We are set up for an official 10 minute interview next week at Celebration VI!
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Originally Posted by
Mr. JabbaJohnL
The Force FX saber discussion is from the
Yoda's News SDCC interview, which is a video. It starts right around the 1:19 mark.
I'll be able to better respond to everything else tomorrow; I'm too tired right now.
Ugh, that was such a bummer. If Derryl doesn't know if there's one planned, that suggests to me that there's at least one plan on the drawing boards and it's just not going anywhere right now.
In any case, that answer should have been followed up with a "why" and sadly wasn't, so I guess that could be our job if you get the opportunity to ask it.
Man, I wonder why they didn't mic the questioner, I can't hear any of those questions.
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Yeah, you're correct. I'd be more than happy to take people's questions, but I don't think it's going to do anyone good if I'm intentionally going as broad as I can to hit on everything they do as opposed to digging into the meatier questions. I'm not going to bring up Fighter Pods since nobody here cares about them (including me).
Actually, we have several forumites who are interested in Fighter Pods, but they don't seem to have any questions (and why should they? The brand is pretty much exactly what it looks like on its face) so there's no reason to bring it up. If I thought there was a burning FP question that needed answering, absolutely it'd be in consideration.
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The only reason I'd even want to ask about AMP'D is from a behind-the-scenes, business sort of perspective. It really doesn't fit my collecting interests, and seems to be geared towards kids more than collectors anyway, but I just find it interesting that they showed it at Toy Fair but ignored it completely at SDCC. That could be because they weren't focusing on showing 2012 product during the presentation, and perhaps they weren't ready for the show floor, but I wonder if they have quietly dropped the line.
I hear ya, and that's why I'd ask it as well if I were in your shoes, but it's not priority. I would suspect either the licensor pulled it, a contractual issue was discovered, or retailers weren't interested.
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There's Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon this year, and the same thing happened in late 2010 with ROTS Anakin and Obi-Wan, though those figures were just nearly identical and not completely identical, so I'll bring those up as well. The other biggest pegwarmers in Movie Heroes right now are the three Separatist droids, but that's probably more because these figures simply just suck bigtime.
Okay, I see what you mean on being too accusatory. I absolutely want to include this question and I'll try to make it clear that I'm not just being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk, but I'll push it down the list a little bit.
I'm beginning to find concern about the goal of this question. If it's always Obi-Wan and a movie star and prequel droids, the answer to our question is already evident (popular, well known with kids, but collectors want upgrades - TVC cardbacks are sometimes seen as the only upgrade), so what are we trying to achieve by asking the question?
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I'll tread lightly with Jeff. Derryl's always been the most open and thorough with answers to questions, and Brian Parrish has been pretty open as well, while some of the others have been less so.
Don't tread too lightly if Derryl's with him, but yeah, be aware of whether or not you've got him - you can see it on his face in that YodasNews video you linked to. On the other hand, don't let his mood affect important follow-ups, make sure to get a "why" asked to any big thing you feel is warranted - "why" is the most important question in journalism.
As for Parrish, he's been transferred to PlaySkool, I think.
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Okay, will do. I don't collect these so I don't know too much about them, but I am aware of the repack sets. I'll have to go with the pre-existing question or whatever else you guys give me since I won't be able to just spitball very well on this line. Any other thoughts on what to ask if they do indeed announce the Shadow Squadron set?
Basically we're just asking about the future of the line, its health and possibilities. I can't think of another specific so I'll leave that angle to someone else. I personally am just a little frustrated with the repack 3packs being overpriced and delivering unexciting experiences, and why there's been no Battle Pack-type visual diorama packaging for a multipack like these - it's just 3 vehicles in a generic package.
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Aside from the Yoda's News video I linked to, I didn't see that many.
JediDefender was the only other one I saw that had an actual transcript of the interview. It's pretty good, with some information on the vehicles next year.
Much appreciation. That one alone has spawned a new question from me:
- At Comic-Con, Jeff told another site that the MTT's performance will significantly dictate how the 2013 line views another large vehicle launch. The MTT is not an exciting vehicle in general, it's slow and doesn't shoot in the films, it's not that "aggressive" style that Derryl has looked for in the past, the toy is built around a very specific gimmick which may only have limited appeal, it's higher-priced than the other big vehicles that size, and it was released half a year after Ep I in 3D came and went in theaters with little resonating impact. In short, the MTT was a risky choice and if it doesn't do well, why should its specific shortcomings be an indictment of big Star Wars vehicles in general?
A bit of a mouthful, I'll grant you, so it probably needs a rewrite, but I think it's an important question to ask - although kept at least in the middle of the opening salvo, question 5 or 6 at best. Also, if asked which ones, I'd go with Sail Barge - more aggressive, played a bigger role in the film; Acclamator assault ship - aka Republic Assault Ship, the AOTC mini Star Destroyer that fills with clones at the end, so it has Clone Wars play, and it's the fattest top to bottom so it's a better chance for a toy than other Star Destroyer designs; but honestly I don't really know if there's room for more big vehicles after the Sail Barge anyway, I'd struggle. :p
From JTA
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Many people attribute the rising cost of oil to the increase in prices for figures. While the price has hit those of us in the U.S. hard at the gas pump, it hasn’t had as big an impact on toys. Yes, there are increased prices in transportation and production, but it isn’t as influential on the price of figures as you would think, according to Hasbro.
This is why I prefer direct quotes, that answer is unacceptable on its face and the exact wording is important because Hasbro for the last 5 years has pushed down our throats that the oil price increases were the primary cause of prices going up - not from materials, but from labor costs and transportation which they said was taking a HUGE hit in the line. Then again, maybe it's best to just let that one go.
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Sandtroopers only updated with some thoughts and very small tidbits from conversations with the team; the biggest point that we didn't already know is that Pong Krell has been delayed past 2013, sadly. They were supposed to update with the actual interview, but it doesn't look like they have yet.
Galactic Hunter, Rebelscum, and JediInsider didn't have anything from what I could see.
That's crazy! This really bothers me, I know it's very challenging work to do these interviews but it's important to the fandom IMO. I know they did more than 5 interviews, such a waste of a good resource if it doesn't get used to its fullest.
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I guess I don't mean to much combining them into one sentence so much as asking them one after the other to keep it organized and so the soft goods are on their minds.
I hear ya, but with such a limited resource that'd be a waste of what little we have, can't ask everything, gotta prioritize and if they aren't 1 question, one is going to have to wait until later in the interview or later in life. Or both will have to wait, who knows. But it's not fair to the other questions to ask 2 successive questions about the same thing, a lot of people are interested in a lot of Star Wars things and we need to cover a lot of ground for them too.
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I asked Andrew (I think it was a guy named Andrew?), a team member who works on The Clone Wars stuff, if they might use the more articulated arms to make a battle droid that could do the two-handed pose back at CV. He seemed kind of peeved at something or other and said it was something they'd look into, which they obviously haven't. I'm more interested in a realistic battle droid that can hold the blaster properly, as the Vintage version can kind of be bent to do it but it's not ideal. If I can somehow combine both ideas it might be a better question.
I don't think there's been an Andy or Andrew on the team in about a decade, but I could be mistaken. Might it have been Dave Vennemeyer, the head sculptor, wears a goatee? I can't imagine he'd bother shooting it down, especially 2 years ago, he'd just hand it off to Derryl who would say they'd consider it. Anyway, I agree that the 2-handed pose on the Vintage is more important but the walls on that one are so small that it's fragile and expensive, while the Clone Wars one is not only possible but already exists as separate tooling, so it's a freebie.
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There are still a number of high-profile hard-to-find figures, and they did this a few years ago when they threw all the McQuarrie figures in a few boxes and sold them as exclusives, so I guess it's not out of the question. I'll think on how to make it better.
The timing makes this valuable, the KOTOR anniversary next year (July 15th, '03), they have the HK-47, Bastila Shan, Revan, and Malak which is like half of the important characters in the game so it's a freebie, it gets 4 hard-to-find figures out again, it works exactly on its face because they're the only KOTOR figures and they're all HTF and the opportunity to do this is in range coming up for KOTOR's 10th anniversary. They're the most visually interesting major characters anyway so it doesn't even need another figure to hook it.
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The more I think on it, the less I feel the question about the post-TPM 3D releases is essential. The JTA Q&A brought it up, and we'll know their plans for AOTC soon enough - we already know that they're not going whole-hog on it like they did for TPM, with several army builders from other films included in the first Droid Factory wave and hardly any AOTC figures in the second wave. I'm sure they'll touch on the other lines at Celebration. I guess I don't want to dwell on their failure too much, and they might not want to reveal all their plans just yet. They've also stated that they overshot the demand on it all, so I assume they'll cut back somewhat.
It's a brand philosophy question, do they recognize that there was too much product, it was overhyped and late to market and dominated the brand for too long in '12 while the movie release itself didn't make much of an impact, so what have they learned from those situations and how will it affect them going forward? That's why I'd ask it, and pretty early on at that. I'm not remotely satisfied with the JTA answer.
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On the "are we gonna see TPM stuff still?" question, as I mentioned, I bet they'll just say that they'll to work it into the line wherever it fits, so I don't know if it's that important, actually.
Absolutely agree.
