QUESTIONS FOR HASBRO - round 93

[JediTricks]

Question 9 needs to be modified. Target has placed Saggy Legends SKU back on their pegs. I haven't been to WM yet, but I'll bet they'll go back to it as well.

Question 16 modified to add more examples. I'm still not happy with the last sentence though, without the Clones (who were addressed), I think it may have to be cut as it's too specific and sorta weak.


My votes:
9
15

I'd actually like to change my vote from 12 to 15. Last round's answers across all the sites were showing a bit of improvement, but this one was full of "not right now"s, misunderstanding of simple questions (about the Walmart exclusive TPM wave) and outright false information (Kit Fisto's nonexistent running change, unless there's one coming later that nobody knew about). I'd like to nip this trend in the bud as soon as possible, and seeing Derryl's passion for this brings it home.

Yeah, I just read that TPM answer, and I felt like Hasbro was trying to bore a white-hot drillbit into my brain... sideways.

The Mighty GrinTM!!! Please, God, let it be The Mighty GrinTM.

Sorry, just a card change from AOTC to ROTS. For it to be the grin, they'd have to change the head in general (it has the awful ROTS headtails and likeness).

In regards to question 16, which asks about figures appearing in both TVC and Saga Legends: Rebel Scum shows that there has been 32 Saga Legends figures since the packaging was changed to the "shadows of the dark side" style, which also maked the beginning of the Vintage Collection. This numbering started with Bossk as SL01 and the SpaceTrooper as SL32. I did a quick comparison and it appears that 15 of these 32 figures have also appeard in the Vintage Collection. I realize that the Vintage Collection figures have been improved/updated and in some cases are quite different than the Saga Legends version, but it still surprises me how many duplicates there are.
Here is the list that I came up with:
-Anakin (episode III)
-Boba Fett
-C-3PO
-Clone Trooper-Phase I
-Clone Trooper-Phase II
-Darth Vader
-General Grievous
-Jango Fett
-Luke Skywalker (Snow Speeder Pilot)
-Mace Windu
-Obiwan Kenobi (episode II)
-R2-D2
-Stormtrooper
-Super Battle Droid
-Yoda

That is excellent, thank you, I'll change the question. Wasn't the Ep 2 Obi-Wan a mistake though, and they've since switched it to the Ep 3 figure? I'm not using

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

That is excellent, thank you, I'll change the question. Wasn't the Ep 2 Obi-Wan a mistake though, and they've since switched it to the Ep 3 figure?

Yes, the AOTC Obi-Wan was only in Legends for a brief time before changing it to the ROTS version, which had more articulation than the Vintage version.

[sonofsokol]

Question 16 modified to add more examples. I'm still not happy with the last sentence though, without the Clones (who were addressed), I think it may have to be cut as it's too specific and sorta weak.

I might be confussed as to the end goal of this question. What I want to know is why are there so many "duplicates" between the 2 lines, not necessarily if they think they hit the "Anakin threshold".

What do you think of this?
There seems to be more redundancy between the Saga Legends and Vintage Collection lines as of late. In the past, we have been told that Hasbro tries to avoid duplications such as these, but that seems to have changed. Since the beginning of the Vintage Collection/Shadow of the Darkside era, 15 of the 32 Saga Legends have been on the pegs around the same time as a similar Vintage Collection counterpart. These “duplicate” figures include Boba and Jango Fett, ROTS and AotC Clone Troopers, Stormtrooper, Super Battle Droid, General Grievous, Darth Vader, Anakin, Obi-wan, C-3PO, R2-D2, Mace Windu, and Yoda. Serious collectors can easily recognize the improvements and/or updates to the figures in the Vintage Collection, but casual fans would seem far more likely to purchase the Saga Legends version since it comes with a stand (and Battle Mat game accessories) and is $2 cheaper. It seems that sales from Saga Legends would cannibalize sales from the Vintage Collection; this much overlap seems counterproductive. Is there a reason for this redundancy? Is Hasbro trying to prevent this overlap between the 2 lines or are these frequent duplications the new standard?

I think I have been the only one to vote for this question thus far, so it it is too weak and you want to cut it, I'll understand. There are other questions I could easly vote for if 16 were to be removed.

[Tycho]

JT - there are votes on the previous page.

BattleDroid backed my question about "non-action" CW figures like Bail and Senator Farr.

I have to see if you've updated the questions list before I vote.

I wasn't inspired to support the questions you'd listed previously or I would have already posted my response.

[sebillba]

BattleDroid backed my question about "non-action" CW figures like Bail and Senator Farr.

I would also support any question asking for Onaconda Farr.

[JediTricks]

I might be confussed as to the end goal of this question. What I want to know is why are there so many "duplicates" between the 2 lines, not necessarily if they think they hit the "Anakin threshold".

What do you think of this?
There seems to be more redundancy between the Saga Legends and Vintage Collection lines as of late. In the past, we have been told that Hasbro tries to avoid duplications such as these, but that seems to have changed. Since the beginning of the Vintage Collection/Shadow of the Darkside era, 15 of the 32 Saga Legends have been on the pegs around the same time as a similar Vintage Collection counterpart. These “duplicate” figures include Boba and Jango Fett, ROTS and AotC Clone Troopers, Stormtrooper, Super Battle Droid, General Grievous, Darth Vader, Anakin, Obi-wan, C-3PO, R2-D2, Mace Windu, and Yoda. Serious collectors can easily recognize the improvements and/or updates to the figures in the Vintage Collection, but casual fans would seem far more likely to purchase the Saga Legends version since it comes with a stand (and Battle Mat game accessories) and is $2 cheaper. It seems that sales from Saga Legends would cannibalize sales from the Vintage Collection; this much overlap seems counterproductive. Is there a reason for this redundancy? Is Hasbro trying to prevent this overlap between the 2 lines or are these frequent duplications the new standard?

I think I have been the only one to vote for this question thus far, so it it is too weak and you want to cut it, I'll understand. There are other questions I could easly vote for if 16 were to be removed.

Originally, the anakin ceiling aspect was Anakins and Clones and stuff that wasn't selling, but they answered the specific clone aspect. I do take what you're saying to mind though, and have changed the question a little. I don't think removing question 16 is good though, I like the question, moreso than ever now that the Stormtrooper is shipping on both TVC and SL at the exact same time and the TVC helmet is still not a color match but is $1 or $2 more.

JT - there are votes on the previous page.

BattleDroid backed my question about "non-action" CW figures like Bail and Senator Farr.

I have to see if you've updated the questions list before I vote.

I wasn't inspired to support the questions you'd listed previously or I would have already posted my response.

Support for a question not added isn't necessarily a vote. I'm generally not adding these specific item questions, and I'm certainly not adding questions to which we've gotten answers for. Derryl told us several times last year in our convention interviews that they'd be doing a lot less - look at this question I wrote for Steve at Celebration V:

SirSteve: Since it started, Hasbro has been vocal that the Clone Wars action figure line is aimed primarily at kids, and that is the justification for less articulation and big spring-loaded gimmicks such as weapons. However, last year saw an upsweep in articulation outside the Clone Trooper figure, and an increased focus on design accuracy as more material became available. This year, Clone Wars quality is hitting a lot of highs with figures like Pre Vizsla - who all but perfects the ball-hinged wrist and ball-jointed torso - as well as accuracy such as General Grievous mark 2, and Mace Windu mark 2. Those are areas where collectors are focused though, not so much the kid market, and there also seems to be an increased focus on collector-themed characters such as Thi-Sen, Darth Sidious, and Ki-Adi-Mundi. Is the addition of collector-focused characters, design, and features meant to be hedging your bets as to what markets will respond to the line, or is it more about putting a little wink and nod towards the hardcore collector base that has stuck with the line? And how is the line doing with those 2 markets these days, the casual consumers/kids and the hardcore collectors?
Derryl DePriest: This question is really about who our target market is, and do we build figures to appeal in Clone Wars, to appeal to both collectors and kids. What a lot of fans should realize is that we work so far in advance on the line that sometimes we're giving future guidance about the trends that they're gonna see that doesn't exactly match what's at the shelf right now. Case in point with Clone Wars, we've done a lot of consumer research on who's actually responding, who's actually taking away the figures that we send out to retail, and the vast majority is kids. Now, there are collectors, but they're not as many collectors in Clone Wars as there are in the Legacy line, by a pretty decent margin. It seems like the large majority of collectors - I won't say "vast majority" - but large majority of collectors prefer or collect the Legacy line over the Clone Wars line. So that's changed our thinking a little bit, that we've investing a lot in articulation that we really should be pulling it back. It doesn't mean that we won't do figures here or there that really hit on what collectors like, or we're not going to go away completely from kind of the more obscure characters like Ki-Adi-Mundi - who is also a Jedi so that's very good, kids do like Jedi - but it means that we're going to really be kinda trimming down our focus. But when I say we that design the line so far ahead, it means that, what we're talking about when we say there will be less articulation coming, we're really talking about 12, 18 months ahead of when we started talking about it. So that was something that we started getting out to fans maybe 6 months ago, it's really affecting future development. Everything that fans are seeing now, some of these figures, the more articulated figures, really reflect characters that were designed a year or 18 months ago, so long ago in our past that now we have a new sensibility for the line, and it really reflects going forward, what fans are going to see.

They are trimming down focus on those sorts of figures. So why would we ask about them doing more of those figures when they told us to our faces, as well as several times in Q&A answers, that they were doing less of them?

[Tycho]

Another new question:

For the figure w. vehicle packs, have you considered more offerings from the actual movie such as the Kamino patrol vehicles with a Kaminoan pilot (whom you could single-card later)? What about the Hoth Ice Cutter with a Echo Base Trooper? Because the mold was already made, would the Wookiee Flyer see re-release, as well as Obi-Wan on Boga?

I still have not voted quite yet, but am waiting to see what the final offerings are closer to the time this poll closes.

[JediTricks]

4 days left to vote in this round!

Another new question:

For the figure w. vehicle packs, have you considered more offerings from the actual movie such as the Kamino patrol vehicles with a Kaminoan pilot (whom you could single-card later)? What about the Hoth Ice Cutter with a Echo Base Trooper? Because the mold was already made, would the Wookiee Flyer see re-release, as well as Obi-Wan on Boga?

I still have not voted quite yet, but am waiting to see what the final offerings are closer to the time this poll closes.

They'll probably just say that they will do them when appropriate and when they think their target audience (kids) will buy them. I'm not saying no to this question but it's pretty weak as-is, and I also don't know which Kamino vehicle you're talking about and what Kaminoan pilot there was, you need to be more specific, was it one of these?:
Kamino Submarine http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kamino_submarine
Kamino Spacecraft http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kamino_spacecraft
KE-8 Enforcer http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/KE-8_Enforcer

I definitely wouldn't be inclined to ask about the Boga again unless it appears in the show, it's one of those prequel creatures that just doesn't seem to have an audience, doesn't capture the imaginations of the kids that the Class 1 Fleet line is focused on.

[Tycho]

JediTricks, thank you for your responses.

And the links.

I mean the KE-8 enforcer (from AOTC) with a realisitc movie figure of a generic Kaminoan. I'd buy maybe up to 3 of these things!

The submarine from Clone Wars could also work (hopefully with an animated Kaminoan, as another Obi-Wan might be good for the kids, but the collectors have him already - though he actually does use this vessel in the show). Also - note how much this vessel has features similar to Zam Wessel's speeder on Coruscant in AOTC. Interesting continuity. But I never suspected her vehicle to be Kaminoan.

The Kamino spaceship looks really boring IMO.

As to your previous answer from SirSteve's Q&A (and why do I suspect YOU and not Steve posed that question?), I still question whether there's merit in "reminding" Hasbro that we want certain items (like Jocasta Nu's case is being pressed, as is the Sailbarge vehicle, and since back in the day - this is a successful (see Wuher, the cantina bartender) way to do things.

That would mean, asking about Anaconda Far, Senator Tsutchi, Bail Organa, Nute Gunray, Padme as a Senator, Palpatine etc. if even to get another "no" response, only to ask them again in another year. Obviously begging the question for real. In this game, I'd allow the question to be voted for once a year. That way it won't waste other questions' chances, but can achieve its purpose for why it's being asked in the first place. But aren't many of the questions being asked to beg for specific new products anyway?

[JediTricks]

I am sending the questions in tomorrow, so make sure to get those votes in before that deadline.

JediTricks, thank you for your responses.

And the links.

I mean the KE-8 enforcer (from AOTC) with a realisitc movie figure of a generic Kaminoan. I'd buy maybe up to 3 of these things!

Well, the KE-8 is actually kinda big, nearly 2/3rds the length of Slave I, not terribly recognizable as it blends into the CGI background, and it doesn't really do much of anything, so I'm not seeing it as a great candidate for the Class I Fleet vehicle with figure line. Maybe if it showed up and did something notable in the Clone Wars.

The submarine from Clone Wars could also work (hopefully with an animated Kaminoan, as another Obi-Wan might be good for the kids, but the collectors have him already - though he actually does use this vessel in the show). Also - note how much this vessel has features similar to Zam Wessel's speeder on Coruscant in AOTC. Interesting continuity. But I never suspected her vehicle to be Kaminoan.

Well, it does look like Zam's speeder, but they're seemingly not related. And it's not really from the movies, so putting a movie-styled Kaminoan pilot in there seems pretty difficult to sell. Plus, there is no approved artwork for a Kaminoan pilot that I know of, so Hasbro would either request concept artwork be created by Lucasfilm, or have to come up with multiple concepts and have Lucasfilm approve one of them - which is all very expensive for a figure and a vehicle that doesn't really have much of a chance of grabbing its main audience.

The Kamino spaceship looks really boring IMO.

I agree there.

As to your previous answer from SirSteve's Q&A (and why do I suspect YOU and not Steve posed that question?)

Because I said as much in the post? "look at this question I wrote for Steve at Celebration V"

, I still question whether there's merit in "reminding" Hasbro that we want certain items (like Jocasta Nu's case is being pressed, as is the Sailbarge vehicle, and since back in the day - this is a successful (see Wuher, the cantina bartender) way to do things.

I also question whether there's merit in reminding them, but I'll assume you are simply misspeaking there and taking the opposite tack. Wuher was a pretty big failure, we begged and pleaded and they made him and figure tanked, since it was an exclusive their retail partner (the fan club) got stuck with a bunch and eventually had to liquidate them, so it makes a weak example. That's not to say I believe that they are so in touch with every Q&A that I expect them to remember EVERYTHING, we ended up having to remind them of the Titanium Series Outrider promise they made to ensure it got produced before they ended that line - but that example is of a specific, desired item that had notable support and interest, it's special and it had support and it had a good chance of being made, that's the sort of "business model" that we need for questions in Q&A. What we have with Q&A is an extremely limited resource, 2 questions per month, and to spend it reminding them of stuff we've already discussed or they're already aware of, or to spend it reminding them of random stuff that virtually nobody cares about simply because it was in the film, that would be extremely wasteful and irresponsible use of our resource.

That would mean, asking about Anaconda Far, Senator Tsutchi, Bail Organa, Nute Gunray, Padme as a Senator, Palpatine etc. if even to get another "no" response, only to ask them again in another year. Obviously begging the question for real. In this game, I'd allow the question to be voted for once a year. That way it won't waste other questions' chances, but can achieve its purpose for why it's being asked in the first place. But aren't many of the questions being asked to beg for specific new products anyway?

And that's why you're not Q&A editor. Getting merely another obvious "no" response is a waste of the resource, it gains us nothing. Go bother them at Comic-Con about all your ideas - put in the face time, make your arguments, and use THAT opportunity as a separate resource, but save this resource for something more important than repeating yet another list of tertiary figures. How is that any different from asking for every individual character to have a Super Articulated figure?