Has Star Wars collecting "Jumped the Shark?"

**decadentdave** · 07-12-2007

With the release of the McQuarrie and concept figures, it seems Hasbro is finally getting around to doing things that were at or near the bottom of their list of things to do when all other avenues had been exhausted. Granted there's dozens of background characters with less than 1.5 seconds of screen time (Ice Cream Maker Guy) they have yet to do but it seems many of these long-desired fan favorites are beginning to see the light of day this year or next. Plus the endless assortments of repacks, repaints and kit-bashes (Entertainment Earth Mandalorian Commandos for example) could this be a tell-tale sign that Hasbro has "Jumped the Shark" and the line is just trying to find any excuse to keep itself going?

(It's too bad we don't have a polling option in these forums.)

**Ji'dai** · 07-12-2007

I suppose casual fans could take a look at the current assortments and say Hasbro is really scraping the bottom of the barrel in looking for figure ideas to produce. Maybe Hasbro is trying to stretch the line out until the television series premieres.

Personally, I'm more enthused about collecting in the non-movie years since I'm more excited about background characters and EU figures than getting repacks or rehashes of main characters. But I've been collecting for 30 years now and rehashes of Han, Luke, Leia, and Vader just don't do it for me any more.

**Mr. JabbaJohnL** · 07-12-2007

I think they'll have plenty of new figures to make once the Clone Wars premieres and after that, so no, I don't think they've "jumped the shark." There are still several versions of main characters left to do, as well as updates to crappy figures from earlier in the line (and throughout). I don't see the McQuarrie figures as you might, since the Stormtrooper from 2003 was a Fans' Choice winner and the current ones are always sold out, so there is obviously a demand there.

**Sinscia Fat'o** · 07-12-2007

As long as star wars stays in the media there will be figures and such by hasbro. Force unleashes for example is going to be a huge marketing blitz for it and around it, if that goes well then yes star wars will be around for awhile. If it bombs then we might see a short year or two coming up until the clone wars cartoon. I still dont see the tv series happening at least any time soon, but if and when it does you'll see a another attempt at bringing back star wars. But do i think ideas for the line is being scraped from the bottom of the barrell, i'd say sure but its working since the 30th anniversery collection is nearly impossable to find, and the concept figures are even harder to find than the normal ones, so if scraping the bottom is what they're doing then it worked. But personally i like these kinda years we see stuff we would normally never see, like Quinlon Vos, Crimson Empire, Ig-88 SA, which was awesome, so hey i kinda like how the direction of the brand is moving.

**Beast** · 07-12-2007

The only thing that's jumped the shark is the term jumped the shark.

**bigbarada** · 07-12-2007

I do believe that Star Wars has "jumped the shark" so to speak.

TAC figures are so hard to find because there is a massive problem with distribution of this line, not because they are selling out. And the popularity of the McFigures just goes to show that the fans are getting bored with movie figures. That's also the case with the "Shadow" troopers figures.

The fact that we got two Biggs figures in consecutive waves really does show that Hasbro is running out of ideas.

While I think shifting the focus to EU might be welcomed by a portion of existing Star Wars fans; I don't believe it will ever be popular enough to carry the line in retail stores for long. I doubt even half of the current collectors will continue to buy the figures if Hasbro shifts over to EU completely.

I'm actually reaching the end of my interest in the Star Wars line as the list of figures I want to see made is down to less than 10.

Just because Lucasfilm and Hasbro are going to push this Force Unleashed nonsense as the next big thing doesn't mean that it will necessarily be a success, look at Shadows of the Empire.

While I will be getting off this boat if EU continues to grab a bigger slice of the Star Wars action figure pie, I do hope that the cartoon is successful enough that Hasbro gives us a really nice AT-TE vehicle.

Personally I wish Hasbro would just simplify things. Get rid of the expensive sublines like the Transformers, Unleashed Battle Packs, etc. and focus solely on the standard action figure line. That would hopefully free up enough funds to make EVERY figure "vintage" quality for the standard price. From what I understand the Transformers line takes up a huge amount of Hasbro's Star Wars funding; so getting rid of that should allow them to improve the quality of the soft-goods and the articulation of every figure.

**Sinscia Fat'o** · 07-12-2007

Originally Posted by bigbarada

I do believe that Star Wars has "jumped the shark" so to speak.

TAC figures are so hard to find because there is a massive problem with distribution of this line, not because they are selling out. And the popularity of the McFigures just goes to show that the fans are getting bored with movie figures. That's also the case with the "Shadow" troopers figures.

The fact that we got two Biggs figures in consecutive waves really does show that Hasbro is running out of ideas.

While I think shifting the focus to EU might be welcomed by a portion of existing Star Wars fans; I don't believe it will ever be popular enough to carry the line in retail stores for long. I doubt even half of the current collectors will continue to buy the figures if Hasbro shifts over to EU completely.

I'm actually reaching the end of my interest in the Star Wars line as the list of figures I want to see made is down to less than 10.

Just because Lucasfilm and Hasbro are going to push this Force Unleashed nonsense as the next big thing doesn't mean that it will necessarily be a success, look at Shadows of the Empire.

While I will be getting off this boat if EU continues to grab a bigger slice of the Star Wars action figure pie, I do hope that the cartoon is successful enough that Hasbro gives us a really nice AT-TE vehicle.

Personally I wish Hasbro would just simplify things. Get rid of the expensive sublines like the Transformers, Unleashed Battle Packs, etc. and focus solely on the standard action figure line. That would hopefully free up enough funds to make EVERY figure "vintage" quality for the standard price. From what I understand the Transformers line takes up a huge amount of Hasbro's Star Wars funding; so getting rid of that should allow them to improve the quality of the soft-goods and the articulation of every figure.

I had no idea that the transformers line took away from hasbro's funds for the line so much, i knew i hated that line for a reason. i also agree with you in the fact that making every figure vintage quality would improve hasbro's success with the line. And also your not joking about the distrubution it's horrid!!! I work for wal-mart so i go over to the toy section and scan the pegs to see if were getting any star wars figures in and there's none in warehouse and none on the way...all we have left is three of the two packs wal mart exclusives, and pegs of chewie and emperor rehashes, greatested battles wave...hasbro is dropping the ball very badly with this line.

As for shadows of the empire...it was a marketing dissaster that much is true, but also the concept figures from that time where also huge huge dissappoitments, like the air speeder, snow speeder and cloud cars conceot vechiles...those things despite being cool for their time where shelf warming for the better part of a year. with that being said i think shadows just happened at a bad time and that if it was done right now in 2007 it would be very successful. my main point with that is because when shadows first came about intrest in the orginal movies were at an all time high again since younger generations where discovering star wars and introducing a new book like that didn't appeal to 5-10 year olds who dont have the abbility to read a 360 page book no matter how good it might be.