Topic: General Questions for Hasbro as of July 10th, 2021

[Commander_Kurgan]

How is distribution of 3.75" super-articulated figures in Europe going to be handled? At this point in time our only way to get these figures is find somebody in the US to buy them for us and ship them to Europe. Kinda complicated and expensive, right?

[Jodo]

As a kid, I never used the firing missiles or electronics that the 3.75 vehicles included. Now, we've seen the TFA Falcon have a Nerf feature, and now there is also an A-Wing with a Nerf feature. Can Star Wars vehicles not stand alone without the Nerf brand also behind the product?

As a public relations professional, there have been many occasions where I believe Hasbro has not followed through with collector's input, or they have not been totally transparent with its consumers. Does Hasbro employ public relations professionals that *actively* deal with the Star Wars brand, and do they see the over overwhelmingly negative sentiment collectors view the 5 POA figures with?

[Tamer]

I got this from Kareth Rihker in an email:

"
Have you evaluated more limited production or collectors club options for collectors who are interested in 3.75 SA? Boss fight studios and I think even go joe and he man used to have this.

Why the slow pace of releases. With TFA and rebels there are 100s of characters that could be released in both 3.75 and 6" scale. Why have we seen so few figures from these lines (eg Maz's club, Jakku, resistance personnel, Ketsu Onyo) at retail and exclusives.

Collectors are always interested in items that were close to being made but just never got done. Can you let us know some figures that were shelved in the past? Some rumors to get you started (noghri, anakin solo, new Yakface, pong Krell)

Any hope for future characters from the clone wars or the new comics for us Jedi lovers?

Any chance you would bring the fan poll to 3.75" to gauge interest in quantities?

Why does HTS always seem to have such a limited quantity during new releases. Many collectors end up paying premiums for figures on eBay rather than giving hasbro the cash up front. "

[Jake James]

What is the status of The Black Series figures that were due to be released prior to TFA event last year?  In particular: Tzizvvt, Shasa Tiel, Barada, and Vedain among others.  Are they still on schedule to be released at some point?

[Tamer]

I will get these all sorted and on the send list soon. Busy day, just got finished the Fans Choice stuff and a ton of other work to get too today!

[CHEWIE]

I was out of town on vacation and missed this, but if there's still any time, I have a couple questions... 

1 - Why didn't the Hasbro team look back at the success of the ROTS line for inspiration in the TFA line?  That line had a better mix of figure articulation, creatures, vehicles and even playsets.  By comparison, that line was much better received by both children and adults.  Will Hasbro look to go back closer to that model?

2 - What is the point of the Build-A-Weapons?  Most people (including kids) are not interested in these.  Instead, some improved articulation to the figures, or alternate heads, stands, or even droid parts would make a lot more sense.

3 - With Disney now owning the rights to Star Wars, and doing a great job with their own "in house brands" will you consider collaborating with them to make a 3.75" scale Death Star environment?  Their PVC figures are about that scale anyway.  Bottom line, we've been waiting most of our lives now for a Death Star playset and if one's not coming for Rogue One, we would be happy to see another company make this happen.

Thank you!!

[CHEWIE]

Oops, one more.

With the assembly style of the 5POA figures, customizers can't "boil and pop" these things, hence preventing us from making mass purchases of things other people don't want multiples of.  Example - Goss Toowers and General Hux.  If these figures could easily have their arms/legs removable (like most pre-2013 figures), we'd buy more and this would help prevent backup of pegwarmers at retail (the issue is the torso plastic is hard and does not soften when warmed up - this also leads to manufacturing paint coloring not matching up on torsos vs. legs/arms, but that's a different issue altogether).  That being said, look at the Quiggold figure - he's the ONE figure in the TFA line with a soft torso - love it!  Can Hasbro start making figures more in this style (with softer torsos) if we have to settle for minimal articulation?

[Tamer]

Tomorrow at noon eastern will the question submission deadline. I already think we have enough good ones, but that is the due date and time!

I plan on getting these sorted this morning.

Remember, this isn't a bash Hasbro affair. Sometimes I think we are a sorted lot who are quick to criticize and while there is always room for improvement, we do not want to pummel Hasbro who was kind enough to grant our question request. We will ask hard questions, just not flaming ones!

[Tamer]

Ok, I have all the questions sorted so far. I changed the wording of some of them to try and get an answer and not making it inflammatory. I know Hasbro wouldn't answer a question posed in that way (from past experience) and could stop our q and a session. I know folks have some issues with Hasbro's figures and products (especially those 5 poa ones), but we need to stick to the issues and not insult the person we are asking the questions too.

[Tamer]

New one from me after seeing the Jakks Pacific EE Exclusive (on the front page if you want to see it).

Have you solved your vac gold metal paint issues with the new 6" Version of C3PO coming out?

[krztfr]

How come the Marvel Legends come with spare pieces and build a character parts in every figure but Star Wars 6" have small figure with maybe 2 accessories and still at the same price as that Marvel full sized figure? Same question came to me when GI Joes had a bunch of added articulation and weapons for the same price as the Star Wars Vintage but lacked as many accessories.

[Tamer]

Folks after talking with our site reporter I think I can hold off till Sunday, but the sooner the better!

[CHEWIE]

I was playing Battlefront a bit last night with my son - and it brought back great memories of the Battlefront sets that Hasbro used to release back with the older games.

So, on that note - will we be seeing some new Battlefront multi-packs in the 3.75" scale again?  It would be a great opportunity to get some SA army builders back in the mix, including a repainted Sandtrooper mold using the Imperial Shocktrooper paint scheme.  Retail would have a hard time keeping these in stock due to a starving demand for 3.75" SA army builders.

[Commander_Kurgan]

Great idea: do an Imperial Battlefront battlepack and a Rebel one.
Super-articulated, of course.
This would fly off the shelves and finally bring the adult collectors and customizers back on board.

[Tamer]

How come the Marvel Legends come with spare pieces and build a character parts in every figure but Star Wars 6" have small figure with maybe 2 accessories and still at the same price as that Marvel full sized figure? Same question came to me when GI Joes had a bunch of added articulation and weapons for the same price as the Star Wars Vintage but lacked as many accessories.

I know how they would answer this one. Licensing fees for Star Wars. I am not sure how that is working now that Hasbro is dealing with Disney, but trust me the SW Name increases the cost of everything and to keep the prices at a point we can remotely stand it that is why they don't go over the top. Now I like your idea of BAF Pieces and will pose a question along those lines.