QUESTIONS FOR HASBRO - round 88

[JediTricks]

I'm going to send in the questions tomorrow night, so get your votes in for this round soon!

Here are my votes:

1 medical luke
5 saber
6 luke
7 slave I

New Questions:

1) Are the Lucas Family Members off-limits for even exclusive Clone Wars figures, as the cartoon leaders of Pantora (especially Baron Pappanoida)?

Why would Hasbro make them? And "off limits" was the word we have. I don't see a reason to ask this.

2) When will we get an animated Greedo?

Too specific, we'll get it if/when we get it, but SSG tries not to ask about specifics unless there's a bigger reason.

3) Is Hasbro considering a carded "repaint wave" for Clone Wars that would include some of the exclusive pack-ins like:

Gar Nacht
Shahan Alama (Weequay Pirate)
Robonino
Bossk

The point of pack-in figures is they wouldn't sell to the mainline audience so they had to be done separately. As for Bossk, they said no for at least a year.

4) Since Plo Koon's and Ahsoka's red Jedi Turbospeeder was made (for release next spring) there are some obscure, blink-and-you-miss ship choices in the $24 Clone Wars vehicle line. Will Hondo Ohnaka get the Rapier-One (flying saucer fighter) or one of the Weequay battletanks from Florum? Will Count Dooku ever see his solar sailor ship?

Rapier One was as big as the Falcon, how is that starfighter-class sized? As for the WLO-5 Speeder Tank, the scale is too big for starfighter-class (look at its turret then look at the Republic Fighter Tank's, then ask yourself where the rest of the Speeder Tank's rear section would go), it's a bit specific. They already said no on the Solar Sailer, it's "not an inspiring design".

5) Previously Hasbro said they had no plans for the mounts the Talz rode on Pantora. Has a Clone Wars "beast line" been really considered? - from the swamp monster on Rodia that helped JarJar, to the beasts that Commander Stone rode on Florum and the ones Mace Windu and the Twi'lek resistance fighters rode on Ryloth, there are a lot of choices (not to mention the huge Zillo Beast that would be in an altogether larger size category). The beasties have always been a visible part of the Star Wars universe's population. Let's bring them back - for both 3 3/4" lines actually!

This makes no sense, they said no to a beast so you took that as a consideration for a beast line? Their previous answer on the matter in July said the same thing, after Jabba, no beasts are being considered (they are trying to get someone to pick up the tauntaun they designed last year though).

This isn't a venue to just throw ideas at them, it's a Q&A.

Has anyone ever asked about the possiblity of re-releasing certain figures like the Blue Snaggletooth from the K-Mart set or a carded BG-J38?

We asked them in April about BG-J38 re-released, they said NONE of the Build-a-Droid droids will be offered again as-is. We asked them about re-releasing Blue Snags back in '08 for the Saga Legends Fans Choice, since it didn't win it didn't get re-released.

better??????

Oh well. I had my hopes up because the droid from the Rebel Hoth set is just a repainted build-a-droid. If a single carded figure wasn't possible, I would have even settled for a ROTJ battle pack from Jabba's dungeon with BG-J38, EV-9D9, R2, & C-3PO.

One of their answers said that they might reuse the parts as new characters, but not the existing BAD ones.

I really like the idea of the UGH Foil Carded proof cards its really fun finding your entire wave in the foil over just the regular proof cards, I want to expand upon that foil carded idea and actually make another tier of it. I would really like if they released some rare characters (ie: Blue Snaggletooth) with a GOLD foil, and its classified as an Ultra rare!

I think the hunt for one of these would be the best!

I had a thought about this last night after skimming the thread, but I cannot remember what it was right now. There's also no actual question there. But it ties in to the rare figure idea above, so it has 2 ideas rolled into one. That said, I just rolled it around in my head and realized it's somewhat contradictory: it wants to re-release rare figures but make them even more rare by limiting their releases to chase product. Am I misunderstanding?

[El Chuxter]

1
2
5
6

Really, only eight questions up for voting? Wow.

[JediTricks]

Really, only eight questions up for voting? Wow.

Yeah, we burned through a ton of questions at this summer's 2 conventions, Derryl was very generous with his time.

That said, since then I'm finding it very difficult and frustrating to try to add questions here actually, because so many questions since then have gotten thrown at the wall that I don't think can stick. Tycho alone in just this thread has tossed 12 questions out (and NO votes) that all got shot down from either being previously answered or unfeasible/unrealistic. Yet every time I have to shoot down a potential question, it hurts the Q&A voting by filling up the thread with perceived negativity, which is not at all the intention.

[Tycho]

Yes, I perceived the negativity.

When you said:

This isn't a venue to just throw ideas at them, it's a Q&A.

I seriously don't understand your statement.

Questions do include: "will you make a new beast-line for CW?" or something like that. And specific ones should be allowed (like the Zillo Beast) if people want to ask them.

Ridiculous questions might be "Would you consider making a 1:1 scale complete Death Star for the 3 3/4" figures?"

However, considering how many of us want playsets again (and yes I know their answer and their reason "why," as I asked and heard it in person at Comic Con) I don't think that repeatedly asking them for something is necessarily bad.

I appreciate JediTricks wanting to ask different questions than other websites so we get more answers.

But almost everyone, including JediTricks, wants a 3 3/4" Jabba the Hutt Sailbarge vehicle for example. Isn't it a lot like voting in a Fans' Choice Vehicle Poll - but one the fan sites initiate on their own - if a fan site asks for the Sailbarge every other month or so - and it is a different fan site?

Darryl was very generous at Comic Con!!! Many props to him! However, we don't get to see him one-on-one like that every 3 weeks but rather have to wait for these conventions.

So isn't there value in having these Q&A's sometimes throw ideas his way - or reinforce them? (Like Jabba's Sailbarge?)

Because of some of the negativity, myself and some others have sometimes loathed to participate in these Q&A sessions to varying degrees.

Sometimes, fanboy enthusiasm (i.e. "Can we have a giant Death Star Battle Station for our figures?) is indeed the very essence of what makes a fan site a great community - for exactly that type of enthusiasm (but please don't ask the Death Star question even if you actually DO get into a good mood, JT )

I agree that you get somewhere by being professional - but you only need be to a certain extent. You are not being PAID by Hasbro to be professional. So join the rest of us and be a fanboy. Bring back even more fun for all of us, and most importantly, yourself.

On second thought: yeah - ask them if they'd make us an entire spherical 1:1 scale Death Star for the 3 3/4" figures. It may be libertaing. - Or save that for an April 1st Q&A session and add "Digested Oola Action Figure," and whatever else that's completely off the wall to to our list for that month!

[sebillba]

Just 6 and 8 for me please.

[JediTricks]

Yes, I perceived the negativity.

The negativity is on your part though. If you don't like the reasons why I didn't use your questions, start reading more existing answers before asking questions. And this is a very limited resource, so don't just throw any ol' idea you have out here without first thinking through if it's feasible - consider your time with Hasbro at Comic-Con, that's 4 days with the team to talk to them, now imagine that being boiled down to just 2 minutes instead, that's essentially what this Q&A is, 2 minutes with Hasbro every month.

I seriously don't understand your statement.

Questions do include: "will you make a new beast-line for CW?" or something like that. And specific ones should be allowed (like the Zillo Beast) if people want to ask them.

Hasbro asked us back in '08 to dial back the specific toy design requests, they had us explain how getting a job in the toy industry works, remember? As for your specific example, that WAS asked already and shot down, yet you went after it again knowing that. When a specific is noteworthy enough and feasible and hasn't been asked about in a while, I do allow it. But I have to make the editorial decision to not fill up this thread with every fan's specific requests, that's not realistic, we don't have room for 5,000 different questions about random stuff, there has to be a filter. That's what makes our Q&As work so well in general, and why Hasbro keeps telling us how good our work is, and why our system has worked since implemented in round 4.

Ridiculous questions might be "Would you consider making a 1:1 scale complete Death Star for the 3 3/4" figures?"

However, considering how many of us want playsets again (and yes I know their answer and their reason "why," as I asked and heard it in person at Comic Con) I don't think that repeatedly asking them for something is necessarily bad.

Again, Q&A is a LIMITED resource and we have an extremely definitive answer that keeps not changing despite being asked by every other site out there long after we moved on.

But almost everyone, including JediTricks, wants a 3 3/4" Jabba the Hutt Sailbarge vehicle for example. Isn't it a lot like voting in a Fans' Choice Vehicle Poll - but one the fan sites initiate on their own - if a fan site asks for the Sailbarge every other month or so - and it is a different fan site?

This is ultimately the flawed thinking that drives you and why you feel negated at every turn. There is some belief that if enough fans demand an expensive thing, that somehow that'll make it happen. But that ignores 2 factors: A) that Hasbro already knows how much we want it; and B) that the fans make up a MINORITY segment of the brand's market base, so they are never going to have enough power to PUSH something through that Hasbro doesn't think is marketable. Hasbro isn't saying no to the Sail Barge because they're lazy or cruel or ignoring you, they are doing it to protect the line from caving in on itself should a big expense item wildly fail, they are MANAGING the line and that requires balancing a lot of factors, some of which you either don't understand or more likely ignore despite Hasbro explaining their complexities in Q&A.

Darryl was very generous at Comic Con!!! Many props to him! However, we don't get to see him one-on-one like that every 3 weeks but rather have to wait for these conventions.

You're making a mistaken perception here, I think. Each round of Q&A takes him more time than all this summer's convention interviews he did. It's just that the questions are not all from 1 or 2 sites at a time the rest of the year. I keep trying to stress the fact that this is a LIMITED resource, as I'll do again in a moment.

So isn't there value in having these Q&A's sometimes throw ideas his way - or reinforce them? (Like Jabba's Sailbarge?)

The value of nagging them about things they already have addressed or are likely to be unfeasible is far outweighed by the limited nature of the format. Everybody here has a different opinion about things, we can't just push every single opinion at Hasbro, especially when it's going to be a simple "no" answer. Look at the answer we just got here:

SSG: The prequels have introduced a number of new alien species to the Star Wars universe, and Hasbro has been good about making figures of most of them. Aside from pod race pilots which have already been discussed with Hasbro, there are several other visually interesting alien species that Hasbro hasn't yet added to the lineup including Roonan, Sarrish, Zeuolin, Holwuff, Tarnab and Sy Myrthian. While these are admittedly background stuff and mostly represented as senators in the films, as action figures they would add another dimension of unique aliens to the line. Can you tell us if any of these species will find their way into the lineup in the foreseeable future?
Hasbro: As cool as they are, without any really recognizable moments in the films we're unlikely to get to these.

That was NO surprise to me, and it's why I didn't want to ask it in the first place. The answer was definitive and straightforward, but it was also incredibly brief and served to just confirm what we already had strong evidence to suspect. Just having a single "no" sentence is not rewarding despite being honest, there's no payout.

Because of some of the negativity, myself and some others have sometimes loathed to participate in these Q&A sessions to varying degrees.

That's on you, I would guess that's your fanboy perceptions' laziness and selfishness overwhelming your thinking. And speak for yourself, I don't want to hear what you think others feel about this thread, that's just your perceptions - you are sometimes the single most frustrating thing to deal with in these Q&A voting threads, at least when Cane and Gothiczartan get on my case about something "out there" it's something they care a great deal about, not a random whim that just got under their skin or a total goof dedicated to filling a few minutes of their day, nobody else in these threads wastes my time the way you do.

Sometimes, fanboy enthusiasm (i.e. "Can we have a giant Death Star Battle Station for our figures?) is indeed the very essence of what makes a fan site a great community - for exactly that type of enthusiasm

That's not what Q&A is about though, and a definitive "no" answer can only serve to crush hopes, not foster them. Which is more negative in that respect, using the knowledge learned from these Q&As to filter question ideas, or crushing the more outlandish hopes?

I agree that you get somewhere by being professional - but you only need be to a certain extent. You are not being PAID by Hasbro to be professional. So join the rest of us and be a fanboy. Bring back even more fun for all of us, and most importantly, yourself.

That is the dumbest thing I've ever seen you say. If I ran it the way you want, there'd be a voting thread with 175 questions about random stuff just begging, every month the answers would be 4 brief "no"s. There are plenty other sites out there wasting fans' time with that stuff, and their Q&A voting system sure isn't working as well as ours. The ONLY reason I put in this much effort is for the community, and it bothers me that of all people in this thread, YOU would have the gall to say that to me.

[JediTricks]

Anyway, all that charming stuff aside, due to unforeseen circumstances, I have to close the thread and send in the Qs a few hours early.


Here are the questions we're sending for in this round:

• Questions from SirStevesGuide.com:
• 1) Although we've gotten in recent years a better Luke from ANH, and even a second Han Solo Death Star Escape, we've still not really gotten an acceptable Luke Death Star Escape figure. The last one was the 25th Anniversary set which was essentially a statue. Luke and Leia's "swing to freedom" (as Hasbro describes it) is one of the earliest, most iconic Star Wars images, and yet not only do we not have a truly acceptable Leia figure for this, but we don't have a modern-quality Luke for it, and he's the hero of the scene! Luke would need a stormtrooper utility belt and grappling hook & line (and if these just happened to be swappable with a regular Luke ANH belt to complete the Death Star scenes in this costume, so much the better), and articulation to deliver the action, and a quality likeness would mean a lot too. Are there any chances that we get a Death Star Escape Luke like this? And while we're at it, how about a Leia as well?
• 2) In several instances now, when asked about the new Slave I getting an ESB release, the response is that it largely depends on how the current Clone Wars version does at retail. If the decision to release it this way is based off sales, why release this as a $100 set with a few re-released figures, and a vehicle repaint that wasn't really hotly requested? If this CW set does sell, does that suggest an ESB release would get a similar Ultimate Battle Pack treatment with the release of some new figures like Bespin Guards and an existing vehicle like the Cloud Car? If that's not likely in store for an ESB Slave I, why predicate that release on this one when it has a different pricepoint, market, and really a different business model altogether? Why release the CW one in this ultimate battle pack format, was this vehicle originally planned for the now-defunct $60 Deluxe Vehicle line and repurposed, was this always the plan for it, or if not, how did this come about this way?
• Questions from CollectionStation.com:
• 1) Given previous answers from Hasbro that a Cane Adiss figure was not off the table, and then the character showing 10th in the most recent Fans Choice poll, it certainly seems like eventually we'll probably get a Cane Adiss figure at some point down the road. With that in mind, has the Hasbro Star Wars team given any thought to how Cane, the largest character in the Fans Choice poll, could be realized as a product since he undoubtedly wouldn't fit on the current basic card - would it be a battle pack, a mail-away, an exclusive for Toys R Us (a good tie-in to the giraffe-themed retailer)? And has there been any discussion on a "whole creature" design for Adiss similarly to how the team extrapolated a fully-realized design for aliens like Dice Ibegon that were only prop puppet heads? Obviously we're not expecting Lucasfilm approval on any ideas you guys might have yet, but preliminarily, what does the Hasbro team feel a Cane Adiss figure would look like?
• 2) With the 2008 Medical Frigate Luke figure, the figure almost fits the bill for Echo Base recovery scene Luke, if not for the open mechanical arm, and the different likeness with scars and Hoth hairstyle. That scene also has another character whose figure is in dire need of updating: 2-1B, who hasn't seen a new figure design in over a decade. With a Recovery Luke figure, it'd just be a new head required (the body and undamaged forearm tooling already exists from the VOTC figure) so you could also include the mask he wore in that scene's less-infamous cut footage (we're not asking you to make kissing Luke & Leia, you'll have to decide if you're twisted enough to go there ;-) ). So, any chances of knocking the Echo Base Recovery scene out of the park by making new Luke recovery and 2-1B figures?

Since we don't have a new Q&A schedule, I'm not going to be starting a new voting thread after this right away. Look for a new voting thread next week or so.