Questions for February 12, 2007
Q&A Archive

1
Upon reading that the Titanium figures are being canceled due to lack of demand, I was wondering if you could give a status on the availability of the last two figures - Grievous & C-3PO. I saw one each in the stores a while back, but didn't pick them up due the package being damaged beyond anything worth having. Various online stores and eBay seems to be dry as a bone. Do you know if more are on the way (maybe leftover in the magical warehouse in the sky) or if they've released all the stock already? I love the line and would just like put the series to rest in my collection… -J-man (Jacksonville, FL)

So far we have not heard if anything more is on the way, or if any additional characters were produced before the line was dropped. Shortly after the announcement was made, like you, I saw a case or two with the Grievous and 3PO hit the shelves, but that's the last I've seen. I see new Marvel characters here and there, but nothing for Star Wars in quite some time. I have to think we'll see at least one more shipment of this wave. My guess is the best places to watch for them will be Wal*Mart and Toys 'R' Us. If I hear any different, I'll be sure to pass that along.


2
Will there be Trandoshans from Star Wars Republic Commando in 2007?

No word on any additional figures from Republic Commando in 2007, maybe we'll see something in 2008, if there's enough of an outcry for it.


3
Where are the MR poker chips? They first showed them to us almost two years ago at Celebration 3, but still have not had much info about them other than showing them at Comic Con and Toy Fair. With NY Toy Fair 2007 coming up this week, will we just be seeing them again, or will we actually get to set up a poker table and play? -Mike F.

It appears they have quietly slipped away. While we didn't see much of the Master Replica's booth from this year's Toy Fair (at least not as of this posting), what pictures were shown did not include the chip set. I'm guessin' this is just one of those things that MR thought would be fun/cool, they came up with a prototype set to show off, but just never got final approval from LFL. It was always an odd bird for them, not what I'd consider a "prop replica," which may have contributed to the problem of getting approval.


4
I recently purchased the Wal*Mart exclusive Nabrun Lieds and Kabe figure. After opening I noticed that the stand said Attack of the Clones on it. Do you know if that is like that on all of them or just a few? -Josh

From what we've heard this is common on many of the figures in these final waves; something about an error on the production sheet. My guess is, at this late stage of the line, they will all be like this and we will not see the error corrected.


5
I remember at Comic-Con there were pictures of the SW blasters that had the "Laser" sighting on them. Are those the ones that I just saw on RS the other day, or are they not out yet? Also, on the new force action lightsabers, they appear to be quite larger than the normal electronic lightsaber that we are used to. By any chance can you confirm this and if so do you know how much bigger?

Yes, the blasters you saw on the site a few days ago are the same ones from Comic Con last summer. It appears Hasbro has elected to colorize these toys in an attempt to differentiate them from real weapons. We did hear, not too long ago (right before the Holidays), that Toys 'R' Us had pulled the Star Wars blaster line because they looked too much like real guns. My guess is Hasbro either had to scrap their plans for the new Nerf-esque blasters, or come up with a quick fix. Bright day-glow colors seems to be the fix; too bad too, these looked pretty darn sweet as they were.

The new Force Action sabers are a bit larger (longer/thicker) than the standard Electronic versions, but not too much so. I actually bought these for my kids for the Rose Parade this year; I don't think any of the measurements differ anymore than a half an inch.


6
I hate it when I have a figure with no name. The Saga Nikto Jedi would be one such example. An almost identical figure was put in a multipack and named Fi-Ek Sirch so maybe the Nikto Jedi is supposed to be the same guy. However, the Clone Wars Jedi Knight Army 3-Pack Rebelscum.com: Star Wars Clone Wars Photo Archives features a Rodian, Twilek, and Human Jedi Knight. All of them are nameless. Any help with that would be great! -Matt (Greensboro, NC)

As far as I know none of these figures have ever been given names. As frustrating as it may be to some, these figures are blank slates; let your imagination run wild. Probably not the help you were looking for…


7
After reading your column, about Hasbro's plant in China and mysterious shipping schedules, I wondered, what is the Carbon Footprint of a single Star Wars figure? In terms of the environment, is it better to drive around to several stores hunting for figures, or order on-line and have them shipped? Is it better to buy in bulk? Are the plastic and plastic softeners toxic to the environment during manufacturing? Is the "bubble" recyclable? (I always recycle the card, when de-carding, but don't know about the plastic.) It would take some pretty drastic statistics to make me stop collecting Star Wars Figures, but I am curious. Especially about how and where I buy... for the future. -Christopher

In a nutshell, nothing about these figures is "green." Driving here and there to hunt for them is bad. They are non-necessity petroleum products; bad. While I have never been to a toy manufacturing site in China, I have spoken to people who have, and they do not sound like a very environmentally friendly places… If you catch my drift. Considering they are being made, and that damage is already done, then I suppose ordering online and cutting down on vehicle emissions would be the "greenest" way to go. Recycling your discarded bubbles certainly wouldn't hurt, but again whatever process they are using to recycle the plastic has to give off some kind of by product.


8
Recently, they reissued Mace Windu's (generic) lightsaber in the new packaging. No spring-activated blade. But there seem to be two versions out at once. One version looks like the old one, with the fairly basic, almost entirely silver "generic" hilt. However, the other is very odd. It looks like they did a paint job on it that was supposed to vaguely resemble the coloration and color layout of Mace's "unique" lightsaber, the one he's holding in the box pictures and that was released as an FX saber. Why was this done, especially when the designs are not even remotely similar and the paint job doesn't fit to the shape of the saber at all?

Hmmmm… I could be really mean here, but I guess the bottom line is Hasbro realized there was demand for the Episode II and III design and this was the best way to satisfy that demand. Oh, who am I kidding; bottom line is Hasbro was too darn cheap to sculpt a new saber so they slapped some paint on the old one to make it look like the one everyone's been asking for so they could say, "well, we did make that one… kinda." It's ridiculous, a total joke, as soon as I saw this I was insulted, but it seems to be the only way Hasbro could get this version of Windu's saber out there. Frankly, if this is the best they can do, I'm sorry they even bothered trying.


9
They keep re-releasing the gunship, but I need the turrets that came with the Clone pilot and snapped onto the ship. I was able to get just the pilots but now I need turrets for my gunship. Any plans on offering these up again? Any idea where I can get 2?

As highly requested as these accessories seem to be, Hasbro has shown no indication they plan to put the ball turrets back out there for the Gunship. I'd like to think they realize the ones that came with the Clone pilot just aren't right (way too small), and are trying to come up with something more movie accurate, but the truth of it is they probably aren't even looking into it. To be movie accurate you'd have to be able to put a Clone figure into the turret. Considering the size of the figure, the fact that the Gunship is actually scaled down in relation to the figure, coming up with a turret that looks "right" may just be impossible. While I'd like to think Hasbro might put something together, maybe with a dedicated "clone gunner", maybe as a pack-in with some future release of the Gunship, it's beginning to look like it's just not worth the effort on their part.

Where to find a pair of turrets or, clone figures with the turrets? All I can suggest at this point it try eBay. Good luck!

10
Hey do you know why Hasbro chose Target to have the best Star Wars ROTS stuff? Target is the only store that has those awesome Jedi Temple Assault and Attack On Coruscant battle packs why is that? I shop at a local Toys 'R' Us and I get pissed off because Target has better figures and battle packs and that there's not a single Target store anywhere near me so do you know why Hasbro has Limited or Exclusive figures or other stuff sold only at select stores?

The exclusives are a way for Hasbro to say thank you to retailers for supporting their lines. It's a little something special for retail to offer that "should" bring extra business into the store. While Hasbro has never come right out and said it, the impression I get is the retail chain that works more closely with Hasbro, and handles their exclusives better, gets first crack at an exclusive and by virtue of that gets the better choice. That may not be 100% accurate, but looking at what the big retailers have been offering, it sure seems that way to me. Unfortunately you just happen to live in one of those many areas that Target doesn't serve. While Hasbro continues to encourage stores like Target to offer these items on-line, the original intent is to use these as an incentive to get people like us into the stores.


Until next time...


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