Questions for October 6, 2005
Q&A Archive

1
Seeing that repackaging figures into "battle" packs is the trend, any chance that a repackaged Ephant Mon might come around (Even though Jabba's throne room may not be considered a battle)? I'm hoping that there's another chance at Ephant Mon.

Any word on the U part of the cantina bar being made? A repainted Duro, a Sandtrooper, a bith, a jawa and another hard to find cantina patron with the U part of the cantina would make a nice set. Even if it lacked the "battle" appeal.

This question actually came up once at one of Hasbro's presentations, it sounded like if the figure were to be re-released this would probably be the way they would go. However, there's been no indication a Battle Pack with the theme is coming up any time soon. Hopefully Hasbro will find a way to make this happen, if not as a Battle Pack then perhaps release the figure as a Deluxe or Ultra with some added value accessory.

Unfortunately there's still no word on the rounded section of the Cantina Bar. Understandably, Hasbro has focused on Episode III product this year; as we get back into the overall Saga theme something like this would make more sense. Still, there aren't many rumors at this point and certainly no official word from the toy maker. Stay tuned though, Hasbro did indicate at one time that they were looking very hard at this, if they came up with a 'plan' it could just be a matter of time before they put it into motion.


2
Have there been any reports of the Making of Episode III book being released with the additional online chapters included? I thought there was talk of it, or maybe it was just the author's hopes, but I've been holding off buying it until I know whether or not the "complete" volume will be done. -Mike Marosy

Unfortunately I haven't heard anything on a possible re-release of the book with added chapters. I'll run this by a few people and see if we can't get a more conclusive answer for you, but for now I wouldn't count on this happening.


3
Will the Wal*Mart Bonus DVD be available only if you purchase Online or in stores too? -Alex Pineda

I haven't seen anything to confirm this, but I would be willing to roll the chance cube that the bonus disk version will be in stores as well… Keep watching the news; as soon as we know for sure, we'll be sure to post it.


4
I'm just curious, what exactly is up with the Republic Gunship? I called my local Toys R Us and they said that they wouldn't be getting anymore in, that the only place to get them was eBay. Why in the world would Hasbro cancel their most sought after vehicle in the entire ROTS line after only shipping it for midnight madness? It's absolutely ridiculous. So tell me, is it true that the Gunship is cancelled? And if so, why? We'll we see another one in the future at all, or is eBay really our only chance? -Shane

Well, just last week I heard from a reader that picked one up at his local TRU… You have to be careful sometimes when it comes to information from a retail employee, half the time they'll tell you something just so you'll go away and not bother them.

…Oops! Forgot to finish this one before publishing… Um, so, no it does not look like the Gunship has been cancelled, but Hasbro has been somewhat careful about its release. This is the third time the vehicle has been out on shelves, with that in mind I’m sure they absolutely did not want to flood the market and have the things just sitting out there. Add to that the fact that the deco was never featured in the movie and you can see where there can be a lot of questions involved. The ARC-170 is a brand-new toy, from a brand new movie, it make much more sense to push this ahead of the Gunship. Obviously demand is there for the repainted Episode II vehicle and it looks like Hasbro is starting to get more of them out there, we just have to give it a little more time.

Will we see another Gunship in the future? I hope so. As nice as the mold is, the toy really deserves an electronic version. I can’t see a time where it would make perfect sense to do it, but I do have my fingers crossed. Aside from that I can’t really say if it will be released again.


5
With the possibility of the Unleashed line staying with us, how cool would R2-D2 Unleashed be? I'd buy that.

It would be cool, something along the lines of R2 getting blasted on Endor with all his gadgets popping out with a little electric arcs here and there. Unfortunately Hasbro has already said they probably wouldn't cover the Droids in this line; they're just not exciting enough. Hopefully they'll change their tune at some point, but for now I just wouldn't count on it.


6
Do you have a guess as to when Hasbro will begin showing hi-resolution images of next year's Saga 2 figures, or even announce which characters will make up each wave? -Eric

Not sure when Hasbro will get around to it, but the Australian site MouseDroid just posted a few carded images of wave 1 today. We may find out the contents of wave 2 in the next few weeks, but I imagine Hasbro will wait until Toy Fair 2006 to announce the bulk of the line. Stay tuned…


7
I just noticed, after having looked at it hanging on my wall for 6 months, that my Saga Hoth Rescue Han Solo (no gold border, blue coat) has the wrong sticker on the bubble. It has the "with Force Lightning Attack" sticker from the Saga Darth Tyranus. Is this a known variant, or just a one off mistake at the factory? -Peter

You know, that does ring a bell, but not enough bells to tell me this is major variation. I think there were a few reports of this at the time, but this type of thing is little more than a factory error and rarely becomes a worthwhile collectible. It may serve as a nice conversation piece, but that's about it.


8
Is it just me or does the Mustafar volcano playset look like there is something bigger that Hasbro originally had in mind than what we have? It looks to me from observation of my set that it was really supposed to be bigger have more accessories/features and connect to other sets other than the battle puppet sets. By this I mean that the hollow section in the back of it looks like something was supposed to go there like the Geonosian arena set did and the entrance way looks like the separatist war room where the Neimoidian guards are standing when Anakin kills everyone. The balcony section with the pegs for Anakin/Obi-wan to stand on looks suspicious to me like something should be connected to that area. Even if I'm wrong Hasbro should really continue the screen scenes where we can have our separatist war room to connect on Mustafar with holo tables/computer consoles and the rest of the separatist and the 2nd unmade Mustafar lava guy with lava flea. I'd really appreciate it if you could enlighten us on the concept behind this set.

There's always a chance that Hasbro originally designed the Mustafar set to be more than what it ended up being, but so far there's been no confirmation of that. To some degree we saw this with the Episode II Arena Playset, what finally shipped was missing at least two accessories that were shown with the set originally. The Jedi Containment Field was eventually made available in one of the Toys 'R' Us multi-packs, but we've still never seen the Sonic Cannon released. Often times what happens in these cases is designers create this amazing toy, then budget minded folk say it has to be done for less… Compromise usually ends up the winner and we get a version based on the original idea. Who knows, at some point down the line we may see sketches or prototype images of the "original" Mustafar Playset, but for we're just left to ponder the possibilities.


9
Hi I was wondering with all the hype over the Medicom 12" figures and the Sideshow 12" figures if Hasbro is going to be making any more 12" figures or are they discontinuing the line? Also, are the Sideshow 12" figures going to be going for under $100.00 dollars? -Mike

Hasbro has indeed discontinued their 12-inch line; we won't see any more figures from them in this scale. As for prices on the Sideshow figures, I imagine they will be priced within the range of Sideshow's other 12-inch figure lines ($45 - $55), but nothing has been mentioned yet. Look for more news on this as soon as Sideshow announces their Star Wars line up.

10
I have a couple questions about the most recent waves of Unleashed figures. The wave including the Stormtrooper, IG-88, and Aurra Sing were not in stores for long before the Episode III figures came out. In fact, I only ever saw the Stormtrooper once in a Wal*Mart. IG-88 I saw a couple times over the course of two or three weeks and the same with Aurra. At CIII the Stormtrooper was nowhere to be seen and the other two were selling for more than I was willing to pay (retail). Is Hasbro planning to release these again? I really wanted the Stormtrooper and I would like to pick up IG-88 as well. Also, I've noticed that General Grievous cannot be found anymore, only Anakin and Obi-Wan. Any chance of seeing the General again? Chris Vanderhoof (Virginia Tech)

With the line going on hiatus a real monkey wrench has been thrown into the works. Ordinarily I would say hold out, the Aurra Sing wave will probably show up again, but now with the line being pushed all the way back to Fall '06 (if at all), I doubt we'll see these figures at retail anytime soon. There's also the chance that Hasbro could change the packaging if and when the line rolls again, in which case even if they did re-release these three figures, the current version may never be available again. Assuming the figures saw a full production run, there has to be a bunch of them out there somewhere. If they were just sitting around I would hope Hasbro could put these on their ToyShop site and let fans get another shot at them. If not through their online shop, hopefully Hasbro could get Toys 'R' Us of KB to take them… At this point only time will tell, but if for some reason Hasbro cannot get this line up and running again, these could be the 'rarest' figures of them all. As for Grievous, I have seen a couple newly placed Grievous Unleashed figures lately, but again, with the line heading to the back burner I don't expect we'll see much more of this one for too much longer.


Until next time...


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