Hasbro does want to make a large Death Star playset

[Tycho]

I read this in YodaNews' Q&A:

Yodasnews: Do you think it would be possible for you to bring out a huge half of a death star play set unlike the original vintage one? Sure we know play sets don't sell as well but if you produced it in a small quantity and made it exclusive to online retailers like the imperial shuttle I am sure the collectors would pay big money for this item. Heck even I would pay a couple of hundred dollars for a death star play set that actually seemed to be more accurate in size.



Hasbro: Good question and one which we are always looking at. You answered the question yourself, though, by saying that we'd produce small quantities and have to charge a lot for it. That by definition is a very risky niche product with a massive R&D burden and tooling budget. Quite simply we have to find mass-market solutions to massively intensive R&D challenges like play sets. By the way, we've got mocked up in the office three versions of the very play set you describe.

I'd love to see what they have as mock-ups, wouldn't you? Just a featurette on the Hasbro offices like Hyperspace's tour of Rancho Obi-Wan (Sansweet's place) would be awesome. They can state in picture captions over-and-over again that Hasbro has no plans to produce the Death Star at this time - but it is sweet that they are looking into various directions to test its feasability.

I wonder if in the end, Hasbro will opt to create its own high-end division, and make $2-500 "toys" like the Death Star, a Star Destroyer, etc (or charge even more for them) in light of the collector market and Gentle Giant, SideShow, and Master Replicas being very successful in that niche. I'm willing to bet that 90% or more of SS, GG, and MR's customers have a Hasbro action figure collection for Star Wars too. If they're willing to spend so much on FX Lightsabers and a nearly $400 Jabba diorama for 12" figures - they'll buy a (GOOD QUALITY) playset from Hasbro for its action figures at those high prices and Hasbro can do a limited amount, take the necessary steps to do a pre-sell, etc. All they are doing by not offering it, is short-changing themselves on the fun they'd have in selling it, let alone mentioning the revenue. Yeah, so they're an Ages 4 & Up toy company? Any company can expand their markets. Don't beer and cigarette companies offer clothing? Albeit it's advertising, but if Hasbro made a darn Death Star, wouldn't that be advertising an invitation for all of us to buy tons of Imperials to fill it with?

Change with the market and adapt. ROTS might have been ages 4 & Up, but in 2017 with a year left to go with the current license, the reality Hasbro will face is that Star Wars fans will be ages 35 & Up or something like that. - Perhaps the children of Hasbro's "current children" will want their first Luke Tatooine then, but Daddy will surely want to buy the Death Star and keep Junior's paws off of it! Hehe.

[maatu]

tycho, that's cool that hasbro is listening. maybe they can break it down into 3 sections and have different toy websites sell it as an exclusive.

[Tycho]

I don't think it's that "they are listening," but rather the SW team is composed of creative fanboys just like us in many ways, but they are not brilliant marketing strategists.

So they'd like to make things like a 9 foot Star Destroyer, and surely are capable of constructing a prototype for it - but they are limited by narrow-thinking that they must remain in the retail toy business for children.

I just said it before, that eventually Star Wars will be an "Age 35 & Up" property. Of course the kids' kids might get into it when Dad breaks out the "ancient technology of DVD players - you know before we had holodecks."

But a return to Galactic Heroes and Force Battlers might appease that interest right there.

[TheDarthVader]

FOR SURE! I'd buy a really big expensive death star playset if it looked good. I am going to doubt that Hasbro will ever release a DS playset though. They don't seem too interested in producing it.

[DarthQuack]

I think we'd all buy one, for the most part anyways.

[Tycho]

I am going to doubt that Hasbro will ever release a DS playset though. They don't seem too interested in producing it.

Like I said:

1) they have the fanboy interest in producing it

2) they don't have a business plan that creates an interest for offering it - they're in business to make money for their share holders to a large extent

Once upon a time, someone (probably named Mr. Hasbro) decided they liked toys and wanted to open a toy company.

To raise money to start the business, they took out loans and sold stock when they could. The stock was a much cheaper way to accumulate capital for the young company, than paying interest on loans (bonds).

Well, Mr. Hasbro is probably dead. The company kept a life of its own, somewhat immortal.

To run the company, professionals with experience making profits were brought on board, or Mr. Hasbro's vision of making toys would never have survived through a bankruptcy (I don't know if it ever did, but it certainly avoided bankruptcy by being profitable).

To design, engineer, and paint the toys, enthusiasts were hired. These enthusiasts work on the Star Wars line, including Darrel, Brian, Mark, etc. I'm sure their enthusiastic about a giant Death Star Playset and would want to test their abilities making one, even (that's why there are 3 prototypes in the Hasbro office, no doubt. I know "X-wing Mark" probably wanted to see if he could build one. It would fit his personality.

The people hired as Darrel's, Mark's, and Brian's bosses however, want to see how this giant Death Star will make Hasbro more profitable. They may not be as into Star Wars and just see SW as a way for Hasbro to increase their stock-worth.

That's fine. But they are limiting their thinking in narrow-mindedly deciding that Hasbro is a children's toy company for approximately ages 3-12 or somewhere around there.

Master Replicas, SideShow, and Gentle Giant believe they are a "toy company" for ages 15-50 or somewhere around there.

Hasbro is sacraficing some profit they could claim by ignoring products for the older age group. I say with all compliments as my intention, that Steve Sansweet or Rebelscum's Phillip Wise are about 50-year old children. Hey, when I get that age, (if I live so long), I still plan on being a child.

Hasbro needs to do what it takes to have employs responsible for:

- a pre-order program like SideShow is doing - I mean do you really think 5-10,000 Jabba the Hutt 12" Collectibles are already made in a warehouse somewhere? Of course not. They'll put that in production probably only as early as October - if not more likely, later than that- as they will have had time to gauge the demand for him. Right now, they can probably still say "Nope. We're not making him. Not enough people wanted to pay $350+ for this item, so we can't do it. Your pre-orders will not be charged to your accounts." But Hasbro wants to only do the R&D for a product and so forth, if they are garaunteed Target and Wal-Mart will mass-order from them.

I call it lazy when they forgo the potential they could make by catering to their adult crowd. Yeah: I know very few kids, if any, will be allowed to have a Death Star as big as a computer desk (or bigger), let alone some 9ft. Star Destroyer - but people like us (and Steve Sansweet) would buy it. Why prevent the product from ever being made? Or give Code 3 or Attikus the money for making it, when the intention is for it to be used with Hasbro's figures, thereby increasing the figure sales for Hasbro anyway. (Not even JediMasterSal has enough stormtroopers to deal with Hasbro actually making a good Death Star Playset).

Is the principal of being a toy company for 3-12 year olds more important than being a profitable company? You'd think because of Hasbro's decisions in the past that it is not.

However, Derryl, Mark, & Brian and friends don't get to decide that I'm afraid.
Unfortunately, I think those 3 and a few others on the inside of the Star Wars team might be the only ones who read these boards. The CFO's etc. probably don't even know SSG exists.

Unfortunately, that means that the boys at Hasbro that we know are probably on our side with most things (perhaps not Wilrow and Yarna, hehe) but yelling at them, or criticizing them, just hurts them personally and does nothing to change Hasbro policy with the people who actually define Hasbro policy.

[dindae]

Yeah that's pretty much the way I see things Tycho. The Hasbro juggernaut is not consernered with chasing the relatively small profit from mail order playsets even though the amount of goodwill that it would generate with collectors would be huge. I know that there are a lot of very cool things that could be done on a smaller more expensive scale. (Although given that my budget for starwars is going to be blown out of the water by the end of 2006 so I'm happy that they aren't in a way).

[Darth Cruel]

Maybe I am reading it wrong, but the way I read it. Hasbro has no desire (as a company) to make it. Sounds to me like it is just some of the employees who want to see it made. But my opinion is only based on the one quote.

Edit - Oh yeah...and I would buy at least two at ANY price!

[Dark Marble]

You know, I really have to say that if some other company like Gentle Giant or Sideshow made the playset, I would expect it to be a high end high priced display. But if Hasbro makes it the cost should be lower and kids should be the focus.

Sometimes it seems that we forget that Hasbro is making toys and not mini-statues or collectibles. When I am buying my toys, mostly for me and my kids, I have no desire to spend a few hundred dollars on a playset or pieces of a playset I have to track down.

Lately I am very pleased with Hasbro's decisions and the product they are releasing. We are getting a ton of toys that will be hefty enough on the wallet with out having to worry about the $200 to $300 Death Star playset. I say for high end pieces let sideshow have them. I just want my Star Wars toys with little ships that shoot little missles and lightsabers my kids can bang together.

[Tycho]

Yeah, but if Hasbro made a $250+ Death Star Playset:

1) No one is forcing you to buy it. Be an enthusiast rather than a collector of everything. The recent re-cardings should have convinced you of that.

2) Buy it for yourself and keep your kids away from it unless they could be taught to respect it. Or don't buy one in its initial offering, and wait until your kids are older if you're concerned about the safety of something you spend too much on.

3) Hasbro does not have to abandon making kid-friendly toys - they can just make adult SW afficianado items as well - and only a few of them.

4) SideShows stuff need not be tracked down. You can go to SideShowToys.com and get whatever you need during its offering period. Hasbro can open pre-orders for something like a high end piece and keep it open until they have received enough orders to satisfy their forecasts for interest in an item, and/or until a previously announced time and date. You won't have trouble getting this if you want it. Pre-Orders are not charged either (by most companies). SideShow notifies you when they expect to authorize your account, when they expect to ship your item, and when you should expect to receive it. Whether modular or sold as one giant set, a large Death Star, Cloud City, Ewok Village, Endor Shield Generator, Jabba's Palace, Theed Palace, Kamino Clone Labs, Geonosis Droid Foundry, Galactic Senate, whatever - it would all be easy enough to come by if you wanted it.