SSG's Monthly Hasbro Q&A - July 15th

[bigbarada]

Although I can't say I'm surprised, I'm disappointed with the answer to the Zahn question. Hasbro typically celebrates anniversaries, and the Zahn trilogy is a major anniversary in the Star Wars universe.

It's still a travesty that a junk comic like Legacy currently has more figures that the Zahn trilogy.

At least they tried to be somewhat creative while completely shooting down the HTTE question.

[JediTricks]

I am actually suprised by Hasbro's answer to the Galactic Heroes question. Strange that they wouln't want to complete at least the main trio of the band. And I took note of them saying "some" of the figures mentioned will not be made. Does that mean at least one of them are on the radar? I have my money on Ree-Yees or Tessek. Or maybe they're referring to the Luke which they already did?

I didn't read that "some" that way, but I do see how it could be taken that way, and agree with your guesses.

Although I can't say I'm surprised, I'm disappointed with the answer to the Zahn question. Hasbro typically celebrates anniversaries, and the Zahn trilogy is a major anniversary in the Star Wars universe.

It's still a travesty that a junk comic like Legacy currently has more figures that the Zahn trilogy.

The prequels should have taught us that the newest thing is the popular thing. I wasn't in the least bit surprised by their answer, but I was hoping to be with a more positive response.

Looking over the other sites' questions, there wasn't a whole lot revealed this time. There will be another TFU pack in Spring 2011, based on the original game, as a retailer exclusive, though.

The amount of wasted questions this round is staggering. Questions already answered or are super obvious, mountains of them, this was possibly the least-informative round I've seen in this program in its 4 years due in large part to bad questions.

[bigbarada]

The amount of wasted questions this round is staggering. Questions already answered or are super obvious, mountains of them, this was possibly the least-informative round I've seen in this program in its 4 years due in large part to bad questions.

Like that website who asked why Hasbro released exclusives. I guess they just never pay attention, because I'm pretty sure that Hasbro just copied and pasted the same response that they've used the last 5,656,823 times it's been asked.

The Lava Flea will "NEVER" be made. At least they left open the tiniest fractions of possibilities to the requests for ANH Aunt Beru and Mungo Boabob; but they definitively stated that the Lava Flea would never be made and told the collectors to forget about it. That's surprisingly firm compared to what I'm used to in these Q&As. The Gelagrub must have tanked spectacularly at retail.

Also, it sounds to me that Hasbro is not 100% happy with the Lucasfilm directive on their package designs (specifically Captain Rex's head showing up everywhere). They basically said, "We agree it could cause some problems, but our hands are tied; so if this creates confusion at the retail level, blame Lucasfilm."

From Jedi-Business.com:

Cantina aliens and Jabba's Palace denizens are gradually being released, but how about characters from the Outlander Club from Episode 2? Are any in the pipeline for release in 2011?

There are none in the pipeline. This scene just doesn't have the gravitas that either the EpIV Cantina scene of EpVI Jabba Palace/skiff scene seem to have. When faced with deciding how to best fill our precious few slots devoted to some of the more obscure aliens, we will be sticking to the OTC for the foreseeable future.

Wow, again, pretty definitive answer there. I do agree 150% that the prequels equivalents of the Cantina/Jabba scenes just don't carry the same weight at all. Too much crammed into too short of a time frame with little to no impact on the plot. In fact, I can't think of a single interesting character from the Outlander Club that I would feel even remotely compelled to buy.

From SWCollector.com:

Q1.) With a new Jabba the Hutt and Oola coming out (as well as Jabba's dias with Salacious Crumb), and a lot of Jabba's palace denizens released in the Legacy Collection, what characters do you still consider necessary to either revisit or make for the first time from that sequence of RETURN OF THE JEDI?

Answer:
There are quite a few here, really. The interior Jabba's Palace scenes and outdoor desert scenes feature a lot of great fighting figures, especially those from the Skiff and Barge. This gives us a good number of figures to work against for years to come (assuming we can get to no more than a couple of new figures a year, which is all we can "fit" into the lineup given all the balancing we have to do to cover the whole Saga every year). We would like to cover all of the original Kenner upgrades too, especially in the Vintage line if we can. Some of our favorites of ours that we would like to see out someday: Doallyn and Fozec.

This is giving me a idea for a new question regarding Barada and which "Barada" they plan to upgrade. Do they consider the vintage Barada figure to actually be Kithaba or just an incorrectly colored Barada? Let me work on the wording and see what I can come up with.

[JediTricks]

We may get a Snowspeeder repaint next year, their answer said this was the only deco for "this year", and the orange stripes still need to be done, so I am looking forward to that.

Like that website who asked why Hasbro released exclusives. I guess they just never pay attention, because I'm pretty sure that Hasbro just copied and pasted the same response that they've used the last 5,656,823 times it's been asked.

That was the first eye-roll of my day when I read it. The answer is actually an all-new one, and even more detailed, and even more pointless since it's been 4 years since we needed to hear this stuff IMO, this was thoroughly answered back in '06.

Other questions that felt unnecessary this round:

1. - Why aren't the upcoming theme waves in movie order? And how will that work next year? (already knew this)
2. - Any Hoth Battle Packs to go with the AT-AT? (already 1 confirmed)
3. - Will there be any more big mail-aways like the Eopie/Qui-Gon set? (that one was special)
4. - Can you confirm Clone Wars Bossk, Boba Fett, and Mace Windu's astromech as seen from the Slave I set on ebay? (gee, they've only had a policy against commenting on these images for 2 years now)
5. - Empty pegs at Target & WM, how come? (answered previously)
6. - Clone Wars Grievous, cape? (um, already in pictures months ago, no.)
7. - New Aunt Beru anytime soon? (no need in Hasbro's eyes)
8. - Why is Rex on the packaging? (Lucasfilm wanted a "family of products" singular look, as answered repeatedly the last 3 or 4 rounds)
9. - Outlander club guys? (not enough recognition)
10. - What's with the street date in the UK? (answered @ multiple sites last 2 rounds)
11. - Genndy Clone Wars figures? (LFL said no so to avoid confusion with new CW) [this answer did confirm that our idea about Fordo being a non-named clone is in the works though]
12. - A large-scale vehicle like a Death Star or Star Destroyer that could do as well as the Naboo Starship? (Wow, really, it could sell as well as the Naboo starship? Gee, that means we'd only see our money back on the tooling investment sometime in the year 7,000. No thanks.)
13. - Any TFU2 toys? Any TFU2 toys? How about some TFU2 toys? Hey, what about TFU2 toys, nobody else has asked that either in this round or the last round or the round before that, right? (my head hurts)
14. - How about some more Ewoks? Hey, what about these Ewoks? (yeah, haven't heard that lately)
15. - What happens to pulled pegwarmers? (because nobody's ever seen THAT answer before, especially not on SSG last year)
16. - You previously said small figures like Ewoks and Jawas would be in TVC single carded with extra accessories, does that include Jawas? (uh........ Oh, and well, considering that's how they've been the last 11 years... yeah)

The Lava Flea will "NEVER" be made. At least they left open the tiniest fractions of possibilities to the requests for ANH Aunt Beru and Mungo Boabob; but they definitively stated that the Lava Flea would never be made and told the collectors to forget about it. That's surprisingly firm compared to what I'm used to in these Q&As. The Gelagrub must have tanked spectacularly at retail.

The Gelagrub did tanketh mightily around here. I think it's just because there's a lot of tooling to make a thing that did nothing and inspired no interest and is virtually unnoticeable in the film.

Also, it sounds to me that Hasbro is not 100% happy with the Lucasfilm directive on their package designs (specifically Captain Rex's head showing up everywhere). They basically said, "We agree it could cause some problems, but our hands are tied; so if this creates confusion at the retail level, blame Lucasfilm."

Yeah, I got that feeling as well, on this and on the last year's packaging. We asked them in '07, '08, and '09 about the packaging of those years, their enthusiasm definitely slides down with each one.

From Jedi-Business.com:


Wow, again, pretty definitive answer there. I do agree 150% that the prequels equivalents of the Cantina/Jabba scenes just don't carry the same weight at all. Too much crammed into too short of a time frame with little to no impact on the plot. In fact, I can't think of a single interesting character from the Outlander Club that I would feel even remotely compelled to buy.

Totally agree with ya there.

From SWCollector.com:




This is giving me a idea for a new question regarding Barada and which "Barada" they plan to upgrade. Do they consider the vintage Barada figure to actually be Kithaba or just an incorrectly colored Barada? Let me work on the wording and see what I can come up with.

Please check the existing answers first, there are 18 mentions for "Klaatu", 15 for "Wooof" (plus our '06 "Woof" question, oops ), and 7 for Barada, but I'm not sure if any of them will actually hit what you're going for, so I think you might have something new, but please make sure.

[JediTricks]

I've posted the questions from other sites: http://www.sirstevesguide.com/index....articleid=2676

[Darth Metalmute]

After reading the speeder bike answer, viewing previous pictures, and seeing the pictures at Comic-Con, it appears that some of the future sets that had the new speeder bike mold that were leaked or from the NY Toy Fair do not have the new speeder bike mold at Comic Con. Did anyone that attended Comic Con notice this as well?

[JediTricks]

I am pretty sure the sets with speeder bikes at SDCC were ones we already knew would have the old mold - the TRU set and the Hoth Battle Pack. But the AT-ATs had the newer bike, that's the only planned set RIGHT NOW that has the newer mold, so it's not surprising we didn't see other sets with it.

[Darth Metalmute]

I am pretty sure the sets with speeder bikes at SDCC were ones we already knew would have the old mold - the TRU set and the Hoth Battle Pack. But the AT-ATs had the newer bike, that's the only planned set RIGHT NOW that has the newer mold, so it's not surprising we didn't see other sets with it.

The AT-AT speeder bike was the one I was refering to. The vintage box front and art on the back both show the 1983 handle bars. The giant hoth display only had bikes with the 1983 handle bars as well.

[JediTricks]

The AT-AT definitely comes with the correct newer one, it's just that in the photo and in the display, you're not seeing the ones that come with the AT-AT, they're showing the ones from the Hoth battle pack that's coming out alongside the AT-AT (not the Target boxed sets, the regular battle pack), it's meant to show more of the variety involved in play patterns (hence all the extra figures and vehicles in the AT-AT box picture), but I can totally see how it's confusing like that.

[Darth Metalmute]

The AT-AT definitely comes with the correct newer one, it's just that in the photo and in the display, you're not seeing the ones that come with the AT-AT, they're showing the ones from the Hoth battle pack that's coming out alongside the AT-AT (not the Target boxed sets, the regular battle pack), it's meant to show more of the variety involved in play patterns (hence all the extra figures and vehicles in the AT-AT box picture), but I can totally see how it's confusing like that.

Cool,
I was worried that the Original Trilogy Bike was getting screwed again.