Q&A: Post-Clone-Con Edition
Monday, July 28, 2008
It's Monday, so let's answer some questions! This week we look at shiny metal droids, more Battlefront figures, and of course, big ships. Read all about these and more in this week's Q&A!
1. Hey, after looking at the new Hasbro Clone Wars/Legacy figure poster I was curious as to which movie you think the Imperial Engineer is from. Is this the ANH version of the Imperial Gunner, or another ROTJ version w/ a new sculpt? I know in the past you made reference to a difference in the Imperial Gunner from ANH and the one from ROTJ. Thanks!
--Jeff
It's my understanding-- and it's entirely possible I'm not 100% correct here-- that the Imperial Gunners of Star Wars don't wear the armor, or gloves. However, Return of the Jedi Gunners do wear the gloves, and don't always wear the armor-- actually, all publicity shots I could find were armor-free. So it's possible they wear armor in Star Wars too-- it's hard to tell, now that I can't seem to find the evidence.
The upcoming Imperial Engineer action figure appears to be based on the 2006 The Saga Collection Gunner-- but it's not from any movie, it's from the Battlefront game series. It may or may not include new accessories. (At press time, they have not been revealed.) I sincerely hope they put something awesome extra in there, because otherwise, the fact that the "repaint" wave now consists of a figure I own with nothing more than a new name-- especially as it has a build-a-droid piece I want-- is annoying to say the least. I don't advocate in-store theft, but if I did, I'd be advocating it here.
2. Any idea why Hasbro has never made Rebel pilot Grizz Frix? I feel like he had more screen time than some of the other pilots they have made.
--Brian
I'm not going to sit and watch Return of the Jedi with a stopwatch to confirm this, but I can say that a lot of pilots are made for a lot of reasons. I personally can't figure out why I'm now the owner of a Kesin Ommis figure-- I didn't even know who he was until I got him-- but I think a lot of fans will say the same thing about any Rebel pilot who isn't Biggs, Luke, or Wedge. The film Return of the Jedi made no effort to give any significant lines or characterization to the Rebels in the Death Star battle, so anything you felt about them was probably a result from Expanded Universe materials or that fanboy gene that makes people think that Random Guy #2 is the most awesome thing ever.
One of the issues with Rebel Pilots is that they're mostly all very similar. There are some unique helmets, and a few new colors out there, but basically it's a guy with an orange jumpsuit, a new head, and possibly a repainted helmet. Since Hasbro has yet to make a truly great Wedge Antilles figure (the last one recycled a 1998 head sculpt), I personally won't be lobbying for any Rebel except, maybe, Ten Numb as he appears in ROTJ-- in a red costume during the Endor celebration sequence.
Grizz Frix fans, maybe there's going to be a chance for another Rebel Pilots Evolutions set some day. But I wouldn't be hopeful given we're getting two at the same time, plus a new Rebel Pilot in the A-Wing Fighter (Wal-Mart) and B-Wing Fighter (Toys "R" Us) vehicles. With a whopping 8 new pilots this year, well, anything else would be astounding. Odds are we'll start seeing Rebel Pilots treated more like Imperial Officers in that we'll get 1 or 2 token releases a year, now that Hasbro has invested in so many body olds from which to create even more pilots.
3. With the release of the BMF Falcon just a few weeks away, I am wondering...would it be wise to purchase this Falcon now, or should I risk it and wait later in hopes they might re-release it around Christmas time? I have heard from a friend who works at a big box store that they only got 10 in on their display and it was a non replenishable item, meaning what they got is all they'll get and they won't be getting anymore.
--Jeff
It's my understanding this item will be sold throughout 2008. I could be wrong, and your local stores may not necessarily all carry it at all or all year. If it's anything like the Butterscotch Pony, it should be sold for months. But since this has a much larger adult collector following than FurReal Friends, it may be tough to get, so I'd just suggest getting it when you see it if you want it. A lot of non-replenishable items sometimes find their way back to the store, be it in an exclusive repackaging, or just because the store's system may have had a hiccup. And if you can't get it, it's a pretty safe bet online stores will be selling it for as long as they can possibly get inventory. This isn't going to be a limited edition piece, its development costs weren't cheap and Hasbro has to make their money back.
I should also note (this paragraph was written on 7/27) that on my drive back from San Diego, we made a few stops, each of which had several Millennium Falcon vehicles waiting to be bought. As in, no shortage. Basic figures were long gone, and lots of other items sold through-- like most places had no AT-TEs-- but the Falcon was in ample supply. Does this mean Hasbro actually made enough, or that fans don't care/don't care to pay that? Time will tell.
4. As an employee of EE who [works with] exclusives, have you ever considered creating "new" vintage figures? I think that the way SW is heading (Clone Wars TV, Video Games, Live Action show coming) the OT is getting lost in the shuffle, and it seems that many long time fans have little to get excited for. I think that if EE created 3 new vintage figures, (Grand Moff Tarkin, Rebel Fleet Trooper and a Sandtrooper) packaged them in the VOTC clamshells, and sold them for 12-15 a pop, people would go nuts. The hardest part would be keeping the sculptors and painters form making them too detailed. The production wouldn't be too expensive, as they would only have the standard 5 points of articulation, and the packaging already exists. If this were successful, follow-up waves could be limitless.
--Mike
I've asked Hasbro if they would consider such a line, and ultimately, the answer was no. I think it could be cool for some collectors, but I also don't think the market for "new" vintage figures truly exists. A giant step backward in aesthetics seems hard to manufacture, inauthentic nostalgia just seems kinda weird. Getting someone to sculpt a 1980s-style Tarkin figure would be odd. "OK, start working on it, but don't do a very good job, and don't give it any articulation." A lot of the "style" we saw in the old Kenner line was a result of the time's technology, not because people in 1984 were crappy sculptors. The packaging most certainly doesn't exist, and in case you didn't know, sculpting a new figure costs a lot of money. There's a reason that shared tooling or repaints are frequently employed in exclusive action figure production, just because something is primitive doesn't mean it's going to be any cheaper.
Getting an individual figure exclusive at $12-$15 may be tricky. The fan club's have been closer to $17 as of late. As such, I wouldn't expect an item like this to be particularly cheap, and as it has limited appeal, it'd be a dangerous exclusive to do unless it had tremendous fan support and, I hate to say it, support at regular retail as well. They'd need mass exposure to hit the right audiences, a lot of hardcore vintage fans don't read up on the new stuff and may never hear about it.
It wouldn't shock me to see Hasbro create fake "vintage" figures down the road as we really start to see them run out of potentially good ideas, maybe as a "chase" figure 1 per case, but I hope it doesn't come to that. Let's leave the past in the past, we have two new TV series and an entire Universe to explore.
5. Regarding the build-a-droid campaign, do you know if all of the various droid parts are interchangeable? Are the attachment pegs all the same so that, for example, C-3PX's torso could be used with another protocal droid's limbs? I ask because as with most waves of figures, there are some that I don't really want and don't plan to buy, so I won't be able to build all of the complete droids. However, I would be totally okay with building some frankendroids from mismatched parts, so I hope that will work. Put a few of those outside a sandcrawler with some Jawas, and you got a pretty nifty display IMO.
Are any of the upcoming astromechs (either complete figures or as build-a-droids) the same as the ones released in the EE sets a while ago? I'm thinking not, but it's hard to tell since the names aren't always consistent with those guys.
Any insight on the supposed vac-metal R-3P0 from the Wal-Mart sets? I see the one you got is regular paint, is a running change planned?
--John
OK, let's start...
You can switch some droid parts. So far, it appears C-3PX's arms can fit into the sockets on the sides of the Astromech bodies-- at least, the ones I have. The Astromech limbs did not easily fit into C-3PX's body, nor did the C-3PX legs fit on an astromech body particularly well. I don't know yet what kind of sockets the RA-7 droids will sport.
Right now, only a few build-a-droids have been revealed, and none of them were previously sold as Entertainment Earth exclusives. R4-D6 and R4-I9 are very similar to the point of R4-I9 seemingly actually being the right name for R4-D6, and the figure we know as R4-I9 might be the result of bad photography. That, and Hasbro has said that they don't plan on rereleasing exclusives while the original exclusive partner still has stock of an exclusive, and as of today, Entertainment Earth still has a few sets of droids left.
Finally, Hasbro confirmed the vac-metal R-3PO was basically a test thing and not currently planned for mass production. There ya go!
FIN
I went to San Diego's Midnight Madness event with Mike (from the site). We got there at 11:30, and were allowed in the door at 2:00 AM. A lot of the basic figures were gone, but there was no shortage in the $100+ items, which is a curious sign. The reaction from the fans regarding the large vehicles seems to be "that's great, I've got nowhere to put it," making me wonder if we're going to see a lot of collectors hold off for a sale, or if the sheer girth of the line and year after year of 50-75 basic carded figures has finally got to a point where fans really and truly no longer can make just a little more room. The AT-TE seems to be selling better than the Falcon if bare shelves are a legit indicator of sales, and I'm not entirely clear if they are.
I also went to Comic-Con, and it was fairly grueling. For the first time, we left on Saturday and it wasn't a day too soon. Here are my pictures, which as I write this, are still uploading. Many are still missing descriptions and names... but hey, there were a few hundred of them.
| www.flickr.com |
There was quite a bit to see. It was an interesting mix of amazing newness and dreadful sameness. "New" toys are far and few between as the line gets bigger and bigger, and we're seeing dozens of new figures with maybe one or two out of every ten being something other than a twist on something one already has. The awe-inspiring Pit of Carkoon set is simultaneously amazing and one of Habsro's least inspired sets. Sure, you get the Skiff. Yes, you get the pit, finally, for the first time ever. But it's packaged with 5 figures which were already packaged together in a Battle Pack a few years ago, none of which collectors were particularly clamoring for. As such, it's a triple-dip and I can't say that's entirely welcomed. I know certain things have to be done to maintain tooling costs, but c'mon, we just bought this set.
Got questions? I bet you do. Email me with "Q&A" somewhere in the subject line and hopefully I'll get to yours in the next column!
Posted byAdam16bit at 3:29 AM
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