Questions for January 16, 2006
Q&A Archive

Well, I hope everyone had a pleasant ‘holiday’ and happy New Year celebration. Aside from getting rained on at the Rose Parade and a less than perfect outcome to the Rose Bowl, things went very well at the ol’ homestead. Yeah, yeah, it was a great game, two great teams, just not quite the finish I’d been pullin’ for – at least Philip, Anne, and President Bush were happy… Anyway, 2005 is history; we have a brand new year of collecting ahead, and lots of questions to get through… Thanks to everyone that wrote in about the 200th edition. I’ve had a great time over the last few years; I hope it’s been as fun and informative for everyone out there as it has been for me.

And oh yeah... Troy will rise again! Fight On!!

On with the show:

1
I've noticed that the Hasbro Episode 3 Star Cases have been going on clearance at Target stores, I think they're under $5 for a 10 pack now. Anyway, I bought my Ep3 cases from Rebelscum so my ROTS figures are taken care of, but I was wondering, do you know if the new Sago collection will fit in the Hasbro Ep3 cases? I don't think we'll be getting the Saga figures for another month or so out here and by then the clearance cases will probably be gone. -Matt

As far as I know the Revenge of the Sith cases are not compatible with the new Saga Collection figures, which is probably the best reason why so many can still be found on clearance. No word whether Hasbro plans to follow up these case with a Saga Collection version, but looking at what they couldn’t sell, me thinks they’ll pass on this idea in 2006.


2
My boyfriend recently came across an old childhood collection of Star Wars figurines. There are about 73 figurines in decent condition. They were played with, but they’re still in decent condition. Most of the weapons are missing, but it comes complete with a Darth Vader case. They are from 1979 to 1985, and about 4-inches tall. We are just curious as to where we would find out the value of the collection. -Joe and Kam

Any decent price guide should have figure values listed, even in loose condition, but your best source would be to look up auctions for like items on eBay. In the condition you described the collection probably won’t be worth all that much, weapons are typically pretty important to complete the set, but you may find some are still worth something even on their own.


3
Is there any chance of them releasing a clean version of the Storm Trooper evolutions set? When will we see the 2006 figures available at target.com and similar vendors? Why are the new 2006 figures not numbered sequentially? Have they ever thought of doing an “insiders” version of some of the droids where you can see through r2D2’s body and see the internals, similar to what was done with Micro Machines X ray fleet? -Jeremy B.

While nothing has been mentioned, and there doesn’t appear to be any plans to continue the Evolutions line, there’s always a chance Hasbro could bust out a clean version of the Clone to Stormtrooper Evolution set at a later date. Still, there doesn’t appear to be anything in the works.

With the first two waves hitting retail, we could see the Saga Collection offered on-line at any time. As soon as it is, we should have that information posted on the front-page news. So far the figure have only been found in-store.

As far as I know the first two waves have all been numbered sequentially, 1 – 14, and I assume the following waves will all follow accordingly. I suppose there’s always the chance that one wave may jump another and throw the sequence off temporarily, but Hasbro’s usually pretty good about get back on track following something like that. I’m not entirely sure where they would be out of sequence, but the picture may become clearer once all the figure numbers are revealed. If you’re asking why they didn’t start with Episode I and work their way through to Episode VI, they’ve never really followed that pattern before and I wouldn’t expect them now or at any time in the future. It’s always best to mix it up a spread everything around over the course of the year.

In light of how the original X-ray Fleet idea was received (not very well) I wouldn’t expect Hasbro to ever carry this idea over to the action figure line. It might sound like fun to some, but overall I don’t think this is an idea that many would look forward to.


4
I was wondering if anyone out there had any more news on the Wal-Mart Commemorative Clone Wars Packs? I saw one box that was torn up back in December and never saw anything again. Ebay barely has any listed either, so I'm assuming that they didn't show up anywhere. As a side note, the Wal-Marts in my area barely even have any Star Wars figures, if any. You just don't cut an addict off like this. It's not right. Is there something we should know about in the world of Wal-Mart? -Ritch

The only news on the Clone Wars Commemorative packs that seems to count now is that they were released and available at some stores, and are now sold out. Again, it seems Hasbro and Wal-Mart really dropped the ball on this exclusive item; there were a lot of disappointed collectors left wondering what happened, and as far as I’m concerned nobody has come up with a satisfactory answer as to why these weren’t more readily available.

As for the lack of product at your local Wal-Mart, from what I’ve noticed over the years at my neighborhood stores, Wal-Mart is typically tardy when it comes to their post-holiday reset, and often times worthless until they’ve completed their year end inventory. I know my stores are all stuck in the limbo period, I can only assume yours is as well. My advice: start shopping at Target until Wal-Mart gets their act together…


5
I have two Bust-Up related questions. I managed to get the Commander Gree Bust-Up in my Clone Trooper army Builder set. Has it been said how common or rare this one is? An eBay seller wants $99 for Gree. I don't care about value or anything; I'm just curious what the odds of finding a Gree are. Of course, what stinks about the Gree I got is that he came with 2 left arms. Gentle Giants is supposed to be sending me a replacement though. What about that Blackhole Stormtrooper? I've never even seen him on eBay. -Fraggle

Well, I can tell you I’ve opened four sets, and so far none have contained the Gree micro-bust. As far as I know there’s been no official information regarding how common or rare this variation is; it’s out there and if you’re lucky enough to score one then I guess you’re pretty darn lucky. Same goes for the Blackhole Stormtrooper, I was fortunate enough to get one in the first box I ordered, but haven’t found one since, and I’ve gone through a good many boxes. While I’ve seen a few on eBay from time to time, they certainly aren’t commonplace. Given that, one has to wonder how collectible these variations really are. Certainly there are people buying and collecting them, but if collectors aren’t finding the variations in numbers enough to trade and/or help out fellow Bust-Up fans then what’s the point? Without solid numbers from Gentle Giant, the bottom line is these may just be too rare for their own good.


6
I always wondered this and maybe you can shed some light on the question... why does Hasbro short-ship the last wave of any particular line? Out of ROTS 57-68 I have only gotten two of them, and I'd figure the Wookiees and Neimoidian would be sure peg warmers. It's not like stores haven't had the space for the last wave of figures--the shelves have been bare for months now. And this isn't the first occurrence. There's a reason fans are still begging for a TC-14 or Sio Bibble, Teebo and BoShek were rather elusive, etc. And while we're on the subject, how come when you manage to find the end of a collection before a switch the price changes, usually in the $6.99 range? -Jeremy

I don’t think it’s as much a matter of Hasbro short-shipping as it is retail short-ordering. Near the end of the year retailers seem to get very persnickety about how much inventory they have on hand and not getting stuck with too much of it leading into the New Year (and new line). To ensure they don’t end up with a bunch of “last year’s toys” they typically don’t order as much of the year-end assortments. As you mentioned, we’ve seen it before and unless there’s a significant change regarding which figures make up these assortments we’ll very likely see it again. The good news is there always seems to be someone willing to bring these ‘older’ assortments in, occasionally on clearance. Toys ‘R’ Us and KayBee are well known for this, and over the next few months will be well worth keeping an eye on.


7
I have two quick questions - the new mini holographic figures from the saga collection, are they pieces from a chess game or something; their poses and the symbols on the bottom of each suggest they may be? On a different note, I was searching through the image archives and found that several items were missing, between vintage to modern - is there a reason for this and will Rebelscum ever update those missing items with photographs? -Jared aka darth_sidious

I don’t recognize any of these pieces as coming from another game, looks to me like they’ve been sculpted/created specifically for this purpose. There’s probably a good chance Hasbro may yet use them for some other line, but so far they appear to be all new.

Our archives are definitely a work in process; we are always looking at updating, adding, and improving upon what’s there. Sometimes it’s a matter of having to track an item down; other times it’s just a matter of digging through our own collections to find it. As swamped as some of us were last year, there’s also a good chance we just haven’t had time to photograph and edit certain items. Rest assured we won’t quit until the Archives are complete so keep checking back for the latest update.


8
I was going through my Anakin evolution figure last night, I’m trying to make the storming of the Jedi Temple with him and the few 501st figures I have. On the back it shows him coming with his gauntlet glove, if that’s what you wanna call it. Then I looked at my figure and he came with a whole mechanical arm instead. This morning when I got to work I went to your website and saw that he did indeed come with a gauntlet glove. Is this some kind of a figure variation? Cause if it is, I should be kicking myself for opening it. -chris and amy

Without an image, I’m gonna guess someone pulled an old switch-a-roo on you and swapped out another Anakin for your Evolutions version. It’s a problem we saw far too much of last year, considering this the first time I’ve heard of a mechanical arm showing up with the set, I’m inclined to think you’ve fallen victim to this ploy.


9
Hello there, I just saw your posting for The Saga Collection: Vehicles I'm just wondering, as someone who missed out on the green, Anakin Jedi Starfighter, will the re-release Jedi fighters be the Green one for Anakin, and the Blue one for Obi-Wan? I think that would be SWEET! Can we poll Hasbro??? -Brinn 71

It certainly would be a good idea, and while they’re at it Hasbro could crank out a green version for Seasee Tiin and purple version for Mace Windu (from the Clone Wars Animated Series). Frankly I’d be happy if they just lightened up on the gunmetal gray plastic they used on these ships the first time around. I thought the versions they came out with last year were way too dark. Still, at this point we really don’t know what Hasbro’s exact plans are with regards to these vehicles; only time will tell. As for polling Hasbro, I’ll see if I can’t get something on that in one of our upcoming Probe Droids.

10
Hi, Mark, and Happy New Year! I just snagged all 6 figures in the Battle of Carkoon wave, and now I'm hearing that the Battle of Hoth line is starting to appear. Do you have some idea date-wise when each successive line will be released in 2006? -Lord Edzo, Imperious Leader

There are no firm dates, only estimations, but it looks like we can expect a new wave every four to five weeks (about one per month) or so. Bottom line is; we’ll just have to keep an eye on what’s available overseas and when it shows up in our store reports.


Until next time...


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