Questions for October 27, 2005
Q&A Archive

1
I've read two different mentions of 'Black Friday' & a few specials happening on said day... What is it? -Scott

and…

I've read a few news items that refer to a "Black Friday" at Wal-Mart (I think). For those of us north of the border who have US connections that don't pay attention to SW stuff unless asked, when and what is "Black Friday". -Darth Keg (Dave Wood)

and…

I saw your post on your web site about the lightsabers. I have a quick question. When exactly is the date for Black Friday? -Jacob

Traditionally, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving here in the U.S. As most people have the day off of work, retail tries to lure them in with drastic discounts and sale prices as they kick off the Holiday shopping season. The term refers to the fact that on a good day, the increased sales are typically enough to put a company into the "black" financially. This year Black Friday falls on the 25th of November, and as noted will include a few special prices on Star Wars items.


2
Is there any difference between the Best Buy version Unleashed Darth Vader figure and the previously released regular version. Is it just a packaging variation or are there some unique paint applications on the figure. -Joseph

and…

I pre-ordered the Unleashed Darth Vader from Best Buy.com as soon as you guys posted it. A few days ago I get an email from Best Buy telling me they are on back order and asking me if I should cancel my order. Are they telling me they won't be receiving anymore nicely? Do you happen to know how many of those figs where produced? -Jorge

As far as we know it's simply a packaging variation, there's been no word of any other changes. We may not know for sure until the figures start to show up, but I don't expect there to be any difference between the figures themselves.

Backorder usually means they don't have the item in stock, but more are on the way. If Best Buy had run out, your order probably would have just been cancelled. I would assume they're still waiting for the figures to be delivered to them before they start fulfilling orders. Sometimes out of convenience companies will offer the cancellation option for customers that would rather not wait, but in this case I'd suggest just waiting it out; it's not like you're going to find the figure anywhere else… Hasbro usually doesn't share production numbers with the public, but with most of the exclusives this year the number 50,000 keeps coming up. I wouldn't be surprised to find that this piece was run in the same number, but we may never really know for sure.


3
I missed out on ordering the Fan Club's [StarWarsShop.com] Covert Ops Clone Trooper. Will he be available to order again? -Tom

According to StarWarsShop, once they've had a chance to audit the shipment and fulfill their pre-orders, more figures will likely be offered in either mint or non-mint condition. We'll just have to see how it goes, but be ready; once they are offered again supplies may be quite limited.


4
What's going on with the Shadow Trooper that Target is getting as an exclusive? I have read only 2 reports of this guy showing up, one on Yakface.com and one on the Toynews forum. Do you have any idea when is figure will be released? I work for a Target distribution center and have my boss look up the DCPI periodically and we haven't received it yet.

and…

I was wondering if you could tell me the DCPI number for the Target Exclusive Utapau Shadow Trooper. I know that a couple of weeks on rebelscum.com you gave the DCPI # for the Lava reflection Obi wan and Anakin figures. I gave Target the same number to look up the Shadow trooper and apparently the Shadow Trooper is not listed under that number? Has Target even gotten them yet because every Target I've been to doesn't have them in stock and some people on eBay are already selling them? -Mark

Details have been a bit sketchy, but from what we gather the figure is expected to out in November. The hope was that it would be out at the same time as the Episode III DVD, but that's in a few short days and as you mentioned the figures still aren't in. Usually in these types of situations the figures will start to show up anywhere from a week or two in advance of the 'date', and at this point Target is cutting it pretty close if they want the figures out for November 1st. For now just stay tuned, as soon as we hear the figures have been found, we will run the news. Until then, if you're up for a little detective work, the DCPI for the figure is 087-06-0516. Last time I checked the number pulls up the Utapau Shadow Trooper description, but customer service couldn't find an entry for it in their inventory… I expect that will change once the distribution centers receive their shipments.


5
I was just wandering will there be a Star Wars TV show live action, and is that in production?
And also will there be a chance of a re-release of TC-14 and R2-B1? I'm guessing these guys where a hot seller I could never find them nor will I pay outrages prices for them. -Bobby

There's been official talk of a Star Wars live action series, rumors that some pre-production work (casting calls) has begun, but the show itself is not in production yet. Lucas has said he wants to get the Animated Clone Wars Adventures up and running first, before starting work on the live action series. As for TC-14 and R2-B1, there's always a chance, but no mention has been made of the pair yet. One thing is certain; if they are re-released they won't be on Episode I cardbacks… Hopefully if Hasbro does decide to revisit these figures they'll at least give R2-B1 a more accurate 'brushed' silver dome; that shiny 'chrome' dome just never looked right.


6
Hey was wondering is there a chance of Hasbro making the Utapau trooper in the unleashed battle pack? Also what's his name? -J-cub

Yep, an Utapau pack is in the works, and judging by the images we've seen already it will contain a "Commander (or Clone Trooper depending on the source*) Fox" figure.

*There seems to be a difference of opinion regarding the name of this character. Some sources say it's Commander Fox, some say Trooper Fox, as he seemed to be a subordinate of Commander Cody I like to think of him as a Lieutenant or Sergeant. As far as I know a Commander Fox has been placed at the Jedi Temple during the 501st raid, so until the official site addresses the issue as far as I'm concerned the Utapau troopers name is up for grabs.


7
I am a huge Plo Koon fan, so I quickly ran out and bought his Jedi Starfighter. I have a question though; what's his droid's name? I can't find it anywhere, but as my wife says, "everything in Star Wars has a name." Any clue as to what it is? -Scott

As far as I know the designation of Plo Koon's astromech has not yet been revealed… Not to worry though, as your wife stated, "everything in Star Wars has a name," we'll just have to wait for someone to come up with a name for this little guy.


8
In 2006, will Hasbro make a better version of Commander Bacara? Is there going to be action features in 2006? If they make a super poseable scout trooper, are they going to make the BARC trooper too? -declan

No, Bacara has not shown up on any of the lists I've seen. Doesn't look like we'll see action features next year, unless they re-use a figure that already has an action feature. Considering how close they are in appearance, if Hasbro were to make a Super-A Scout Trooper, I certainly hope they would follow it up with a BARC Trooper version.


9
Is it just me - or is Hasbro going a little overboard with the clone troopers? I could sit here all day and paint different combinations of colors, stripes and cammo on a trooper figure if I wanted that garbage. I know its cheap to repaint and repackage all these figures, but the recent wave of trooper variations is proof that Hasbro is trying to squeeze every last penny out of the Star Wars line that it can - with no regard to fans - who really are the people that make selling figures a viable business in the first place. Shut me up if I'm wrong.

I would rather see fewer figures with higher quality - or an better attempt to make variations of figures that people want to see. Isn't there some practical balance Hasbro can make? Wouldn't higher quality figures mean more collectors? More business?

Maybe I just don't get it. -Brent Royer

I don't necessarily want to shut you up, from a particular point of view you have a valid argument, but flip side is a lot of fans want Hasbro to make these variations. Maybe not at the pace they're running right now, but I think most fans would rather have Hasbro make these than take the time to do them for themselves. Customizing can be fun, but it's not for everybody… For one reason or another we are seeing A LOT of simple repaints with the recent waves, good repaints to be sure, but a little hard to swallow all at once. If Hasbro had found a way to include a few new figures in with these, it probably would come across like the cash grab that it has. I think in their minds Hasbro is giving fans what they want, even if they are going about it at a faster pace than they have to.

Figure quality has come a long way since 1995, I think what Hasbro is doing now is pretty good stuff. You're not going to please everyone, but between the Super Articulated figures, action feature figures, and regular old basic figures there's enough to make any collector happy. I would hesitate to say quality is holding anyone back from collecting Star Wars figures. If you're into Star Wars, and into action figures, you're probably buying them anyway.

10
What is going on over at Hasbro? Did they hire new people? Fire all the smart ones? Are they eating lead paint or something? They cancel the 7-inch Unleashed line and come out with 2inch figures, because that's just what we need, more small-scale figures. As if the regular 3-inch line isn't enough, there is also the Attacktix, the new Titanium figures, and now the Unleashed Battle Packs. Un-poseable 2-inch figures. Great idea. But they are really on a roll now. Star Wars figures on custom choppers? Whose brilliant idea was that? Putting Vader on motorcycle is far and away the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. Now they have the new Obi-Wan force battler that looks like something out of Voltron. If it didn't say Star Wars on the box, people would have no idea that is Obi-Wan Kenobi. What is going on? Sorry for the rant, but this is getting out of hand. -Justin B

Back in the vintage days Kenner basically had one line, 3¾", and that was enough. There were a few other things thrown in there, but the action figure line got the most attention and the most support. Today the market is much more complicated and in the last few years Hasbro has started to build their appeal to the younger age range. With so much competition between sports and video games, the younger age brackets are spending much more time 'playing' with toys than the older kids. As a result we're seeing more Star Wars toys designed to appeal to younger kids. Galactic Heroes, Jedi Force, Force Battlers, and now the Custom Choppers. Spiderman and Friends has proven to be a popular brand, there's no reason why Hasbro can't go after some of that market as well. In the end if it brings more 'fans' into the fold, we're all better off.

As for some of the miniature stuff they're doing, I guess we just have to give it chance. Obviously the Unleashed Battle Packs are an answer to the LOTR: Armies of Middle Earth collection. This proved to be fairly popular line as long as the movies were running, has kinda fallen off now without that support, but could actually turn into a fun thing for Star Wars fans. Smaller scales are typically easier to manage, if Hasbro can working in a few environments and hopefully some vehicles, fans may actually come around to this line. I have some nice AOME displays around my collection; I'm interested in seeing where Hasbro takes this line.

One thing I think fans are going to have to get over is the idea that IF Hasbro wasn't wasting time on all this 'other stuff,' they could put more into the 3¾" action figure line. Aside from collectors, the market there is fairly weak and collectors alone are not enough to sustain the types of things we'd like to see done. A possible benefit of doing some of the kiddie stuff now is that these kids will grow up with fond memories of their Star Wars toys and continue to graduate to the next level; Galactic Heroes one year, Jedi Force the next, Force Battlers after that, and one day the Basic line… As long as the brand as a whole is doing well, Hasbro will continue to make these toys. If they were hang all their hopes on just one line, Hasbro may be forced to walk away from the license completely.


Until next time...


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