Well I am allowed to share this (under embargo until now), but I was invited last week to take part today with a select few to interview Hasbro and the Star Wars Brand Team (Joe Ninivaggi, Steve Evans, and Mark Boudreaux) about this great offering. I will try to do a better job later, but here a basic synopsis of what information I was able to get from the Hangout.
1. If this succeeds they are already thinking about other large vehicles (
The Ghost came up) and
any Star Wars Movie is fair game (not just Original Trilogy). They also opened this up to multiple scales and sizes
of items (not just huge offerings or items at high price points) and I made sure to be specific to ask about playsets.
THEY SAID PLAYSETS WERE DEFINITELY AN OPTION!2. If this does succeed they are definitely thinking about offering figures in subsequent vintage waves to help outfit this behemoth. They didn't necessarily think it would be entirely themed ROTJ Waves, but they did say they were
eager to create new characters that haven't seen figure treatment before!
3. I did ask the question about if we did not meet the deadline would this mean our chance was over and they said they did not have a plan for that. We all reiterated (myself and the other fan sites) that there was still plenty of time to see this achieved and the team said they thought there would definitely be a surge as we get closer to the date. When I asked what if we get to 4,999 and the time was up what would we do and Mark said, "I will buy a couple more". I thought that was fantastic. It kind of led me to believe if we get closer we are definitely gonna see this.
4. They also said that
whether this particular offering succeeds or not there would definitely be more Hasbro Lab Initiatives to try and get some of those fan demanded items out into circulation. They are definitely not making HasLab a one shot wonder.
5. It was also interesting to hear them debate whether or not to seal the box on this so we could get the Yakface out. The fan sites weren't much help as we were pretty much split fifty fifty on that.
6. Speaking of the box Mark did bring up the shipping box and talked about how this would definitely be shipped well. I am not saying damages may not happen (like my postal workers for example), but Hasbro is definitely trying to get this to us in pristine boxed shape. The MOMC Collector in me smiled at that.
7. Another good question was asked about how much of this we will have to put together. Mark answer that the overall hull will pretty much be full built, but we would need to put together the sails and a few of the pop out pieces, cannons, etc.
8. Mark also went into detail about the design aspects and how they had to agree on the type of wood, metal, etc. they were going to fabricate in plastic to make sure this was as close to authentic as it could get. Starting in September they spent hundreds of hours just on the design phase including going into the original designs at Lucasfilm to make sure they were as authentic as possible. What I also like was that Lucasfilm was also very much hands on with the interior design (something Mark had to create some of himself). The attention they paid to this was just incredible folks.
9. Another site asked about how they came up with the Khetanna for the first big initiative like this and Steve said it wasn't too hard a decision as folks have been grilling for this for years. He noted there were a lot of other items to choose from, but this was pretty much a no brainer. I for one didn't disagree a bit. It was also interesting to note here that he brought up a few other iconic vehicles and while I don't remember them all I do remember him mentioning the new
AT-M6 (Heavy Assault Walker from TLJ).
We were then given an up close and personal tour through this and I found out a few other things:
-there is a trapdoor at the top into the prison (where the Ithorian is located)
-they are designing the rails, etc. so that existing figures with accessories will work
-they purposely did not include figure pegs so you can position your figures wherever you want
-they made the back section a little bigger so the new Yakface can stand up
-the sails can be removed if you would like
-ports do open up at many places for the full hull
-Jabba's dais does move a bit
-the two smaller upper cannons that come with this do move and are removeable
-they also designed this with the idea the folks may want to add their own lights (nice!)
I tried to take decent notes, but I am sure I may have missed a bit, but hopefully that gets you even more excited for this. It was just great fun having the team there to really show this off and answer our questions. They were very gracious and open. I will definitely think on this on my drive home and see if there is anything I missed.
Some images I will also be posting on Facebook (we were allowed to do screen snips for the interview, high res to follow):
