Questions for October 3, 2005
Q&A Archive

1
I am a collector who is actually excited about the Target Exclusives (Shadow Trooper, Lava Anakin/Vader, and lava Obi-Wan) which are coming out this fall. What, specifically, is the street date for these to be on the shelves at Target? As much difficulty as there was on the Lava Darth Vader, I am worried these might go quickly, as well. -Robert

Despite the fact that a street date has been thrown around, the best course of action is to ignore it completely, and start watching your local Target stores now. For one thing there has been no 'official' announcement of a specific date, and as we all know in these cases even official dates are rarely enforced. Odds are, as soon as the figures come in, the shelves will be stocked. Date aside, there's every bit of a chance that the figures may not be in certain stores on the date that's been mentioned. Aside from the April launch of the line, all dates that we've heard about this year are 'reset' dates for the seasonal display. Depending on the individual store and when they get around to their reset, we could see the figures stocked anywhere within a two-week period or later. That being said, the date in this case appears to be October 16th for all three figures, but don't be surprised if they show up earlier or much later.


2
After seeing the new Transformers Star Wars toys…I say don't believe the hype! After all the R&D going into these figures as well [as] manufacturing costs, shipping, and high-end profit margins Hasbro wishes to have post 9-11. I don't understand why they can't develop more vehicles for the Star Wars 3¾ line instead of all the repacking. I would much rather they tell the truth and say listing we don't want to make those items because we know that most people will continue to purchase the line regardless of how many repaints and rehashes we do and we would like to maximize our profits in order to please our stock investors. Man this is upsetting…don't get me wrong this Trans line is pretty cool if I were a kid I might like one, but it's like narrowing your customer base to only children between the ages of 5-10 and only boys. Were the 3¾ line you get a wider customer base including girls. Even if they don't get such high profit margins but deliver good product to their existing customer base they would regain our loyalty and might be able to force feed us more repaints and maintain the line active for a longer period of time and collect the same money from us just within a span of 4-5 years more instead of 1-2 years sooner. As far as the repaints go, from time to time I think it's alright. But if we continue on the same track your going to loose that which originally funded your line back 1995 when there were no movie years till 1999 and still we got new stuff on a consistent basis and blasted the Star Wars toy line into the incredible heights it has reached. I guess my question is more to Hasbro then to you Mark. Why? No new product? Why? Only rehashes? -Alexander Valdes

It's fairly obvious at this point that the 3¾-inch figures are the leading product in the Star Wars brand, various types of collectors collect other aspects of the line, but the action figures are the single most common denominator across the board. Despite being an offshoot of the 3¾ line, we also know that there are a lot of collectors that simply do not buy vehicles.

So in a way you're absolutely right, Hasbro knows they'll sell the same amount of figures with or without vehicles in the line. Looking at the cost of producing vehicles vs. the acceptable price point, and the less than desirable sales record they've shown so far, why not take that money and put it into two or three other lines that might just catch on and perform better at the cash register?

Most of what Hasbro is producing these days is 'figure' based. While not every collector or fan may be interested in things such as Jedi Force, Force Battlers, Galactic Heroes, or Transformers, there will be many that are. Action figures are action figures and if you collect one kind you more than likely open to collecting others as well.

Unfortunately, there have been some pretty significant changes in the toy market and children's play patterns between the vintage days and today. Vehicle don't sell like they once did, retail is shy about committing to them, and the only case where it seems to work best is when they are offered as an exclusive. Understanding the limited nature of exclusives, there's no way Hasbro can invest large sums of money to product development so they resort to using existing tools and molds.

Being a child of the vintage era I certainly miss the big toys/playsets, the vehicles with electronic lights and sound, but if you take a really hard-unbiased look at the industry you can clearly see where those things just don't make sense anymore.


3
Now that the Early Bird Figures are starting to arrive will we see a telescoping Vader & Obi Wan like the original collection from the 70"s and 80's in the new collection for next year and will Yarna and many other of Jabba's cronies be available. I would like to continue to add more figures to my Jabba's palace display. -Gus Alvarez

It certainly would be cool to see, I for one would love new versions of Vader and Obi Wan with telescoping sabers, but there's been no specific mention of them so far. As for Jabba's cronies, it looks like we'll get a few in 2006, but aside from what was mentioned at Comic Con (Barada and Bib Fortuna), we have no idea which characters we'll see. Now that the line will broaden its focus to all six movies we should see a few new Jabba's Palace figures each year. Not so sure about Yarna, but over time you should be able to round out that display quite nicely.


4
From reading many fan sites regarding a Mace Windu lightsaber that is movie accurate, and reading the responses from Hasbro, what would it take for Hasbro to grasp the concept that we would buy a movie accurate Episode II/III electronic lightsaber? I know I'd also like an Emperor Palpatine electronic lightsaber too. What can we do as fans and consumers to convince Hasbro "If they make it we WILL buy it?" -"Clone Jedi Luuke"

Well, according to Hasbro there's a better chance we'll see a Sidious lightsaber before we'd ever see a new Mace Windu version. At this point the only thing that I can think of that will change Hasbro's opinion is if we ask for it over, and over, and over again. Hasbro always says if there's something collectors want we have to ask for it, talk about, keep it in the forums and message boards. When Hasbro attends a show, go to the booth and hound them about it. If they see there's overwhelming support for an item, they are more inclined to produce it. If the idea sort of fades away, they know it probably wasn't worth the effort after all.


5
I was just wondering what the whole future is for Star Wars? What happens when they've milked the films for all they're worth? What have we got to look forward to? C'mon, George can't leave us hanging, can he? -OrangeLightsaber

Haven't you heard? Star Wars is Forever. Honestly, considering the two television series, books, comics, toys and games the not too distant future looks pretty good. What happens five to ten years from now, that's anyone's guess. There have been hints that Lucas may consider letting others helm a Star Wars movie, or series of movies, set 800 years prior to Episode I. Speculation points to a series based on Yoda, the Sith war, and formation of the Republic. I for one think it would be cool to see Yoda in his prime, find out if there's a reason why he chooses Dagobah to hide out on, what the galaxy was like pre-Republic. I think there were enough hints through out the Prequels to justify going to this period and I hope it happens some day. If that doesn't happen, Star Wars will in all likelihood fade back into the recesses of popular culture and be as it was in the late 80's early 90's. There will always be a fan base out there for it, and I'd like to think companies would continue to market towards those fans; it just won't be at the forefront of pop-culture as it has been for the last several years.


6
Is and When is Plo Koon's Starfighter coming out because I've been wait and waiting and waiting....

Again, rumored street dates mean nothing, we had heard September 25th, but the date has come and gone with little or no word on the vehicle. The fighter is still coming, my advice is to watch the site for store reports, and keep checking your local Target. Hopefully, you/we won't have to wait too much longer.


7
My first question is about the ROTS Deluxe Figure "Darth Vader (Rebuild Darth Vader!)." Months ago, when it was first added to the Photo Archives, there was some discussion about there being a few different Anakin "heads": one shiny, one smooth and one dirty. Are these regarded as bona fide variants? I bought a "shiny head" months ago, but just recently found a "dirty head" and wondered whether I should keep it.

Second question: The AT-RT Driver comes individually packaged and articulated, and then there's a "fixed" version of the figure that comes with the AT-RT. What's your opinion of the likelihood that Hasbro will "reverse engineer" the process and release an articulated, separate BARC Driver? Should be easy enough, right? Just repaint an OTC Scout Trooper?
Lord Edzo, Imperious Leader

From all appearances these are indeed variations. Between multiple factories, or even single manufacturing sites, it's not uncommon to see this type of variance with a particular toy. Often time factories will start to produce a toy and the parent company will find something about it that wasn't necessarily intended; a slight miscommunication, materials that didn't quite go together as well as expected… As long as it's not a huge error, rather than scrap what's been produced so far, they'll just make a running change and go on. In this case that appears to have happened at least two times in the course of making this one figure. Is any one version worth more than the other, hard to say. It may take years before that's determined, and in the end it may never amount to much. If you have the money to invest now and accept the risk that it may never pay off, then by all means keep the extra figure. If that's not important, keep the one you like best and return the other for some other fan to buy.

Yeah, it looks like there are some slight differences in the helmet, but everything else seems to have come straight off the Scout Trooper design. I have to admit I was a little surprised Hasbro didn't have this ready for the final Revenge of the Sith assortments, but I'm hoping this means there's a better version on the way. The Scout Trooper is one of the figures I'd really like to see Super Articulated. If Hasbro was working on something like that for 2006 I'd be much happier with a BARC Trooper based on an SA mold rather than a repainted version of the existing sculpt. Only time will tell, but I feel pretty good about the chances for this one.


8
You know, I don't know why people are whining about the price of the EE droid packs. I will admit I was a little disappointed when I first saw the price. $ 40.00 for five figures seems like a lot, but, when I did the math (I am terrible in math, so I got my fifth grader to help), it actually comes out to around $6.50-$7.00 per figure. That's almost what we pay at retail now. Plus they ship to you! You don't have to waste gas going from store to store finding all but one, or one not all. To me it's worth the price. So my question is are some collectors seeing the price and flipping out, or are they just griping to gripe? -Jonathan Mullins

For what you get, and what you don't have to go through in order to find them all at retail, I think the price is well within reason. Fans have to understand, it's a limited run and in order to cover manufacturing costs and the built in licensing fee the price has to be adjusted up. I know some fans expect it, but we're never going to see Wal-Mart pricing on this type of offer, it just won't happen. While it may seem like a pretty big chunk of change at first glance, once you do the math and look at all the factors it gets closer to making more sense.


9
I noticed on the "Star Wars Saga" 2006 Rumor Line, that they had Bib Fortuna. Now I am a HUGE Bib Fortuna fan and I was wondering if this time they will make a NEW him, I was disappointed to see that in the OTC they just repainted him. Also will they be making any new Princess Leia (Slave)?? I would like to see a new her also.

Based on the images from San Diego it looks like Bib will be new, or at the very least retooled. Comparing pictures from our archives and the Hasbro presentation, the 2006 figure looks much more accurate. No indication that Hasbro has any plans for a Slave Leia figure in '06; repackaged or retooled. While a Brass Bikini Leia that can "recline" would go nicely with my Ultra Jabba, I have a tough time seeing Hasbro pull this off as a single carded figure.

10
Where can I find vintage toy parts to complete my play sets and vehicles?

Aside from eBay, the best places to find vintage toy parts are swap meets, collector shows and conventions, or local comic/collectible shops that buy sell or trade in vintage toys. You may not find the specific part you're looking for on its own, but you'll often find incomplete toys with the part you're looking for at a decent price.


Until next time...


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