QUESTIONS FOR HASBRO at Conventions

[El Chuxter]

I could give you quite a few examples from TF and Joe (canned or just damned impossible to find).

In fairness, they did release on 30th Anniversary cards most of the army builders from the end of the Pursuit of Cobra line that were absolutely un-findable in the US, but not all (cough, Rock Viper), and none of the individual characters.

On a related note, could the more high-demand figures from the last Vintage wave be re-released on whatever card they're doing next? I'm thinking that Emperor's Guard figure is going to be a pain to get, being an army builder and all.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

In any case, that answer should have been followed up with a "why" and sadly wasn't, so I guess that could be our job if you get the opportunity to ask it.

Okay, I can add it to the list. I suspect it's everything you have already mentioned - Hasbro isn't used to (or doesn't know how to do) the marketing for higher-end items like these and it just sort of petered off while they focused on the more playable (and less displayable) Ultimate FX sabers, as evident in Jeff's response.

I'm beginning to find concern about the goal of this question. If it's always Obi-Wan and a movie star and prequel droids, the answer to our question is already evident (popular, well known with kids, but collectors want upgrades - TVC cardbacks are sometimes seen as the only upgrade), so what are we trying to achieve by asking the question?

Well, if I could just tell them to stop packing identical (or near-identical) figures in multiple lines at once, I would; I'm just trying to phrase it in the form of a question. There are of course other factors that turn a figure into a pegwarmer, but this is a more recent issue, and one they keep doing. They're treating such figures as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as three distinct releases - Vintage, Movie Heroes, Discover the Force - when they really shouldn't, because the different versions don't really offer anything greatly different (other than packaging or repacked accessories). I guess the point is, "Are the near-identical simultaneous releases cannibalizing each other's sales?" Because it's not just that the Movie Heroes versions are hanging (as is the case for those droids I mentioned), it's that all three versions are hanging around pretty equally and I don't think it would be as big of a problem if the figure only existed in one version at a time, or if the different versions offered something distinctly, drastically different.

Don't tread too lightly if Derryl's with him, but yeah, be aware of whether or not you've got him - you can see it on his face in that YodasNews video you linked to. On the other hand, don't let his mood affect important follow-ups, make sure to get a "why" asked to any big thing you feel is warranted - "why" is the most important question in journalism.

He's definitely got a very different style from Derryl, I see what you mean. I'll just count on Derryl or Brian to give the more thorough answers, I suppose.

Basically we're just asking about the future of the line, its health and possibilities. I can't think of another specific so I'll leave that angle to someone else. I personally am just a little frustrated with the repack 3packs being overpriced and delivering unexciting experiences, and why there's been no Battle Pack-type visual diorama packaging for a multipack like these - it's just 3 vehicles in a generic package.

Okay, I'll gladly ask about how it's doing overall and that sort of thing. Do you want me to ask about the repacks and how uninteresting they are?

- At Comic-Con, Jeff told another site that the MTT's performance will significantly dictate how the 2013 line views another large vehicle launch. The MTT is not an exciting vehicle in general, it's slow and doesn't shoot in the films, it's not that "aggressive" style that Derryl has looked for in the past, the toy is built around a very specific gimmick which may only have limited appeal, it's higher-priced than the other big vehicles that size, and it was released half a year after Ep I in 3D came and went in theaters with little resonating impact. In short, the MTT was a risky choice and if it doesn't do well, why should its specific shortcomings be an indictment of big Star Wars vehicles in general?

A bit of a mouthful, I'll grant you, so it probably needs a rewrite, but I think it's an important question to ask - although kept at least in the middle of the opening salvo, question 5 or 6 at best. Also, if asked which ones, I'd go with Sail Barge - more aggressive, played a bigger role in the film; Acclamator assault ship - aka Republic Assault Ship, the AOTC mini Star Destroyer that fills with clones at the end, so it has Clone Wars play, and it's the fattest top to bottom so it's a better chance for a toy than other Star Destroyer designs; but honestly I don't really know if there's room for more big vehicles after the Sail Barge anyway, I'd struggle.

I think it's an important question; I'll think on it a bit.

I hear ya, but with such a limited resource that'd be a waste of what little we have, can't ask everything, gotta prioritize and if they aren't 1 question, one is going to have to wait until later in the interview or later in life. Or both will have to wait, who knows. But it's not fair to the other questions to ask 2 successive questions about the same thing, a lot of people are interested in a lot of Star Wars things and we need to cover a lot of ground for them too.

True, and neither question is that exciting, so if I don't ask either then I won't really care. If I'm able to just chat with Derryl at the booth or something, I think they're better suited to that environment.

I don't think there's been an Andy or Andrew on the team in about a decade, but I could be mistaken. Might it have been Dave Vennemeyer, the head sculptor, wears a goatee? I can't imagine he'd bother shooting it down, especially 2 years ago, he'd just hand it off to Derryl who would say they'd consider it. Anyway, I agree that the 2-handed pose on the Vintage is more important but the walls on that one are so small that it's fragile and expensive, while the Clone Wars one is not only possible but already exists as separate tooling, so it's a freebie.

I know it wasn't Dave, as he was usually showing his sculpting at a little station and he wasn't at the booth when I was. Andrew was younger than everyone else, it seemed, aside maybe from Chad Donvito. (I just checked the write-up of my CV talk with them and I said it was Andrew, but I could still be mistaken - I now know that there's a guy named Erik Arana on the team, but he looked different, so I dunno.) I see what you mean; if I get to that one, I'll bring up the no-tooling aspect.

The timing makes this valuable, the KOTOR anniversary next year (July 15th, '03), they have the HK-47, Bastila Shan, Revan, and Malak which is like half of the important characters in the game so it's a freebie, it gets 4 hard-to-find figures out again, it works exactly on its face because they're the only KOTOR figures and they're all HTF and the opportunity to do this is in range coming up for KOTOR's 10th anniversary. They're the most visually interesting major characters anyway so it doesn't even need another figure to hook it.

Okay, true.

It's a brand philosophy question, do they recognize that there was too much product, it was overhyped and late to market and dominated the brand for too long in '12 while the movie release itself didn't make much of an impact, so what have they learned from those situations and how will it affect them going forward? That's why I'd ask it, and pretty early on at that. I'm not remotely satisfied with the JTA answer.

I'm sure there will still be a lot of PR talk on this one, and I bet Lucasfilm thought the demand would be higher as well, so it is still interesting.

Chux, of course, the SW team has no control over what the other lines are doing, so that's their thing. There have been a few SW items - the Obi-Wan and Boba Fett class I Clone Wars ships, the Naboo plains pack at Target - that have done this recently, but things get cancelled or changed with some regularity and the only issue there is that Hasbro showed us these things too soon. I suppose I could include those examples with the Utai. On the tooling point, as JT said, sometimes they're not tooled yet and that's a way bigger expense than sculpting is, from what I understand. So is there a "will we ever see this" aspect there, or are you just wondering on the business/philosophy of it all?

They said somewhere at SDCC that they'll be looking at ways to re-ship popular Vintage Collection figures and army builders in the future. Amazon has the Royal Guard individually, unless it's pre-sold out now or something.

[JediTricks]

I could give you quite a few examples from TF and Joe (canned or just damned impossible to find).

In fairness, they did release on 30th Anniversary cards most of the army builders from the end of the Pursuit of Cobra line that were absolutely un-findable in the US, but not all (cough, Rock Viper), and none of the individual characters.

I think we'll just let this one sleep for now then, it's just about business being business and the teams trying to do their best to get product out in spite of that.

On a related note, could the more high-demand figures from the last Vintage wave be re-released on whatever card they're doing next? I'm thinking that Emperor's Guard figure is going to be a pain to get, being an army builder and all.

This I will add, and recommend floated towards the top with an asterisk (because it may get answered at the panel).

Okay, I can add it to the list. I suspect it's everything you have already mentioned - Hasbro isn't used to (or doesn't know how to do) the marketing for higher-end items like these and it just sort of petered off while they focused on the more playable (and less displayable) Ultimate FX sabers, as evident in Jeff's response.

Yeah, don't allow that to happen to us if you can help it, that really made me scream "ASK A FOLLOW UP ABOUT FORCE FX!!!" Just try to get something in about the future. Stupid Hasbro minimum ordering system makes this such a hamstrung question though - that's something that goes to the core... hmm, maybe it's above the scope of Derryl and Jeff but it gives me inspiration:

- Hasbro corporate policy requires retailers to order monthly minimums to start with Hasbro, several thousand in purchases a month supposedly, which favors high volume retailers over small and niche retailers, and by doing so that limits the types of items Hasbro likes to focus on, going for mainstream audiences over smaller audiences, non-collectors and such. Force FX lightsabers have become an icon in our society, they're well-known with fans who would never buy a Star Wars action figure or toy of any kind, and those people buy from places that wouldn't move a lot of Hasbro product so they can't get wholesale orders from you. Some of those stores can go through Diamond for distribution but others aren't comic shops - mall video stores used to be a good place to buy FX sabers, for example, but now they are not able to get in on the marketing which limits Hasbro sales and limits Force FX's exposure outside the hardcore fan view. Is there anything that can be done for small-market-focused items like Force FX beyond buying them from a 3rd party distributor, or is the Hasbro business model simply too rigid to allow that?

Not sure if this question would be in my top 10 though. Yeah, I just wrote all that for a 2nd- or 3rd-tier question.

Well, if I could just tell them to stop packing identical (or near-identical) figures in multiple lines at once, I would; I'm just trying to phrase it in the form of a question. There are of course other factors that turn a figure into a pegwarmer, but this is a more recent issue, and one they keep doing. They're treating such figures as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan as three distinct releases - Vintage, Movie Heroes, Discover the Force - when they really shouldn't, because the different versions don't really offer anything greatly different (other than packaging or repacked accessories). I guess the point is, "Are the near-identical simultaneous releases cannibalizing each other's sales?" Because it's not just that the Movie Heroes versions are hanging (as is the case for those droids I mentioned), it's that all three versions are hanging around pretty equally and I don't think it would be as big of a problem if the figure only existed in one version at a time, or if the different versions offered something distinctly, drastically different.

I see. Ok, well focus not on the specific characters then but on the problem and the why/how-to-fix parts.

He's definitely got a very different style from Derryl, I see what you mean. I'll just count on Derryl or Brian to give the more thorough answers, I suppose.

Brian Merten is fairly new to the mainline team, so you won't get much out of him on it compared to exclusives where he is king.

Okay, I'll gladly ask about how it's doing overall and that sort of thing. Do you want me to ask about the repacks and how uninteresting they are?

Repacks are obviously necessary in this situation, but yeah, they could be brought to market more dynamically.

True, and neither question is that exciting, so if I don't ask either then I won't really care. If I'm able to just chat with Derryl at the booth or something, I think they're better suited to that environment.

Sounds good. If you intend to publish what they tell you outside the official interview, make sure to recognize when they're telling you something off the record and not break that trust. It happens from time to time, and with so much going on it's hard to compartmentalize that sort of thing.

I know it wasn't Dave, as he was usually showing his sculpting at a little station and he wasn't at the booth when I was. Andrew was younger than everyone else, it seemed, aside maybe from Chad Donvito. (I just checked the write-up of my CV talk with them and I said it was Andrew, but I could still be mistaken - I now know that there's a guy named Erik Arana on the team, but he looked different, so I dunno.) I see what you mean; if I get to that one, I'll bring up the no-tooling aspect.

Then it was probably someone from design, it's very hit-and-miss who from design comes to these things, I may not have met or heard of him, or maybe I did and just forgot because he wasn't at last year's. If it were me and I got something like that, I'd go after the "why not" and then probably talk to Derryl about it.

I'm sure there will still be a lot of PR talk on this one, and I bet Lucasfilm thought the demand would be higher as well, so it is still interesting.

Getting caught up in the overhype is what nearly took Hasbro as a company down 12 years ago with the original TPM release, I would think they'd have learened a little from that. I'd ask it to remind them to learn from it, anyway.

Chux, of course, the SW team has no control over what the other lines are doing, so that's their thing. There have been a few SW items - the Obi-Wan and Boba Fett class I Clone Wars ships, the Naboo plains pack at Target - that have done this recently, but things get cancelled or changed with some regularity and the only issue there is that Hasbro showed us these things too soon. I suppose I could include those examples with the Utai. On the tooling point, as JT said, sometimes they're not tooled yet and that's a way bigger expense than sculpting is, from what I understand. So is there a "will we ever see this" aspect there, or are you just wondering on the business/philosophy of it all?

I took his question as a company policy question, "why does Hasbro in general - not just Star Wars but Transformers, Marvel, etc. - bring product to these conventions that then evaporates and never makes it to market?" type of thing, but the answer is just that they WANT to bring everything they show to market and sometimes factors outside their control make it impossible, which is why they are so secretive with their news so as not to disappoint their market... that sort of thing.

They said somewhere at SDCC that they'll be looking at ways to re-ship popular Vintage Collection figures and army builders in the future. Amazon has the Royal Guard individually, unless it's pre-sold out now or something.

I'd still hold their feet to the fire on that issue to press it home, give hope to the hopeless, show that we're here to fight the fight even if we don't win that day. That's part of how I look at these things for myself.

If nothing else, they need to say it officially and clearly and loudly.

[bigbarada]

New question:

So, did you guys fire whoever it was who came up with the idea of a big merchandising push for Ep1 3D in 2012? Because you should.

I know it will never get asked, but I would still love to see Hasbro's reaction to it.

[JediTricks]

New question:

So, did you guys fire whoever it was who came up with the idea of a big merchandising push for Ep1 3D in 2012? Because you should.

I know it will never get asked, but I would still love to see Hasbro's reaction to it.

Pretty sure they can't fire George Lucas.

[El Chuxter]

I dunno. If the merchandise push had actually coincided with the re-release....

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

I've read the notes, and now here's an update to the question order and wording (though, again, I won't be reading them verbatim). I don't want to be long-winded and take up too much time, but I want to cover several angles with these questions. I've tried to keep the most important questions up front, as there's no way I'll have time to get to all of them in the ten-minute interview. Keep offering suggestions, but I won't be able to do much more the next few days as I'll be busy with work and getting ready for the trip. I'd like to have it completely done by Tuesday night, though I can still check in a bit on my phone while I'm in Orlando for last-minute suggestions.


22. The 2008-2010 Legacy Collection often included straight repacked army builders or popular carry-forwards with the same droid parts that the new figures had, which gave buyers the option of a couple different ways to complete the droid. Will we be seeing any straight repacks with redundant droid pieces in the 2013 Legacy Collection? Could this be a way to get out some of the more popular Vintage characters, like the upcoming Royal Guard?

6. After four years and well over 200 animated-style Clone Wars figures, why are we only now getting realistic ones? With only 10 new animated style basic figures this year and just a handful of exclusives, it feels like there's a backing away from the animated line; is that part of it?

17. You've said that you overestimated the demand for The Phantom Menace product this year, but we're still seeing the January product in stores and not much else, and the MTT is only now hitting six months later and the Naboo Starfighter is so far only available online. The 3D theatrical release itself sort of came and went within a few weeks. How has this affected your plans for the tie-ins to the future film releases? What will you be doing to make sure things go more smoothly for the next five?

7. We know that there were issues getting running changes to the market a few years ago, but there are still some 2009 figures - the second Utai and the Imperial Scanning Crew - who were sculpted but never released. What's the status on those two?

24. HasbroToyShop has only recently started offering individual figures again for the first time since the deleted scenes wave came out in March. Obviously there have been distribution issues this year, and a lot of people can't afford to buy an entire case online or don't want all the carry-forward figures, so is there any way to ensure that individual figures will be more available going forward?

10. For Titanium Series, there's a listing for a Shadow Squad set online, but there hasn't been anything new since the repack waves in January. What's the status on the Shadow Squad set, and is the line selling well enough to warrant further releases?

5. Over the past few years, we've seen the same figures released in multiple lines at once - this year, for instance, the same Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan figures were released on Vintage, Movie Heroes, and Discover the Force cards. Even if the cards or accessories are different, the figures themselves are identical. Of course you want to meet demand on certain characters, but it seems like they're pretty slow sellers in all three lines, and this has happened a few times recently. Is there any concern that having the same figure out in two or more lines at once could be oversaturating the market for these figures?

13. The figures in the most recent Battle Packs have reduced articulation and paint, but they also have some of the best head sculpts these characters have ever seen; some of their traits make it seem like they're supposed to appeal to kids, but others make it seem like they're for collectors. And if it was to keep costs down, it would presumably have been easier just to re-release existing figures. So what was the actual initial reason for making these figures?

26. What is your involvement with the Disney Droid Factory station? Follow-up: Will we see the R6, R8, and R9 domes released elsewhere?

*In another site's Comic-Con interview with you guys, Jeff mentioned that the MTT's performance at retail will influence future big Class III vehicles. Now, the MTT toy looks to be very well done, but the ship in the film doesn't do a whole lot other than crash into trees and release Battle Droids, so it's not very aggressive and doesn't see much action or interaction with main characters. It's also more expensive than previous Class III ships, and it's coming out six months after The Phantom Menace 3D left theaters. For those reasons, it sort of seems like a risky choice, so why should it dictate future releases?

*You've said that there are no new Force FX sabers planned, even though there are some new Ultimate FX coming. What's with the backing away from the Force FX line? Does it have to do with a difference in the corporate policies or minimum order numbers of Hasbro versus Master Replicas, the line's previous manufacturer, who used to sell them in smaller shops? If so, can something be done to change this?

11. Many Walmart stores have had issues this year with some Vintage Collection figures not showing up in their systems, so even when collectors do find them, they don't ring up properly. This seems like it's a Walmart issue, but is there anything you can do to prevent it? Follow-up: In some cases, they've outright refused to sell them, thinking it could be part of a recall; in others, collectors have just grabbed another older figure for them to scan multiple times. Does this artificially inflate the sales numbers of those older figures?

8. Hasbro's other lines, including GI Joe, Transformers, and Marvel, have seen exclusive figures released to discount stores. Why haven't there been any for Star Wars?

19. When will we see an Attack of the Clones Anakin with his unique sleeveless robe from that film? There's never been a soft goods version.

20. Now that we have an ultimate Pablo-Jill figure coming, will we see his head retooled/repainted/resculpted to become Coleman Kcaj from Revenge of the Sith, the only remaining Jedi Council member not yet made?

9. The 10-year anniversary of Knights of the Old Republic is in 2013, and all four figures that have been released from the game - Darth Revan, Darth Malak, HK-47, and Bastila Shan - have all been very difficult to obtain, are all still very much in demand. Might we see an exclusive four-pack for the anniversary?

4. There hasn't been a Battle Droid in The Clone Wars line in a while. Some releases have increased the arm and leg articulation separately, so the tooling already exists - so is it at all possible that we'll see a more articulated infantry Battle Droid in The Clone Wars line anytime soon?

12. According to certain sources, the running change made to Kithaba's bandana from brown to red was specifically requested by Lucasfilm to make the figure appear more accurate. Is this the case? What about Evazan's scar? How often does Lucasfilm request these changes, and why wasn't something done about deleted scene Luke's inaccurate robe, which shouldn't have had sleeves?

14. Will we see the Hoth Luke released with an alternate scarf/head to recreate his look for the majority of the time in the film? Perhaps in both scarred and unscarred versions?

15. Why is TVC Tarkin so green? Sometimes the film lighting causes the gray outfits to look a little green, but the figure takes it to another level and looks significantly more green than any other movie-based officer figures ever have, and he looks out of place next to them. Follow-up: Will you be releasing a gray-suited version at any point?

23. What’s with the huge helmets on the newest Revenge of the Sith clone troopers? We've already gotten all the main ROTS units in this big-helmet style, but the reused helmet looks huge on the newer, thinner body. Might we see an all-new sculpt soon?

21. Why is Jar Jar always so expressionless? Both the Movie Heroes and Vintage Collection figures, as well as the majority of previous versions, are stone-faced and serious. Is this to appeal to the Binks haters out there, or something? Might we see a smiling, scared, or slack-tongued Jar Jar at any point? They could easily reuse one of the new bodies and just replace the head.

27. With the new Emperor’s Wrath Darth Vader, we finally get an accurate damaged arm. Will we see this body re-released with the three-piece removable helmet? The peg on the Emperor's wrath version is much larger than on the removable helmet version, so fans can't really make this version properly.

28. In A New Hope, R5-D4 is shown to have red panels on his back, though none of the modern releases have included this detail, even though the 1978 one has. Why hasn't this been addressed in the modern line, and when will it be?

2. Will the plastic-clasp-and-fabric approach be taken more in the future? Why wasn't it with TVC General Lando?

18. Some figures have had wires in their capes to help with posing. Why haven't we seen more of this?

3. In the foreseeable future, can we expect to see the Neimoidian Separatist Shuttle released, seeing how it's appeared in three films, and in 12 Clone Wars episodes so far?

25. The upcoming Legacy Collection “Backstabber” TIE Fighter Pilot figure is actually inaccurate – the character in the film has Imperial logos on both sides of his helmet, but the figure only has one, as it was seemingly based on a still photo of the character that obscures the right-side logo in shadow. Will this be fixed? I'm not actually sure that this is wrong, though people online said it was. I just watched ANH, and we can only see Backstabber's front in only one shot in the entire film before he blows up ("Mauler" Mithel is in several). If he has an Imperial logo on his right side in the film, you can't see it at all. I'm willing to bet that it's the same helmet also seen in the shootout with Luke and Han earlier, which has two logos, but Backstabber himself appears to have only one, so I'm cutting this question.

[JediTricks]

I dunno. If the merchandise push had actually coincided with the re-release....

If the merch had showed up AHEAD of the re-release and then disappeared 2 weeks later, maybe that would have worked, but the reality is that a February movie opening guaranteed failure from the outset for tix and merch.

I've read the notes, and now here's an update to the question order and wording (though, again, I won't be reading them verbatim). I don't want to be long-winded and take up too much time, but I want to cover several angles with these questions. I've tried to keep the most important questions up front, as there's no way I'll have time to get to all of them in the ten-minute interview. Keep offering suggestions, but I won't be able to do much more the next few days as I'll be busy with work and getting ready for the trip. I'd like to have it completely done by Tuesday night, though I can still check in a bit on my phone while I'm in Orlando for last-minute suggestions.

I'll try to keep changes to a minimum.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

The interview went well this afternoon and I believe Steve has sent the audio to JT. We were able to ask nine out of the first 11 questions during the official interview. We didn't ask about how the TPM sales affected the future 3D releases since they covered it pretty well at the panel and on other sites; they've learned and they're trying to get the numbers right and they said they'd be stupid not to learn from their mistakes, and clearly they are still doing AOTC stuff but not as completely concentrated. Derryl also said that he thought that the TPM release would have brought in more collectors but that didn't happen, obviously. I didn't ask about the MTT at that time, but I did ask Derryl about that - and every other question on the list one-on-one without the recorder, but I think those answers will be fine being summarized. I can update with that info later tonight.

[JediTricks]

The interview went well this afternoon and I believe Steve has sent the audio to JT. We were able to ask nine out of the first 11 questions during the official interview. We didn't ask about how the TPM sales affected the future 3D releases since they covered it pretty well at the panel and on other sites; they've learned and they're trying to get the numbers right and they said they'd be stupid not to learn from their mistakes, and clearly they are still doing AOTC stuff but not as completely concentrated. Derryl also said that he thought that the TPM release would have brought in more collectors but that didn't happen, obviously. I didn't ask about the MTT at that time, but I did ask Derryl about that - and every other question on the list one-on-one without the recorder, but I think those answers will be fine being summarized. I can update with that info later tonight.

I've got it mostly done. Good call not asking that TPM one and covering the details from the panel where they mentioned it.

D'oh on that "no recorder" thing, I'll chalk that up to a misunderstanding on Steve's part. Next time it's "recorder stays with the guy planning to ask more questions", I say.