SSG's Tri-Weekly Hasbro Q&A - April 10th

[JediTricks]

The first official Q&A of Spring. It's Hasbro's answers to SSG questions for April 10th, 2009. 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 April 10th

SSG: When it comes to prequel Senators, we haven't seen much lately. The most asked of them is the Senator Grebleips figure, the E.T. alien - will we ever be getting this figure, is it just unlikely because it's a background alien, or is it totally off-limits because it's an easter egg from another film? Also, what about seeing senate figures from Ep 1 like Edcel Bar Gane, Sei Taria, Toonbuck Toora and Mot-Not Rab?
Hasbro: Senator and Separatist figures have been very slow sellers for us, so while we're not ruling them out, they are not high on our list of figures to target. We're confident that we'll get around to more some day, especially if the collector base rebounds as these figures are 100% collector-targeted. Until then, they'll stay on the sidelines. Grebleips is off limits per Lucasfilm, joining (among a few others) the oft-asked for female Cantina denizens, Holiday Special live action figures, and Tyvokka as figures we cannot/will not pursue.

SSG: With the new Droid Factory sets, included is a Corran Horn / Whistler 2-pack. As Corran Horn is an EU character, he is seen as not likely to get multiple figures, so as such, why is this 2-pack coming with a standard orange flight costume rather than Horn's more distinctive green-hued version? Whistler also is lacking his overall green tinge, but since this seems like it may be the only Corran Horn figure fans will see, why not make it as characteristically accurate as possible?
Hasbro: This one is in the orange jumpsuit, which is one of his outfits from the novel and the one we went with. Regarding the coloration of Whistler, we take Lucasfilm's direction on all deco, with the intent of being as accurate as possible to the reference material. As for additional Corran Horn figures someday, we would not rule out the possibility, and the green suit would be a great alternate deco for further down the road. How far, we don't know, considering how long it took to get him into the lineup in the first place. We're stoked to be bringing the pair out, in any case.

SSG: With the Build-A-Droid line, there's been some confusion about the naming with a few of the figures. First off, there's R2-N6 who was properly named at last year's Comic-Con presentation yet later got renamed to R2-L3. Second, there's the upcoming U-3PO figure that has a silver tone rather than the slightly brassy look from the movie, and is shipping in an ESB wave, a film which already has a silver protocol droid, E-3PO, except that character has white instead of yellow eyes. What's the deal with these build-a-figures and their identity issues?
Hasbro: We do not select the droids to match the film theme of the wave, but instead based on which ones we feel are important to do; as one of the first droids we see in EpIV, we felt U-3PO was the choice to go with. As to the R2-L3, it turns out that R2-N6 was not an official Lucasfilm-given name for this droid, so we later switched based on Lucasfilm direction. This reversal has happened a few times with the buildable astros, since we have targeted several "unmade" droids who had not yet been given official designations.

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And our questions at CollectionStation.com:

• Some collectors shy away from EU items unless they tie into major characters from the films, or strongly tie into the movie saga story. With that in mind, what are the chances of seeing figures of these influential EU characters: the ghost of Luke Skywalker (Legacy), Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, Darth Plagueis, or even a young Count Dooku?
• Based on your slideshow at Toy Fair, there seems to be a discrepancy on the subject of exclusive 2-pack figures. The Wal-mart Grievous Droid Factory figure with new cloth cloak shown in the slide was the 4-armed basic figure from 2005's ROTS line, however what was said during the slideshow was that it'd be the super-articulated 2008 figure. Which Grievous will actually be coming in that set with the new cloak? Also, it was noted that that the Target-exclusive Geonosis Arena figure pack Jango Fett would be tweaked, but there was no explanation given and the figure looks the same as the Evolutions version. What's the change there, can fans hope that the evo figure jumpsuit's lilac color is finally being changed to a more blue-gray look as seen in the movie?
• As shown at Toy Fair, the upcoming Geonosis Assault battle pack is coming with the long-requested Gunship pod turret and 2 clone pilots. Since each gunship had 2 turrets in the film, that will require buying 2 sets, making 4 pilots. However, the gunship is manned by 2 pilots in the cockpit, and 2 standard grunts in the turrets. While thrilled to get the pods and more clones, could we get a regular clone trooper helmet as well as, or even instead of 1 of, those pilot helmets so the gunships can be accurately, completely manned?

[JediTricks]

I cannot wait to see your reactions to these 6 answers. I have a family gathering in a few minutes, but I hope when I get home later tonight that you guys have been totally honest in your feelings in all of this.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

Oh, I certainly do NOT like the first answer. I can understand doing fewer senators or separatists, but "especially if the collector base rebounds" leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's not our fault that they overproduced Yarna!

I can live with the U-3PO/R2-L3 answer. After looking it over, U-3PO's brassy color might actually be a reflection of C-3PO, since he looks silver when he's by himself but brassy next to C-3PO. I don't know if I'm reading too much into this, but I wondered if "N6" reminded people of a six-letter word starting with "n" . . . probably not, but who knows?

I thought they said just last round that they wouldn't do a spirit Luke. That's good news on the likelihood of the others, though.

They didn't say what the change is to Jango, but that sucks that it'll be another lilac one. At least it'll be corrected next year. It also sucks about that Grievous, but I wasn't really expecting them to use the 2008 version anyway.

I also wasn't really expecting a change on the Geonosis set. Eh, I guess I'll just have an absolute ton of pilots now.

[Beast]

Why is Tyvokka off limits? I can understand E.T. and such. But he's just a Wookiee Jedi.

[DarkJedi5]

Why is Tyvokka off limits? I can understand E.T. and such. But he's just a Wookiee Jedi.

I think some one asked about this one a while back and it got shut down big time. Something about Lucas not wanting Wookiee Jedis because it ruins his original vision of them a species or something. Despite there being at least one other Wookiee Jedi in the EU, Lobacca I think....

[Tycho]

First, I'd like to say I am happy that Corran Horn is first being issued in an orange flight suit. This is his official appearance as a full-fledged member of Rogue Squadron, in their uniform. I myself don't think I have any use for the green CorSec flight suit in any dioramas I have planned. But then I took to liking Corran Horn mostly as a Jedi Knight and Master, and next back as a young man training to be an inspector for CorSec under his father, Hal Horn. Granted he flew as a pilot in those days and wore the local Corellian colors, but his ground time was more interesting than his time in the air back in those days (to me, personally). I liked that Corran was intellectually smart and intuitive, besides just being a pilot with good instincts (which we'd later learn was Force sensitivity). We already saw that with Luke.

I am really curious as to why Tyvokka, a comic book Wookiee Jedi character is off-limits (Plo Koon's Jedi Master as a matter of fact). He died during the Stark Hyperspace War. Lucasfilm allowed Dark Horse to print that - and years after Rebecca Moesta (Kevin J. Anderson's wife) wrote Lowbacca (Chewie's Force-sensitive nephew) as having been trained at Luke's Jedi Academy alongside Jaina and Jacen Solo. Lowbacca, being a long-living Wookiee, could easily be alive and still fighting during the Legacy era that Cade Skywalker fights in today. (Actually, Lowie would be very loyal to the Imperial Fel family, given that the new Imperial royal line is also the heir of Jaina Solo. A Wookiee Jedi fighting on behalf of the Empire would be quite interesting to explore - sort of like a Jewish high commander of all of Germany's military forces.)

By the way, as far as EU characters getting multiple figures? How many figures is Quinlan Vos up to now? A'Sharad Hett (if you count Darth Kraayt)?
And Aayla Secura started as a comic book character (Quinlan's apprentice) but Lucas himself stuck her in the movie.

It sucks about the Senator figures. Grieblips (ET) was an expected answer. In Hollywood's Universal Studios theme park, they used to sell ETs that were pretty much the right scale. I always intended to get about 12 of them (for 3 different senate scenes, aptly named, E1, E2, and E3). I'd like Edcel Bar Gane and Sei Teria, the Ithorian Senator, Rodian Senator (now in Clone Wars), and more.

A young Count Dooku is the figure I'm most excited to see amongst the off-the-beaten path, movie-mentioned figures, unless "The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis" can be penned by James Luceno as planned. And Sypho Dias might be interesting. I'd buy a ghost of Luke Skywalker to haunt his distant descendent, Cade, but it's not a figure I'm particularly interested in.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

They said that Tyvokka was off-limits several weeks ago. I know George nixed the idea of Wookiee Jedi in ROTS so they could be shown as regular Wookiee warriors in their natural habitat, so I guess this covers that.

BanthaSkull got a sweet picture of Clegg Holdfast. It looks pretty good, even though he is making a goofy face. I didn't realize he was pantsless as well as genitalless.

Also, JediTempleArchives got word that a new Agen Kolar is coming this fall. I thought the old one was pretty good, but I need another for the arena, so I'm cool with it.

[bigbarada]

Honestly, I think it would be best to just drop the issue of 'off limits' figures and stop hounding Hasbro about it. There are still plenty of OT figures left to be made or updated that could keep the line going for years. I could easily come up with a list of 25 figures that have never been immortalized in plastic, who don't fall into the off limits category and would make great ACTION figures, not just diorama filler.

[Tycho]

Refer to MadSlantedPowers' poll results - that is if you don't consider what we all voted on (you too) to be diorama filler.

But me personally, well my tastes are (mostly) for diorama filler!

[Darth Windu]

Honestly, I think it would be best to just drop the issue of 'off limits' figures and stop hounding Hasbro about it.

Agreed. Rebelscum does this a lot, and frankly all it does is wastes a question and annoys Hasbro, since they're answering the same question with the same answer over and over.