One of the things we always look forward to at any convention is Hasbro's slideshow and Q&A session. This year is no exception, as Hasbro shows off their remaining 2005 products and what's in store for 2006.
Slideshow:As reported earlier, this year will see 12 more
Revenge of the Sith figures, bringing the total number in the line to 68. Click
here for detailed photos of the "mystery 12" and
here for the numbers they will be given.
Attacktix will see a second wave of 30 figures released this fall (many of which are on display), and another 30 in January. The plan is to release a new set every 3-4 months.
Just in time for Halloween will be an Ultimate Darth Vader kit, that will contain the Darth Vader lightsaber. If you've been wondering why the Vader lightsabers have been hard to find lately, it's because Hasbro had to pull many of them off the shelves for this kit.
Much to the regret of its many fans, the
Unleashed 7" line will go on hiatus. The reason is that is was just too expensive to make, and didn't really sell well enough to justify the cost. However, the line will continue in a new series of 2"
Unleashed Battle Packs, which will be sold in 4-figure sets. The majority of these sets will be army builder characters (lots of clones and wookiees were shown) with limited posability, sell for $9.99, and the first wave should be out in December. They were hoping to bring them to the panel and show them off, but well, someone apparently forgot to bring them.
Exclusives:If you thought you'd seen a lot of exclusives from Hasbro so far at Comic-Con, just wait...there's more where those came from!
Straight from the Expanded Universe will be a Stealth Clone Trooper, painted black and grey, and will be super-articulated. Target exclusive.
Clone Attack on Coruscant is now confirmed to be a Target exclusive. Lots of Clones!
A 10" Cinemacast Darth Vader figure will be a Wal-Mart exclusive.
Entertainment Earth will present Astromech Droids in 5-packs.
K-Mart will have 2 exclusive Battle Packs.
A pair of exclusives with a similar theme: The Separation of the Twins. Obi-Wan Kenobi with a baby Luke. Bail Organa with a baby Leia. Coming to Wal-Mart late 2005.
StarWarsShop.com will get the Japanese remote control R2-D2.
The Saga Collection:
As previously reported by our spies, Hasbro is going back the OTC style of cards, and also returning to themed waves based on battles or scenes. Dubbed The Saga Collection, this line will be focused on the collectors (no action features?) and will be a balance of core and minor background characters.
The cardbacks will be the popular black-and-silver design, movie scene, and the name of the film on the front of the card. Each figure will also include stand that not only have the name of the film on the bottom, but also the name of the characters. Looks pretty cool.
The initial wave will be a Battle of Carkoon theme and will include new figures: Leia as Boushh, Han Solo in Carbonite, and Bib Fortuna, who is said to have more articulation than you'd expect.
The second wave will be based on Hoth, although the characters were not announced, it was said that there will be some characters that have not been seen in this scale before.
A Sandtrooper was shown in the new packaging, so you can bet a Tatooine wave will be part of thie new line. Looks pretty cool.
Q&A:
Star Wars Transformers? No comment.
What about new vehicles/playsets? Same answer as always...they are just too expensive. If new vehicles are released, we'll only see repaints of previous ships.
Will we see all the characters in the Vintage line recreated in the new format? Yes, eventually. Hasbro would like to remake them all, but there are many years to go, so there's time. They'll get to them.
Any kind of value add-in to the new line? Yes.
What is it? Can't say.
We already know, don't we...they're small holograms? Well, not holograms, but close.
What about Republic Commando figures? Something is planned, but they can't say any more.
More photos from the Hasbro presentation can be seen here.
