Topic: German Comic Con - Dortmund - 5th Anniversary Special - Dec 7-8, 2019

[Darth More]

Hey Philipp, thanks for doing such a thorough job reporting on this. Thanks also for "representing" for the Star Wars community. Good job asking questions after the panel. I'm sorry Hasbro won't be straight with collecting community about the inequity in TVC vs. TBS, but at least you asked. Great job!

Thank you Starchaser! I'm thankful for your appreciation! But I'm by far not done with my report. I got some truly significant information there. Since there were only a handful people being interested (all in Star Wars!) I had some serious time to annoy the Hasbro team. As said above I could talk to the American team for over two hours all by myself! I was even filmed by someone in between so I might pop up somewhere out there...I did tell them right at the beginning that I'm at the Con JUST for Hasbro and that I report for Imperialshipyards.net, which they said they knew.
And yes, I do like The Black Series, but I absolutely don't like the VS between The Black Series and The Vintage Collection.
More on that later. Thanks for tuning in!

[Darth More]

Full Report & Aftermath

on edit right now


Arrival:

- both trains were on time so that I entered the Con at 11:15 am with my last-minute ticket from ebay. The 5th Anniversary tickets were sold for only 10,99€ before Christmas in 2018. I paid 20€ on ebay and was happy to have gotten a ticket for a sold out Convention and the seller was happy that I basicsally paid for her ticket, too. As said before I actually hadn't planned on going, but I'm happy to to have gone. And here's why:

German Comic Con - 5th Anniversary Special

- The location is actually pretty big (nothing compared to San Diego, Chicago or New York, but still).
But not all halls were booked for the German Comic Con so that we had:
- Entrance Hall with stage (including Hasbro panel)
- 1 hall for traders and exclusive photo shoots
- 1 hall for the artists with main stage
- 1 hall for stars and official brands (liek Hasbro)
- that's it!


Hasbro's Booth:


- apparently most people were standing in line for autographs from the Hollywood stars
- truck was eye-catching, attracted many people, especially children
- German Hasbro team, very young, very polite, free popcorn!
- giveaway of TRANSFORMERS tattoos & STAR WARS bags
- booth appeared to be a little messy (not Hasbro's fault!!)
- awesome TRANSFORMERS area in truck's trailer which was unfortunately hardly discovered by kids...


Hasbro Panel:

- began late (due to previous delay of American Pie panel)
- some technical issues also

- introduction: German team & American team on stage along with the German Garrison (NO Sequel character haha, but a Scarif Trooper)
- very warm welcome and presentation of TRANSFORMERS, STAR WARS  and MARVEL

- 6" is the best (at least for Hasbro)
- new FX Lightsabers
- ABSOLUTELY NO WORD on The Vintage Collection!!



AFTERMATH of Panel:


- was able to talk to Hasbro Germany for 10 minutes before panel started
- talked to Hasbro USA (Eric & Maria) for over 2 hours after panel!!



Interview & Talk to the Brand Team:

- The Black Series is the strongest selling line of the Star Wars brand
- made concerns clear about unequal treatment of The Black Series and The Vintage Collection
- talking about using parts in TBS and also TBS scaled down for TVC
- Return of Comic Packs, Comic Characters, Expanded Universe, Sith Lords (Darth Revan) and ebay prices (I told Eric about Chuckles' suggestion about a Doctor Aphra with removable hat! He liked it a lot!
- more characters of videogames thanks to Eric (he also pushed the latest GameStop exclusive figures)!
- EVERYTHING is possible for The Black Series!* (except for big vehicles, no X-Wing)
- general ideas for 6" vehicles: Snowspeeder (ESB), AT-ST (both generally possible)

- more product in general planned (no details yet), more details on New York Comic Con 2020
- return of The Clone Wars, 40th Anniversary of Empire Strikes Back, THE MANDALORIAN -> strong year of 2020
- Hasbro's products for Star Wars in 2020 "are pretty much all wrapped up" - they're two years ahead
- also more variety for The Vintage Collection planned
- Jabba's Palace playset did perform very well! High chances for more playsets - suggstions: The Cantina, Bespin Carbon Freezing Chamber, Death Star, Hoth
- lots of talking with no real answer about why TVC is treated so bad
- more HasLab projects planned, open internationally
- possible return to years like 2010 with more products of different sources, but focus on TBS...

- no news on TBS Archive Line Wave 2 - more on NYTF 2020
--> suggestions: Clone Commander Cody, Ep. III Obi-Wan with photo real treatment
- photo real tech doing excellently


Any word on extention of the License?

Of course did I ask this provocative question. And of course Maria & Eric were not allowed to talk about it.
Eric said he was not even involved.
My personal comment: I'm optimistic that Hasbro will keep the license far beyond 2020. Disney offered them a new contract, but these CEOs here made the choice, not the brand teams:
https://investor.hasbro.com/corporate-governance/management


Changing the Persepctive:


If you look on things from Hasbro's point of view, this all makes sence. As much as it bugs me how The Vintage Collection since its relaunch, it all comes down to profit and cutting costs for a global company like Hasbro.


Summary:

Hasbro's first ever presence with American brand team members on German Comic Con was a very warm & nice gesture. I had a great time there. But with all emotions and personal experience, it was nothing more than a nice gesture. In fact I had not expected ANY new reveals here in Germany. The fact that they put new products on display after the panel was a thrilling surprise.

My major let down was that The Vintage Collection was completely ignored in the panel and that it is not one of their main priorities anymore. It feels as if The Vintage Collection is more of an extra treat for all long time collectors.
And the conversation with the American brand team proofed to me that it was the intention of Hasbro/Lucasfilm to drive collectors into The Black Series as a new scale, with more details (and HIGHER price point with MORE PROFIT for Hasbro/Lucasfilm/Di$ney), in which they could set EVERYTHING to zero, again! Meaning that they can produce every single character (and some vehicles) ALL OVER AGAIN!


Prospect:

- trying to establish a connection to Rhode Island


(to be written in full text tomorrow (Sunday))

[(SID)]

"Prospect:

- trying to establish a connection to Rhode Island"

Living around here that sounds like a joke. Especially since Hasbro doesn't even have much interest in staying in RI. With the sale of eONE they just wanna go into media for sales and have product to back it up, while fluffing in-house properties.

I will say this: they are always hiring (if you look local listings) but not for anything cool like SW etc .

[Tamer]

I still have a bunch of TIF Files I need to convert to add to the gallery. I so wish they would just go to straight JPG Files for pics when they send em. The tif files take so long to download and then you have to convert them to be able to load them up to any social media gallery. Its a lot of steps just to change three letters.

[Darth More]

"Prospect:

- trying to establish a connection to Rhode Island"

Living around here that sounds like a joke. Especially since Hasbro doesn't even have much interest in staying in RI. With the sale of eONE they just wanna go into media for sales and have product to back it up, while fluffing in-house properties.

I will say this: they are always hiring (if you look local listings) but not for anything cool like SW etc .

Thanks for the hint (SID)! I also talked to Volker C (he's like the German Steve Sansweet) and he told me I shouldn't hold my hopes high that Maria will actually reach out to me after I gave her my contact information...business is all they really care about. Fan relations, too - but only to a "certain degree".


I also addressed to Maria that I tried to send them an email, but it was automatically redirected to Hasbro Germany who are not in charge for product development. She conformed that Hasbro have a very strict policy for public relations and messages from "outside"...cheers.

[Darth More]

I still have a bunch of TIF Files I need to convert to add to the gallery. I so wish they would just go to straight JPG Files for pics when they send em. The tif files take so long to download and then you have to convert them to be able to load them up to any social media gallery. Its a lot of steps just to change three letters.

I feel with you Tamer. Sounds like they do this on purpose for the exact reason you mention here.

By the way I recroded my first interview with Eric (17 minutes) until my cell phone storage was full, again. I also got the panel on video, but Volker C got it all covered, too and it would take half an eternity to upload those 16 GB with my stone age internet connection here.
But if you want me to, I can still upload my content. Don't know how to upload an audio file though.

[Tamer]

I know what you mean. Audio files aren't too bad. The best format for embedding is mp3 and then I just upload it to the site. Then it is just finding a good generic embedder to play it. If you send me the file in an email I can try to embedd it for you.

[Tamer]

Ok, I got the TIFs loaded to the gallery. Not my finest work, but you can see what they showcased. Not sure I like the new style of those SW Figures. Looks like they have good arty though.

Now that Cuckdos Marvel Legends Figure with the three separate heads and two sets of hands is cool. Wonder if they would ever do this for a SW Figure in the 6" Line? Or the 3.75" for that matter. It would be so cool.

[Darth More]

My conversation with Volker C.


On the Comic Con in Dortmund I met Volker for the first time in person. He is a major Star Wars fan and collector and admin of fan page StarWars-Figuren.com.
He reminds me of Steve Sansweet and also has remarkable knowledge about the franchise and behind-the-scenes info about everything surrounding it.


He shared some of it with me, which I'll add later. But first I'd like to make you aware of the petition he started:


Volker wants to make Hasbro aware of the interest in getting Blue Leader and his X-Wing from Rogue One on 3 3/4" scale! He seeks to gather 5,000 supporters to make Hasbro dew it!








Please, give your support and "sign" the petition here:


https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/generalmerrick







"It is time to become more active and show Hasbro that there is support and love for the 3.75 inch line. Let's no longer wait for Hasbro to announce product but get involved! Kenner started it all in the 70's with the 3.75 inch line and this is still what most fans want to collect. However, we are seeing a lot of re-issues but there could be done a lot more to keep capturing the magic of Star Wars and keep collecting alive.


Rogue One is one of the fans favorite movies but didn't see too much love yet in terms of products. General Merrick participated in the Alliance's aquisition of the Galactic Empire's plans to their ultimate weapon, the Death Star, in the Battle of Scarif, flying as leader of Blue Squadron in a T-65B X-Wing Starfighter.


The blue squadron is missing in the lineup of Hasbro's X-Wings. Show your support and sign this petition to have Hasbro produce Merrick and his X-Wing in the Vintage line.Hasbro should produce Merrick on a Vintage card and they should either include him carded with the X-Wing like they did with Jabba's Palace, or produce both separately boxed and carded.


May the Force be with us."

- VolkerC

http://www.starwars-figuren.com/

[Tamer]

Nice, off to share to the front pages.

I signed!