I Can Read Your Thoughts, Jim!
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1 IF and when Star Wars is re-released on video will it be the special edition version? -BlueJay309
Buzz has it November is still the time to expect VHS re-releases.
2 I was wondering if you would be able to answer my question regarding the Official Star Wars Fan Club Carbon Freeze Playset. So far, all we have gotten from the Fan Club is a generic "fall" release date, no semblance of a price and one or two pictures. Do you have any idea when the Fan Club will offer this and how much they will try to take us for? I'm sure shipping will turn out to be a beauty. Also, since the cards are changing over to Power of the Jedi, do you think it's possible the playset will be released in that packaging? -Slippypete
We (and by we, I mean me) have yet to see any advance photography of
packaging, or any packaging other than that which was shown at Toy Fair
in New York back in 1998. The Fan Club has yet to release much info on
it other than what you've said, but I'll be genuinely surprised if the
final cost to us for a single unit will top $30. (If it does, I'll be
the first to complain. Welll.... maybe second.) I miss the "special
shipping rates" like they used to do for the Cantina Band Member...
3 My question is in regards to the Galoob products that have recently been on sale at KB Toys and Toys R Us. Of the Micro Machine Small Vehicles (the three packs) I have not been able to find # 8 or 11. Are these two shipping with the others? Are they shortpacked? And with the Action Fleet Vehicles, what is the chance that things like the Porkins X-Wing, the Rouge 2 Snowspeeder, the Blockaderunner, or the AT-At will be available during this sale? Will the super rare (at least that is what I gather from the auctions I have seen on eBay) Sail Barge or TIE Defender be available? -Kevin
As far as the regular MicroMachines vehicles go, I seem to recall seeing
#8 at least once, but #11 I'm not so sure. I finally saw some of the
revised Classic Characters figure packs the other day (which I never saw
in stores, somebody was kind enough to assist on that one when they
first hit.) Not surprisingly, new cases of Micro stuff continue to
ship, so keep looking-- they'll probably pop up real soon.
A lot of the Action Fleet vehicles were kinda tough to get when they
first came out and have yet to show up on clearance. I saw a handful
of Rogue 2 Snowspeeders over the past few years, so I wouldn't expect to
see too many of 'em. I have seen AT-ATs and Blockade Runners, and I
have seen (and heard reports of) more than a few Porkins X-Wings showing
up... but the final wave of Action Fleet haven't ever really shown up,
anywhere, in reasonable numbers. So some day, we're gonna see them
show up SOMEwhere, but it could be a while, and they could be in
Serbo-Croation boxes. Who knows?
4
As far as deals go, many still find a few figures pop up in local
stores. I find the Sio Bibble wave at the "Marts" fairly regularly,
maybe twice a month. (Well, often the remnants of the wave, but you
get the idea.) There are no killer deals on almost any SW products
that are hard to find, so you're stuck with secondary market online,
buying buy the case, or scoring what you want in stores.
Basically, check every collectible toy store you know. If there's a
link, click on it-- you never know what you can find. (Heck, I found
some killer Beast Wars deals last summer by checking nearly every entry
in the Raving Toy Maniac's web directories.)
5 I recently found a Darth Maul 4" figure entitled "Darth Maul with Sith Infiltrator". It's on a unique card (with a desert scene behind the figure) and comes with a miniature Sith Infiltrator on a shared display stand. It's a higher price point too, at $12.00. Maul is much like the Tattooine version but has his saber holstered and his binoculars (or is it monocular... hmmm, hard to say) in hand. I describe it in case you don't know of it. -Jeff
This is the oft-heard of but less than oft-seen Trophy Assortment Darth
Maul, which typically shows up at Kay-Bee or Toyworks or whatever for
about thirteen bucks. It's overpriced, but it is a nice piece. Word
has it Kay-Bee will not be picking up the two follow-up pieces in the
assortment, Obi-Wan Kenobi with a Bongo or OOM-9 with a Federation Tank.
While I'm fairly indifferent on the OOM resculpt, I really did like the
Obi-Wan, and I've got high hopes Hasbro will dump these in some food
premium (CEREAL! :), exclusive, or something.
6
The backpack, which first showed up in the FAO catalog last year at the
same time as the Faamba and the "I've got a lot of money to spend"
edition Queen Amidala doll as an exclusive (or at least I've never seen
it elsewhere) with a few extras, like containers and stuff. Unless
there's seperate editions, it does include some oddball extras, which
are there more or less for your enjoyment (or ridicule). It looks like
a neat piece, if I ever saw one in person I'd probably snag it.
7
Zero Galoob/Micro Star Wars product has been made known to me through
any sources, including Hasbro, the oft-quoted "rumor mill," and watching
episodes of Arli$$ backwards to try to find some secret messages. It's
my understanding that they're currently investigating where to go with
any non-12" or 4" toys, so stay tuned for future announcements. Here's
hoping Action Fleet continues, it's pretty slick.
8
Target.com should be selling some of these via its website, according to
our news page, at some point in the future. And when it comes to the
Fan Club, anything is possible.
9
Heck if I've got a tally of all of them, but German, Japanese, and many
other nations have had the flicks dubbed, so it's entirely possible to
find them on eBay or elsewhere. If anybody out there has a guide to
foreign language videos, let us know, we'll post a link.
10
Hasbro likes (and I tend to agree with their likes) to paint dirt/damage
on figures to give them a slightly more gritty, "realistic" look to
them. I thought it turned out kinda nice, myself.
And, yes, BoShek still sucks.
FIN If I get enough questions, there'll be a Wednesday update. Otherwise, it might not be up until Friday. So, see ya soon!
This probably frustrates me more than other star wars fans, but is there even the slightest bit of possibility that episode IV will ever be called A NEW HOPE? I figure the best time to do it would be on the re-release in the fall. It just kinda irks me that we have Phantom, whatever II and III will be called, STAR WARS, EMPIRE and JEDI. They're all Star Wars, and ANH is a cool title anyway, when looked at in the grander scope of the saga. Your stake? -PavedTwilight
The public at-large (see next paragraph for a note on them) knows the
flick as "Star Wars." Outside of fans, very few people know of the
name, and by releasing SW as "ANH" now, people are gonna scratch their
heads and assume it has something to do with a new SW flick. If the
name is ever changed (like the oddball decision to change the first Indy
flick to "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark"), it'll
probably be around the time the third prequel sees home video release.
That way, there'd be almost zero chance of confusion.
Now, on to the public at-large. Or however it's hyphenated. Fans
online know a heck of a lot more than your everyday schmuck. I mean,
there's organized groups of fans from everything to Jurassic Park to The
Wizard. In a lot of those fanbases, a lot of people share a lot of
opinions on much that is... shall we say, pretty obscure and in many
cases, just plain odd (I'm not saying that this is one of those cases.)
So while a lot of decisions make a lot of sense to groups of fans, some
people will look at something and just go "hunh?" In this case,
changing the name-- while a good idea and something that probably
should've been done during the THX or Special Edition releases which
brought in tons of new fans-- is going to confuse the beejeezus out of
anybody who isn't a pretty observant fan.
2 What is your position on the removal of batteries from the electronic 12" figures? Like, how long would you say it's safe to leave the batteries in for? I'm trying to keep the figures MIB, but I guess it's inevitable that one day I'm gonna have to crack 'em open to remove the batteries. Do the batteries tend to be located in the same place on all the figures? Is it possible to get to them without removing the figures from their backing cards? -John
In my opinion, a figure that has been opened for any reason is no longer
MOC/MIB, even if it was just "batteries removed." (And 99% of the
people that say "opened only to expect contents" are so full of crap
it's turning their toys brown. But I digress.)
If it's for your collection, as in your personal, private, "I ain't
gonna sell this" collection, I say either open them very carefully to
take care of business, or buy two of each, one to leave untouched by
human hands, and another for whatever evil purposes you may have.
Although if you're one of those "Oh, I plan to sell all this stuff off
in a few years anyway", just torch the stuff now and save yourself from
paying ebay fees for down the road when nobody cares.
3 Hey Adam. Where there plans at one time to include microphones with the Jah Yowza and Sy Snootles figures? They appear to be sculpted in such a way to accommodate such accessories-- Jah even looks like he's posed to hold a guitar. I seem to remember seeing prototype photos somewhere of mics, but I could be wrong. If they were planned, why would Hasbro decide against it? -Eric
Yup, and Hasbro was for it-- they're the ones that developed the
microphone for Sy Snootles and the guitar for Joh Yowza that went
ultimately unused. This is one of the cases where somebody--
presumably LucasFilm-- looked at it and said "well, these weren't in the
movies" (which does happen sometimes, even in the world of mini-rigs and
such.) So they dumped 'em. I wish they left 'em in, myself, because
Sy Snootles really needs a mic.
4
You OPENED a TOY??? Dear God Man, how can you live with yourself?
How will you afford to put your kids through college and get that new
house now? Cripes. Well, I hope you're happy.
The very first batch(es) of Lightsabers on the 12" line were glued
together, but as time went on, the hilts were not glued to the sabers.
I don't remember if Bespin Luke came in both versions or not, but since
it's unpackaged, I guess it's a moot point anyway.
5 Have you ever wondered about Obiwan's comment in Star Wars, "only Stormtroopers are that accurate" looking at the killed Jawas. -John
Congratulations, you're the first person to ever bring this up.
6
From what I can tell, the Hasbro-produced plush Watto and Jar Jar never
shipped outside of FAO stores. They're pretty nice, and packaged
similarly to the bigger Ewoks back from ROTJ's days, and yes, I'd say
they're well worth a look if you're looking to increase your E1
stashes.
7
Sort of. I've been looking for a cheap Mos Espa Podrace Lego set
(still haven't snagged me one of those) and used a few myself. And the
result? Not worth trying, or even mentioning. You're best off
checking each store yourself, especially since the engines typically
feature zero or incorrect info on in-stock-ness. (New word, folks!
Dial up Mr. Webster, I'll be famous!)
And keep in mind these sites only monitor Amazon, TRU, and Kay-Bee.
The big guys. You'll still need to check out Entertainment Earth, DNS
Toys, and others on your own.
8
Thanks Philip!
9
Unfortunately, I have heard of no Lucas-related Toys McCoy releases
beyond the two (Indy & the Horse), or any Indy toys of any sort from
anybody. I doubt they'll do more, but I do know that given the chance,
I'd probably find a way to raise some money to score one of those Indy
dolls if they became available again. (Heck, I'd buy Henry Sr. in a
second. No plans to do it as far as I know, though.)
10
I have no doubt in my mind that Hasbro will have separate Episode II
assortments when the big day comes to release figures on a new movie
that won't sell. (Except for the new version of Boba Fett, which, no
matter how cool it is, will probably be complained over for months.)
I'd be really surprised if the Power of the Jedi layout remained
unchanged until 2002. So far, the longest Hasbro has gone without
making significant changes to the packaging has been about a year and a
half. Orange carded POTF2 figures debuted in July/August of 1995, and
the first greenies showed up in late 1996. Red carded Episode One
figures lasted about a year, ditto with Freeze Frames and the typical
green carded figures.
So if we don't see redesigned cardbacks before November of 2001, I'd
probably have some sort of heart-failure related to surprise.
Nah...
FIN If I get enough questions, there'll be a Friday update. Otherwise, it might not be up until Monday. So, see ya soon!
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