Last I heard was a November release for the Special Editions.

6
I haven't seen any Toyfair photos of the Sio Bibble figure, like Teekay-421 dug up somehow. Do you know the status of this figure? Could they have abandoned it? Do you think whoever took snapshots of Toyfair might have just missed them?
  -alfred

I've seen several Toy Fair report sites, and not a one showed Sio Bibble. But Yakface's Realm did post carded pics of the figure, so don't worry-- he is coming.

Hasbro frequently leaves a few items behind at Toy Fair, comic shows, and so forth... it just happens. It doesn't necessarily mean anything was canned.

7
How do I keep the stickers/decals from peeling off of the vehicles? I recently acquired an X-Wing and a Slave 1 from around 1995 but the stickers/decals keep falling off. Thanks.
  -Hendelman

I use Elmer's Glue Sticks. Them's suckers work good.

8
I was wondering if Hasbro will ever make the Mon Calimari Cruiser? I think this is one of the most graceful, beautifully designed ships from Star Wars, and I was very disappointed when I heard they cancelled it. What do u think?
  -Paul

The entire (dismal) Collector Fleet line ended a long time ago. Anything you see in stores now is old stock, and no "new" ships are planned. In addition to the Mon Calamari Cruiser, a Death Star was also scrapped.

9
Several years ago Galoob had 3 sets of "Novel" sets of micro machines. I remember seeing a second wave on their web page, and was wondering if they ever came out. I have heard a rumor that they only came out in England, but have been unable to determine if this is true. If they do exist, is there someplace I can get them? I know one of the novels was Dark Force Rising, but I forget the other 2. Do you know of any web pages that even list them?
  -WedgeRed2

These were released in the USA. Sort of.

I got my sets from Galoob directly, as their web site had them available to order for about eight bucks per or something like that. The books were Dark Force Rising, Courtship of Princess Leia, and Dark Apprentice.

These sets were pretty cool, but like with most hard to find Galoob stuff, extras are scarce and I have never seen these for sale beyond Galoob's offerings way back when.

10
Hasbro makes a Porkins figure but no General Dodonna? What's the deal? Think of how cool Dodonna would look, now that Hasbro seems to have their act together, at least as far as classic figure sculpts are concerned.
  -Brian

Why? People have been actively asking for Porkins since at least 1996. Dodonna I have almost never seen anybody ask for (and please, dear readers, don't send requests in to me because I just wrote that.) While a lot of people are complaining, most of this year's classic stuff comes from fan requests-- Dagobah Vader and all. I'm cool with it.

FIN
Well, it's been about a week since the last update, mainly because questions don't seem to be getting through to me. So if you want an update on Thursday, fire some inquiries my way and I'll be sure to have one up for ya.

  
  Adam Pawlus

Questions for February 24, 2000

1
I've read something about Hasbro coming out with something called a "Trophy Assortment." What does that mean?
  -Eric

Well, the first figure in the Trophy Assortment is the Darth Maul with Binoculars and the mini-Sith Infiltrator we saw a few months ago on Teekay's site. It comes on a blister card, and one slipped to eBay the other week. I haven't got a look at the others in the assortment just yet, but the rumors mention a Bongo with Kenobi and a few others. If you like resculpts, you'll love these. I'm getting a little sick of 'em, personally...

2
I have seen that on the back of the transforming head set boxes by micro machines, there is a tie fighter pilot set pictured but I have never seen one of these in stores or on eBay. Whats the deal? I would love to get ahold of one of those.
  -ThisBoysNameIs

It shipped the same time as the Royal Guard head, and was pretty common in my area for a while. It's probably the lamest set there was in the classic heads assortment, and I'm almost positive they're showing up on the TRU Clearance Binges.

3
Remember on the Teekay-421 site, they showed the Sio Bibble figure with one of the cool, improved commtech chip? Well, how come the carded image of Sio Bibble shows the same old chip?
  -Dre187

I know that all manufacturers leave stuff out of toy fair, especially Hasbro, but how does that explain the absence of the new CommTech design and the new CommTech Reader? Not that anyone cares, but I do.
  -Stephen

While I haven't gotten official word one way or another, I wouldn't be at all surprised that the product was altered before Hasbro gave the final go-ahead with the new chips & reader. I mean, the first reader isn't selling worth a darn, even at $10 or less people aren't buying these very quickly. Since the only images of new chips & readers have been in advance Hasbro photography, it's possible-- although not confirmed-- that these may never see production. (I hope so, anyway... last thing we need is another huge non-selling SW item.)

4
I have seen pics of the new Obi Wan (classic) w/out outer robe w/ Anakin's lightsaber on his belt and his own LS in his hand. What's the deal? Ben never had Anakin's LS clipped to his belt. If it is for him to give to Luke, he should come with two hilts or a removable blade on his LS. Do you know or can you find out anything on this?
  -Chris

Well, I'd guess it's the same reason the 4" "Live" Anakin for POTF2 had Kenobi's saber: Hasbro just messed up. If it was the other way around, it'd make sense, but I have yet to see anything showing multiple unlit Lightsabers... so it looks like it's just gonna be screwy.

5
What are your thoughts and feelings over Rep. John McCain using the Star Wars theme as his campaign song? What about when he referred to himself as Luke Skywalker flying out of the Death Star?
  -Leo

Considering pop culture at large seems to see Star Wars as stale, I'd say it was a bad idea.

6
I've seen all of the toyfair photo's etc. Why no mockups or at least pictures of the 12" Jabba that Jen from Hasbro told us about, or the 12" Dewback, 12" Biker scout w/ 12" scale speeder bike?
  -Mick

Since exclusives are, well, exclusive, and Toy Fair is to sell product to retaillers, showing exclusives wouldn't be in Hasbro's best interests unless they had some as-of-yet-unassigned exclusives. Which they probably do. Plus anything that doesn't have pictures of final product can become unconfirmed in a heartbeat.

7
Which of the TRU Millenium Minted Coin figures is the rarest?
  -Mike

None of them? Depending on where you live, different ones are incredibly common.

8
I was temptet to buy one of those "deluxe" Boba Fett that come with the wings a-la Batman Beyond. But I stopped because in the photograph in the back you can see him with his rifle in the hand and the wings attached to his body. However I checked the packaging to find the rifle, and I couldn't ind it in all the ones I checked.

I know that usually the photos do not correspond to the actual product packaged. But I would like to know if this Fett indeed comes with his rifle and its just not visible from the outside of the bubble.
  -Andres

The Deluxe Fett doesn't include the regular gun, or for that matter, a cape or a rocket pack. Just the ultra-jumbo-butt-kickin' rocket of doom.

9
Now that we've seen pics of Hasbro's line from the Toy Fair and all of the coming resculpts, I was wondering what your impression was on the lack of Amidala figures. So far, we have only 3 figures of her, and she appeared in more outfits than anyone in the movie.
  -Ray

There were also more Lukes than Leias, and Leia had more outfits than Luke... it's just the sad state of the toy biz: resculpts of male heroes sell better than most other figures.

10
During my recent escapades of finishing off my collection of Beast Assortments for $4.97 each at TRU, a thought occurred to me while buying my Ronto. During C-3PO's Cliff Notes story to the Ewoks while trying to convince them to help, he came to the part about the AT-ATs and immitated their walk, in there he said a word or phrase which sounded like "Ronto-bosh!". My question is, do you think this is where they got the name for the Ronto from since they walk about the same as an AT-AT?
  -Jeff

The naming of the Ronto was actually much more simplistic: George saw a design, started referring to it as a Bronto (or some at LFL, pretty sure it was him) and when someone asked for a name, he said "drop the 'B'." (No, I'm not making this one up.

FIN
That's Q&A for today, see ya next week!