SSG's Tri-Weekly Hasbro Q&A - November 7th

[JediTricks]

The votes are in, the people have spoken, it's... IT'S... Hasbro's answers to SSG questions for November 7th, 2008! Thanks again to Hasbro for the answers, to all the folks who sent in questions and especially those who voted on them.

Hasbro Q&A for the week of November 7th

SSG: Recently, you confirmed that in the '09 Legacy line, there will be an EU wave; separately, you have said that there won't be more TFU figures in '09 beyond Shaak Ti, no KOTOR possible before 2010, no more Clone Wars micro-series figures, and no realistic figures from the new Clone Wars series. With all those EU sources out of the way, and the comic characters getting tons of coverage in the Comic Packs line, does that mean the '09 EU wave will finally show some love for characters from the novels?
Hasbro: Excellent detective work. Yes indeed, there will be a couple figures from novels in there, including two from the famous 2006 Toy Fare top 25 poll.
(Editor's note - for reference, here are all of the remaining yet-to-be-made winners of that poll: Bastila Shan, Padme Amidala Funeral, Corran Horn, Exar Kun, Nom Anor, Jaina Solo, Anakin Solo, and Jacen Solo. -JT)

SSG: Some collectors have expressed disappointment in the Disturbance at the Lars Homestead set. The example shown in the slideshow at Comic-Con featured much a nicer deco, and while we understand that prototypes usually have more care than production pieces, it seems like this particular production version suffered a severe backslide in quality, the deco just doesn't hold up. It's hard for collectors to understand how a $50 set is only 2 new pieces (the womp rat and the house section), a vacuform base, and 4 older pieces (the 3 figures and the moisture vaporator), and then how it could end up losing significant quality at that pricepoint. We understand the tooling for the house was an extensive portion of the budget, and we appreciate the great effort made to get this made, but collectors keep asking us to ask: what happened here, what went wrong to drag that quality down? And that leads to: why was this set produced now when it couldn't find all the budget for a better deco, more troopers, a treadwell droid, more accessories, etc.?
Hasbro: We knew from the outset that this set would be narrowly collector-targeted, but because of the prominent and iconic nature of the homestead we decided to go ahead with it. As a result, the overall costs to develop (including tooling) are reflected against a somewhat more narrow volume than that which is reflected in the eventual price. There was just no other way to bring this one out. Originally the Homestead set was to have more troopers and another womp rat, but these had to be removed to contain the costs. As for the deco, the original deco was deemed to be too heavy for the piece and it was pulled back.

SSG: Back in April, you said you should have for us at Comic Con a peek at the upcoming Comic Packs Lumiya figure, but with Comic Con come and gone, we still have not seen Lumiya. Is it possible we could see this figure now, and if not, why not?
Hasbro: Due to sculpting delays, the wave with Lumiya will not be out until the middle of next year. As such, we do not a have a picture of her ready yet.

- - -

And our questions at CollectionStation.com:

• Last year, Hasbro released the R2-KT figure while making a charitable donation to ensure that the spirit of a figure for the Katie Johnson charity was fully met before any were sold. With R2-KT appearing in the Clone Wars movie, is there a chance we could get animated R2-KT as a repainted animated R2-D2 figure in a similar charity-type release?
• Will there be more droid repaints in the Clone Wars line? The molds already exist, so they shouldn't be too difficult to achieve. For instance, will there be TC-70 based on the C-3PO mold, R4-P17 based on the R2-D2 mold, or KRONOS-327 based on the IG-86 mold? TC-70 obviously would be a good companion piece to the upcoming animated Jabba you're developing, and Obi-Wan needs a droid to fit in his Jedi Starfighter's droid slot.
• In Hasbro's GI Joe line's comic packs, they have moved beyond mere reprints to also feature entirely new stand-alone comics. Given that Dark Horse has released similar Star Wars comics to retailers in the past, have you considered working with them to commission new stand-alone Star Wars comics that feature highly-requested EU characters that otherwise don't appear in the comics and therefore have a lot less chance of being released as figures?

[JediTricks]

Looks like the Solo twins have a great shot of getting made, it's only them, their brother Anakin Solo, or Corran Horn that it could be. That's 50/50 right off the bat, and Anakin Solo would be a sucky figure so that's 66% likely for them.

Bummer about the budget issues holding the Lars homestead back from what they had planned. At least we have confirmation on that, though I think we all knew it was the reason.

Sorry Lumiya fans, delayed.

Over on CS, I was very surprised about the R2-KT answer being so positive. The other 2 are good answers as well, but that one threw me since it started "no" and ended "probably".

On Yakface, they got confirmation that the aforementioned EU wave is getting bumped to Jan '10 probably, but they also confirmed K'kruhk will be in that wave.

RS got confirmation that the ESB wave's Emperor figure will be the Evo Emperor with a new head. I'm mixed on how I feel about that, but it has a chance to not suck. Oh, and that wave's BAD is, of all crazy things, HK-47! Sorry KOTOR fans, but you're going to have to buy an entire wave for that fig or go tradin' crazy. Made me go take that HK-47 thing out of the poll results comment I included.

[obi-dad]

Originally Posted by JediTricks

Hasbro: We knew from the outset that this set would be narrowly collector-targeted, but because of the prominent and iconic nature of the homestead we decided to go ahead with it.

The part that still gets me with this set and this answer is that they admit up front that they knew this set would be "narrowly collector-targeted", yet they throw those potf2 (or saga/flashback... I can't remember now) figures in there and yet another Sandtrooper. If this is for the "narrow collector targeted" buyer, then why include figures we collectors most likely already have? And if we don't have them, we can easily pick them up cheaply on ebay or many other 2nd ways. So, Hasbro could have spent that money (and plastic) on a better base and the better decco (or even a 2nd moisture vaporator). Both their decision making process for this set and their answer suck big time.

[FundingMyAddiction]

Originally Posted by JediTricks

Looks like the Solo twins have a great shot of getting made, it's only them, their brother Anakin Solo, or Corran Horn that it could be. That's 50/50 right off the bat, and Anakin Solo would be a sucky figure so that's 66% likely for them.

I'm hoping you're right about this one. I think it's about time we got the Solo twins. Especially after Legacy of the Force.

RS got confirmation that the ESB wave's Emperor figure will be the Evo Emperor with a new head. I'm mixed on how I feel about that, but it has a chance to not suck.

I'm kind of sad on this one. We really need a new Emperor sculpt. I do like the Evo one, but if you actually want to set him up in different positions, it's impossible because of his limited leg articulation and the way the soft goods are. Not to mention you never actually see the Emperor in ESB (aside from the hologram of his head), but ehhh.

[ChrisLyne]

Finally the Solo twins are all but confirmed!

Thank you Hasbro!!!

Now I'm just praying for NJO Jedi Knight versions!

[obi-dad]

Galactic Hunter had some interesting confirmations:

Originally Posted by Galatic Hunter Q&A

There will be four 100% newly tooled additions to [the $20 vehicle]assortment in 2009. The first two that will be out in Spring can be seen in The Clone Wars movie, and they both fly. Let the speculating begin!!

2X-7KPR (the final unreleased droid from the "Purchase of the Droids" scene is planned as a pack-in with a Jawa in a later wave of 2009.

Darth Sidious and Mechno Chair is still on target for release next year, as is the Leia, Coleman Trebor, and Maroon Battle Droid Commander.

[Umbra]

*grumbles* ouch hasbro, the HK-47 announcement is like a shot to the balls. A highly wanted figure as a build a droid, in a wave i'm struggling to find even 1 figure i actually want...thats just cruel

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

There will be four 100% newly tooled additions to [the $20 vehicle]assortment in 2009. The first two that will be out in Spring can be seen in The Clone Wars movie, and they both fly. Let the speculating begin!!

Apart from the Magnaguard fighter, I can't for the life of me think of another one, unless they mean Obi-Wan's Delta-7B.

[JediTricks]

Originally Posted by obi-dad

The part that still gets me with this set and this answer is that they admit up front that they knew this set would be "narrowly collector-targeted", yet they throw those potf2 (or saga/flashback... I can't remember now) figures in there and yet another Sandtrooper. If this is for the "narrow collector targeted" buyer, then why include figures we collectors most likely already have? And if we don't have them, we can easily pick them up cheaply on ebay or many other 2nd ways. So, Hasbro could have spent that money (and plastic) on a better base and the better decco (or even a 2nd moisture vaporator). Both their decision making process for this set and their answer suck big time.

They had to have certain characters in there to put the set into context, originally when it was planned they had a lot more going on and the set wouldn't be sunk by those 2, but as the budget tightened and tightened they could not be taken out as they give context to the whole thing. You must have those 2 characters in this set, and it's way too expensive to make new versions for a set that's going to sell weak. So it's either include them or make no set at all. This is why listening to collectors sucks, they don't care about the reality of the situation, Hasbro's damned if they make the set and damned if they pass on it. The funny thing is that collectors don't have to buy this set if they don't like it, it's not an obligation, yet they did even seeing how poorly it came out compared to their expectations and then they bash Hasbro for not delivering the moon.

Originally Posted by FundingMyAddiction

I'm kind of sad on this one. We really need a new Emperor sculpt. I do like the Evo one, but if you actually want to set him up in different positions, it's impossible because of his limited leg articulation and the way the soft goods are. Not to mention you never actually see the Emperor in ESB (aside from the hologram of his head), but ehhh.

I don't have the Evo one, I thought its head looked like garbage and its hood was way too tight, so I didn't know the body wasn't very good. That's too bad, you're right that the Emp is only a holo in the movie but I wanted an OT Emperor done right finally and I didn't care which version they used (since they put the ROTJ-styled Emp in ESB SE anyway).

Originally Posted by obi-dad

Galactic Hunter had some interesting confirmations: There will be four 100% newly tooled additions to [the $20 vehicle]assortment in 2009. The first two that will be out in Spring can be seen in The Clone Wars movie, and they both fly. Let the speculating begin!!

We know that the Magnaguard Fighter is one of those and the new Jedi Starfighter is another, though.

2X-7KPR (the final unreleased droid from the "Purchase of the Droids" scene is planned as a pack-in with a Jawa in a later wave of 2009.

I have no idea where this set is going to go, since there's only 1 ANH wave next year. Still, at least they're doing it.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

Oh, and why are you submitting the questions through collectionstation now instead of actionfigs? Why not both, so we can have nine questions each time?