Clone Trooper (MH11) - Hasbro - Star Wars [The Phantom Menace 3D] (2012)
Star Wars Collectible News, Photos, and Reviews

Hasbro's Questions & Answers #78

Posted by Chuck | October 23, 2009 at 04:07 PM ET

It's Q&A time again! Hasbro gives us a rather lengthy answer to one question, and a really short one to another! Click here to find out what they are!

Our Questions... Hasbro's Answers!

Don't forget, you can submit questions in our forums and we'll try to get as many as possible submitted to Hasbro. We can send only three questions per week, so make sure they are good ones! Now, on to this weeks Questions and Answers directly from Hasbro.


Q. You have made it evident that sales of the main Legacy figures just aren’t at the same levels from years ago. And while you have assured us that the line is still healthy, it makes us wonder a few things. The Legacy figures are still nearly impossible to find. How can you meet and exceed numbers if they aren’t in stores to sell? And when we ask retail why the figures aren’t in the stores, they blame you. In turn, we go back to you and you say stores are ordering less. There is this incessant circular blame that is leaving the kids and collectors out in the cold. We want the opportunity to purchase them, please give it to us! Along the same lines, we were curious to know if perhaps you have considered the packaging as a direct cause for lack of sales. While this may initially seem silly to you, we hope that you can carefully ponder and admit that the blue TLC line look was anything but exciting. We are sure that Gargan would have sold a whole lot better were she on an OTC/VOTC type card (being that she was one of the original vintage candidates). Figures just look so much more awesome on the silver and black line look. Can you please defend your position with Lucasfilm that a vintage feel is the only way to go with our beloved Star Wars action figures (or an extrapolation of it at least). The 30th Anniversary Collection, Original Trilogy Collection (which you had confirmed exceeded expectations and they were all old POTF2 figures for the most part!) and The Saga Collection had the best packaging yet! We miss that look terribly!

A. You have asked a few questions here, so we'll take them in order.  What you see on an individual store level isn't representative of what's happening at a national level.  The way that replenishment should work, since it's all automated, is that when inventory gets low an order gets triggered to send more of that assortment to the stores, either from the retail distribution centers or a new order from Hasbro. Trust us, we have staggering quantities of Droid Factory figures that we are unable to get to stores because of the quantity of figures still in the channel; we are not holding back and in fact doing everything we can to get the new waves out (including a recent pullback of unmoving figures to help us"recalibrate" the brand).  All new waves can always be found through online retailers; if you can't find them at retail near you there are other ways to get figures, and they count the same for us either way. It's certainly possible that some stores get "stuck" but we do not have a way of seeing that other than fans sending us store numbers to check out (which does happen...please tell us about the Wal-Mart and Target stores in question, with store numbers). As for the line look, we take our cue from the direction Lucasfilm has given us as they create the line (we do consult, but ultimately do not decide on the line look). Your comments on preference for the Vintage/Saga/30th line is noted; we certainly know that these were popular lines with collectors. All things being equal since they all had the same line look, Clone Wars and Saga Legends flew while the Legacy/Droid Factory struggled and continues to do so (as have all other assortments with a more narrow collector focus like Evolutions, Comic Packs, and many exclusives).  Our collectors have been hit hard by the economic issues, and we are doing our best to find the new baseline (critical for calling figures such as Willrow Hood), streamline the range so more fans can reasonably afford to collect everything in a year, and look toward key touch points for collectors to re-engage.  It's been a tough year for our collector base overall, and hope that we can reward those who have stuck with us with some outstanding figures and vehicles, and lure back those who may be on the sidelines with an incredibly tempting lineup next year and on into the future. Stay tuned!

Q. Since the introduction of the larger X-Wing that was based on the POTF2 Power FX X-Wing, we've gotten exclusive versions of Red Leader's X-Wing, Luke's ship and most recently Wedge's Red 2. 

But what about some of the notable pilots who don't have their own ships are Biggs Darklighter (Red 3), Jek Porkins (Red 6), Theron Nett (Red 10), Dutch Vander (Gold Leader) or Davish "Pops" Krail (Gold 5)?  All of these pilots have significant dialogue and something of a following in the collecting community.  Is it possible that we might see some of these pilots presented in exclusive form with their ships?  And if so, are there any hints?  Are we "stay(ing) on target"?

A. Great question - we love this iconic ship ourselves and our long-term dream would be to see the entire Red squadron as you outline.  However, we have to be careful about how many we put out and how fast.  There is no large X-Wing planned for 2010, but our 2011 exclusives plan has yet to be crafted and we will look at the next X-Wing opportunity for then. meanwhile, make sure that you show support for this Fall's exclusive to ensure that retailers know demand is high for another.

Q. Captain Needa is an excellently designed action figure, save for one SNAFU. We understand your logic to have removable rank badges become universal. But is their any way you can revisit this and make it so that it isn’t so “plug like” and bulky? Perhaps you can just create a bevel on the chest of the figure where another think piece of plastic (the badge) can be laid and glued in place. The new convention just doesn’t work and while we are thankful you have given thought to the different ranks, we hope you can find a better way of doing so. Thank you for your ingenuity and care to improve the figures. It is so much appreciated, but we feel that this can be much improved.

A. Thanks for the comment.  We'll take a look to see if this can be refined for future releases.


Check back in a few weeks and we'll post the next round of Questions (and answers) as soon as Hasbro offers them.

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