The rebirth of Micro Machines is up to us!

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

F ellow collectors of Micro Machines, Star Wars Micros, Star Trek Micros
and the Star Wars Action Fleet!

Looking at the situation at it is right now, we´re floating around in old memories
not thinking about getting off our butts and tell Hasbro to give us, what we didn´t get within a long time now.
With the new millenium we lost a great toy line, so full of potential Hasbro has to bring them back. I, Billy_Dee_Binks will be posting the same topic on various other MM forums so more people will get moving. It is a tough sitiuation to bring back a toy line. Hasbro said they willeventually think about some new AFs in 2005 when Ep III hits the theaters. To me this sound like a line of a few selected vehicles from the third prequel only. I see another line of junk heading towards us in 2005. Hasbro really doesn´t know what to do with this line. They bought Galoob after Galoob bought the rights to produce MMs and AFs for all three Star Wars prequels . Basically, Hasbro sits on gold. With Ep 1 we got a nice line. It was full of unneeded stuff, without action or creativity but later on we got things like the Theed Palace Assault Playset which was just like a Galoob toy. The majority of Hasbro´s ideas however, were lame. At least they didn´t release those Gear Mates! Those would have been the most awful, boring and uncreative release within the whole Ep 1 range.
More and more rumours start to pop up saying the Archival Edition of the OT will be released in late 2004. As well as AE TPM and AOTC.
This would be the perfect time for new SW Micros for all five movies and finally new Ep III Micros in mid 2005.


I made some hundered conceptual ideas for what toys should be released-
Jim Fong approved a early version of a list and said it would have been the right way to approach this line. I started this thread for everyone who has a few ideas he could share, eventually post a concept drawing of your ideas, post wishlists for a new beginning.
With the pedition SirSteves made in 2001 Hasbro didn´t get the idea what we
actually wanted to see made. Now we can show them what exactly would sell. Please post your ideas. I will post concept troughout the next year with detailed discriptions and I would be really honored if they´d be rated.
Do we have any contact that could give this link to Hasbro or show someone at Hasbro that this would be it?
I for myself only know the Austrian Hasbro owner, Mrs. Wilhelms Eder.
Any members that know the big animals at Hasbro??

We will see a new line of Micro Machines and Action Fleet toys if we really try hard to convince Hasbro! We are smart collectors!

:p

[SWAFMAN]

Billy_Dee_Binks, I salute your dedication to this effort.

I, and others on this forum have made similar entreaties to our fellow foruMMers and posts aimed at potential readers from Hoover (http://www.hasbro.com).

I hope your action is more successful than our past attempts.

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

Billy_Dee_Binks, I salute your dedication to this effort.

I, and others on this forum have made similar entreaties to our fellow foruMMers and posts aimed at potential readers from Hoover (http://www.hasbro.com).

I hope your action is more successful than our past attempts.


Yeah, but how far did you get with your ideas? I bet no one posted concept drawings so far or even made foamcore prototypes.
However, I will make a list of what toys would make sense to be packaged in what way. I have about 70 to 140 drawings and notes written down.

So:

A list of OT Micro Machines, Action Fleet, DIE-Casts and AFX ships (I´ll explain what Action Fleet X are soon) and also PT Micros, AFs, DIE-Casts and AFXs! :greedy: :eek: :D

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

Only one reply so far? No one seems to care really.
I will soon post that list of OT and PT Micro Machines and Action Fleet toys.

[Turbowars]

Well if you think about it, this is the reason the line died, no one cares.;)

[SWAFMAN]

I think it has less to do with caring or not caring than it does with our disillusionment with the sphincters in Rhode Island.

If you'd participated in the conversations on this forum faithfully over the years (unfortunately, the search engine on the forums is not adequate to the task, or I'd compile a list of good examples), you'd see that we've covered this issue, ad nauseum.

I, for one, am as dedicated an enthusiast toward Action Fleet as you'll find anywhere. As with most things, though, the more times you're burned by someone (or some entity), the more cautious you become about getting your hopes up for a change. There are realities at play here. Licensing agreements held by a company that, for reasons intensely examined and debated on this forum, simply WILL NOT produce a line that meets the expectations of children, collectors, retailers, or even themseleves. A licensor who is blinded, presumably by money, to the disatisfaction of fans.

Please, post your ideas. Hell, Fed-Ex the things to someone at Hoover (http://www.hasbro.com) who is in a position to act on them. More power to you! Create another petition. I'll sign. How about one to Lucas instead of to the toy company, BEGGING him to consider the fact that he maybe has enough money now to do something in the best interest of the FANS WHO MADE HIM SO DAMN RICH, and to pull the licenses from Hoover (http://www.hasbro.com), and sell them to a company who WANTS TO and CAN make MM / AF-like products that will satisfy consumers, and do justice to the wonderful content of his films.

[Turbowars]

I'm just saying there aren't many here crying for the line to continue. I never got into the line, but would love to have that damn Gunship and Death Star!!:confused: What was the reason for the death? Was it the bad sales? Lack of interest from retail or what. Poor sales leads to lack of interest, so what was it?

[LTBasker]

No one seems to care because this has gone on too long. Someone will get an idea to try to get Micros living again, but Hasbro doesn't give a care. They've relaunched the AFs already, and they themselves caused it to crash and burn. Why was it so hard for them to get new molds out? It really shouldn't of been. You can tell the Gunship was made from scaling down the 3 3/4" one, the same thing with the Jedi Starfighter. They just had them redressed to take out anything interesting about them. (Except actual landing gear they added to the AF JFS)

The thing is, they set the line out to fail. You can't tell me they didn't know it would fail by releasing ships that sat on the shelves back in their original Galoob releases, and making them pointless compared to what they had then. They set it up to fail, and the consumers to blame for it. Yes it had bad sales, because hardly anyone wanted the same ships from earlier with NO play aspects to uphold the name "Action Fleet." It was display fleet, with nothing new to display.

So what could be different about them launching a Micro line? They would probably get the ships that sat the most on the pegs, and release only those. Sure sometime they would probably redress the Slave 1 Micromachine for Jango, but it would probably be months after. Sure it'd still be able to be spotted with Jango Pilot figures and whatnot, but it's ridiculous.

What uniqueness did they really bring to Action Fleet? I can't think of anything. The only new things they did for it was the AT-TE, Solar Sailer (not even AF scale), Gunship, and the Clone Transport. Their packaging sucked as most of the time I saw'em, the packages were crunched and whatnot to heck.

Sure they had a hoard of new stuff listed for the line later on, but think of how much money they saved. They came up with 4 new sculpts, the rest were original Galoob stuff. So they wouldn't of needing much sculptors there to pay. Nor many new mold costs. They never saw production of any of the later new stuff, so they didn't have to spend much there either.

I would love to see the micromachines back, but never under Hasbro control. The only time I'd want them to come back is if original Galoob teams were brought back. Otherwise may Galoob's work rest in peace.

[good shot jansen]

what was the reason? what went wrong? very simple, hasbro bought out galoob, and promptly threw the line away. simple and as plain as that.

the line prospered, and did quite well under galoob, in fact, it was their flagship line.

hasbro had no creative input, or association for what made the line great. they bought it out, as part of their take over of galoob, and only went through the motions of putting micro machines on toy shelves.

it has now been nearly 5 years since the buy out, and the topic of this thread as swafman indicated above, has been hashed out, argued, discussed, languished over, with ideas sent off to hasbro ad nauseam.

the few people who were with galoob, and had moved over to hasbro after the buy out, have pretty much summed up hasbro's feelings toward the line (in past posts here at ssg), hasbro just really don't care about micro machines.

the main argument that hasbro will give about the demise of the micro machines line, is that consumer demand is soft, and that there is no market to bring the toys to. yet, as you posted turbowars, you and many many many others out there, are wishing that they could get their hands on a republic gunship. a ship that was released by hasbro not too long ago, yet for some reason, no one seems to be able to find one, and the price to acquire one, keeps spiraling out of reach on ebay. yet as hasbro say's, there's no interest in the toy.

we have been writing, complaining, pleading, and sending hasbro our wishes and dreams for the line for 4 years now, the only reason why there hasn't been more posts made to this thread topic, is quite frankly, this whole situation has gotten old.

i have all the galoob action fleet and micro machines that i could ever want. it would be great if the line could be ressurected back to it's pre-hasbro glory, but we all know, that ain't ever gonna happen. and with how hasbro has cheapened the line, maybe it's better that the line is left alone, and that we all enjoy the great micro machine toys that we have been playing with for nearly 10 years now.

btw, if there are any long time kenner collectors out there, i have a question to ask.

after hasbro bought out kenner, was there any major change made to the line which you felt changed or cheapened the product? just wondering, cause that's exactly what happened when hasbro bought out galoob.

[Turbowars]

after hasbro bought out kenner, was there any major change made to the line which you felt changed or cheapened the product? just wondering, cause that's exactly what happened when hasbro bought out galoob. I thought Hasbro did a good job with the SW line.

[LTBasker]

after hasbro bought out kenner, was there any major change made to the line which you felt changed or cheapened the product? just wondering, cause that's exactly what happened when hasbro bought out galoob.

Actually there was, but in all Hasbro had always been with Kenner, just they were a branch at that point. And actually yes, there have been several quality changes. One real change you can see is you can grab a figure from '95-'98 and you can see very clean paint applications. Usually all the figures looked the same and the paint was very neatly done, but then after Hasbro took over, you'd see bleeding from paints and you'd see things overpainted. You look at any Yoda figure from when Kenner was the brand of the toys, and the paint was always consistent. You look at a Yoda figure from Hasbro, and the paint applications are usually sloppy, and/or never consistent.

I've seen vintage figures that looked alot neater consistently than alot of the figures from the Saga line. Even though they blame it on miscommunications, how hard can it be to communicate with the factories now compared to in the '70s? The deal is Hasbro doesn't put alot of money in their products and you can always tell, to them the consumer is a drone they can manipulate.

You can tell they didn't care about the gimmicks throughout the 2002 figures not working right until the sales went down. It's ridiculous when they finally said they found that the gimmicks in the actual product wasn't working the same way it did in the prototype, because it was earlier this year. So it took them a whole year to find this out? Right. Remarkably they discovered this weak point when sales really went down.

They've obviously been listening to the consumer alot more lately, but they make so many half-baked decisions. It's alot like they don't think things through on too many subjects. Consumer support is pathetic when it comes to them, which is very sad when you consider alot of other just as major companies have nice support.

It's just ridiculous, the way I see the Hasbro main office is just as a bunch of Gollums rubbing their preciouses to one another. :p

[JediTricks]

The reason I don't respond to this thread isn't because the ideal isn't noble or that I'm not for it, it's because Hasbro's repeated mistreatment of the MM brands has made me so angry and frustrated that I can't really stand to deal with it anymore, especially after Hasbro's failure to get what I was saying in my AF interview from... wow, I don't remember if it was this year or last anymore. :frus: In my mind, Hasbro is a faceless corporation who used that sort of corporate thinking to run a great line into the ground twice, mostly because they put out the wrong product at the beginning wave and didn't try to show retailers that they were willing to follow up those mistakes with something better. Why? I think it's because they really don't care about Galoob at all, they bought the company and dismantled its lines, currently using only 1 Galoob line to any affect whatsoever (non-SW MMs) and not really doing a good job promoting that either.

[sergiurusu]

why not writing a petition at www.petitionpetition.com? It could work and then put the link in our signatures on all the frorums

[JediGoofy]

I thought Hasbro did a good job with the SW line.

Yes, Turbowars, I agree with you, Hasbro did a good job with the SW line from their point of view!
They had this SW action figure line. It was a very successfull line, probably the most successfull toy line ever. And there was this other company (Galoob) with another successfull line, MicroMachines, which was expanded into the SW universe, followed by Action Fleet.
Hasbro took advantage of Galoob's financial problems (due to other toy lines, not SW MM and AF which were always its most successful line) to acquire the company and not delete the SW MM and AF lines, but (cleverly :evil: ) make them die, slowly, flooding the market with the same few vehicles, proving to the toy shops there is no market for them.
This is how Harbro did a good job with the SW line, they defeated a competitor and proved everybody its product is inferior and not attractive, so to drag more people to collect the action figure line and, most important, their big and expensive vehicles! (since they are the only one available).
It looks like we cannot do anything. We already had a petition, it was JediTricks who promoted it, more than 500 people signed (and it was not only a signature, everybody spent their time to add their thougths about the SW MM and AF lines). The only result was Hasbro created the AF Saga line, something scientifically designed to fail and to prove once again there is no interest in the AF line (have a look at JT's interview to Hasbro). It is not true there is no interest in the AF line, there is no interest in the AF Saga line! It is proved by the fact even action figure collectors look for the only valuable vehicles from that line, namely Gunship and AT-TE.
Maybe our hope are the Japan toy makers, which make very good products in the MM range. The problem is they do not export and have a preference for blind packaging, so it is very difficult and expensive to collect them.
If Billy_Dee_Binks has any idea, please let us know, here in this forum we are all very interested in anything MM and AF related, but please do not tease us too much without showing anything.

Ciao,
JediGoofy

[SWAFMAN]

we've discussed these points many times before... (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13177)

post (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3492&postcount=9)

another thread showing our dedication and frustration... (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10807)

post (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=267338&postcount=7)

post (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=267391&postcount=16)

post (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=267455&postcount=13)

post (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=267490&postcount=14)

post (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=267707&postcount=18)

post (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=268710&postcount=35)

post (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=269176&postcount=41)

post (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=269216&postcount=42)

everything in this thread..... (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=279756&postcount=1)

BDBinks, this one is a "call to arms" that speaks directly to what you've begun... (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=280070&postcount=13)

every post in this thread (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=36678&postcount=1)

good one from jangu (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=90360&postcount=115)

related to this one... (http://www.sirstevesguide.com/forums/showpost.php?p=90032&postcount=114)




this is tiresome, and somewhat depressing. just do a search of this forum back to the beginning, if you want more. the topics are easy to spot.

do you still think there's a lack of understanding or dedication to this line? can you see the pattern of events that has led us to become cynical?

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

I hope everyone´s oppinion will change since I´ll post a complete list with set up plans tomorrow. I will try to get the address of Hasbro´s Galoob devision
run by Randy Espenshade or what the guy´s name is. I hope some will see it brighter then. :dis:

[good shot jansen]

well sign me up billy dee! i'm always good for a lost crusade. the unwinnable battles are the most noble of all causes.

i'll give some thought to what i'd like to see ol' h'bro produce, and i'll follow your lead.

every cervantes needs a pancho sanchez, we already have jeddah as our very own dulcinea.

np: richard kiley original cast album man of lamancha - the impossible dream

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

HERE IS THE LIST!!!!

Starting withAction Fleet
Battle Packs are smaller ships or creatures that include two moveable mini figures.

Geonosian Starfighter (with pilot and BD pilot)
eatures opening canopy, a shooting laser blast and a center foot landing gear
Zam Wesell´s Speeder (includes Zam and Jango Fett mini figures)
Has a opening cockpit and a secret sniper rifle hold-non removeable
Anakin´s Hot Rod Speeder (comes with Anakin and Obi Wan)
no feature except that it look great

AT-ST walker (comes with Chewbacca and AT-ST Driver)
More articulated walker legs and a opening cockpit

A-Wing (comes with a pilot and Mardine figurines)
More accurate in size, has an opening canopy and a landing gear

Skiff Sailer (comes with Skiff Gunner and Jedi Luke)
More detailed with a spring loaded ramp

Snowspeeder (includes Luke and Dak)
More accurate- would be availble in three different variations: Grey (with Wedge and Rebel Pilot Gunner) and battle damaged with rubber guns that can bend to recreate a crash (includes two pilots)

Reek (comes with Jango Fett and Mace Windu)
Eight points of articulation (legs and feet). When pressing an area on his back his head(and neck) recreates bull ramming

Flash Speeder (comes with Cpt.Panaka and a Naboo Soldier)
Clear plastic wheels for a real floating effect and more accurate in size

Anakin´s Pod Racer (comes with Anakin and Shmi)
More accurate in size with spinning lightning area and rolling wheels

Droid Fighter two-pack (one in flying mode and one transformable)
Accurate in size- one can be transformed into walking mode- of course not as fine engineered as the original AF version was.

Each would come with a newly styled stand (to be revealed later) and
is packaged on a blister card.


Action Fleet ships (Standart version)

Imperial Shuttle (comes wih Emperor and Driver)
Features a more accurate head section with a darker toned clear plastic window, landing gear, moveable guns, pull-out boarding ramp and moveable wings.

X-Wing Fighter (with Luke and R2)
Would be more accurate and be availible in several variations. Comes with a working landing gear, opening cargo hold on the bottom and a opening cockpit.

TIE Fighter (with Stormtrooper and Imperial Pilot)
Smaller than the original release- with bigger wings and a opening cockpit
Availible in grey and dark blue painted variation.

Y-Wing (with Rebel Pilot and Astromech Droid)
Much more accurate version like Jim Fongs unreleased mold with pop-off right engine for exploding damage. Features a landing gear, opening cockpit and a moveable gun.

Naboo Fighter (with Naboo Pilot and Battle Droid)
More accuate with longer tail and smaller engines. Chrome colored front. No landing gear, shootable laser blast, two or three availble variations with different pilots and a different moveable Astromech Droid domes.

Sith Infiltrator (includes Darth Maul and Darth Sidious mini figures)
Folding wings, opening cockpit section with landing ramp, opening cargo (in the front section), better hideable landing gear (the front legs) and clear red plastic for the cockpit window.

Acklay (inculdes Obi Wan and Geonosian figurine)
The Acklay can open it´s mouth (non spring loaded), has ten points of articulation (balljoints on the front legs, up and down joints on the other four legs with knee articulation for each leg)

AAT (Droid Tank-comes with Battle Droid and Gungan Warroir)
More accurate gun part made from a stronger plastic, opening driver front reveals a seat for pilot, moveable turrents and opening back door hatch.

Jedi Starfighter (with Hyperdrive Ring- comes with Obi Wan and Mace Windu) Opening canopy, working landing gear, moveable Droid dome,
open up panel with a radar dish. The ship itself would be BP sized. Adding the Hyperdrive which doesn´t nescessairy have to be movie accurate makes it a Action Fleet Standart sized ship.

TIE Interceptor (with Pilot and Royal Guard or Death Star Gunner)
Smaller than the orininal release with opening cockpit and pop-out wing section.
Neimodian Shuttle (with Nute Gunray and Rune Haako)
The Unreleased Hasbro ship upgraded with a pull out cockpit section.



Action Fleet X (cheesy name for Deluxe Action Fleet)
These ships are bigger than standart sized Action Fleet ships but inculde more features and up to four mini figures.

Republic Gunship (with Clones, Jedi or Droids)
Includes opening canopy for two pilots, moveable front turrents (rubbery plastic), landing side pannels spread open, pull-out turrent balls with glued gunners and shooting tower guns (top guns with a projectible on each side)
Royal Starship
Includes a boarding ramp, opening front and back with memorable parts of the ship (Queens throne, cockpit and Droid area)- it´s hard to describe what the interior look like when unfoalded.
AT-AT Walker (with Commander, Pilots and a Snowtrooper with a Speeder Bike) Articulated at 13 points (the neck, legs, knees and feet), moveable turrents and front guns, AT-AT has a opening cargo area where the Speeder Bike can be placed)
Jango´s Slave 1 (with Jango, Boba and Obi Wan and eventually a Kamioan) Scaled in relation to the Jedi Starfighter. Features rotating guns, moving wings, secret weapon (a will post a picture soon to make it clear) and a opening cockpit that features room for two mini figures.
The ship would be probably the same size as Boba Fett´s Slave 1 that LEGO released in early 2000.
Royal Cruiser (from AOTC)
All Chrome colored, with opening cockpit (room for two figures), ramp that can be opened, a working landing gear, exploding damage (wings can pop-off) and a small Naboo Fighter made from the DIE-Cast Naboo Fighter´s mold
(will be mentioned later) only less detailed and made out of plastic.
Millenium Falcon (with Han, Chewie and two other characters)
Would be a tad smaller than the Micro Collection version Kenner released in the 80´s. Would feature a opening landing ramp, removeable top pannel to recreate all the action we saw in the interior-chess table corner, secret removeable pannels, beds, turning radar dish, moveable turrents, working landing gear (four legs in total), shootable projectible laser blast, hidden gun on the bottom.
AT-TE Walker
Has a pull-out opening cockpit, a moveable top gun (with shootable laser projectible) moving turrents, 12 points of articulation (legs and balljoint feet),
Opening panel reveals a troop-cargo area in the back of the ship that works as a ramp.

Playsets
Naboo Hangar with Theed city on the other side. Hard to discribe again.
It´s styled similar to the old AF playsets. Comes with a figurines and a battle damaged Naboo Fighter. A concept drawing will show off the features.



I forgot to mention other Battle Packs and Action Fleet Ships:
BP Spider Walker (comes with a Super Battle Droid and a Jedi)
BP Wheel Droid (comes with a Battle Droid and a Clone Trooper)

AF Naboo Yacht with Anakin and Padmé features an opening cockpit,
a working landing gear and a landing ramp. The ship would be chrome colored.

There are more. So far the plan is 13 Battle Pack, 12 Action Fleet toys,
and seven Deluxe Action Fleet toys.
Next time I will post a list of PT and OT Micro Machines which will include all the three packs, character sets, playsets and carry cases I have floating around in my head. Oh year, DIE-Cast ships as well.
Only thing I have to mention before the discussion begins is that I would first release MM and then Action Fleet toys. However I would make both lines work with each other. No MM Millenium Falcon open-up playset needed if there is a
Deluxe Action Fleet Falcon that would work great with MM mini figures as well.

I know this list doesn´t really show much. I will soon post drawings of each
AND reveal the new look of the packaging which I think hits the beat.
P.S.: Thanks for reading through- I know, too many empty spaces.

:)

[darthcarlos]

We've been through this many times before. Even Jedi Tricks was fooled by the lies that Hasbro spat out! JT spoke with some of the employees from Hasblow. Things seemed to be looking good but the crap that was released was destined to fail. I'll sign what ever petition that is made, maybe some miracle will occur at Hasbro.

Darth Carlos

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

I welcome any kind of comment about my last post.

[SWAFMAN]

All your concepts are great. I especially like the suggestions for the vehicles not already released. As for the ones that have already been released, the more accurate TIEs, and Y-wing are also great ideas, albeit already planned, had Galoob continued on its own without being assimilated into the col[on]lective of Hoover (http://www.hasbro.com). Obviously, it would be nice to "pretend like EPII AF never happened". and see them all re-released in figure-accomodating form, with figures. I guess it's just hard for me to suspend disbelief so completely that I can let myself imagine Hoover (http://www.hasbro.com) would ever significantly re-sculpt any of the existing AFs.

The AF-x series sounds lke an earlier proposal on this forum for Collector Fleet-scale ships with the electronics scrapped in favor of accessible interior play features.

Anyone who has invested the time and thought into such ideas, and even made foamcore prototypes, has earned a big nod of respect. Good luck.

[JediTricks]

Some good ideas, but let me caution you: any specific ideas you send to Hasbro will almost certainly doom them unless they are already partially underway because Hasbro doesn't want to be sued if they use ideas like yours and then you decide you want to be compensated for those designs. But good luck no matter how you go about it. :)

As for the petition, we had over 1,000 signers and Hasbro did get them, but this was long before they started a Micro Machines division that Andy (not Randy, he does SW now that Andy has moved from SW division to MMs) Esplenshade (sp?) is head of. I'm hoping that after the new year starts, SirSteve and I will have more time to contact Hasbro about SWMMs, it's been a little hard to get through to them this year with SW filming and Hasbro hitting more conventions than usual.


Oh, and Swaffy, I think with the forums upgrade, the search issues have been cleared up. :)

[sicqnus]

"Requiem for a dream" (less drama than in the movie I hope...).

Hi Billy Dee,

Count me in !

For the ideas, I also have a good/long list but not for now.
Hasbro already knows how to make a good job. I remember very pretty things in the Episode 1 line (Infiltrator, Naboo Royal Cruiser, etc...). I'll pass on the "missing in action" figure...
I also love the Acclamator, the Gunship and the AT-TE. They're great - except the missing ...figures - The cruiser is very close to the CG model.
Sometimes, I play the Galactic Battlegrounds/Clone Campaigns video game and I see Micro Machines, Action Fleets, armies of mini figures, arrrrrrrrmaggeddon...

:) JT, you're the man. Hope you will be able to have a talk with the hasbro rep.

I have a few friends in China, especially in HK. They said there is a real problem for nowadays the major toy manufacturers (Mattel, Hasbro, Carrefour, Wal*Mart) because of the exchange rate of the Yuhan. Most of the biggest companies used to pay the factories with sorts of claims orders for six months to one year sometimes. It's very specific to the toy market (and uneasy to explain but similar to what it's called "orders bills") but the exchange rate between the two currencies must be very stable. It wasn't the case these past two years when the Yuhan become stronger than ever and of course the dollar worth less. For complicated reasons, some bills (speaking about millions dollars) could only be paid at a specific exchange rate (scelled by contract at the time of the order) to prevent a market crash for example. Lots of bills remains to be paid and it's not very interesting for the Toy groups. US government makes pressures on the Chinese government to devaluate the Yuhan but it seems the Chinese don't want to ear this music. They have a monopole (more than 3/4 of the toys made in the world) and they need cash...
I'm quite sure we will have to wait after the Olympic games to see a lower Yuhan. Seems logical to me.

Light a candle.
Light two candles.
Light three candles...
Light... more is not enough.

[JediGoofy]

Thank you BDBinks, a very detailed and interesting list of Battle Packs and Action Fleet vehicles. :D
Unfortunately the problem is not what could be done, but who can turn these wonderful ideas into reality! :(
Petitions do not work (see SSG's petition), reasoning does not work (see JT's efforts in his interview with Hasbro, thank you again JT :) ), only numbers seem to interest Hasbro.
So, in my opinion, what we can do for the rebirth of MM and AF (besides keeping alive the interest in this toy line, like BDBinks and the other forummers do) is to buy the product when it is available!
Sometimes I read there are people who stayed away from the AF Saga line, because of the inferior product, and did not buy its vehicles (see for example LBC and SAK in the "It's the end my friends..." thread). I agree with you, that product was inferior for all the reasons we discussed so many times, but I bought it anyway, just to show there is a market. Not buying led eventually to the cancellation of the whole AF line (and it does not matter all the Gunships disappeared from the shelves in seconds, it was too late).
I know, doing this I run the risk of supporting a bad product. I agree, but imho this is the only way of supporting AF and MM. If sales had been higher maybe the line would have continued and we could have gotten the last waves with the interesting vehicles we all want (despite Hasbro efforts to sink the line in any way they can).
Please do not misunderstand me, everybody is free to act as he wishes, but, as a MM and AF fan, I think this is the only thing to do: to buy even an inferior product (not to say crap, like the infamous Solar Sailer), with the hope to maintain the line alive and to get better products in the future (like the announced, and then cancelled, last waves).
Just my opinions, though. :)
Ciao,
JediGoofy

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

I want to try the impossible. :p

About the scuplting: It would be the easiest for Hasbro if they just use the data
from the RealScanning they did with Gentle Giants. I don´t know how many ships they RealScanned but the JSF, the Gunship, the speeders, the bikes, the AT-TE, the droids, and lots of other things they did for sure. If you look at the toys you can see that the AF Gunship is a exact replica (downscaled) from the 3 3/4 Gunship. Even the bolts are placed identical.
So you see, Hasbro has probably all the scanned marquettes ILM made. Basically they´d just have to downscale them into four different sizes: MM,
AF, some AFX and DIE-Cast.
Mini figures could also be made that way. Simply put some people with resembling costumes with broomsticks into the RealScanning room and get them scanned. Downscaled it will look like robed Obi Wan fighting with his lightsabre. :)
CG characters would be even easier since all information is already in a computer. Hasbro sure has a couple of 3D laser scanners in their office. I mean, they´re stinking rich.

[good shot jansen]

what we can do for the rebirth of MM and AF is to buy the product when it is available!

dayum strate! :smoker:

i bought all the inferior rehashed releases for that very reason. i even went so far as to avoid buying it from on-line retailers (to the extent that i could), to insure that the product i bought would be counted up by the cash registers at targets, tru, wally-world, etc.

unfortunately by the time the final wave came around (come to think of it, i never saw the at-at, and snowspeeder at retail either), the only avenues available for purchasing the gunship, acclimator, and jango I (as well as the snowy walker, and speeder), was folks like dave roberts at dnstoys.

i've said it many times before, you make em, i'll buy em :frus:

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

It took me quite a while to write it and only one made a comment about it so far. I feel lonely. :dis: :(

[Turbowars]

Goes to show the excitement for the line.:zzz:

[JediTricks]

It took me quite a while to write it and only one made a comment about it so far. I feel lonely. :dis: :(
Gee, imagine that, you made the comment on New Years Eve and it didn't get a lot of eyeballs on it. ;) Nothing personal, but you might want to consider your timing... you can rest assured that it's not personal because that's one of the things I told Hasbro as well. ;)


Anyway, Realscan is only a tool in the process, Hasbro uses it as a guide, the scans are far too detailed to create molds from, and if you think about it, Realscan data wouldn't be able to handle the needs of CG vehicles like the AF Gunship with its complex bolt-on wing/engine segment and LFL's late-added pod turrets. Does that mean Hasbro shouldn't put out something like the Gunship because it might be difficult to design as a toy? No, just the opposite really - some great AF toys have come from vehicles that would seem to be difficult to design from just downsizing scanned data, the TIE Bomber, the Droid Starfighter, the Trade Federation Lander, the TIE Defender and Virago all seem to me like toys that would never exist if Galoob depended primarily on the scan data. Why do I mention this? Because I know that some Hasbro folks do read our forums from time to time and I would rather see great AF & MM toys that come from designers who want to make great toys than "passable" AF/MM that uses scan data only to cut major corners to save the company money.

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

I say, RealScanning should be used for the early molds. Then Hasbro´s designers can tear them apart making seperate pieces moveable, cutting them in half and whatnot.

Look at Hasbro´s 3 3/4" SAGA line:
Scanned actors with later added built-in action features (it´s not the best example as nobody can really tell what was scanned and also they ruined some sculpts with their features). I think that´ll be different with scanned vehicles
as they are more of a engineering thing. For playsets I would prefer sculpt ones
that don´t nescessairly have to look identical to what the places looked like in the film. I would prefer a playset with lots of sceneries packed on one spot as possible. Simply what Galoob always did.

[good shot jansen]

Starting withAction Fleet
Battle Packs are smaller ships or creatures that include two moveable mini figures.

Geonosian Starfighter (with pilot and BD pilot)
features opening canopy, a shooting laser blast and a center foot landing gear - this would make a great action fleet battle pack vehicle fer sure! except, i think i would perfer it action fleet size, provided that they actually make it right. another solar sailor we don't need. i know alot of folks felt that the cloud speeder should have been a battle pack and not a full fledge action fleet, but i believe that we got a better toy because it was designed and built at the larger scale. if they made the genosian fighter, i would definately buy a few in order to build a fleet.

Zam Wesell´s Speeder (includes Zam and Jango Fett mini figures)
Has a opening cockpit and a secret sniper rifle hold-non removeable
Anakin´s Hot Rod Speeder (comes with Anakin and Obi Wan)
no feature except that it look great[i] - these two are no brainers. i can't believe that h'bro r&d'd these things, tooled em up with interchangable damage panels, then cancelled the line. :rolleyes:

[i]AT-ST walker (comes with Chewbacca and AT-ST Driver)
More articulated walker legs and a opening cockpit - not sure if i want a new sculpt of this guy, i have several of these already from 2 packs and battle packs. i was always happy with how galoob had produced the walker originally, and don't think there's too much room for improvement. just release them with figures, not the cheesy battle pack we recently got.

A-Wing (comes with a pilot and Mardine figurines)
More accurate in size, has an opening canopy and a landing gear - have the a-wing in all the different configurations it came in (concealed and xposed cockpit hinge), as well as all the different color schemes, (thanx sicqnus and r2dee2 for securing me the emblemless green version). i was so looking forward to the new origianl joe johnston blue color scheme, and am furious that we may never have this version for our own. the a-wing was th 1st action fleet vehicle that i bought, and still is one of my favorites!

Skiff Sailer (comes with Skiff Gunner and Jedi Luke)
More detailed with a spring loaded ramp - again, i'm happy with what galoob gave us originally for this little battle pack vehicle. as for the spring loaded plank, i think i'm gonna stick with the original swing open one that jkf and the boys at gallob developed. 8 years later, and it still works like the day i opened the battle pack.

Snowspeeder (includes Luke and Dak)
More accurate- would be availble in three different variations: Grey (with Wedge and Rebel Pilot Gunner) and battle damaged with rubber guns that can bend to recreate a crash (includes two pilots) - hmmmmmm, again i love the galoob snowspeeder, they already made a teriffic battle damgaed one that came with the hoth play set. i have all the different colors and configurations of the speeder, so my fleet is formidable. the only area that could possibly use in improvement from the original galoob version, is the guns. some of my guns have become warped over time, starting to resemble the condition that was presented on the battle damaged version. if they made the guns out of a stiffer non-bendable/warpable plastic, that would be an improvement.

Reek (comes with Jango Fett and Mace Windu)
Eight points of articulation (legs and feet). When pressing an area on his back his head(and neck) recreates bull ramming - the reek would make a good battle pack, similar along the lines of how the bantha and dewback made decent battle packs. i would be more interested in the figures than i would be in the animal.

Flash Speeder (comes with Cpt.Panaka and a Naboo Soldier)
Clear plastic wheels for a real floating effect and more accurate in size - this baby definately needs to be retooled from the original fiasco. i do like the damaged one that is t-boned into the side of the palace, that came with the naboo palace playset. but of all the action fleet vehicles that i have, mason doesn't like to play with this one very much, cause in his words, "it's kinda like a baby toy"

Anakin´s Pod Racer (comes with Anakin and Shmi)
More accurate in size with spinning lightning area and rolling wheels - sorry billy dee, i think galoob nailed this one from the get go. i love all the pods, including the turbo ones. all's i got's to say is.......make more freakin' pods!!!!!!!!!!!

Droid Fighter two-pack (one in flying mode and one transformable)
Accurate in size- one can be transformed into walking mode- of course not as fine engineered as the original AF version was. - this would be a great idea. it takes me about 10 minutes of fanagling with the original droid to get it into all the different positions and poses that it can be twisted into. adouble pack with two pre-configured droid fighters would be cool. so cool in fact, i'd buy a lot of this, so as to build up a fleet in different configurations, a squad of walking fighters and a squad of flying fighters. great concept billy dee!!!!!!1 :D

Each would come with a newly styled stand (to be revealed later) and
is packaged on a blister card. - i'm actually quite happy with all the different stands that galoob had developed. as for packaging, lets return to galoob's orginal packaging. even though everything gets opened and played with in the jansen household, the packaging is held onto (well galoob's was, h'bro's gets added to the landfill situation :dead: ), cause there was always so much information given on the packaging about the vehicles and figures included with the package. (not to mention the amazing ralph mcquarrie and joe johnston illustrations included with some of the product line) h'bro's packaging is severely lacking in all departments.


Action Fleet ships (Standart version)

Imperial Shuttle (comes wih Emperor and Driver)
Features a more accurate head section with a darker toned clear plastic window, landing gear, moveable guns, pull-out boarding ramp and moveable wings. - i should probably leave this one to jeddah, as we all know how the deary feels about this particular ship. no argument here, this ship does need to be retooled in a big way.

X-Wing Fighter (with Luke and R2)
Would be more accurate and be availible in several variations. Comes with a working landing gear, opening cargo hold on the bottom and a opening cockpit. - i have always been thrilled that galoob gave us all the different red wings of the x-wing sqadrons. it has always been gratifying that i can play with a fleet of differnt x-wings with different markings, and details on each one.

TIE Fighter (with Stormtrooper and Imperial Pilot)
Smaller than the original release- with bigger wings and a opening cockpit
Availible in grey and dark blue painted variation. the tie fighter has always been somewhat of an enigma. galoob got the dimensions and detailing down so nicely on the die-cast version, yet kinda screwed the ship up when made as an action fleet. something along the lines of darth's tie advanced. when 1st released, this beast was way to large and out of proportion, so galoob retooled, and released it in it's dead on representation the 2nd time around. the same kind of revisiting should have been done on the tie fighter a long time ago.

Y-Wing (with Rebel Pilot and Astromech Droid)
Much more accurate version like Jim Fongs unreleased mold with pop-off right engine for exploding damage. Features a landing gear, opening cockpit and a moveable gun. - again, great idea there billy dee! we were teased some time ago back in 2000 when photo's were released showing a new mold of the y-wing that we all thought was gonna be an upcoming release, it turned out that it was a model made by galoob for ilm. it would be great if the y-wing was re-released in a new accurate mold. it would be welcome addition to all the differnt y-wings that i already got in the fleet.

Naboo Fighter (with Naboo Pilot and Battle Droid)
More accuate with longer tail and smaller engines. Chrome colored front. No landing gear, shootable laser blast, two or three availble variations with different pilots and a different moveable Astromech Droid domes. - all i want for this vehicle, is for the tail section to be lengthened properly. i love how the galoob version looks when approaching, and can't stand waht this thing looks like when leaving.

Sith Infiltrator (includes Darth Maul and Darth Sidious mini figures)
Folding wings, opening cockpit section with landing ramp, opening cargo (in the front section), better hideable landing gear (the front legs) and clear red plastic for the cockpit window. i know what your saying about the front landing gear, it would have been nice if the gear could retract all the way into the fuselage, but quite frankly, this is one of my all time favorite released action fleet vehcles. the thing is packed (action packed....get it h'bro? action fleet......action packed.......action fleet fleet........action packed.........no?............didn't think so), i love all the features that was put into this ship.

Acklay (inculdes Obi Wan and Geonosian figurine)
The Acklay can open it´s mouth (non spring loaded), has ten points of articulation (balljoints on the front legs, up and down joints on the other four legs with knee articulation for each leg) - geranimals again? as a battle pack, ok, (provided that it comes with 4 or 5 figures) as an action fleet? nahhhh, think i gotta pass on this one

AAT (Droid Tank-comes with Battle Droid and Gungan Warroir)
More accurate gun part made from a stronger plastic, opening driver front reveals a seat for pilot, moveable turrents and opening back door hatch. - i have no problem with the original one. the gun section on mine is firm and true, not sure i see the need for stronger plastic. if they need to build up the plastic on any aat gun section it would definately be the die-cast version.

Jedi Starfighter (with Hyperdrive Ring- comes with Obi Wan and Mace Windu) Opening canopy, working landing gear, moveable Droid dome,
open up panel with a radar dish. The ship itself would be BP sized. Adding the Hyperdrive which doesn´t nescessairy have to be movie accurate makes it a Action Fleet Standart sized ship. - oh man, do we ever need this ship. i'd even buy the starfighter and then the hyper drive ring as two different action fleet vehicles (as long as figures were included......get that h'bro?......no? didn't think so)

TIE Interceptor (with Pilot and Royal Guard or Death Star Gunner)
Smaller than the orininal release with opening cockpit and pop-out wing section. - i'm happy with galoobs original release. i've always loved the ability to expand the wing span on the vehicle. (see h'bro, a nice suprising touch always go's a long way)

Neimodian Shuttle (with Nute Gunray and Rune Haako)
The Unreleased Hasbro ship upgraded with a pull out cockpit section. - again a no brainer. the dayum things already been designed researched and built. the main expense is done and over with, release it already!!!!!!!!!



Action Fleet X (cheesy name for Deluxe Action Fleet)
These ships are bigger than standart sized Action Fleet ships but inculde more features and up to four mini figures. i have to say, i'm not sure if i like the idea of this kind of line. i've always liked action fleet and micro machines for their smaller size. if i wanted a larger line, i'd have gone the 3 3/4" route. although, having said that, i absolutely love the royal starship repair playset. the ship is amazing that's included with that set. it kinda fits the idea of action fleet X that you'r putting forth billy dee, so maybe i do like the idea!

Republic Gunship (with Clones, Jedi or Droids)
Includes opening canopy for two pilots, moveable front turrents (rubbery plastic), landing side pannels spread open, pull-out turrent balls with glued gunners and shooting tower guns (top guns with a projectible on each side) - hey, if it means getting figures (or at least fitting figures that i already got's into it), then count me in baby. how da heck am i gonna transport my troops, if they can't even fit theior big toe throught the doors?

Royal Starship
Includes a boarding ramp, opening front and back with memorable parts of the ship (Queens throne, cockpit and Droid area)- it´s hard to describe what the interior look like when unfoalded. - it ain't hard to describe, include some removable panels with the royal starship repair play set, and we're done baby! that thing was awsome. (not to mention that it came with like 8 figures and three different colored r2 units too boot) (get it h'bro?.........no?...didn't think so)

AT-AT Walker (with Commander, Pilots and a Snowtrooper with a Speeder Bike) Articulated at 13 points (the neck, legs, knees and feet), moveable turrents and front guns, AT-AT has a opening cargo area where the Speeder Bike can be placed) - this one's a tough one, there's already an at-at that's in scale with action fleet ships, it's the 3 3/4" one.

Jango´s Slave 1 (with Jango, Boba and Obi Wan and eventually a Kamioan) Scaled in relation to the Jedi Starfighter. Features rotating guns, moving wings, secret weapon (a will post a picture soon to make it clear) and a opening cockpit that features room for two mini figures.
The ship would be probably the same size as Boba Fett´s Slave 1 that LEGO released in early 2000. - h'bro had the chance to do something right, without needing the space for the han'sicle, h'bro should have designed a removable front panel, and then used the now useless void space in the hull to contain one of the weapon systems shown in the movie. don't get me wrong, i am quite happy that they released the slave I in jango's colors, but it would have been easy to design and devlope somthing to make this a different ship that the original one........oh i'm sorry, they did, they did away with the figures..... i guess that makes it different huh?

Royal Cruiser (from AOTC)
All Chrome colored, with opening cockpit (room for two figures), ramp that can be opened, a working landing gear, exploding damage (wings can pop-off) and a small Naboo Fighter made from the DIE-Cast Naboo Fighter´s mold
(will be mentioned later) only less detailed and made out of plastic. - a play set of this vehicle, along the lines of the royla starship repair set would be cool. that way it would be big enough to mount naboo fighters under the wings.

Millenium Falcon (with Han, Chewie and two other characters)
Would be a tad smaller than the Micro Collection version Kenner released in the 80´s. Would feature a opening landing ramp, removeable top pannel to recreate all the action we saw in the interior-chess table corner, secret removeable pannels, beds, turning radar dish, moveable turrents, working landing gear (four legs in total), shootable projectible laser blast, hidden gun on the bottom. - they could re-make the micro machines falcon playset. making it more accurate would be nice. mason always uses that falcon when he wants his action fleet fighters to interact with the falcon

AT-TE Walker
Has a pull-out opening cockpit, a moveable top gun (with shootable laser projectible) moving turrents, 12 points of articulation (legs and balljoint feet),
Opening panel reveals a troop-cargo area in the back of the ship that works as a ramp. - didn't we already discuss this one?

Playsets
Naboo Hangar with Theed city on the other side. Hard to discribe again.
It´s styled similar to the old AF playsets. Comes with a figurines and a battle damaged Naboo Fighter. A concept drawing will show off the features. - i always though it would be cool if they made more playsets of different parts of the palace that could then be connected to other playsets to form the entire naboo palace. galoob was kind heading in this direction with the connector sections between the min scenes and the playsets.



I forgot to mention other Battle Packs and Action Fleet Ships:
BP Spider Walker (comes with a Super Battle Droid and a Jedi)
BP Wheel Droid (comes with a Battle Droid and a Clone Trooper) - again these would be great, but h'bro's gotta think about including figures again with action fleet. it ain't much fun playing with an army of vehicles and ships without any foot soilders to go along with the play battle.

AF Naboo Yacht with Anakin and Padmé features an opening cockpit,
a working landing gear and a landing ramp. The ship would be chrome colored. this would be sweet, mason always uses the alpha series royal starship to understudy the royal yacht when ever he plays with his action fleet. which by the way, he's started playing with them again over the past two weeks. the action fleet hadn't seen the light of day for about 2 years now, but something got him back to setting up all his playsets, vehicles, and FIGURES!!!!!!!(get it h'bro?....no?....didn't think so), and is once again staging epic battles in his room.

There are more. So far the plan is 13 Battle Pack, 12 Action Fleet toys,
and seven Deluxe Action Fleet toys.
Next time I will post a list of PT and OT Micro Machines which will include all the three packs, character sets, playsets and carry cases I have floating around in my head. Oh year, DIE-Cast ships as well.
Only thing I have to mention before the discussion begins is that I would first release MM and then Action Fleet toys. However I would make both lines work with each other. No MM Millenium Falcon open-up playset needed if there is a
Deluxe Action Fleet Falcon that would work great with MM mini figures as well. - i agree with you billy dee, before releasing any other line, h'bro has got to get their action fleet stuff in order. i'm afraid that due to the lousy releases that we were forced to accept with the saga version of the line, it may be prudent for h'bro to try and right the ship by once again introducing sci fi micro machines. i miss micro machines even more than action fleet, and would love to see their ressurection.

[sicqnus]

Nothing to change to the Droïd Fighter. It is far better than the 3,3/4" one. The complicated system that opens the wings is incredibly well done. I know lots of 3,3/4" figures collectors who gets AF DF for their dioramas.
I also love the pods. The only wrong thing to me is the short cables between the engines and the nacelle. Other than that, they're great (but short).

I also totally agree with GSJ on the playsets. The "connectors" system was ridiculous. I would prefer one hundred times real connections (moldled in the base) to make the playsets connect with each others (like a big puzzle).

I would like to see the collection divided in 4 cats.
1 - Ships & vehicles with two figures.
2 - Deluxe AF with four figures. (Bigger Action Fleet like Capital ships).
3 - Playsets AF (each with one vehicle and 4 figures).
4 - Battle Packs.

Should be redone :
- Y-wings (especially the engines).
- X-wings with corrects engine exhausts, longer nose and corrected body.
- Pearl Grey Darth Vader X-1 Tie fighter.
- Plain white Tie fighter.
- Plain white Tie Bomber with corrected shorter Pods.
- Naboo fighter ...Hem.. See the ERTL diecast model and you'll understand.
- B-wing (bigger with hard plastic cannons and more accorate cockpit module).
- Anakin and Zam Wessel speeders two-pack (should be similar to the KB's packs Landspeeder or X-35 Lars speeder in size - with figures included).

Should be done :
Deluxe Naboo Royal cruiser with Cordé, Naboo Royal guard, Padmé pilot, Panaka pilot.
Deluxe "Home One" with Admiral Ackbar, Mon Mothma, Mon Cal Officer, General Madine.
Deluxe "Liberty" (with pop up panel to reveal turbolaser damage) with Mon Cal Officer, Rebel soldier.
Deluxe "Executor" with Darth Vader, Captain Needa, Admiral Ozzel, ComScan Officer.
Deluxe "Nebulon-B" Medical Frigate with Leïa, Luke in robes, 2-1B, C-3PO.
Deluxe "Tantive 4" with Darth Vader, Captain Antilles, Leïa, Stormtrooper.
Deluxe "Gallofree Rebel Transport" with General Rieekan, Hoth Rebel trooper (3).
Deluxe Darth Tyranus Sith Lord Solar Sailer (including a real detachable big sail with long cables) with Tyranus, Anakin, Obi-Wan and pilot droïd.
Deluxe Gunship "AT-TE deployment" with AT-TE (4 Clone Troopers).

Ships and vehicles :
- Star Destroyer.
- Trade guild Rocketship.
- Outrider with Dash Rendar & Leebo.
- Tie Phantom with Imperial pilot & Imperial Science Officer.
- Coruscant freighter (refugees transport) with Anakin & Padmé refugees.
- Spha-T with Clone Commander and Clone Trooper.
- Hailfire droïd with SuperBattleDroïd and Battle Droïd.
- Padmé's H-type Yacht with Anakin & Padmé.
- Jedi Starfighter with Hyperdrive ring with Obi-Wan and Geonosian warrior.
- Geonosian fighter with Geo pilot and flying Geo.
- Reek, Acklay, Nexu on a Battle Pack.

Playsets :
Geonosis part # 1 "Geonosian Arena" arena with arena ; Solar Sailer's hidden cave.
connect with :
Geonosis part # 2 "Battle Of Geonosis" with landed Trade Fed. Coreship ; Slave One landing plateform.

These two could be very playable. In two playsets you could display (and play) with :
Jedi Starfighters, Republic Gunships, Acclamator cruisers, Rocketships, Slave One, Homing Spider Droïds, Walker droïds, Trade Fed. Landing "Beetle" ship, Geonosian fighters, dozens of Battle Droïds, Superdroïds, Clone Troopers, Spha-Ts, Hailfire Droïds...

Tatooine Playset (two parts) :
Tatooine # 1 Spaceport with Falcon Silo (could be used with H-Type Yacht), Mos Espa/Esley houses (Cantina, Vaporators, Lars Homestead).
connect with :
Tatooine # 2 Jabba's Palace with Escape pod in desert, Pit of Carkoon with a realistic Sarlacc (could be used with Skiffs, Jabba's Sail Barge, Imperial Landing Craft, Sandcrawler).

Playset extension packs :
Could be just a BP-like blister wich includes a part of land you can connect to the main playset (part of desert, grass for Naboo, etc...) packed with 4 or 5 figures more (army builders).

Episode 3 "Crash on Coruscant".
Separatist Command ship crashed in water with rescue and emergency vehicles. Figures of Palpatine, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Jedi-Hunter droïd.

I'm also a 3,3/4" collector and I have something 250 or 300 carded figures. What is boring to me is that I can't imagine a 3,3/4" Star Destroyer - for example (Maybe Michael Fright could...). I need to collect descent repros of all ships and vehicles from the saga and the 3,3/4' line could never offer such a collection. The model kits are expensives and boring to build for most of the fans, the collectors items (Icons, Code 3, and maybe soon MR) are beautiful but very expensives and not playable.
The Micro Machines are less detailed but they are another chance (for a reasonnable amount of $$$) to complete a collection of figs and vehicles without having to be a prince of the Quatar Emirates...

[JediTricks]

BDB, what would they realscan, the ILM maquettes? If so, the only major hurdle I see there is that some of those maquettes don't represent the movie products, changes are made in the computer afterwards. Other than that, if Hasbro needs to use this to make good Action Fleet, then they should have at it. I don't think they could realscan props like the full-size Jedi Starfighter though, that'd be too big for the scanners.


Sicqnus, I always felt the weakest element of the Y-wing which required a redesign was the cockpit module, not the engines, but either way a redo would be good.

X-wing has been a must redo on my list since the day I joined the Galoob Buzz Board. Naboo Fighter and the B-wing were also on my list once they were released (though the latter not as much as Jeddah... heh heh, "the guppy"), and there was also the request of redoing the Imperial Shuttle (aka "the duck").

[LTBasker]

Look at Hasbro´s 3 3/4" SAGA line:
Scanned actors with later added built-in action features

Actually they were just using them for the head guidess, and that turned out craptacular in itself. Alot of the characters look crappy, and paint apps make things worse.

The only way I can see Micros making a good comeback is if Hasbro hired back original Galoob employees. Heck I'd say they more would owe them that, afterall Hasbro's messing up Galoob probably led to alot of people losing their jobs.

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

Thanks, GSJ for your reviews. I will start working on concept drawings that go into further detail. Yes, I too think Hasbro should use the old AF box style
as it was pretty strudy. However I changed the look a bit. The orange starburst stays. Can´t think of AF and MM without it. ;)

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

I just rewatched the scenes with the Geonosian Fighters in them with the result that they are shorter in the movie than on the marquette which seems to be the scan they used for the final Clone Wars product.
So actually it would fit as a Battle Pack ship and still be accurate. You can get a got shot when you freeze frame right after the two fighters start shooting at the Gunship from behind.

[jeddah]

An honourable effort BDBs, however, please feel free to email me your final letter and I would be happy to edit it for things like typos etc. This way, the thing will look as professional as possible. You'll be sending them a letter in a suit rather than turning up in a velour set ;)

jeddah née Dulcinea ;)

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

Damn, gotta work again. Holidays are over. :eek: :cry:

Jeddah, what if I re-write the list, add the drawings and pictures-
snuggle everything into a zip file or whatever might look fancy.

Anyone who can show that to a Hasbro designer? I heard Glitch worked at Hasbro´s AF section-true? Sadly he doesn´t seem to be around the forums lately.

P.S.: That many typos? :nerv:

[jeddah]

Jeddah, what if I re-write the list, add the drawings and pictures-
snuggle everything into a zip file or whatever might look fancy.

P.S.: That many typos? :nerv:

:) no, not at all, but I think a fresh pair of eyes always helps - hence proofreaders' existence :confused: However you want to send it to me is fine, it would be my pleasure. I'll PM you my work email addy if you agree and we'll take it from there.

So, yeah, what exactly are these smileys for again? :dead: :beard:

Re the latter, I think it is hugely unfair that Swaffy gets his own personal smiley lol

jeddah

[good shot jansen]

Re the latter, I think it is hugely unfair that Swaffy gets his own personal smiley lol

heh! i took me a bit to figure that one out. i'm 'summin' yer referein' to this :beard:

and howcome baal get's his veddy own as well? :evil:

[SWAFMAN]

:) ...:beard:

Re the latter, I think it is hugely unfair that Swaffy gets his own personal smiley lol

jeddah


I resemble that remark. :beard: :beard: :beard: :beard: ;)
If you could combine it with this one :o it would be a dead ringer!

okay, okay, Jeddah. By special request, just for you.... Your own personal smiley!

[jeddah]

I resemble that remark. :beard: :beard: :beard: :beard: ;)
If you could combine it with this one :o it would be a dead ringer!

okay, okay, Jeddah. By special request, just for you.... Your own personal smiley!

Wot, no cornrows? :D

lol You git. Absolutely horrid! :D I've a look of Clockwork Orange about me! lol I was in a bad mood until I got to work and read this. (so thanks). Now all I need to do is convince SS to implement it.

GSJ, I think Baal and Swaffy are up to something. I will have more opinions on this as my day and vodka levels progress...

@:o)

jeddah

[Lazer Brain]

OH, TO DREAM...
Well, i would love for the line to come back to life, but after how they teased us with the action fleet this year with the promise of some really nice ships that they dropped just as we were ready for them, you would almost hope that someone esle could start them up again. Back in the day I was most proud of my micros ,more than the figures, but with the way the are now i have pack them away, to make room for new figures.
good luck
later

[haggie]

Love the line. Want more AFs.

That said... there's nothing we can do right now. There's no AFs to look forward to in 2004. Period. Plus, we've been over this exact same ground many times before. This is why there hasn't been a complete call to arms in response to this thread.

Hasbro has already stated that 2005 would be the year in which they revisit the line. Of course they didn't actually commit to making new AFs then, but they did indicate that it would at least be considered. That alone should indicate that there is no hope in 2004. However, if you really want to throw some more sh** on the pile you can take into consideration that they already have the molds and prototypes created for at least eight Action Fleet ships that have never been mass produced and yet they are just sitting on them. Think of how little effort they would have to exert to release those 8+ toys upon the toy collecting world. They wouldn't have to put any real effort into it at all. Just money. And yet it still isn't happening. If they had any intention of producing those ships before Episode III comes out, they'd already be on our shelves.

Love the line. Want more AFs.

[JediGoofy]

... you can take into consideration that they already have the molds and prototypes created for at least eight Action Fleet ships that have never been mass produced and yet they are just sitting on them. Think of how little effort they would have to exert to release those 8+ toys upon the toy collecting world. They wouldn't have to put any real effort into it at all. Just money. And yet it still isn't happening. If they had any intention of producing those ships before Episode III comes out, they'd already be on our shelves. ...

Well, I do not think this is the problem. It is not that Hasbro do not want to produce items which are ready for mass production. It is that retailers did not request enough product of the last AF Saga waves. :(

Hasbro produces only if it gets "minimum order quantities" (see JT's interview to Hasbro) and it looks like their forecasts did not reach this level. For sure in my opinion Hasbro is the only responsible for the poor sales of initial AF Saga waves (having delivered a real inferior product for the first decisive waves), but it seems even if they had produced the last wave we would have not seen it on the shelves because of missing retailers orders. :cry:

In the end retailers are the ones to be convinced about the profitability of SW AF and MM lines, and not Hasbro. If they do not order Hasbro do not produce. :greedy:

Our disgrace is that Hasbro treated very bad our beloved SW lines (flooding the market after E1 with the very first wave, and producing very uninteresting rehashes during the Saga relaunch), so they were very effective to convince retailers these are not selling toys. :mad: And it will be very hard for us to change this opinion. :Pirate:

Ciao,
JediGoofy

[haggie]

Very true, JediGoofy. It all makes me very bitter and sad. I guess my post just makes me counter productive, but I hadn't posted in a long time and that was the only thing that made me motivated enough to do so. I applaud anyone who still has spark enough to stay positive about the whole situation.

[JediGoofy]

Hey haggie! Don't give up! ;)
After all there is still a lot of reasons to stay positive.
As you said in 2005 we will have another chance to see SW AF and/or MM again. :D And in the meantime we can keep the interest alive in order to attract other potential collectors, for example with this forum and the wonderful AF and MM devoted sites (most of them held by other forummers). They are even making a fan movie with AF vehicles and figures!!! :eek:
Maybe it is a naive attitude, but I believe the title of this thread is actually true. :)
So haggie do not be so sad! It can't rain forever, and I know somewhere there must be a rainbow for us too! :crazed:

Ciao,
JediGoofy

[JediTricks]

Goofy, the problem with that argument is it's putting the cart before the horse. You said it yourself, if Hasbro hadn't tanked the rebirth of AF early in the game, retailers wouldn't have had so little faith in it.

Here's what still confuses me though, Hasbro says they stopped the line because it didn't meet minimum orders, yet they wouldn't say around how many that minimum order needed to be in case some etailer might read that and want to pick up the slack. And the real mindbender IMO is that Hasbro has completed product in their warehouse and completed tooling for MORE product, so they've already paid for all that stuff - how does NOT using it help them make money here? I felt like a pinball in their corporate thinking logic-hole on that one for quite a while.

[Val Da Car]

JT I don't doubt you but how does one know about created product for the line sitting in a warehouse somewhere and tooling done for the line they stopped

[good shot jansen]

jt is refering to the photo's released of product that had been built but not released. these include the neva kee's and boles rohr's pods, nemoidian shuttle, death star, star destroyer, spider homing droid, jedi star fighter, and mon calamari cruiser.

as for product sitting in warhouses, this is based upon hasbro cancelling the product line, after published released dates for the jedi star fighter, mon calamari cruiser, and spider droid.

in fact, fully finished in final packaging spider droids have shown up on ebay over the past couple of months. the product, all ready for shipping exists somewhere, and the most obvious choice would be in h'bro's warehouses.

[Val Da Car]

okay I agree that I have seen the Spider Droid show up online but I only remember a mock up.

I do recall seeing only one Republic Gunship show up at retail (a Target near my work) and thought it looked too much like the larger one I already had 2 of.

I wanted to see the republic crusier but never saw any more of the line.

Was there any sense (business or otherwise) with Hasbro buying the Galoob and messing up the line?

[Warstar]

okay I agree that I have seen the Spider Droid show up online but I only remember a mock up.

I do recall seeing only one Republic Gunship show up at retail (a Target near my work) and thought it looked too much like the larger one I already had 2 of.

I wanted to see the republic crusier but never saw any more of the line.

Was there any sense (business or otherwise) with Hasbro buying the Galoob and messing up the line?

Enjoy these piccys:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3165356832&category=50261&rd=1

I bid on the thing because, admittedly, I would have loved a Spider Droid. But no, it is indeed, gone and probably not coming back. :(

Note that the guy who sold it misspelled "Droid" in the auction title as "Driod." Probably why the auction didn't go higher, actually.

Also note that the droid is fully painted, meaning there probably was an assembly line set up for it someplace, and that, in all likelihood, a lot more were made.

Had to back up gsj :)

[good shot jansen]

but the homing spider droid that i was thinking of, was this one (http://www.sicqnus.com/sagahomingspider.htm) that sicqnus had nailed down a few months ago. as you can see, not only is it the finished product, but it was included in finished packaging as well.

that's why i concur with jt, that there has to be a warehouse somewhere, loaded up with ready to be released, yet cancelled action fleet

[SWAFMAN]

I think this question was raised earlier, but is there any way that the weakness of the US $ vs. other world currencies could play a factor Hasbro's in not shipping the product from Asia to the USA?

I guess what I'm getting at is this, and I'm the first to admit this a stretch of galactic proportions, but is is possible that Hasbro is waiting for the value of the US $ to increase significantly in relation to other world currencies, then bring the existing, warehoused ready-to-sell AF product to market, so that the US dollars which are brought in to Hasbro from those sales are worth more when they spend them in Asia to order additional products for manufacture?

I guess it would lend more weight to my question if Hasbro was already retailing the existing AFs in Europe, whose Euro currency is strong in the world market.

[JediTricks]

Swaffy, I don't think it's a chiefly economic reason because there'd be no future for higher results since the longer they wait to put out the product, the more market interest will disappear. Plus, they never were released in any foreign market, usually Hasbro sends their harder-to-find figures - the ones that were held back in the US due to retailer disinterest - out to European and/or Asian markets.

[SWAFMAN]

JT - yeah, I knew it was a pretty far-fetched idea, but I just thought I'd put it out there for the heck of it. If they really did use that reasoning, it would hold true for ALL their new products, and I think someone would've noticed by now if it were occurring on that wide a scale with Hasbro's products.

[JediTricks]

With all the crazy stuff Hasbro worries about, I would really hate for international economic imbalance become a primary one - global economic issues could end up crippling them if they get too deeply involved that way, especially with their mindless-drone brand of corporate thinking.

[sicqnus]

but the homing spider droid that i was thinking of, was this one (http://www.sicqnus.com/sagahomingspider.htm) that sicqnus had nailed down a few months ago. as you can see, not only is it the finished product, but it was included in finished packaging as well.

that's why i concur with jt, that there has to be a warehouse somewhere, loaded up with ready to be released, yet cancelled action fleet

I've made a few pics.

http://www.sicqnus.com/collection01/Homing01.jpg
http://www.sicqnus.com/collection01/Homing02.jpg
http://www.sicqnus.com/collection01/Homing03.jpg
http://www.sicqnus.com/collection01/Homingproto01.jpg
http://www.sicqnus.com/collection01/Homingproto02.jpg
http://www.sicqnus.com/collection01/Homingproto03.jpg

The boxed spider droïd and the unpainted one haven't any trademarks on but I've seen later another unboxed painted proto with trademarks, similar to a production piece.

[Billy_Dee_Binks]

Thanks JT and swaffy and everyone else for keeping this a busy topic.
I finally got around the hard working days. I will post that damn list very soon.
And the updated packaging.

:ermm: