Questions for June 23, 2006
Q&A Archive

1
I found a Slave 1 Ultimate Galactic Hunt Titanium Vehicle at Toys R US in Cherry Hill NJ today. We are collectors who play with our toys, but before I open it should I be checking for anything? Is there a slip or p.o.p. I need towards the Lucas Trooper? Please let me know, we're not store hawks, just casual shoppers and I know that my son would love to have the Lucas Trooper (who will be removed from the package and beat to hell and possibly lost). -Brett

And

I just purchased the VTSC figures, Demise of Grievous and Skirmish in the Senate and all of them have the UGH sticker on the package but I do not see any information where to send in for the George Lucas Stormtrooper figure. I do not see an address on Hasbro's site either. How can I send away for him? -Dave

While there may be several different types of Ultimate Galactic Hunt items on the market, the Lucas Trooper is only available by redeeming the POP tabs from the Vintage Sage Collection figures. Each vintage figure comes with a silver foil name tab packaged in a baggie behind the VSC logo. Only the Luke X-Wing Pilot figure comes with the redemption certificate; apply the tabs from all five figures to that certificate and you're ready to send away for your Lucas Trooper. None of the other UGH items (Titanium, Basic Figures, or Battle Packs) count towards the Lucas figure. It's been a little confusing, more than a few people have asked the very same thing, but that's the gist of it.


2
I had a quick question about Gentle Giant sculpts for sale. Every time I receive the newsletter for Gentle Giant offering new products, I click the link only to find out the product is out of stock. This is immediately after I receive the email. Why is this? Am I too late even after just receiving the email? Do they not offer items for sale on their website www.gentlgiantltd.com? I don't want to have to pay extorted prices on eBay, and it gets tiresome trying to find a seller from sites sometimes. -keith

Generally speaking most announcements come long before the product is ready to be sold. While GGS may show the item on their site, it doesn't always mean they're ready to start taking pre-orders. Rather than stating the item is "not ready to order," it just says "out of stock"… Again, it can be confusing if you're not familiar with how their site works, but that's the way it's been for a while now. As for where to buy GGS product I'd suggest searching out a distributor in your local area before pointing you to eBay. From what I've found most Gentle Giant items are sold through comic and collectible shops. If you have local comic shop that doesn't carry the items you're interested in, see if they can order through Diamond on your behalf. While some shops may not want to carry inventory, they should be willing to bring items in for you on a special order basis. Other than that many of our sponsors carry the GGS line. If you'd rather pay a little extra to have these items shipped right to your doorstep, that would certainly be a good option to explore.


3
My question pertains to the "Sandtrooper and Ben Kenobi" Galactic Heroes set, as well as the "Luke Skywalker and Han Solo (Stormtrooper Disguise)." When the early photos of the upcoming sets were released, I realized that the black "brow" above the eyes was missing. I hoped that it was only a mistake and would be fixed by the time boxed photos were released, but it seems that they weren't. Is this just a goof on Hasbro's part? Is it too early to say that this mistake will not be changed?

Either way it's definitely a "goof" on Hasbro's part; that portion of the Stormtrooper helmet is supposed to be black, no question there. There's a very good chance the samples that were shown at Toy Fair are the same samples used for early package photography, which could explain why it doesn't appear as if this has been corrected. I would hope that either Hasbro or LucasLicensing would have caught this by now and made the necessary adjustment, but we may not know for sure until the sets are released. For now just keep your fingers crossed, if nothing shows up, or appears to have been fixed at Comic Con, I will ask.


4
A while back when Hasbro made the plastic Action Fleet vehicles, they were about to release the AotC Jedi Starfighter and OT Mon Calamari Cruiser, right before they stopped making and releasing them. Since we know they have the molds already, do they plan on making these into Titanium Ultra vehicles?

The molds they have [Action Fleet] are probably not suitable for the die-cast metal production process, unless they were to create a 'copy' of these molds for the die-cast line, I wouldn't think they would be ready to go. Obviously it's cheaper to copy an existing mold as opposed to creating an all-new one, if Hasbro chose to I would think they could easily make both these vehicles happen. Are they in the current plan though? There is a Jedi Starfighter listed in the Titanium Ultra section of the Titanium catalog, but there's no indication if this is an Episode II version or Episode III. With the popularity and "newness" of Episode III I tend to think it's that version the catalog refers to, but it could just as easily be the less costly choice of simply 'copying' the mold for the Action Fleet Episode II fighter. At this point I'd be happy with either one. Since the first wave the line has been a complete disappointment, offering nothing the failed 2002 Action Fleet line didn't already give us. As for the Mon Cal Cruiser; there's been no word, or even hint, that this vehicle is forthcoming. Considering how the line is being marketed, I have a hard time seeing Hasbro select this particular ship anytime soon. Furthermore; looking at how poorly the line seems to be doing at retail, I'm afraid we may be running out of time.


5
Do you think that Hasbro will revisit and make Han Solo on Tauntaun from Empire Strikes Back? After all it was a short run way back in the 90's, and a lot of collectors missed out on this figure. -David A. (Chicago)

I haven't seen or heard anything that indicates Hasbro is looking to revive the beast assortment, so I doubt we'll see a re-release of the POTF Han with Tauntaun in the near future. Pieces from this set could possibly end up in a Battle Pack, its been done before, but that's mere speculation at this point. It would be nice to see Hasbro create a sort of catchall assortment that they could use to ship out old and new medium size vehicles, playsets, and beasts, but who knows if they've even considered such a thing. Without a doubt, the Han/Tauntaun set was very hard to find and there are still collectors that would lie to have a crack at it; question is, will Hasbro capitalize on this or just miss the boat?


6
Why did Galoob cheap out on the packaging for the Titanium series? The area around the peg hook on the back is just plain, flimsy carding and the plastic on the front doesn't seem to help at all. They're too easily damaged. -Tom

I can't think of any good reason to intentionally make the packaging as bad as it is, so I'm going to guess they're saving some money by doing so. For a line that's supposed to be the space ship equivalent to Hot Wheels, the Titanium package is about twice as big as the actual toy it protects, and probably twice as expensive as it has to be. In order to shave some of that cost down, it appears Hasbro chose a lesser grade cardboard for the backing and that's clearly suffering from the weight of many of these toys. Considering all the bent and broken hooks I've seen on these things, I'd certainly like to see Hasbro come up with an all-new package for 2007. Hopefully that's in the plan.


7
I'm sure like many of you you purchased the Echo Base Luke in bacta tank, my question comes in storing it. Is it ok to leave it in water without seriously damaging the figure or tank? Secondly is it ok to leave it in chalkier water? -Rich

Whether you are storing or displaying this item, I'd strongly suggest not leaving it filled with water. It's a fun little demonstration, but honestly who knows what trace chemicals are in the water and what the long-term effect on the tank and figure will be. If it doesn't matter to you, I'd say go for it, but if you're at all concerned it's far better just to leave the tank empty. If the water is turning chalky, you probably have some kind of reaction going on. If it were my toy I wouldn't risk keeping it in these conditions, but the final decision is yours to make.


8
In Episode II, all clones are Bodie Taylor. But in Episode III, Tumeurra Morrison plays Commander Cody. But at the end of ROTS, you see that Bodie Taylor [credits] plays the clone troopers. I thought all clones were the same?

And a question that's bothering me: when did the clone trooper helmet and uniforms changed? And how come Commander Bly wears the normal clone trooper armor with new helmets and yellow stripes on it? And the Kashyyyk invasion from the Republic begins about 2 and a half years according to republic commando, but then the uniforms are still the Episode II sort. -TT

Daniel [Logan], Bodie, and Temuera all play 'clones' at different stages of development. In Episode II we saw a relatively 'younger' clone army, by the time we get to Episode III many of those clones have matured into the image they were patterned after, Jango Fett (played by Temuera). As far as the credits go it works to credit Bodie for playing the clones and Tem for playing Cody. Could they have credited Tem for playing both rolls, probably but it really wouldn't have been necessary, and may have actually compelled them to pay Tem more money. Well, maybe not, but Hollywood can be a wacky place…

The Clone armor change happened sometime between Episodes II and III, and as far as I know has never clearly been detailed. It's been hinted at here and there in books and comics, but I think that's about it. It's just one of those evolutional things that's actually quite common in warfare. As awful as war is, it is a huge catalyst for advances in science and design. To make the Clone Wars seem more realistic, Lucas chose to exemplify this by 'upgrading' and specializing the clone armor in Episode III. In reality it's common to see a mix of old and new designs on the "battlefield," I'd assume this could explain some of what you saw.


9
I have been searching for the SW 2005 Transitional Figures to fill a few gaps in my Basic Figure collection and I am finding that they are hard to find and more expensive to acquire on eBay. Do you know if this wave of figures was a smaller production run? Was it meant to be a smaller run? I thought I recalled hearing that the distribution of the 2005 Transitional Figures and the OTC were put on hold for the ROTS figs but it doesn't seem like they ever came back to market after ROTS. What's the deal?? -Chad from Los Angeles, CA

Hasbro never shares information on their production runs, this could or could not be a shorter run, but I doubt they would ever confirm that. Also, Hasbro rarely makes smaller runs on action figures, it would throw their whole cost structure off. What's probably more to the point is that these waves were not ordered as heavily by retail, and therefore not distributed as thoroughly. Because of that they are in shorter supply and fetch a higher price on the second market. Once the transition was made to the ROTS line, the old OTC line just faded away. I would like to think that if Hasbro does have cases of these figures in a warehouse somewhere, they could actually use that Toy Shop site of there's to get them into collector's hands, but so far nothing has popped up. For the time being, adding these figures to our collections can be a challenge, but sometimes that's what makes a complete collection worth having.

10
We have a Firespeeder pilot figure, any chance we could see a Firespeeder? I know new vehicles are practically out of the question, but why create a pilot for a toy that will never exist? Has this happen in the past? -Steven

Before this time a week ago I would have told you there's no way we could ever expect Hasbro to produce a Firespeeder toy. Now, after their recent Q&A and our 411 news, I'd say anything is possible again. It's not necessarily the type of high-action vehicle I would think Hasbro might consider, but if they feel there's a market for it and they can produce it at the right cost, it could go forward. Why produce a figure if they don't plan to make a vehicle, simple. There are a lot of fans and collectors out there that buy the figures but not the vehicles. To a degree Hasbro looks at both assortments differently and has come to the conclusion that they don't need a ship to sell the figure that flies it. Has this happened in the past, it sure has. In 2004 Hasbro released a Twin Cloud Car Pilot from the Empire Strikes Back. This is a figure fans had been asking for for a long time and to this point we still don't have a Cloud Car for him to pilot. Again, Hasbro has just seen where having the corresponding vehicle for a figure is not a priority for all collectors; it's nice when they do have it, but many fans are as equally happy with the figure alone.


Until next time...


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