SSG's Bi-Weekly Hasbro Q&A - February 1st

[JediTricks]

Our first Q&A for this year, it's Hasbro's answers to SSG questions for February 1st, 2008. Thanks again to Hasbro for the answers, to all the folks who sent in questions and especially those who voted on them.

Hasbro Q&A for the week of February 1st

Q: We understand the need for exclusives, but isn't it too much when 1 store has multiple exclusives all at once? Target having the 2 Ultra Battle Packs, 2 vehicles (TIE Bomber and ARC-170), a regular Battle Pack, the AT-RT 2-pack, and 2 Galactic Heroes battle packs all coming out in roughly a 30 day period - and that's just 1 of the 3 major retailers with exclusives! What happened here? Plus, with all these exclusives coming out at once on top of regular new product, it makes getting them even more difficult, is there any chance we'll be seeing production continue on the harder-to-come-by stuff such as the Target- and TRU-exclusive Galactic Heroes battle packs? Could next time, you get them to space out their exclusives' releases a little better please?
A: We make recommendations regarding when to stage exclusives, but it is up to our retail partners to decide on when they want to get them on shelves and how to promote them. We will certainly take your feedback into account when we meet with our retail partners. Regarding those two battle packs specifically, their run at Target is over and no more will be flowing onto shelves there. However, if you are patient, we are looking for a way to get these back into the market later this Fall at a different retailer.

Q: Is Hasbro considering continuing the Galactic Heroes line with more figures from Jabba's Palace (like Tessek, J'quille, Oola, the band etc.) and the Mos Eisley Cantina (like Elis Helrot, Kitik Keed'kak, Muftak etc.)? Also, bounty hunters Aurra Sing and Zam Wesell would be round out the bounty hunter set nicely.
A: Those are all fun suggestions for additional "background" characters that could be brought into the GH world. We are not going that far into the secondary characters just yet, as there are still some major ones to be focused on, but it's a possibility that given the success of these little guys, someday we could see your choices immortalized in a squishy, fun form. Thanks again for the suggestions.

Q: The Snowspeeder has only been an exclusive item in the past two releases for it where prior releases were regular mass-retail. Why the exclusivity and accompanying higher pricepoint on this vehicle? If it's due to its somewhat large size compared to other vehicles, could it be scaled down to accurate proportions (since it is actually a little over scale as-is) and released in the $20 line?
A: Because of the size and greater cost, it has not been possible to get the existing Snowspeeder into the $20 vehicle pricepoint. You and your readers have been instrumental in the past in championing for a "true to scale" version and for this reason we have held off at using it in more exclusives. We have heard you....and are looking at ways to bring a new one to market within the next couple of years. Stay tuned!

And the questions at ActionFigs.com:

• Although Hasbro has stated that plants aren't high on the potential accessory list, Hasbro's also shown interest in completing the cantina scene. With that in mind and the increased focus on producing figures of concept art, has there been any consideration of doing a figure of the plantlike Revwien alien developed for the cantina scene, maybe as an accessory or pack-in figure due to its unique design? Would he/she/it be given a proper name?
• Since Hasbro has just stated that it is unlikely that RA-7, Oola, BoShek and Takeel will ever be updated, is it likely that they will be re-released in the forseeable future with new/better paint jobs? And how about doing an Original trilogy version of Sy Snootles with the puppet's smaller eyes, perhaps even with the tusks and the feather hat and microphone - how likely is that?
• The idea of having 2 Battle Droids on a single basic card is a good one, as it lets fans build up armies quickly and cheaply. However, the Saga Legends Battle Droid 2packs feature very distinct-looking droids - the first set has a Commander, and the others all have battle damage - resulting in droids not suited for army-building due to identical markings. Will future versions of this 2pack be released in "clean" versions for more army-building potential? In the same vein, will this set ever be retooled to allow the droids to hold the blaster with both hands as the movies consistently showed them, and a few previous figures emulated?

[Cane_Adiss]

It's pretty neat that 3 of my suggested questions were submitted to Hasbro this week! Too bad all of their answers were more than a little disappointing.

As for the Revwien question, I sorta knew that it would be a long shot seeing that made into a figure. It would make a really killer accessory for a future Cantina battle pack-exclusive figure though. Oh well I tried.

The Galactic Heroes question I guess I can hold my breath a little longer for. I'll bet we'll see the bounty hunter ladies before the others I mentioned.

Hasbro's answer about possibly re-releasing Takeel, Oola, RA-7 and BoShek wasn't really a surprise either. It seems they really like the answer "we'll look at it when the time is right".

I was really hoping they would've answered the question about Sy Snootles. Maybe it shouldve been asked as a separate question, then they wouldve had to say something about it.

[Kidhuman]

They skirted the exclusive question. They could have more input tan to have 1 store(Target) with 7 exclusives and anohter with 3(WM). I only saw 4 of the 10 exclusives this year. Sad isnt it.

[JediTricks]

How do you figure they skirted that answer? Granted, they didn't give you an answer you'd like, but they were direct about the matter.

I think the only answer this round that surprised me was the Snowspeeder one. I gotta do a more active job of editing these things, I guess.

[Kidhuman]

With the exclusives its simple, if they want to release that many at once, Hasbro can say no and do someting else with it.

[JediTricks]

The point is that they already agree to sell the retailers the exclusives, and after that the retailers can do whatever they want whenever they want. And for a lot of these items, if they weren't exclusives, they wouldn't get made.

[Darth Windu]

Personally I thought most of the questions asked this week for pretty weak, not just from here, but hey at least Rebelscum seems to have stopped asking the same question over, and over, and over, and over.

Anyway I do have a question - for SSG, not Hasbro. The question that I had asked is now completely irrelevant because it was time-sensitive, and now that the items it referred to are in production, there's no longer much point in asking the question.

What I was wondering then is if there could be different categories for questions, so that the time-sensitive ones (if there are any) have a better chance of being asked. For example - one of the best questions was from Rebelscum about the Titanium Series, yet all the answer did was tell us we'd be getting some cool toys Hasbro are already going to make. Interesting, but a pretty much wasted question.

[Jedi_Kal-El]

Which 2 Battle Packs are they refering to in that. The Ultimates or the others?

[Kidhuman]

I am assuming the UBP's

[JediTricks]

Personally I thought most of the questions asked this week for pretty weak, not just from here, but hey at least Rebelscum seems to have stopped asking the same question over, and over, and over, and over.

Anyway I do have a question - for SSG, not Hasbro. The question that I had asked is now completely irrelevant because it was time-sensitive, and now that the items it referred to are in production, there's no longer much point in asking the question.

What I was wondering then is if there could be different categories for questions, so that the time-sensitive ones (if there are any) have a better chance of being asked. For example - one of the best questions was from Rebelscum about the Titanium Series, yet all the answer did was tell us we'd be getting some cool toys Hasbro are already going to make. Interesting, but a pretty much wasted question.

My thinking has always been that the users will "get" that aspect no matter where it appears in the list, and they either will vote for it or ignore it based on their feelings. I could add an expiration date on them, but that seems kinda complex, and judging by some of the odd questions the readers have been selecting lately, it may not matter because they want plants over paint corrections. I have been considering taking a more active role in the editorial choosing process for that sort of thing, but I just hate to see Hasbro give "oh, yeah, we'll fix that" answers that give no actual info.