In Dubly
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1 After the recent backlash expirienced by the most recent Star Wars 12 inch exclusives (i.e. Dewback, Speeder Bike), will we see more exclusive 12 inch figures? While I don't really like exclusive, most of the coolest stuff is exclusive, plus it seems to be the only way to get a 12 inch General Veers. Or a 12 inch BoShek... -Matt
Don't be silly. You know all we're ever gonna get are retreads of existing 12" figures.
But seriously folks, backlash? We're basing this on less than a month of very limited sales data. These things are sitting longer than the new POTJ figures, but then again, they should at $50 per... or more.
As far as exclusives go, so far, that's the best way to get new 12" product. Most of the 12" Exclusives ahve been mostly new sculpts lately, and stores seem to like them. So I doubt they'd go away so soon.
(And you have no clue how much 12" BoShek sucks...)
2 So now all the 3-4 inch figs fall under the "Fatness of Jabba" or whatever the new line is called. I'm just curious will the 12" lines be following suit? And one more thing, does it hurt you as much as it does me to see a Marmit figure placed beside Hasbro's beefy 12" figs? -Millenitex
Yes and yes. Marmit rocks.
3 Where do pegwarmers go when they have been warming the pegs to long? Do stores ship them back to their supplier, or do the stores throw out the figures? -Dave
Depends on the situation. Lots of Kay-Bee stickered figures showed up at a few MacFrugals stores. I know Toys "R" Us stores still bogged down with the Rancor Keepers they had in 1997... on clearance... and not selling.
There are times where Hasbro will allow stores to send cases of product back. I remember seeing cases of Optimus Minors and Scavengers from Beast Wars shipped back to the big H, as well as Sidious and a few others.
Figures never get thrown out that I've seen. I have heard of Target Exclusives showing up at Goodwill en masse after they vanished from local stores, though.
4
No, I don't. I think it's the toy market. Hasbro knows we aren't overtly thrilled with Episode One as a whole, I would guess, hence the classic onslaught. Right now, they seem to be wanting to sell Mauls while they can... which makes sense. Aliens are coming, just very slowly. Plo Koon, Fode & Beed, and others are on the way... it might be a little while for more Podracers, but they'll happen.
5 I was talking with a group of friends about the tri-logo (Red / Orange Carded) Shadows of the Empire figures from a few years back. I have had several people tell me they were limited to a production of only 5000, which seems very low to me. Do you know anything about these? -Michael
The surest sign you're beig lied to is when a number is handed to you. Hasbro is extremely tight with their numbers, and unless an item is numbered, that number is pulled outta someone's butt.
These figures were hard to find, but 5,000? Seems far too convinient a number. Unless I get an email from Hasbro UK telling me I'm full of it (I could be), I'm gonna hafta say that's bunk. Although they are neat, and pretty hard to come by.
6
Easy one. It's not the 100th Luke (thankfully, that'd be sick) but it is the 100th 12" action figure for Star Wars.
The price? Good question. Hasbro's "special" figures are always a bit more. Batman 100 was $15-$20, Batman 200 is $15 or so, and Boba is gonna be $10-$15. These items have nice, big, shiny packaging or something unique about it. Yeah, Batsy 200's a little light for what you pay for it, but I still think it's cool. In the case of this Luke, you get tons of accessories, an X-Wing suit in addition to the Tatooine Poncho in which he's packed, and I don't know what kind of articulation we're getting. It sure looks like a deluxe product, but if it's a toy worthy of the $50 price tag is something that's gonna hafta be up to you.
7
Unfortunately, you got a broken Kenobi. He does say a few phrases from the film, and in case you wanted to know, they are good enough to go out of your way to exchange it for a working figure.
8
Do I need a refresher Economics course, or is it just, as I sometimes
suspect, that the Powers that Be know that they could sell a piece of dog
poop if they slapped a SW logo on it and sold it as a short-packed
variant poop w/Holo Leia?
Well Dr. G, you ask a question for the ages.
Hasbro's goods are traditionally somewhat expensive, with an exception being their TransFormers. (Call me nutty, I think the bulk of them are worth their price tags.) Look at GI Joe, 21st Century Toys' Ultimate Soldier, and Dragon Models' magnificent line of 12" figures. While Dragon makes expensive toys, you get what you pay for. 21st Century, though, makes a product comporable or better than Hasbro's for a fraction of the price. (Not a very small fraction, but 5/8 is still a fraction.) Why the price differences? Heck if I know. Hasbro owns GI Joe, it's not a licensed name.
Looking at other lines... until recently, McFarlane owned the bulk of their licenses. Spawn, Wetworks, Total Chaos, etc. They aim to make a pretty, cheap product. I want to find an Edward Scissorhands like you wouldn't believe, but when you compare the products, Mas Amedda will hold up to a drop on the floor or acts of Dog a little bit better than Eddie. (Although this is not really an excuse, McFarlane makes great statues, or figures. I wouldn't really call their product "toys.")
Now, Toy Biz, Marvel, and X-Men are all under one big happy banner. No licensing fees I'm aware of, but there's probably something.
Star Wars should be selling for $5.99 these days, according to what I've seen and heard. $5 for a figure is virtually unheard of, and other than the Simpsons, I'm hard pressed to name a line which sells at full price and is under $6. $6 seems to be the "bottom of the line" price, and it's been accepted. If SW didn't sell, odds are it'd be back down to $5. And made from very cheap plastic.
9
Not sure, but they are nice folk. (Actually, the only written piece of mail I've ever gotten from a reader was from a sculptor of theirs when I worked at go figure! and wrote about how much I loved the pewter figures in the SW Trivial Pursuit game. But I digress.) They make a great product, and I'm still miffed I never sprung for the Stormtrooper or Boba Fett. Them's two great figures. (The Rebo Band rocks, too.)
Their website has an area devoted to the Star Wars films, and I don't recall any announcements of them ceasing production on the goods. They have some really A-1 stuff up there, but the Trade Federation Battleship is not one of them. Droid Fighters, Tanks, Naboo Fighters, and a killer Royal Starship are shown, though.
10
Probably for the same reason they didn't use X-Wings to look for Luke & Han. Which may vary depending on how you view things.
FIN See ya soon!
Just picked up a new POTJ Obi-Wan figure, and I was wondering: did Lucas make a continuity mistake by having Obi-Wan start E1 with his own blue lightsaber and end up with Qui-Gon's green lightsaber? Seems like he would have wanted to keep his master's lightsaber. Maybe he thought green sucked.
Speaking of continuity crap, it was pretty clever of those Naboo to build a
lightsaber catapult system into their Astro-Droids.
As far as lightsabers go, well, who knows what happens in the next two films? We know he used Qui-Gon's saber at the end of TPM. And that's it. I have yet to see information from Episode II regarding his weaponry, for all I know it'll be blue again. Or he could lose a saber in E2 or E3. Or he could've gotten really bored after living in the desert for 20 years and decided to make a new one. There's no limit to the potential explainations on this one.
As far as R2-D2 goes, who says that it has to be a lightsaber catapult system, or that it wasn't added later? R2 droids are like swiss army knives, only there's always one more compartment we have yet to see.
While there are lots of continuity questions, with two movies left, there is still time to fix most of them. (Although Randall may have brought the best ones to light in court.) Sure, there are some things at the end of E1 that don't line up with ANH, but c'mon, we've still got around four to five hours of explaination left.
2 I have a question that I hope you can answer, or know where I can find the answer or something. anyways, I remember when I first got the guide to world wide star wars collectibles, I noticed a few mentions of a ugnaught with a lavender smock variant. That was the first actuall source I had heard of this and I don't recall really seeing or hearing it mentioned anywhere else. -donshar
Both blue and purpley/lavendar smocks are available in pretty much equal distribution. They're around, but it's not something you tend to notice unless you've got a bunch together at once.
3 I have seen quite a few nice looking custom figures recently and I want to try my hand at it. Will you recommend where I can get information on custom making figures and boxes? -turtle-6
Sign up for Rebelscum's very own customs listserv for all sorts of info that can help you along the way to makin' yer own toys.
4
Hasbro will continue to make Y-Wings for a while, at least until Target says "Hey, no more Y-Wings." Yes, it still exists, and is still shipping, but if your grandpa would be so kind as to send ya one at cost and shipping, it'd probably be worth asking. I mean, let's face it, patience sucks.
The 12" Maul/Speeder is shipping to Wal-Marts (it's good to be right) for $39.99 or so. Haven't looked for one, myself, but it's tempting at the price.
5 I was wondering if you could help me. I'm looking for the first darth maul carded action figure released. My boyfriend says it doesn't say anything in ( ) under darth maul do u have any idea -Kim
Hunh?
If you're looking for the very first Darth Maul figure that was produced in 1999, check your local toy, drug, video game, and department stores as many still carry the figure. Pretty much every e-commerce store has them unless they've vanished in the past month or so.
6
Some images of parts of a costume of a character in armor similar to that of Fett have been... well, not released, but made available online at sites like TheForce.Net. Due to the freakish attitude most readers of this column (and the internet in general) have toward potential spoilers, even though it is merely a costume that can't in a million years spoil this film for you, we won't be discussing it here.
But I *will* say that I look forward to the movie and its action figures, and I'm a Fett junkie. If that tells you anything.
7
There were three "worlds" and three vehicles made for the MicroCollection, as well as a set of mail-away figures and a treasure trove of unproduced items.
A Death Star set (2 parts), a Hoth set (4 parts), and a Bespin set (3 parts) were made and are some of my favorite items due to their action features. An X-Wing, Millenium Falcon, TIE Fighter (IMHO the best TIE toy ever), and a Snowspeeder were produced on the side of vehicles.
More information than you could possibly want (it's cool, though) is available to you via the Star Wars Collectors Archive.
8
Since we never saw pictures of those figures, I don't know for sure how far into development they actually got. They did appear on a Hasbro price list, but readers of this column (and my old newsletter) know that this doesn't mean much. Individually boxed Bib Fortuna and Death Star Gunner figures were on tap for 1997 at one point.
If they were far enough in development, they will surface somewhere someday soon. The shift to 2001 is definitely toward classic, so my guess is just a postponement or something like that. I mean, it's not like they cancelled Shmi.
9
You can never say never, but you can say probably not. I wouldn't hold my breath.
10
Well, glad you asked. Because this is a rant I've been wanting to make.
The bulk of sales of 80's T-Shirts aren't by toy fans like you or me, and in many cases, not by people who know what it is they're buying. While you will see me around in a Green Lantern logo shirt, my knowledge of the character is somewhat limited. On the other hand, there are people wearing Japanese TransFormer logo t-shirts who just think it's a cool robot design and honestly do not know what it is. (I speak from experience here.) Since T-Shirts are cheap to produce and there seems to be a budding interest in corporate themed leisure wear, be it cereal boxes, Rainbow Brite, or Cobra, this makes sense from a product standpoint.
Toys are another issue entirely. With GI Joe, we are getting a "new" line of 4" figures this year. Early word has been very poor on the figures (from my Joe "peeps"), and they appear to be little more than repaints of earlier toys. I'll still buy a few, though. All-new mega-articulated figures are always a possibility, but I think these would have to do incredibly well for that to happen. (Speaking of Joes, I'm looking to buy a complete Cobra BUGG with Secto Viper. I had one a while ago, but traded it for a Vectrex with four games and ten bucks back in 1989... I think I got a good deal, but still, I miss the old gal. And my Hydro Viper. And Croc Master. It's too sad to think about...)
TransFormers... things look good for TransFormers. A quote out of Hasbro via ToyFare said (and I'm paraphrasing) that we might see a return to a classic style in the next year or two. And in Japan, they are reissuing old G1 toys like Hot Rod, Ultra Magnus, and Optimus Prime as well as making new, non-transforming barely-articulated figures of Megatron, Arcee (!), Op, Powermaster Op, Ultra Magnus, and the ever lovin' blue-eyed Starscream. Still, I'd say chances for a new line of oldish TransFormers, while not confirmed, is not something I'd rule out. I'm hopeful, as an all-new Optimus Prime would really be something.
Star Wars is another issue. When you're talking Joes and TFs, you're talking about toys. Everything out of these franchises has basically been made to promote the sales of toys. With Star Wars, the nostolgia is a little different... at the time of POTF2, people were asking for new figures for a couple of years, a new THX VHS/LD re-release just came out, and it was riding high on new comics and novels and countless other little things. With these 80s toy lines, this is only the beginning... a shirt is just a shirt, but Hasbro's apparently interested in making some new toys as well. (With the shirts as free marketing, it'd make sense.) LJN's ThunderCats, on the other hand, are a different story. I'm pretty sure there's no more LJN, for example.
Much of the retro stuff is being bought by people who just missed the trends, or had an older sibling interested in it. So while I can look out into a sea of people at a university and see countless SuperMan, Thundercats, and Cobra shirts, I bet you any one of them would be hard pressed to name characters from the series and few if any would be interested in toys.
FIN In other news... the new Man Or Astro-Man CD finally showed up at my local record shop. (Yes, they do sell vinyl, like any good music store.) It's very different, but it's good. If you're a fan of the band, you should give it a listen. Since I usually do updates on Thursday night for Friday, and Friday is my birthday, I'm sorry to report there will not be a Friday morning update. There could be a pre-Monday update, but that all depends on how many questions are sent in. That are not ones I've answered in the past two or three weeks.
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