As part of Hasbro's bi-weekly Q&A session, Rebelscum passed on 3 of your burning questions and now we've got the answers for you.
Rebelscum: We know that playsets are not in the cards right now, due to cost restraints and such. But, now that I think about it, I don't really want a playset in the traditional sense. What I want, and perhaps I'm not alone, is a display set of some kind. I want something that allows me to display my figures in various locations on the Death Star. Perhaps a better Carbon Freezing Chamber, or a Bespin Gantry where Luke and Vader can be posed. I want a great backdrop of Mustafar, or Geonosis for my figures to be displayed on.
Maybe something along the lines of the vintage Land of the Jawas, Land of Hoth, or the Rebel Base playsets. These were not much more than plastic stands with a cardboard backdrop, but I think modern versions could be cool. Imagine taking the Land of the Jawas set, turning it into a Mustafar background with lava river and embankment instead of desert sand.Hasbro: You have captured, my friend, the very crux of the problem. What you have described is uninteresting from a kid perespective ("passive" vs active action play), which puts us in the range of high-tooling/low return (i.e. extremely high risk). While some vocal collectors are imploring us to pursue this (we can hear the chorus of voices.."Take the risk!"), the market data suggests, and Hasbro management knows, that products like this that narrowly focus on one audience will not succeed and thus they will not take hold. Until we identify those ideas that we are confident can satisfy both markets, we won't be looking at playsets/displays/dioramas.
Rebelscum: With all the Clone Trooper figures being released, there's a significant shortage of rifles among my clone armies. Especially for AOTC Phase I Clone Troopers, who carried rifles, not blasters, yet they are always packed with blasters (why is that, anyway?) Has Hasbro considered a clone trooper weapons pack with rifles, binoculars, new pistol and rifle sculpts (ARC Trooper pistols and sniper rifles maybe?) and perhaps gunship turrets? And will the Saga Legends clones (all colors) fix this recurring error?Hasbro: This is a good comment that we've heard from many different avenues, and we'll look at it. It's unlikely we'll do the ball turret in something like this venue, though.
Rebelscum: General Grievous' Starfighter. There's a LEGO version (not your thing, I know), there's a Titanium Series version, but no action figure version? This is one vehicle that seems to fit into your desired starfighter-scale assortment that actually had some significant screen time in ROTS...so how about making it for action figures? Hasbro: It's a cool design and on "the short list" for vehicles we could do next if there's an opportunity and we can fit it in among our priorities. There's a good chance that if it's in the animation, we'll be taking a hard look at it.
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Star Wars questions you need answered straight from the source? If so, post your questions in
this thread in our forums, and with any luck, you'll get your answers next week!
