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

[JediTricks]

What's 5 days late between friends? It's nothing for Hasbro's answers to SSG questions for December 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 December 10th

SSG: The new Battle Droid figures in the Geonosis Arena Showdown sets are quite nice, but there are a few issues too, even aside from the eye design problem which you've already talked about. On the long-awaited commander, the yellow chest circle is positioned incorrectly, it should be moved up a bit as was shown correctly on the package art, as well as the 1999 OOM-9 figure and the 2007 Saga Legends two-pack figure. Then there's the issue of arm position: in the films, whenever the droids hold their blasters, they do so with both hands, yet Battle Droid figures from the last 4 years still can't do this, despite this new sculpt being made as a big upgrade. And finally, there's the the battle droid neck, which is assembled backwards with the angle bar in the front instead of in the back, and separately it telescopes into the torso rather than pivots down the way it does in the films, especially odd since we've had previous Battle Droid figures that could pivot. What caused these issues? It can be assumed that the Target sets won't be modified, but before either of these droids gets re-released, will we see any of these issues addressed?
Hasbro: The Target sets will not be modified, as they have already been at retail for some weeks now but we will take the deco issues into consideration if/when these figures are ever re-released. The choice to have the neck compress down into the torso was a deliberate design decision since the goal was not to accurately recreate the way a droid collapsed but to produce the best figure that could get to both states. We also hear you on the hands and holding blasters, and are working on a future Battle Droid modification that will address that. We don't know if this will make it in the second wave of (planned, but not confirmed) Geonosis Arena sets, or will make it into a future release somewhere else.

SSG: Back in January, we asked about what happens to pulled-back pegwarming figures, and at the time you hadn't bought back some in a while so your answer focused on other methods of using the packaged figures, but on October 2nd you answered another site that this year's pulled-pack figures were being destroyed. How exactly are they being destroyed, and are those destroyed materials being recycled in some manner, or are they just destined to become landfill? Can Hasbro further clarify the details of this issue and address rationale behind this measure which could negative effects on the environment?
Hasbro: Due to their nauture, they cannot be recycled. Beyond that, we don't have any details on the specific method of disposal.
[Editor's note: oh my goodness, they were chopped up and fed to orphans, weren't they? I knew it! -JT]

SSG: With the updating of Imperial trooper figures lately to have more accurate designs and sharper sculpting, the Biker Scout is so far one of those figures left out. Although one of the "vintage-style" figures, the existing Scout figure could use some upgrades including sharper armor and undersuit sculpting, a slightly larger helmet, more accurate arms including the missing elbow pads, less bulky shoulders, and better range of motion for the head, knees, torso and hips. How likely are we to see an updated Biker Scout figure like this? What would hold something like this back from being delivered in the foreseeable future?
Hasbro: A new Biker Scout is currently not in the plans as we have thought the Vintage one to be quite sharp and have kept that in the lineup, and have other troops we feel we need to focus on. We'll take another look at your suggestions for a possible figure further down the road.

- -

And our questions at CollectionStation.com:

• To some SW fans, Luke is THE hero of the saga, and is seen as never more triumphant and important than his final cinematic duel in the throne room of the 2nd Death Star. Yet Hasbro has dragged their feet every time with this iteration of Luke, despite releasing 6 Luke Jabba's Palace costumes in just the last 5 years (TLC '08, TAC '07, TSC '06, OTC '04, 2 different figures for Saga '04). In the past 14 years of the modern line there have been just 3 Luke Death Star IIs, and all are incomplete in some way: POTF2 Cinema Scene 1997 (preposed, soft sculpt, limited articulation), Saga 2003 (limited articulation due to action gimmick, preposed, Harpo Marx face), and now TLC 2009 (ill-fitting recycled limbs, wasp waist and odd proportions accented by reused limbs, incorrect belt, odd hand poses); and that's putting aside the whole "wrong lightsaber accessory every single time" issue. Now you've answered another site that the belt won't be corrected in this run, which suggests we won't be seeing Luke DS2 for a while again. We do appreciate that you've been trying to get the design better this time, but whether conscious of it or not, Hasbro clearly seems to have a problem with Luke Death Star II, so what is that problem? Who is drinking the Haterade, why does Luke DS2 keep getting the short end of the stick?
• Wizard/ToyFare's Fans Choice top 30 poll has begun, but a few anomalies have cropped up that we'd like to get official word on. First is the picture of Bom Vimdin, the image comes from the Holiday Special rather than ANH, which version would we get should he win? Same with the ROTS Palpatine pic being from the scene where he announces the formation of the Empire rather than the claimed Senate Duel look, which would we get? There's also the suggestions that Cliegg Lars might have removable legs yet no mention of his hoverchair, and that Queen Apailana might get packed with another Naboo character despite being closer in size to a full-sized adult character than a youngling and not remotely Comic Pack-worthy. So would Cliegg likely have removable legs and/or his hoverchair, and would Apailana likely come with a second Naboo character?
• Although Aayla Secura is getting a Clone Wars figure in 2010, your answer about a new realistic version said it didn't make the cut for 2010 and may have to be an exclusive. What about, instead of that trouble, just revisiting the ROTS mold and tooling up a new set of arms? You don't even need to tool up hands or the right shoulder since that figure has satisfactory versions of both, just new arms with working elbow joints. That could be a significant budget savings, she could be in one of those re-release waves that occasionally come out, and you'd get another popular Jedi figure definitively made. Any chance of seeing this happen in the foreseeable future?

[JediTricks]

CS questions will be up and linked in a few minutes.


Anybody else get a Mafia vibe from that 2nd answer about disposal of the figures?

[JediTricks]

CS added!

I wish Hasbro had seen our POV on Luke a little better, they understand the basic issue but there's more to it than just "the figure has issues".

I'm a little annoyed that everything we figured was the case with the ToyFare question was pretty much how it was. That's the problem with these things, sometimes you gotta confirm stuff you already suspect.

[Mad Slanted Powers]

CS questions will be up and linked in a few minutes.


Anybody else get a Mafia vibe from that 2nd answer about disposal of the figures?

They dumped them in the East River!

The CS question suggested using the ROTS mold for Aayla, but that one would need new legs, because it had pretty floppy knee joints.

[Droid]

Another site is saying no second Scanning Crew Member.

They are also saying no more basic Legacy figures until August, which is really depressing. They think that is going to help the sagging Legacy line? Just the other day JediTricks speculated that the long lag in figures caused by the Indiana Jones line caused damage to the line which may be permanent. So they think no new movie figures - even the prequels - for eight months is the answer? Maybe during the lag - when we can't buy figures - they'll decide there is no interest and cancel Legacy.

Sigh.

[morpheus282]

Is it just me, or does disposal of the figures seem really freaking wasteful? I mean, here it is closing in on Christmas time and thousands of kids don't have anything. Couldn't Hasbro donate these unwanted figures to a charity and use them as a tax write off? Even without a write off, it still seems more logical to give them to the needy rather than dispose of them.

Who said no second scanning crew trooper?

[Droid]

I would like to know if they at least held back the cantina table that went with the Brainiac. They could use those with other cantina figures.

[JediTricks]

They dumped them in the East River!

They know a guy in Jersey who took care of it. A guy in "waste management." Don't ask no more questions now!

The CS question suggested using the ROTS mold for Aayla, but that one would need new legs, because it had pretty floppy knee joints.

I can't speak to that, I didn't buy the figure, but I hoped someone would have said something like that before I asked the question so I could have added that part and not miss something important. I would hope Hasbro would know to address that issue either way though.

They are also saying no more basic Legacy figures until August, which is really depressing. They think that is going to help the sagging Legacy line? Just the other day JediTricks speculated that the long lag in figures caused by the Indiana Jones line caused damage to the line which may be permanent. So they think no new movie figures - even the prequels - for eight months is the answer? Maybe during the lag - when we can't buy figures - they'll decide there is no interest and cancel Legacy.

Sigh.

Wow, I haven't seen that yet. I don't do my roundups until 3 or 4 days past so I won't step on too many toes. That is a HUGE bummer if they hold to it. I was just today doing a run and realizing that a large part of my year has been depressing because of the lack of being able to just go out there and find figures I want. Now it's all up to the Clone Wars line to hold our interest, and I think we all know it's not going to be able to do such a big job for us.

[Droid]

It really does bum me out when I can't go looking for figures and I hate when all the figures for the year come within a three month period.

I hope they realize that there is a group of consumers who don't live on the internet, will just not see the figures anymore and probably assume the line ended. Will they come back? Will even us internet folks move on to other toy lines or other hobbies?

I'll tell you what though, I'm going to use that lag to pick up the four vintage figures I still need - Blue Snaggletooth, Pop-up lightsaber R2, Ev-9D9, and Yak Face!

Oh, and anybody notice that they said the WINNERS of the poll would be announced soon? I guess that means either a tie or that they already planned to make the winner. Wonder how many WINNERS we'll get.

[JediTricks]

Last time ToyFare did a poll, they gave the ordered results for all the entries, but I'm hoping this case that there are 2 confirmed figures from that list.


It astounds me that Hasbro says "we hope collectors will come back to the line when they see what we're doing" and then there's nothing for 8 months. Nobody will be seeing ANYTHING at that point. You don't rebuild a market that way, you only sink it further. Maybe we'll have some cool exclusives, but that ain't enough for anybody not into CW.