Toy Fair 2013 Coverage

Jedi Force is confusing, we've had this name a lot now, and this line is like a cross between the older Jedi Force line and Galactic Heroes, and some figures have articulation while others don't. Interesting idea, I wonder how they'll do on pegs.

I've been buying them for a while. And yeah, they're kinda a mesh of both lines.

The only ones that don't tend to have articulation is the GH carryovers. Like the Jawas and Destroyer Droids.

Ooooooh, I assume you're talking about the new larger scale Jedi Force figures. Yeah, those are new.

Ok, that's it for the Hasbro Star Wars photos Steve took. The next update is expected to be the high-res slideshow files.

Originally Posted by Beast

I've been buying them for a while. And yeah, they're kinda a mesh of both lines.

The only ones that don't tend to have articulation is the GH carryovers. Like the Jawas and Destroyer Droids.

Ooooooh, I assume you're talking about the new larger scale Jedi Force figures. Yeah, those are new.

Ah, I see, that explains a bit why it's been confusing to me, it's already up and running and mixing concepts.

It just dawned on me that there's no Clone Wars product displayed, and now Steve has the official list up and there's no Clone Wars and no Class 1 Fleet.

Exclusives gallery up, they look really good.

Hasbro has sent out the source images from the slideshow, but have a new policy about not giving out the actual slides, so those images will be put into their respective sections.

SLAVE I ESB! Gimme gimme!

Biggs gets his own X-wing. Yay?

Birth of Vader set has a shocktrooper but no FX-6?

Oh, that Republic Gunship set looks like it has the new budget Saga Legends Yoda, Clone Trooper and Clone Pilot, how very unfortunate, and also I don't think those budget figures will be able to fit in the turrets or possibly even in the cockpit.

Ugh, now we have yet another awful-looking Luke ANH Ceremony. What is it with that version of the character that delivers only awful figures?

Scoff all you want (and I hope I'm wrong), but the 3.75" Black Series already having a truly crappy-looking Ceremony Luke and yet another Vader makes me a bit concerned that, after peg space is cut to make room for the Saga Legends, they're going to get clogged with pegwarmers a lot more quickly.

Those 5-POA Saga Legends figures actually look pretty cool. I might end up buying a few of those. Hopefully we'll see some OT troopers in that style soon.

I didn't really expect to like them at all, but they have sort of a vintage, Kenner charm about them.

I have no interest in what was shown for the Black Series 3.75" line. It's just the same, crappy Legacy 2 assortments repackaged.

Right now it looks like I'm going to be focusing on the 6" line and those Saga Legends figures for 2013.

In contrast to the SW stuff, I'm drooling so much over the Transformers and Joes that I've had to drink six gallons of water in the last five minutes to keep from dehydrating.

Originally Posted by El Chuxter

In contrast to the SW stuff, I'm drooling so much over the Transformers and Joes that I've had to drink six gallons of water in the last five minutes to keep from dehydrating.

I don't normally collect Transformers but when I do I prefer that freaking huge Metroplex.




Stay collecting, my friends.

I'm bouncing off the walls over a Bumblebee figure. A freakin' Bumblebee. I NEVER expected that, in a million years, they'd make a figure based off the character as the Autobot Commander in the IDW comics.

I'm disappointed by ToyFair And I saw nothing from Star Wars that I plan to buy in 2013

I really have to say - this year's show is very disheartening. Hasbro confirmed to other sites that there will be no more animated Clone Wars figures, ever, and word on the street (though unconfirmed) is that the last waves of The Clone Wars and maybe even the Movie Heroes figures will not be released in the US. Granted, they weren't the most exciting assortments ever, but it's frustrating that these will be unnecessarily difficult to track down. Still, this means no Bo-Katan, no Pre Vizsla mark 2, no Pong Krell, no ARC Trooper Fives, no Rako Hardeen, no bounty hunter Ventress, no spider-Maul, no nothing, and that really just sucks.

Otherwise, there was some cool stuff in there. Bigg's X-wing is a logical choice since the figure is coming and we already have Red Leader and Red Two's ships. The repainted Slave I and TIE Interceptor look good, and it'll be nice to finally have the gunship packed with its turrets (though it will probably be crazy expensive). It's odd that Amazon is getting a few items, and I can foresee that there will be many issues getting these things in mint packaging.

Those two Vader four-packs are snoozeville, unless maybe you missed out on the TVC Darth Sidious figure (which is inaccurate to the scene).

The Saga Legends are very odd. We knew there was going to be a low-price, low-articulation line, presumably in the vein of the 2012 battle packs, but they could have at least put them in moderately interesting poses. They could be good for sitting in vehicles, and maybe some good sculpts will work their way into the line. The bubble design with the lava-looking bumps is actually kinda cool - but the bubble probably shouldn't be the most interesting thing about the figure.

Mission Series, as a concept, is pretty cool. The Jango figure looks pretty good for what it is. I'm surprised they're going back to that battle droid sculpt again what with the superior version they just made for the Class I line. The R2/3PO and Rex/droid pairings are odd, especially since some of them are animated style. The Vader with seeker droid set - despite the droid having weirdly large appendages - ain't bad. What's a little sad is that the seeker droid is the absolutely only never-before-made 3 3/4" item in the entire Toy Fair presentation.

We didn't really need another version of Anakin and Obi-Wan's ROTS starfighters, but there they are.

From The Black Series, we're still not hearing anything about:
*TIE Fighter Pilot (Backstabber)
*Sandtrooper (black pauldron)
*Battle Droid (Geonosis)
*Geonosian Warrior
*Clone Trooper (212th Attack Battalion)
*TC-70 - Build-A-Droid
*FA-4 Pilot Droid - Build-A-Droid
*Mace Windu (The Clone Wars)
*Captain Rex
*A-wing Pilot
*R8-B7 - Build-A-Droid
*R5-X2 - Build-A-Droid

The listings are saying "stormtrooper" though we haven't yet seen images so it's unclear if it's the sandtrooper. Hopefully the droids will turn up somewhere, but most of those other figures I could take or leave anyway so it's no great tragedy. The packaging is hovering somewhere between "classy" and "boring" . . . I'll have to see production samples to judge it better.

I totally called the Kmart Imperial Scanning Crew set back at CVI, and I knew it. The Ewok catapult sounds pretty awesome too.

And dang it if all four of those 6" figures don't look downright amazing . . .

Originally Posted by El Chuxter

Not directly, no.

However, what mass retailer will order the figures that cost twice as much and take up the same space, particularly if they know they're geared toward collectors (whom they see as a handful of crazy people anyway) and the cheap line is for kids? At the very least, space for the "real" figures is going to get cut significantly.

That is assuming of course the cheaper Star Wars figure line will go to mass retailers. Not to get off topic, but Bandai has been doing this exact same thing for years now with their Power Ranger figures. The main (more expensive) figure line ends up at the the mass retailers you'd expect them to (Walmart, Toys R Us, etc.) while the cheaper figure line ends up at the cheaper value type stores (Big Lots, Dollar General, Family Dollar, etc.). Hasbro could do the same thing with their cheap figure line.

I know I have said articulation can be over rated but holy crap! The POTF2 figures at least had waist movement.

The 6" figures look great but I don't see a whole lot of people collecting every character all over again in this scale and price range. Cherry picking at best.

Any price point on the Tie Interceptor and Slave-1 yet?

Originally Posted by Lord Malakite

That is assuming of course the cheaper Star Wars figure line will go to mass retailers. Not to get off topic, but Bandai has been doing this exact same thing for years now with their Power Ranger figures. The main (more expensive) figure line ends up at the the mass retailers you'd expect them to (Walmart, Toys R Us, etc.) while the cheaper figure line ends up at the cheaper value type stores (Big Lots, Dollar General, Family Dollar, etc.). Hasbro could do the same thing with their cheap figure line.

Hasbro's done this with the less-articulated Marvel driver figures and repainted TF Mini-Cons, and recently introduced a budget line of Joes that's actually high-quality repaints that collectors were asking for. It's possible the Saga Legends will be discount store exclusives. However, I learned last year that the discount store figures are handled by a different Hasbro team, whereas these are by the SW team, so the distribution will be a bit different. There's also the comment in the press release about the Black Series line that makes me think these will be mass distributed.

At CVI, I asked Derryl about the possibility of dollar store SW figures and he said that wasn't something Lucasfilm wanted to pursue. They also look similar to the already-confirmed Iron Man 3 and Ultimate Spider-Man lines, so they're definitely a mass-market release.

Honestly . . . aside for the scout trooper, there are zero figures in the small scale black line I like. And I'm only wanting the scout trooper because the one that came with my speeder bike is defective (Neck ball joint is kinda welded so that it doesn't work properly). But, I think I'm probably about done collecting the smaller scailed figures. Going to sell two shelves worth of stuff and be done. Now the 6 inch figures? Luke, R2, and the storm trooper are all deffinet buys for me the moment I find them regardless of protest from my other half. They're just everything I could ever want in those figures and then some. My only gripe with them, is that on R2 the little ...holo projector light? on the top of his head is at a 90 degree straight up angle. I dont think I've ever seen has bro do it at a different angle or, even better, make it a small ball jointed part. Even still, very very easy buy for me. Way too cool not to. 3PO will be a must have for sure if they release him.

Originally Posted by bigbarada

Those 5-POA Saga Legends figures actually look pretty cool. I might end up buying a few of those. Hopefully we'll see some OT troopers in that style soon.

I didn't really expect to like them at all, but they have sort of a vintage, Kenner charm about them.

Agreed. They really do feel like Old School Kenner figures. Which is kinda neat.

They really do have a magical charm about them. I'm shocked how nice they look.