From Awesome Toy Blog:
With the new AT-AT set for the August line re-launch; can we expect any Hoth-centric battle packs in the near future to help fill out the battlefield?
Yes, there are a couple coming. Details will be made available in the next month or so at either Comic Con or CV. Stay tuned!
From Collection Station:
CollectionStation.com: Since we're all thinking about the topic of Star Wars anniversaries lately, May 1st, 2011 will mark the 20th anniversary of the release of Timothy Zahn's novel, Heir to the Empire, the first part of the Thrawn trilogy. Whether one loves the Expanded Universe or hates it, a strong argument can be made that this book started a resurgence for interest in Star Wars and was the foundation for the modern Expanded Universe movement, so it deserves some sort of recognition and maybe even some action figure treatment. With that in mind, would you consider doing some sort of commemorative set or just slipping a few HTTE-themed figures into one of The Vintage Collection waves?
Hasbro: Aside from marveling at the artistic masterpiece that Zahn wrought, and learning about the culture of the EU from it's many brushstrokes, we don't have any plans to celebrate with any figures next year (OK, enough Thrawn metaphors). There will be no EU figures in the Vintage collection until Fall '11, in any case.
CollectionStation.com: The Clone Wars line has been a boon for its droid designs, but is following suit from the realistic lines with the sagging leg problems. This is especially noticeable on Clone Wars Battle Droids, Super Battle Droids, and the first General Grievous. Yet in the same line, IG-86 and the Commando Droid don't suffer this, the difference being that they have ankle joints while the BD, SBD and 1st Grievous figures do not. It seems like the joints take stress off the thin leg elements helping cope with wilting issues, and that's a pretty big deal. Obviously including either knee or ankle articulation on them isn't a cheap undertaking, but it seems like a necessary one in the scheme of things since if a figure can't stand up, it's going to be far less fun. Any possibility of including one type of lower leg articulation or another on future versions of these figures as this partial solution to this long-time problem?
Hasbro: We don't have any plans to update these figures with additional articulation.
From Echo Base:
ECHO BASE FORUMS: Many collectors have been reporting on various forums that their local Target and Wal-Mart stores have no basic Star Wars figures on the shelves. I have seen this myself at two different Target stores. What is the cause of the disappearance of so many action figures across the country?
HASBRO:Hasbro and our retail partners have been heavily promoting Star Wars figures to clear out the inventory of the red/white packaging prior to the shelf-set of the new blue/black line at the beginning of August. As the new line is a "total reset," all of the old red/white assortments are being discontinued. In some cases, like with basic figures, the promotional activity over the last couple of months has depleted retail and Hasbro inventory ahead of schedule, and some shelves will remain dry until the new line resets.
From Jedi Business:
Could you explain the rationale behind having cartoon Captain Rex on every Star Wars item including non-animated-style figures and vehicles (except single carded TVC)? We understand that you are trying to have all SW toys under "one big banner", but don't you think that this will confuse customers as to what style of toy (animated vs. regular) they are buying?
The packaging direction (for all licensees, not just Hasbro) was determined by Lucasfilm, and it was driven by a need to have uniformity across the line. There is no one solution that would have worked well for everything. Since the line has a greater contingent of Clone Wars-related toys than movie-related toys, and many other licensees focus exclusively on the Clone Wars, it makes sense to pick a Clone Wars icon as the face of the entire line. As for customers getting confused, we think that that is a valid point and may cause consumers to have to spend a little bit more when faced with a choice at the shelf to make sure that they are getting the right thing for their kids.
From Jedi Defender:
That new Snowspeeder is so great. Before I go buying up a fleet of them in August, I thought I better ask - should I buy my second (or third) Snowspeeder now or should I wait for some sort of exclusive you're planning? Or will the "vintage deco" version be the only other version planned for this year?
There is only going to be one deco version of the Speeder this year. If it appears again this year, it would be as a packaging variation only.
From Jedi News:
The new AT-AT is awesome and there aren¹t enough superlatives to describe just how good it is great job! Couple of issues though a) how can you take the legs off for storage and b) why did you decide to add additional voices from the Clone Wars to such an iconic vehicle which has yet to appear in the Clone Wars when you could have included more original dialogue from Empire?
We are so glad that you like the AT-AT. It was great to have the opportunity to re-imagine this iconic vehicle as the "ultimate" toy .
The legs *will* come of but you have to give them a really good pull; it's probably easiest if you turn it on its back and pull straight up. We designed it the way it is to make sure that the legs were very secure as they have to support quite a beast of a load.
As for the voices, other than Veers, there is not a lot of quality AT-AT specific dialog. So, we scoured lots of various Star Wars entertainment to come up with good dialog and sound fx. We had quite a long list of options but there were three criteria that we wanted to ensure we nailed: fun open-ended and aggressive play that tells a story; clean-sounding dialog; and a consistent sound. We wanted to have Veers, Vader, cockpit chatter in the head and commander/officer phrases as well as standard Imperial Troopers in the main body. Since theoretically the Clones are in the Classic Trilogy, we felt that the animated dilog could be considered even though there is no AT-AT in the Clone Wars series.
2) It¹s great that we have the new Saga Legends, Clone Wars and Vintage figures available to buy NOW in the UK along with the new vehicles (inc. AT-AT, Snowspeeder and Cloud Car) but the street date for these was the week commencing 6th August. How and why has this happened? With previous ?shelf dates the retailers have, for the most part, stuck to the dates asked for and this creates an uneven playing field for those retailers that were playing by the book.
There was no shelf date at all for retailers outside of North America; this was changed earlier this year and all marking were taken off of our master cartons. The reason for this is that there was no entertainment event that set up the new line launch in other countries; in the U.S. and Canada it is part of the lead-up to the launch of Clone Wars Season 3 and all licensees were held to the August date to create an event-feel to the launch.
From Lightgeschwindigkeit.de
Do you have any plans for a large vehicle type playset of the death star or a star destroyer? Those would have some great play value like the naboo royal starship from a few years ago.
Hasbro: We do not have any plans for these. Kids have not demanded playsets in recent years, so we have not been developing them in the tradition sense. Instead, we have been pursuing iconic vehicles (such as the AT-TE and AT-AT) that are packed with great playset-like features that can accommodate a wide array of figures. In effect, we have been producing vehicles that also function as playsets, which has been a successful strategy to engage kids.
2) We were recently treated with a trailer for the upcoming Force Unleashed II game, due to be released by the end of 2010. Can we expect to see more Force Unleashed figures? And if so, when can we expect those to hit the shelves?
Hasbro: You can expect one more multi-pack of TFU figures (based on the original game) in Spring 2011, as a retailer exclusive. After that, our first TFUII figures would be in the lineup in 2012.
