Topic: Hasbro Q&A

[Tamer]

man the ansers we are getting are just really a waste of time doing this

every once in awhile they do indeed throw us a bone. I will admit though we are about due for one. I think the more detailed and well thought out our questions sometimes the better the repsonse we get. 

[commanderCharlie]

i remeber them realsing pics of the tfu set juno eclispe and gal marek ah good times lol

[Tamer]

I have two questions to get the Yarder's opinion of before our next submissio date;

1) We have seen in previous Q and A responses that you have stated that the new Vintage Collection prices will stay the same as thier previous Legacy Counterparts. We have since seen that Toysrus, which has already made availabe the Vintage line, sold them for a price of $9.99. Can we get some explanation for this? And could you give  us the price Wal-Mart and Target plan to set for individual figures of the Vintage Line?

2) Having gotten our hands on the new snowspeeder we wanted to say great job and noticed that you included an extra set of cannons and harpoon gun for the sake of movie accuracy. Bravo! Is there any chance you plan to continue to do this sort of thing for continued vehicle offerings; say providing us with movie realistic cannons for the new BAT-AT ? And if not in future releases of the BAT-AT wouldn't realistic side cannons make a great battlepack with a few At-At drivers and Snowtroopers to man up our new behemoths since the battlepack you currently have for the At-At is rather sparse on figures we actually see in one during the movies?

[Mike Cypress]

I would say those are the best 2 questions I've seen in awhile. Especially about the price increase, maybe even quote their own answers because I've seen them say it at least twice that there would be "no price increase." If they can't honor their own word.....
But now I think about it the 2nd question has already been asked a couple of times, fans/collectors complaining(justifiably) about the new battle pack and wanting more Snowtroopers or something instead of yet another Vader. Might wanna look into that one again because I think if everybody keeps asking for the same stuff, instead of actually giving us what we want, they might just quit doing the Q&A's altogether and even though I don't like some of their runaround answers, I do look forward to them.

[dana.raye.smith]

I believe these prices were also the same as on HTS for these figs when offered.
I for one dont like the price increases and would have to see the figs in hand before deciding to actualy pick them up.
There were only 3 figs I wanted, but they do all look nice enough to check out.
If thy are charging this extra coin for the packaging, it is not worth it to me.

[Tamer]

Looks like the first one hit the nail then.

I understand your points with the second. I guess it is me wanting to kill two birds with one stone. I don't know why they can't give us movie realistic side cannons. If they can do it for the relatively low price point snowspeeder which is also a new mold I don't see why they can't do it with atat and figured perhaps a bp was our best bet to get the guns as there is no way they would give them to us now unless it is a later bat-at vehicle release.

[dana.raye.smith]

I think the guns would do good in a BP, but wouldnt they just thow in another repack Vader?
The movie realistic guns, two each to make up 1 set of more accurate replacements along with an AT-AT CMDR and Driver, plus a pair of repack SnowTroopers... the only actual new item being the guns themselves, all figs by now are true repacks.... add fancy new blue packaging and hang a $25 price tag on it?
that is actually a bit expensive to me for repacks, but he new guns would make up for it. We all know they would sell.
I bought 2 Republic gunship bubble turret sets, 1 for full price and 1 for 25% off , but they were $25 each.
They could make the guns and do 2 different 2 figure BPs using the CMDR and driver in one and 2 Snowtroopers in the other at the same price point as they selling the current BPs at.
The possibilities are endless.... but I am not holding my breath, or buying another BP with a repack Vader.

[Tamer]

I like the way you think DRS, they could give us one of the side guns for each pack and then force us to buy two bps. I bet they would love that idea. I might just modify my second question and include your parts.

I will definitely ask the price increase question using some of thier own quotes.

[dana.raye.smith]

They culd even just pack an E-Web with a pair of SnowTroopers and that BP would sell out... GUARANTEED.
This would be a no brainer.
And making the movie accurate AT-AT side guns as part of a BP would be their only new tooling cost in in multiple BPs they could release as soon as the guns are PERFECT. That and the fancy new blue box.
Or they could get even fancier and hang the title Vintage on them with a fancier box and introduce Vintage BPs at inflated costs, knowing these would sell by comparing individual repack figures to BP prices and ease of purchasing.
Assuming they didnt botch the distribution of them again.
But this is all just daydreaming until hey get an actual look at the AT-AT sales.
I hear their pre-order AT-AT sales are ridiculous already, although not yet sold out.
Maybe they actually got the production correct on this. I think it looks great personally from what we have been shownand cant wait for later in the fall to get my hands on one.
They could produce some of these proposed BPs for the Christmas timeframe with no problem.
Especially the E-Web.
But who wouldnt want the realistic side guns for the BAT-AT?

[Tamer]

Ok then, something like this

We love the latest snowspeeder and the fact that you included playable as well as movie accurate cannons and harpoon gun. This has given some of us some great ideas. One of those is an idea about doing realistic side guns for the new behemoth At-At.  If you do not plan to release realistic side guns with future At-At releases how about doing a battlepack with these and some figures to man up our At-At's? You could even split it into two battlepacks and give us one side gun per pack. Give us an at-at driver and some snowtroopers and you have a great battlepack. You could even turn it  into a vintage exclusive battlepack with styling from the old vintage battlepack boxes. These would sell like hotcakes!

[Clonehead]

I like the vintage packaging idea. Yeah, if it was two packs with those figures, I would go for it. Strange that they included the alternate guns for the snowspeeder but are not for the ATAT

[TheCloneCommander]

I have two questions to get the Yarder's opinion of before our next submissio date;

1) We have seen in previous Q and A responses that you have stated that the new Vintage Collection prices will stay the same as thier previous Legacy Counterparts. We have since seen that Toysrus, which has already made availabe the Vintage line, sold them for a price of $9.99. Can we get some explanation for this? And could you give  us the price Wal-Mart and Target plan to set for individual figures of the Vintage Line?

as for the 1st Question, i believe that i have seen a question like that before Shawn, and the answer went something like this "we have no control over the retail price increase,  what ever TRU, or target and any other retail Partners do,  we can not comment on what they set their Prices at for the new product,"

i can here it now i bet if you post this question you will get back the answer that is above.... any takers? lol

[Tamer]

Trev, you are no doubt correct, but I would love to throw thier own words about no price increase back on em to see what they say. It will probably be they have no control over thier retailers, but I want to hear them say they have no idea what prices Target or Walmart are going to see for thier figs. I mayeven write it like.

And if you do not  have any idea what thier basic figure prices will be can you ask them?

[Tamer]

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news first; we have our questions answered!

 Recently clone troopers from the clone wars do not seem to be able to hold their assiociated weapon or are not packed with the correct weapon, case in point Commander Thire,  the figure was not packed withe the DC-15 rifle he used in the episode Ambush (series 1 episode 1) also one of his hands is not able to hold the blaster pistol for it. A simple fix for this problem would be a trigger finger on both hands or a tightening of the hand mold by a milimeter or two.  Would Hasbro consider solutions to this problem?

It's not always possible to produce generically useful hands that can accommodate all weapons, but thanks for the comment.  We will look into this.

Why exactly do you have to produce Exclusives?  99% of the time they are awesome, but they are also 75% hard to find (for example: the new EU wave at Toys-R-Us). Why can't you just send out all your products to all the stores?

Exclusives exist for many reasons; to reward retailers for their support of the brand, to produce seasonal promotional items that can get collectors or parents to stores at certain periods, along with other reasons.  One of the chief reasons that the Star Wars team embraces the idea of exclusives is that they provide us an excellent opportunity to get new and different toys out there for fans.  Without the exclusives program, 90% of these figures, vehicles or creatures would not exist at all.  The reason for this is that national (items taken by all accounts) productivity has to be very high for items, and most exclusives have a more limited run. Without exclusives, many of the awesome sets from the last few years like the retools of the TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, A-Wing, AT-ST, and Dewback as well as new sets like the Octuptarra Droid, Wal-Mart Droid Factory sets, the upcoming Jabba and other upcoming that have yet to be announced would not exist at all.  So while we have a ways to go to help iron out distribution issues, the exclusives program remains a vital component of our retail planning and brand engagement strategy.

Now the bad news; We will not be able to submit questions again until the 20th of August.

[UnitedStatesDemocrat]

Are you accepting new questions prior to the 20th, Shawn?

I think I should get these down before they I lose them completely.
 
1.)  In the Legacy Collection line, the packaging which featured the Stormtrooper Helmet Design, we saw numerous weapons featured in "ammo cases".  Is there anything planned to include more weapons and/or parts, such as clone trooper helmets, removable armor, anything handy such as this?

2.)  Many, many Expanded Universe characters, ranging from video games to books and comics, are craved highly.  Not that you aren't doing well with the figures you are releasing in the Comic Packs, but are there any planned figures to be released from the Expanded Universe that we can REALLY look forward to?  Mandalorian Shock Troopers, Manadalorians period.  The upcoming Star Wars: the Old Republic game, features a trailer titled "Hope" with a group of soldiers known as Havoc Squad.  Will we be seeing Havoc Squad, or other figures to promote SWTOR?

  I hope these are questions others may wonder as well.