Pretty much all over from what I have heard and seen.
The problem lies in the case assortments. Take TPM Wave for example, Hasbro failed to remember when they launched these figures during the movie premier years that they stalled mid line. For the anniversary of TPM, and the relative success of the vintage line at that point even though distribution was a problem they made huge amounts of them and then put them in large quantities in subsequent cases. The result was a glut of TPM Figures on the pegs and even when they sold the subsequent new cases that were able to be put out then were left with those TPM Pegwarmers. We are still seeing them. There are probably still hundreds, if not thousands of cases of the later vintage waves that will never see the light of day other than being sold to discount chains (like the Naboo Fighter and Tuesday Morning Stores) and this pretty much doomed a line that could have continued indefinitely.
In the midst of all that mismanagement you have the brick and mortar stores who can't put out new product and order new product until what is on their own pegs is sold and that just never happened due to those TPM Pegwarmers. From what I have gleaned from my friends in the know they were forced to cancel a ton of case orders because they didn't need them. They still had product on the pegs and for them SW was the big dud of the year. It was better for the stores to focus on figures from upcoming movies and new lines than SW which of course has a price point that is usually much higher than any other AF Line.
So, now they are all leery of Star Wars if not Hasbro altogether. Hasbro is taking a gamble that they can reduce the points of articulation, perhaps knock off a dollar or two of price, and get some confidence back in the line. That and the hope that a new six inch line will start a whole new round of collectors and completists. July and August are gonna probably be some pins and needles months for Hasbro for if the line fizzles at brick and mortar retail those same stores aren't gonna order in their usual case assortments for the X-Mas rush. If this happens I do not forsee good things for Hasbro SW. I mean lets face it, this is Hasbro's return to the proverbial drawing board. Personally, I had wished for a new line (if we had to part with the vintage line) with case waves that were more indicative of all the movies (perhas less TPM) and only announce at most the first three waves. Then, they could see where they were at with enough time in advance (I still don't believe that year and a half from design to factory to pegs bull hoey) to see where they needed to focus the other four to five waves (I wouldn't have had more than that) with the case assortments for those being repacked with favorites from the first three or proven winners from the vintage waves a year or two before. That would probably have restored faith in the line.
That being said, from some of the in hand shots I saw of the six inch figures they look awesome for the most part, but I just don't see folks buying one of each (even though there are only four per wave) at a twenty dollar a price point. One also needs to remember that we have seen a SW Hasbro haitus for how long? I think some folks may have moved on to other SW Collecting pursuits (vintage, GG, Sideshow, Kotobukiya, etc.) as the quality of some of those is just mind boggling.
So there is my wordy explanation. From one humble collector in a rather large universe.
