[JayC]

The folks from Hasbro have contacted us with this:

"In an effort to provide more consistent support to the media dedicated to covering the iconic
Star Wars toy line, Hasbro has established a weekly Q&A aimed at sharing the most up-to-date and accurate brand and product information available.

Every Friday by 5 PM ET, we ask that your staff submit questions that you would like posed to the Star Wars brand team. (No more than three questions per outlet per week, please.) All questions submitted will be reviewed and answers to a select few will be posted on http://www.Hasbro.com/StarWars the following Friday afternoon. Though only a sampling of all questions received will be posted to Hasbro’s site each week, we will make our best effort to respond directly to each editor with answers to all submitted questions."


So with that in mind I figured I would let you all the readers post your questions here, and then each week I'll pick 3 to send in to them. So with that in mind start posting your questions here, and I'll send off the first 3 tomorrow.

[nagauthier]

Any chance Hasbro will be revisiting the Evolution 3-packs in the future?

[jwenig]

Hello,

I want to preface what I say by telling you I was one of the customers at the focus groups held at Celebration III where you showed the group the Metal Action Fleet Ships and Metal Action Figures. We gave you our input on them and you totally ignored our suggestions pretty much on all our points.

Will you start to release new large ships that were never made for the premium ships... including highly demanded ships like the Death Star, Star Destroyer, Super Star Destroyer, and Medical Frigate (Ackbar ship). We stressed our disdain for starting a series by reissuing older ships that most people have... a comprimise would be one new ship, one old ship in each series released.

Also, the Metal line is terrible. We stressed at the group that figures that made sense to be transformed into metal would be desirable. Droids... or Clones who have shiny armor make sense because they can not be duplicated in plastic. We also asked about interchangable parts making the figure into many figures for the price point since the original idea was a build a figure.

The end result were figures with a mix of metal and fabric for vader, figures that are sculpted on a scale close to the 1995 POTF2 figures, Paint jobs that look like a 3rd grader painted them with water colors in art class... and the idea that it would be neat to have the metal show through the colored figures... and figures that are unpainted. All of these realities are terrible. I bought a few figures intially and then I returned them because the money and quality of the items were not for me... and since I see many just sitting on the shelf collecting dust at every store I visit... I believe many feel the same way.

Can Hasbro kill the original metal concept and retool the line so that it can be successful. A high quality Metal figure I think is a good idea, provided the sculpt is of high quality, the paint job is accurate and high quality, and the packaging is not so awkward for retailers. I think the durability of metal is unquestionable compared to plastic... and could fit in with the plastic figure line by complimenting it. I just do not see how this line can continue under its current strategy.

Jason

[2slowbot]

Will the Ultimate Galactic Hunt promotion of randomly inserted chase figues continue throughout the year or has it ended?

[kingmoredred]

how far does hasbro plan on taking the expanded universe? there is still much ground to cover.

has hasbro thought abought a knights of the old republic toy line with in the saga collection?

[bella]

What is the status of the Star Wars Unleashed line? I am not talking about the Unleashed Battle Packs.

[Whitewolf]

Since we seem to be seeing updated/retooled rereleases of vintage vehicles (Millenium Falcon, Imperial Shuttle, Speederbikes, Sandcrawler, Landspeeder, etc.), are there any plans to rerelease iconic playsets such as the Death Star Space Station or the Creature Cantina---minus the cardboard wall panels?

[abraxsis]

Why is Hasbro short packing highly sought after figures, such as the new Sandtrooper, and mass packing figures noone really wants, like the two cantina aliens in the Tatooine wave or giving 3 different Vader's in each wave. Do we really need a different Vader in each wave?

One Sandtrooper per case is ridiculous. Drop the ratio and add more of the sought after figures so we aren't forced to go to ebay and pay 3x the retail price just to get these "rare" figures.

It just makes no sense to me that when a company knows everyone is going to want something like the Sandtrooper to pack it one per case.

[dellmorris]

Quote

What is the status of the Star Wars Unleashed line? I am not talking about the Unleashed Battle Packs.

The han in Stormtrooper, Shocktrooper, and Chewbacca that were previously on "hiatus" were in the Newton, NJ Wal Mart.

I just picked up the newest issue of Tomart's Action Figure Digest (issue #145) and I read that the SD Comic Con exclusive 501st stormtrooper will be affered through hasbrotoyshop.com. Will they be available on the website in July?

[bluecyclone]

1) Now that we have VOTC Hans, Lukes, and Stormtroopers, can we expect to see a desent Han and Luke in Stormtrooper outfit?

2) Why aren't all new Star Wars figures like the VOTC, as far as Articulation, Detail, and Packaging, not meaning that outer plastic clamshell but the old style cardback, they seem to be working well for the new GI Joe figures.

Thanks!

[Forcehunter]

Considerng there is a demand for army-builders, would you consider revisiting exclusive army-builder packs? The VOTC Stormtrooper mold is probably the best and should get that treatment.

Why did you scale down the blasters and other accessories since the Power of the Jedi Line? The Blastech E-11s that have come out look like pistols and don't look right with the Stormtroopers/Sandtroopers.

[Whitewolf]

Forcehunter, on Jun 2 2006, 12:11 PM, said:

Why did you scale down the blasters and other accessories since the Power of the Jedi Line? The Blastech E-11s that have come out look like pistols and don't look right with the Stormtroopers/Sandtroopers.

The scaled-down versions are actually more movie-accurate than the "hip howitzers" the POTF figures came with. If you compare the Master Replicas E-11 Stormtrooper Blaster Rifle against the MR Rebel Pistol (with the "nozzle" barrel), they are relatively the same size. The E-11 is supposed to be the Star Wars version of a sawed-off shotgun...its still considered a long range weapon, but more compact in size.

But I digress...back to the questions...

[Commander Thire]

Will You Be making more republic commando figures? And will you make more evolution packs?

[probot4]

Are there any plans for a poseable 6" scale Marvel Legends/DCDirect style line of Star Wars action figures?

[boogerviper]

I second the question about "what are the plans for the Expanded Universe?"

[hamsterboy]

Any chance we could get figures for Order 66? Maybe have three packs with a Clone Commander,a regular Clone,and the Jedi they do in?

[dellmorris]

Will Hasbro apply the process that is currently used for the G.I. Joe line to the Star Wars line, to give the Star Wars line more points of articulation?

[Lord Amron]

Will we ever see more vehicles?? I think SW vehicles are one of the pinnacles of the entire saga. Would you consider a V-wing or Grevious Starfighter at the 19.99 price range?? I think it's doable and would not not take up to much retail space.

If cost is the issue for ships can we please get them in Action Fleet (Titanium deluxe) or smaller size?

Can we get some more Clone Wars figs/ships? I'd like to see a more thought out Obi Wan in clone armor. I also think the Torrent Starfighter from the cartoon deserves to be in plastic (ahem metal) form.

Will we ever see Darth Sidious' lightsaber? I think you've hit just about every major one except that one.

Are you going to make Quin Lon Vos?? Matter of fact I think that there are quite a bit of Expanded Universe figs and vehicles that would be nice to have (Torrent Starfighter, AT-XT and TX-130 hover tank again I'd be happy with Titanium versions). Bottom line we need more vehicles!!!!

[Whitewolf]

Will we see new Empire Strikes Back figures in the Vintage collection? Many collectors have voiced an interest in Vintage-style versions of Bespin Luke (fatigues), Bespin Han (blue jacket), and a new sculpt of Hoth/Bespin Princess Leia (white jumpsuit).

Also, rumors have been circulating about new Vintage figures coming down the line like the Jawas, Snowtroopers, etc. What are the plans for the Vintage line in the near future?

[JayC]

here are the questions along with answers we sent in for the first week.


http://toynewsi.com/...d=8&itemid=9622

Keep the questions coming.

[Whitewolf]

Awesome! My Death Star question got answered! Not exactly what I was hoping for in terms of an answer, but like they said, if playsets gain ground again in the future, maybe we'll see a new version of it.

[dellmorris]

Will there be more general release Star Wars Battlepacks? When these were first introduced, the general release battlepacks were not as good as the Target and Toys R Us exclusives. I would believe that the battlepacks have been doing better since they include "army builder" figures like the clone troopers.

[DeadMan-Mart]

Will the TRU Exclusive Dagobah X-Wing be available in Canada?

[gothiczartan]

are they going to keep on making more star wars figures for the saga collection for 2007?

I wanted to see a luke skywalker in snowspeeder pilot gear from the SW ESB to be make as a figure and all the movie features.

I want to see all of the snowspeeder pilots from the film to me make as figures like wedge antilles, rouge two, dack, wez, hobbie.

how about a ten numb figure from the star wars ROTJ but in red suit and movie likeness.

nien numb with SA and movie likeness

princess leia in endor gear.

[JoeRhyno]

Who decides the case break down for the waves that come out? It's safe to say that Hasbro know's about us army builders and in some ways is trying to please us with packs like the EE exclusives, the current Battle packs. Still, we get case assortments with 1 clone to a case, yet, I hear from international collectors, that they get full cases of clone troopers, why do we not get full cases of them here?