities for re-releasing popular and hard-to-find tools is getting quite short. With that in mind, might you be able to shoehorn re-releases of some of those popular, hard-to-find pieces like the Droid Gunship, Mon Calamari Cruiser, Trade Federation Landing Craft, Rogue Shadow, and Hailfire Droid into the last few waves (perhaps through revision cases) to make sure collectors are as best served as possible, rather than letting the Titaniums' ending serve only scalpers?
3) While we'd always prefer a worn paint deco on vehicles and droids, we understand sometimes the budget just can't do it. The next time you do a vehicle with a white deco where the budget prohibits additional weathering paint, could you please not use the clean-white color of plastic that you've used on the Clone Wars V-19 or the TLC Dagger Squadron B-wing? This white plastic is just too clean, it screams for weathering as it hides every sculpted line and gives an unwelcome plasticky toy look, while the slightly off-white colors of plastic seem to bring out the lines and look a little weathered better than clean.
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NEW! From Galactic Hunter: 1) This larger AT-ST people are rumorizing about, that would (hypothetically) be in the mid-size ($50+) range, correct?
2) Will we ever see an apparition of Obi-Wan Kenobi as he appears to Luke Skywalker on Hoth (with his hood up)?
3) Knowing that we can't have a cardback with EVERY figure on it like the old days, would it be feasible to put together and periodically insert a DVD with pictures (and minor factoids) about the line?
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From Han's Hideout: 1) Recently revealed in an issue of Star Wars Insider was plans for a new Ewok 2-pack - Paploo & NoApaak. Paploo I know, but who or what is NoApaak? You hinted at a great story behind his name, care to share? And any chance you've got a pic you could share?
2) What are the chances of the following figures being recycled into future Saga Legends assortments - VOTC Chewbacca, VOTC Han Solo, and VOTC Luke Skywalker? All three seem to have developed a bit of demand on the secondary market lately thanks to that Big Falcon and most folks wouldn't mind seeing them again on the new cardbacks.
3) Any chance we could ever see some Star Wars themed Clipo sets? My kids love using Clipo to build 'ships' for their little Star Wars Heroes figures!
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From Jedi Defender: 1) The deluxe assortment seems to be inspired mostly by the success of the Clone Wars, and thus the early figures we've seen are focused on that property. Is there a chance we'll see Original Trilogy deluxe figures, or realistic prequal era figures/characters in the line, or will it mostly be focused on Clone Wars?
2) Regarding the upcoming Scramble on Yavin battle pack, can you confirm which body Red Leader will be using? Will it simply be the VOTC X-Wing Luke body with a new head sculpt (as shown in some pictures,) or will it utilize the new torso pieces from the recent Nrin Vakil figure as shown in other pictures? Most fans are hoping for the Nrin Vakil body, as it's a more average height body/limbs it seems, while Luke is obviously a shorter character.
3) Multiple headsculpts are a great way to make the maskless troopers have some variety, as evidenced by the upcoming Hoth Rebel Soldier... Is this something Hasbro will make more "standard" with army builders such as Rebels, Bespin Guards, Naboo military, and other non-clone type soldiers? It's a great feature and definite encouragement for army building.
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From Jedi Insider: 1) Dear Hasbro, I imagine you will be receiving a flood of questions about the Titanium’s hiatus. I was surprised to read that it has been a struggling sub line almost from the start. I understand the need for multiple repaints to make tooling affordable, yet that creates a paradox in that people stop buying the third, fourth or more iteration of the same vehicle therefore cutting into the margin. With that in mind, is there any possibility of changing the fundamental property of Titanium’s and make them all plastic? It seems counter-intuitive at first, but it seems that more and more plastic is already being used in the newer tools, and you've stated in earlier Q & As about the fact that metal is a more difficult material to work with than plastic. Furthermore, it would seem that utilizing two different types of materials would increase the number of steps required in manufacturing. Would a shift to all plastic lower costs enough for the line to continue with fewer repaints and therefore more new ships for people to pick up? The "Titanium" name would not have to go away, as it is still symbolic of the standard of quality (silver, gold, titanium) of the product if not of its nature - it's not like they've ever been made of actual titanium to begin with. This line has been such a wonderful opportunity to get ships we would have and probably never will see in larger formats, such as the recent Tie Defender, Virago, IG 2000, and Z-95 to name only a few, and it's a real shame to read of its demise.
2) Can you tell us what the 2009 Star Wars SDCC exclusives will be, how much they will be and show us pictures of them?
3) What I'd be hoping to see appear as a Clone Wars or Saga Legends figure would be ARC Captain Fordo, since the new packaging for the figures is dedicated to Fordo, I would believe that there would be a figure for him as well. Is there a possibility of this?
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From JediNews.co.uk: 1) The Battle On Mygeeto battle pack was never available in the UK. Are there any plans to release this again as part of the Legacy Collection, and what other hard-to-find battle packs might we see being re-packaged at a later date?
2) Could we please get further details on the exclusives that will be released in the UK (such as Jabba's Rancor, Comic Packs, Droid Factory and Geonosis Arena sets, etc.), along with dates and which store(s) will be getting them?
3) With the demise of the Hasbro UK Toy Shop, will collectors in the UK now be able to buy directly from the US store (typically exclusives not released in the UK along with other items like stands and cases, etc.)?
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From Jedi Temple Archives: 1) Reissues are something that many collectors have grown accustomed to over the years. Most notably with the vehicle line. However there are some vehicles that have only seen limited release or re-release. And some have never seen wide release at all. Among them?
-AT-ST (general release in the 1990's / Toys R Us / Target exclusives)
-Landspeeder (Toys R Us exclusive)
-TIE Bomber (WalMart exclusive)
-Tatooine Skiff (Target exclusive)
-Y-Wing (Target/Toys R Us exclusives)
Can you elaborate on what makes it more difficult to bring these vehicles to the general release market? And might we see any of these vehicles re-released in the near term?
2) Collectors are still a little puzzled about the Return of the Jedi wave that was previewed in the Star Wars Insider. Where in the schedule does this wave fall now? Has the name on the Sullustan B-Wing pilot from this wave been settled? And is there any chance of a look at that one?
3) I know that the Clone Wars is the hot ticket right now but where is the love for the Legacy? The line of deluxe figures from the Clone Wars looks solid for the fans of that line. For those fans of the Legacy collection we feel left out. It has been about six years (four if you count EIII) since we have gotten deluxe figures. Will the deluxe figure ever show up for the Legacy some day?
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NEW: From Raving Toy Maniac: 1) Any chance of using the 9" DC/Marvel Signature Series bodies for a 9" line of Star Wars figures?
2) Will we see build a droids released in multipacks geared toward mix and match action? Something along the lines of the C3PO and battle droid pack from Episode 2.
3) Are there any current plans for a new Zuckuss figure? Relative to the other bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back, he seems over-due.
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From Sandtroopers.com: 1) Are you going to be re-releasing the electronic Battle Droid Blaster from Episode 1 any time soon? It would seem with all the interest in the "Clone Wars" cartoon this would be something to put back out in the market.
2) Now that we are getting a new Republic Commando with articulated legs, and since we're already gotten Delta Squad and Omega Squad, what are the chances of Hasbro doing a series of four packs featuring the various Repbublic Commando squads? This could be a exclusive with Target or Toys R Us or an open retail item, but it would probably generate a lot of interest with collectors and army builders due to the popularity of the Republic Commando books, video game, current action figures, and just plain cool looking armor.
3) I hate to ask the ole "will we get such and such figure released again,"but will we see the Fan's choice Darth Revan in the saga legends at some point?" I really hate seeing the escalating prices for this guy on evilbay.
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From Sir Steve's Guide: 1) With the unfortunate announcement of the Titanium Series line ending after 2009, fans want to know all about its now-limited future. How many new tools will we be getting between now and its end? When can we expect the last wave, and what will be in that wave? What happens to tooling and promises that were on the bubble for '09, like the Outrider which was promised and forgotten last year and then promised again for the end of '09, or the Gungan Sub which was tooled up and promised in 2000 but canceled? Using the term "hiatus" as you did, is there any hope for the brand's revival in the foreseeable future? As Titanium Series is the only outlet for the majority of Star Wars vehicle toys these days, will Hasbro be filling that void with an all-plastic form of Titaniums?
2) With the nifty Build-a-Droid line, every basic figure gets a little bio paragraph on the card except the actual build-a-figure droids themselves. Some of these BAF droids are made up by Hasbro (or are they unknown designs made up by Lucasfilm, we don't know) and have no backstories at all, while others are from comics, novels, even tertiary characters in the movies. Might Hasbro add a section to their website explaining to casual collectors who these droids are, both in-universe and even behind-the-scenes info, and perhaps make up bios for the characters new to the line? This would be win-win, fans would get more nifty bios about their figures, and Hasbro would get more interaction between the figures and their site.
3) Given that we have a number of figures from SW: Purge (Bultar Swan, Tsui Choi, Koffi Arana, and of course, Darth Vader), does Hasbro plan to complete the remaining Jedi figures from that story - Roblio Darte, Sia-Lan Wezz, Ma'kis'shaalas, and Jasus Farr - at some point in the foreseeable future?
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NEW! From Snowtroopers.ca: 1) On a few occasions last year US Walmart Exclusives found their way North to some of the Canadian Walmarts long after their US debut and landed on our shelves at clearance prices. How does this happen or more specifically why does this happen? Are they left over product that Walmart US feels they can't sell? Is there anything we Canadian collectors can do to encourage it more often? I'd love to see the US Exclusive A-Wing hit our stores (even at full retail price) but as it stands it's pretty much a crap-shoot.
2) Will the Wal-Mart exclusive evolutions packs (Evolution of the Commandos, Imperial Pilots #2 and Rebel Pilots #3) be coming to Canada in September?
3) Now that we almost have all of the droids from the ANH Purchase of the Droids scene, is there a chance that Hasbro would make a new bigger Sandcrawler vehicle? You could increase the appeal to kids by making it also open up to function as a Kenner-style "droid factory" and ship it with a ton of different BaD parts (or even a BaD R2, C3PO and bronze RA-7). The OTC Sandcrawler looked great, but if Hasbro can't make a new one to the proper scale (which admittedly would be super huge), if you just made one bigger than the vintage mold this would be a terrific improvement.
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NEW: From Star Wars Action News: 1) Many moons ago Hasbro mentioned that the Imperial Dignitaries released were precursors to the rest of the Imperial Dignitary gang. Given that it has been well over five years since the first two Dignitaries came out, any chance of seeing Sim Aloo or the others any time soon? (Especially Sim Aloo who we had in the vintage line).
2) With the Unleashed Battle Packs coming to their end, and the Titaniums finishing at the end of this year, and Muggs being reduced to only Toys R Us exclusives, what can you tell us about the viability of the Star Wars Transformers line?
3) This question is in response to a previous Hasbro Q&A question from another site which asked about creation of more cantina patrons. In your response you cited how collectors alone do not drive the market, pointing to the Yarna figures that seem to be abundant on pegs. In your response you point out that figures need to appeal to kids and collectors and while collectors may yearn for a Yarna or a Willrow Hood, the kid market prefers more iconic characters.
Our follow-up question: With these iconic characters appealing to the kid's market, have you found there to be more appeal in a resculpt of a character versus a repackaged, rereleased figure?
We ask because so many of the main characters have close-to-definitive versions already released, we wonder if it make more sense to put the effort of new sculpts and new toolings to figures that have never been done in the modern line (the missing Imperial Dignitaries, etc.) or ones that do not have good versions yet (such as Lobot needing an update), and keep the iconic, kid appealing figures to the Greatest Hits/Saga legends line.
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From SWCollector.com: 1) Seeing as you've already made a figure of R3-A2, wouldn't it be better to make one of the other two predominately orange R3 units on Hoth for the upcoming BAD figure? One is in the control room and has some grey on his front and his legs, and the other one is in the hangar, and has differently painted back panels.
2) There have been a lot of cool droids so far in the new CW series, and even a rack of assorted astromech and other droid parts in the Naboo repair shop. Might we see the BAD concept work itself into the Clone Wars line in some fashion? Their collectibility and creative construction features seem to be ideal fit for younger fans. You could even use the existing astromech parts since they are very similar to the animated style anyway.
3) I recently noticed that in the Clone Wars movie, Ziro the Hutt has some "bartender" astrodroids wearing the same serving tray that R2-D2 used on Jabba's Sailbarge. Seeing as how there was also a second, red-striped R2 unit on Jabba's sailbarge using the same serving tray, what are the chances we might see you dust off the old "bartender" R2-D2 mold to produce one of these other droids?
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From TheJawa.com:1) It's great to see Hasbro finally release a 501st Legion trooper using the #41 RotS mold. However, I bought a few and noticed a problem: the helmet's blue stripe is incorrect! The stripe should be continuous but instead we have a gap between the black rim and the visor. Also the stripe is too wide and should instead narrow from the top of the helmet to the chin. Please see the paintjob that was done for your TSC Commander Appo figure which was done correctly (although on Appo, he had too much dirt and his chest stripe didn't reach all the way to the neck). Can Hasbro please correct the problem for a future Legends release, I'd love to army build dozens more but only if it's accurately done.
2) The black RA-7 Build-A-Droid looks great, but isn't the color of the eyes incorrect? The BaD has gold/bronze eye lenses, but in ANH it seems as if it has silver eyes (and even Hasbro's PotF2 figure used silver eyes). If this is a mistake, can Hasbro consider including a corrected head in a future Legacy wave so we can actually get a proper version of this character?
3) The shirtless Evolutions Darth Maul looks great but if Hasbro ever re-releases this sculpt again, say... as part of a 2pack with a Sith training droid from the Darth Maul comic, could you use a brighter shade of red paint? It was disappointing that the Evo Maul had such a muddy red look whereas in previous action figure incarnations, Hasbro used a much more intense red that really made him stand out. And any chance of including a softgoods outfit with a re-release?
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From The Private Universe:1) Can you give us any more details as to the likely Pilot characters we are going to see over the next 12 months, you've mentioned Gen. Salm and Lt Telsji previously as one's you'd like to do, are they there? What about the likes of Gavin Darklighter or any of the Wraiths?
2) The Clone Wars C-3PO is great! The most poseable version yet. Are you going to make a SA classic version of him anytime? Even if it's not in totally shiny gold finish as the others have been.
3) Ref the Wal-Mart Droid Factory Exclusives. I think the Build-A-Droid idea is a good one but not when it's used on exclusive repacks. We have to buy 5 packs just to get a new Dark Trooper! With the exception of Corran Horn they are all repaints or variations too. That combined with the fact these aren't available in the UK means we have to spend a lot of cash to get them. Can't you bring back the Deluxe figure style and just sell the Dark Trooper that way? I'm sure you would get a lot of buyers.
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From Yakface.com: 1) In the various QnA sessions over the years you've mentioned that sometimes old molds for figures and vehicles have been damaged or misplaced necessitating the creation of a new one (ex: the BMF). Can you reveal any often/repeatedly used figure or vehicle molds that we can look forward to not seeing again.
2) When the Legacy/Droid Factory line was initially launched, the included B.A.D. parts were of 2 types: astromech or protocol droid. Now with B.A.D. figures like HK-47, L8-L9 and the ultra cool Darktrooper from the Walmart Droid Factory sets, the trend seems to be moving more toward "one-off" characters whose B.A.D. parts can't be repainted to create other characters as the astromech or protocol droid parts could. If that trend continues, is it possible we could see Episode I version of C-3PO without his coverings offered as the B.A.D. or would he be considered to be too "mainline" for such a release?
3) I am overjoyed to see that Corran Horn and Whistler will be part of the upcoming Droid Factory sets. I wondered though, what made you decide to give Corran an orange flightsuit despite all of the references indicating that he always wore a green one? Trying to keep us customizers on our toes?
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From Yoda's News: 1) My favorite figures are the Stormtroopers / Sandtroopers so thanks for doing the Spacetrooper. He's an awesome addition to the line-up. I like the "VOTC" style trooper but think the recent Tantive IV Battlepack trooper is far superior. For me it's that whole torso joint thing that just doesn't work right. It gets loose and the figure looks hunched over. The Tantive IV troopers have a better stance and are aesthetically more pleasing with their ball jointed heads and wider stance. Would it be possible to do a carded run of these awesome troopers Sandtroopers in the near future? You could give them the correct utility belt with a functional holster and give them two hands that can grip a blaster the right way (the left hand is usually hard to open).
2) Will we ever see more Clone Wars Figures based on the 2004 Cartoon Network's Clone Wars Series in Realistic Style?
3) Can we get a high res picture of Clegg Holdfast? If not, maybe let us know which Klaatu is coming in a future wave?
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