More Cinema Scene 3-packs!

[Jerjerrod]

Hello Hasbro! It's time to please YOUR fans once again, by giving us some new 3-packs. Here are some ideas:

1. ANH: Imperial Leaders - Tarkin with Motti (no choking) and General Tagge.
2. ESB: General Rieeken and 2 other officers in Hoth base.
3. ROTJ: Emperor's Throne Room - Palpatine and his 2 dignitaries.
4. TPM: uhhhh.... i dunno.
5. AOTC: Cliegg Lars with young Owen and Beru.

Anyone have other ideas, please post and INSPIRE Hasbro.

Jerjerrod

[Beast]

Cinema Scenes are dead, but Hasbro is releasing Screen Scenes. The first two were the Trash Compactor sets, that are available at Wal-Mart's. There are 5 more sets planned for the year, according to early retailer lists. They will have between 2 and 3 figures. Here's my speculation from the names from the list. Hasbro also told GalacticHunter that a Kamino Rain Battle set is being planned.

Wave 2 (June)
Jedi Council with 3 figures -
Geonosian War Room with 3 figures
Coruscant Night Club with 3 figures

Wave 3 (August)
Tatooine Homestead
Hoth Wampa Attack

Jedi Council - I'm going to venture a guess for the Jedi Council set. Most likely this is how we'll get Yareal Poof and Oppo Rancisis, since their large size would make carding difficult. Hopefully the 3rd figure is Yaddle or Even Piell.

Geonosian War Room - I think we should most likely finally get Poggle the Lesser in this set. And E2 Nute Gunray is likely as well. The third figure will probably be Dooku, knowing how Hasbro works. He's probably the Dooku figure that was rumored to come with the holo death star. But I'll still hope that it's Nute's assistant.

Geonosian Night Club - Nice to see that we're finally going to get somthing from there. We have Lt. Faytonni and an un-named figure in the basic line. Hopefully Ackh Med-Beq is the figure, or he's included in the Screen Scene. The three I would go with, would be Ayy Vida, Elan Sleazebaggano, and maybe the Tey How looking Neimodian.

Tatooine Homestead - I assume they will probably continue including three figures in the sets from this point on. So hopefully we will get Cligg Lars w/ Hoverchair, Owen Lars, and Beru Whitesun. I was considering Padme in one of her outfits, but those would easily sell carded. So may as well go with all secondary charecters.

Wampa Attack - I think we may go back to two figures for this set. A re-tooled Wampa beast and a newly sculpted Luke: Hoth. Maybe with a small section of the ice cave so that Luke can be suspended hanging from the ceiling. They can even include the carcass of the Tauntaun in one corner.

Kamino Rain Battle - Another Obi-Wan and Jango, but without the action features from the deluxe versions. If they do three figures in the set, probably a neutral posed Boba as well. Hopefully it comes with the crate on the landing platform, before the battle starts.

MTFBWY and HH!!

Jar Jar Binks

[Beast]

As for what I would like to see, I'll pick one from each movie just to make things easier. Though we've discussed cool ideas for Cinema Scenes around here for ages.

TPM: Neimodian Bridge - Dautay Dofine, Tey How, and Pilot Battle Droid (Blue). The Battle Droid should be available seperatly though. But these three figures need to be made, and carded Neimodians are a tough sell now adays.

AOTC: Chancellor Palpatine's Office - Only a 2 figure set this time, but they can make up for it. Supreme Chancellor Palpatine that can sit, Sly Moore, and Palpy's chair and desk. A mini-holo Dar Wac can be included for Palpy's desk as well.

ANH: Yavin Medal Ceremony - New sculpts of Princess Leia: Ceremonial, Luke: Ceremonial, and Han: Ceremonial. The Han is one of the few Han's we've never had made. Just do him with a removable medal and his top shirt button buttoned.

ESB: Medical Frigate - Luke: Medical Robe, Leia: White Gown w/ Bespin hairdo, and 2-1B. Luke would have interchangable regular and mechanical hands. That way he can be used in Hoth Medical Scenes also.

ROTJ: Endor Strike Team - Han: Endor w/ Trenchcoat, Luke: Endor Poncho, and Leia: Endor Poncho. Luke and Leia should have removable soft goods ponchos, and removable helmets. I'd have gone with my usual "Emperor and Dignitaries", but you already used it.

MTFBWY and HH!!

Jar Jar Binks

[TheDarthVader]

Those sound like good ideas to me!!!

[Jek Porky 2002]

Can't wait to see the Jedi, but I hope they release them all like this and not just the ones we haven't already got.

[coy5]

How about a hoth imperial scene with General Veers, the snowtrooper officer (with rank badge), and a not too buff at-at driver. The veers action figure would of course have removable helmet and torso armor.

[bobafrett]

Fine, just as long as they aren't all Wal-Fart exclusives. I hate having only the choice to spend my money at the flea market of discount stores.

[Jargo]

TRU has stuck with star wars all these years, why aren't they taking more exclusives on the multipack and accessory set front? I could understand their reticence about larger items and not wanting to be saddled with a bunch of huge turkeys like the royal starship but figure packs sell well. The 25th anniversary sets didn't do that well at my local TRU stores because they were characters everyone already has a hundred times over. new characters or accessory sets or figures that are actual real improvements like the trash compactor sets figures of han and Luke would sell well. TRU has a fairly good image, the stores are easy to get round even if there are never any staff to be found that know anything about anything. But TRU should be carrying more. Seems a lot of people just don't like Wal*Mart or these other stores that have the exclusives but most people have no qualms about using TRU. Just an observation. I know it's down to TRU head office really. Hasbro could be plying them with goodies and riches galore to get them to say yes to stuff and TRU head office could be playing hard to get, acting coquettish. It's a real shame because it's been such a long relationship star wars and TRU. In a questionaire conducted by Hasbro UK the UK collectors who responded nearly all said they preferred to buy from TRU rather than shop online or go to specialist retailers. But then we don't have Wal*Mart or Kaybee or Kmart or any of those stores (one of them 'marts closed down recently didn't it?) but TRU has to be the saving grace of shopping for star wars toys. Globally speaking not locally.

Multipacking to me seems to be the way forward rather than single packing. Cost reduction on all the packaging would mean more budget for product. Just because you have three figures to a blister doesn't mean you have to have three times the cardback or three times the blister size. Creative packing means you can have the figures two deep and still use the same sizes of blister. Or change the style completely and put the three figures in an egg shaped bubble, see all round the product. no card back just the info packed inside the bubble at the bottom and the top is just the brand logos. Perhaps not an attractive prospect to some but its just an example. I've outlined my proposals in the 'suck up' thread I think. All i'm saying is the changes to the packaging are too subtle whenever they change. It needs to be bolder, new and fresh. no wonder star wars figures fail to capture the imagination of children if the packaging still looks pretty much the same as it did in 1978. Apart from the other thing about the gimmicks the packaging of the product is the main sticking point as far as i see it. And then there's the advertising. it stinks. The slogans are trite and the commercials are arcane. My six year year old nephew said the adverts were rubbish. He's asked me not to buy him any more star wars toys. Doesn't play with them anymore and he's given a lot away to charity. My twelve year old nephew would rather play with LOTR toys and warhammer roleplaying stuff. They just aren't interested in the toys because they faild at base level to inspire their imaginations. The packaging was boring to them. The gimmicks crippled the figures and stimied their creativity. Five minutes was all they could sustain with the saga figures before switching off and finding something else to play with. My six year old nephew felt that the gimmicks were bad because he couldn't move the arm or leg or waist depending on which figure he had in his hand. he thought the magnets were rubbish and the poses were stupid because the figures wouldn't stand up on their own and kept falling over.
Up until the saga figures my nephew was an avid fan and eagerly awaited the arrival of the figures for AOTC. So ridding the figures of gimmicks and action features and getting back to articulation and neutral poses, cvhanging the packaging to something more exciting and visually attractive might attract a few kids back. Packing the figures as multipacks would help to stop so many kids being disappointed when on their one trip to the toy store in a month they can't find half the figures they want because the scalpers have had them away. Three packs is the way to go. Three packs with a plastic diorama backdrop that interlinks with other backdrops to make playsets. The plastic backdrp serves as the backing in package of the figures. It's themed to the figures, the three figures are theme related, e.g. three imperial officers, three jedi knights, three gungans, three senators etc. when kids go to the stores they find one set and instantly have figures that will be useful for interacting with each other in a way that makes sense. Not recreating the movie because to be honest I've never known a kid do that, not with toys. They make up their own stories with figures. But having figures packed together that relate to each other helps avoid disappointment in never finding a matching figure 'b' to figure 'a' bought the last time a kid went shopping. multipacking gives kids figures 'a' 'b' and 'c' in one go. adding in collectible backdrop pieces gives you the hunt aspect if you so desire. finding all the sets that have all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle playset. but it doesn't matter if you don't get them all because they all interlink anyway. multipacking means looking forward to the next set of sets. with three figures to a set there's only need for a small number of sets per wave. even two sets every three months would be fine. then everyone has a good chance of finding the two sets. additional extra sets or deluxe sets containing just one figure could be added in every so often. These would be larger characters or small beasts or characters that have some special articulation additional to standard that allows for even more play. These sets could have special electronic pieces of backdrop or corner pieces of backdrop not available in any other set. or just a larger mini playset section like say, a super articulated stormtrooper han Solo would come with the red control station backdrop with lights and the seat. Then later, Chewbacca with binders would come with the section that had the 'closet' with opening door and the viewport. Then a stormtrooper slightly taller than normal would come with the blast shield door that he could bang his head on.
Just examples but you get the general drift. It would adjust the cost of the toys somewhat, but if the toys were quality would that matter. how can hasbro charge so much for small figures when you can readily buy much larger figures for the same price that are the same quality? If hasbro wants to charge so much then the quality has to match the price. Adding in backdrops would give some quality back to the line. Going with articulation rather than stupid action features would bring some quality back to the line. drooping one pose figure sculpts is a must. scene specific sculpts have to stop. The packaging needs a drastic overhaul. What you've done to the action fleet line is dreadful but the large see all round blister is what i'm saying needs to apply to the figures. Multipacking as standard not deluxe or exclusive or special is essential as is doing away with basic single packed figures.
This is my messy vision of how three packs should be done. now it's late and I'm going to bed. Goodnight.

[Jerjerrod]

Well said Jargo. I agree with your ideas. More non-scene specific 3-packs will be very successful. Now, more than ever, Hasbro must take a next step, otherwise, no matter how many fan choice figures they put out, collectors are still going to move on. I like the idea of having "themed 3-packs", natually, if I want Moff Jerjerrod ,I also get Piett AND Ozzel with it. Wonderful idea. However, Screen scenes like the trash compactors, which are screen specific, can stay at the same time as your proposed "themed" 3-packs. Also, Single figures must stay though. No matter what anybody says, Singles are the building blocks of Star Wars collecting. The only thing is they can't suck, with gimmicks and wide-legged poses etc. The must follow their roots and make them in their neutral poses.

What a 1 2 3-punch!
1. Themed 3-packs: 3 Officers, 3 Senators etc., which are non-screen specific:
2. Screen Scenes: that connect together to form bigger scenes.
3. Singles: Neutral poses, and come with ALL the required accessories so a collector can only buy the charcter once. (Hey, since the bubble is so big already, why not?)

Also:
4. Vehicles: Realistic, accurate, and fun to play with.

[OzOtter]

Jar Jar, I'm doubtful as to your predictions of the figures to be include in the screen scenes. Although, I would love to see them eventuate.

The first two were all core characters. I think we are only likely to get one (if any) secondary characters in these sets. Don't get me wrong, these are not the sets I'd like to see, but just speculation based on previous performance from Hasbro (i.e. the Saga line).

e.g.

Jedi Council - Yoda, Mace, maybe a third character we don't have yet, but possibly those two sitting in the meditation chamber.

Geonosian War Room - I think you are right about Poggle here, but I'm sure we'd see Dooku again too.

Geonosian Night Club - Ben and Zam and Anakin ("Night Club Showdown"). Maybe we'd get Sleazebaggo, but what a sucky figure. I would want Anthony Daniel's character, whatever he is called.

Tatooine Homestead - Anakin (yet again), Padme and possibly Cliegg.

Wampa Attack - Luke upsidedown (which is cool) and a downsized wama so it fits!

Kamino Rain Battle - Ben and Jango again, and I bet they won't include Boba!