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Q&A With JTA: Our Twenty-Seventh Column!

Posted by Paul | September 05, 2011 at 08:52 PM ET

Q&A With JTA continues! Click through to access the Q&A database with our latest batch of questions!

Q&A with JTA

Hot Topics: Misdirected anger, Luke Skywalker's Tauntaun and The Clone Wars wave order confusion

Q&A With JTA: Our Twenty-Seventh Column!

featuring Paul Harrison

We always need your questions! Please e-mail them to [email protected]. Thank you!

1. I'm new to your site, so I apologize if I should be directing my comment to someone else. If so, I humbly ask that you pass this on to the right person.

I was reading through your prior posts from your Archives Index, and I was really suprised at the amount of responses that came in on the various posts perstaining to the Revenge of the Jedi SDCC Death Star Exclusive. There are a lot of angry people out there who couldn't seem to get their hands on it, and all that anger seems focused directly at Hasbro. I feel this anger is misdirected.

There's a much larger problem here in my humble opinion, and to see it one need only look as far as eBay where the simple imput of the words "Star Wars Death Star SDCC" will produce a listing of over 40 auctions where this item is available. Click on "Completed Auctions," and you'll be shown over one hundred listings for this item which have been sold just in the past thirty days. So who's really at fault here? Hasbro, or the people who bought this item with the sole intentions of selling it on the secondary market for an inflated price?

Maybe it's just me, but I think that this anger from fans who were unable to get their hands on this set needs to be directed to the scalpers, not Hasbro. This problem goes beyond the exclusive items. As someone who worked at Toys R' Us during the late 90s I can personally attest to the fact that you simply cannot stock the action figure aisle fast enough because there are always one or two people who arrive at the store the minute it opens, and clean out the isle of everythnig new.

As a collector myself I fully understand the frustration that other collector's go through on a daily basis. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into a store in search of something only to walk out empty handed. But, please, educate your readers. Hasbro may be at fault for not producing toys fast enough or in high enough quanities, but lets not forget that this wouldn't be a problem if people looking soley to make a profit off of toys would stay out of the toy aisles. (Matt F.)

JTA: Thank you for being a new reader to our site. We hope that you find Jedi Temple Archives a valuable resource to your collecting needs. It is our first and foremost goal to provide a quality site for our readers.

I actually do agree with many of your points. There indeed has been an unhealthy amount of misdirected anger. But I don’t think Hasbro is completely in the clear. There are many issues that have created the “torch wielding villagers” mentality in the collecting community. Frustration has stemmed anywhere from the seemingly reduced production on this particular set to numbering Salacious Crumb and Mouse Droid as part of basic The Vintage Collection line when they’re only available in this set. (This drives completists, including myself, INSANE.) While there are multiple completed auctions online for this item, it is a small number when compared to the actual number of Star Wars collectors that actually exist. One or two hundred isn’t truly representative of that. Heck, we get a couple thousand readers a day to our site and we’re nothing in comparison to the popularity of eBay. (I am just trying to offer some perspective on who is actually doing what is all.) I do agree that Star Wars collectors should, no matter how frustrating, refrain from participating in buying the Revenge Of The Jedi set on eBay (as well as other inflated prices online). This is only showing scalpers that we still need instant gratification. Why anyone is bidding on this is beyond me. We still haven’t heard Hasbro’s response on what they’re going to do with it yet? (Maybe they’ll make another batch, who knows? Yeah, I know, improbable.)

And let's talk about scalpers. Readers are also frustrated that they got their hands on them. (I can pretty much assure you our readers are definitely not participating in the eBay auctions.) We have posted a link one time to an eBay auction for Wedge Antilles once and our reading population in general was horrified by what some people will spend on an item. So to that extent, yes, we as collectors need to be accountable for our actions. (But again, I don’t think the couple hundred people bidding on these items represent the behavior of the collecting community.) I would also like to state that I don’t even think we can wholly blame scalpers. Scalpers are the scourge of the earth and only live to gouge people. We as collectors need to stop supporting any of it. If we stop supporting the scalping, they will go away. And in general I think scalping has been hit hard by collectors' unwillingness to support their practice. There will always be exceptions. For example, I feel many parents who need to get their "prince" or "princess" that one Star Wars item they want will buy it at any cost too. I have witnessed that myself. That’s a problem as well. Do you remember Tickle Me Elmo and Zhu Zhu Pets? (It’s gonna be a crappy Christmas for my perfect baby if I don’t get that item for him/her!) And they'll pay any price to get it. Of course I am being a little sarcastic here, but hopefully you catch my drift.

I would like to add one other point. I am not sure how long you’ve been collecting. I would assume a while because you sound very seasoned. But I have been collecting the modern line since the very beginning in 1995. I have never seen it worse than it is now as far as product availability and frequency of product distribution. I have spoken to my my closest colleagues at other Star Wars fan sites as well about this and they have echoed my exact sentiments. For goodness sakes, where are the new The Clone Wars figures!? They should be flooding the shelves by now. But they're only popping up sporadically. We don’t know what is going on, but product just isn’t meeting demand. My personal opinion is that The Legacy Collection/Legacy Collection era nearly killed the line. Between the awful packaging, ridiculous price jumps, impossible availability and the insane EU takes on everything, many longtime collectors just up and left. And Hasbro reduced production numbers. As a result, it appears that Hasbro is still being conservative and making less product from that near death experience. Now with the huge success of The Clone Wars line and The Vintage Collection, there is a need to make product in higher numbers and Hasbro can’t keep up. At least that’s what I hope. We'll just have to remain frustrated and see what happens.

2. I check your site everyday along with two other ones and I love star wars since I was even going to school. (Being poor, I had one figure, Malakili and traded it for Return of the Jedi on vhs and got into trouble. ha ha!) Anyway, I came across this article and it seems Vader does his nooo in Return of the Jedi when he tosses the emperor and ewoks are now blinking. Here is the link, I wasn't sure if you had come across this stuff as so much news is pouring out over these releases. And to be honest, I don't know if I will buy them. I always said I'd get a blu ray player when the trilogy came out but all these changes, it isn't star wars to me anymore. My family used to call my collecting and obssession for this beloved hobby a sickness but between the toy fiasco Hasbro does every year to Lucas constantly fiddling, i think my SW cancer has gone into remission. Just wondering if am not the only one who gets burned out. Keep up the great work as I still check in to you guys. (Jonathan)

JTA: By now you must have heard that nearly all of these rumored changes are now fact as confirmed by Lucasfilm, Ltd. If this makes you decide to not by the Blu-ray discs, then more power to you. There are a ton of versions of the Star Wars films you can get your hands on that should meet your standards, including the Original Trilogy unaltered (although they're very terrible prints of the films). While I must agree that these tweaks are generally unnecessary, it is what it is and this is the way it will be from here on out. I still struggle with Jedi Rocks replacing Lapti Nek. But you know what, whenever I need to hear the Sy Snootles puppet sing instead of the CGI verison of her, I have it and can watch. This is true for everyone. I am very excited to see all six films in stunning Blu-ray quality. But I am more excited about the Original Trilogy deleted scenes (as I am sure most others are as well). I bet you'll cave at some point and want to purchase them. As I have stated, this is the way it's going to be. And to be honest, it's George's decision to release his films the way he wants whether we like it or not. That may seem like I am trying to be a pacifist, but I am not. But why fight a losing battle?



As far as burnout is concerned, yes, it happens to the best of us. It just goes along with the beast of being a huge Star Wars fan. But it never totally goes away. You'll catch the bug again soon enough.

3. I’m a massive jedi fan my favourite being Plo Koon but one thing keeps annoying me, do you think we’ll ever get a film accurate Plo koon figure complete with his unique jedi robe? Also do you think Hasbro will update the jedi council members such as Depa Billiba and Eeth Koth? Thanks! (Alexander)

JTA: Please don't hang me, but I thoroughly enjoy the Legacy Collection Plo Koon (BD45) figure very much. It definitely has some accuracy issues, but all of the important parts are nearly perfect. I agree that his removable rebreather is maddening to keep in place, but I have found a solution (glue) that keeps it perfectly fastened. And then I have taken one of my bazillion extra Jedi robes (the standard type) and placed it on Plo Koon. I gotta tell you that he looks pretty darn fine. Does this mean we don't need a revision to the Legacy Collection figure? No, I am not saying that at all, but I think Hasbro has bigger fish to fry and many more other important characters need to be visited first. I believe that version of Plo Koon is it for a while. I think Depa Billaba is a shot in the dark and definitely/probably not even remotely in Hasbro's parking lot. She doesn't have the fan base of the other Jedi. I still would liek to see her updated of course. Eeth Koth on the other hand is an extremely likely candidate. With the popularity of The Clone Wars figure verison of Eeth Koth (CW51), we will definitely see a realistic super-articulated version soon enough! He's been brought to the consciousness of the collecting community again thanks to his appearance in the television show. (That has been the pattern at least in The Clone Wars line we've noticed. Think Barriss Offee (CW50), Aayla Secura (CW40), etc.)

4. My question is has there been any news on when the VC Luke Skywalker's Taun Taun will actually be available for purchase? (Danny)

JTA: New official Hasbro photos have just surfaced this week. It's likely that we could see this as early as late September or early October, but I am banking on seeing it start to surface in September. And I will be buying a couple of them!

5. Hey Paul, I just saw your awesome update that CW wave 12 is being found at retail, but I have a huge question...where is wave 10 and wave 11 for that matter? I found wave 9 (Barriss Offee, etc) about a month ago, and now they are skipping to wave 12? I am really confused, as I'm sure many of your other readers are - what is going on? Thanks. (Toby)

JTA: Oh man! These wave numbers actually drive me insane. Not sure if you have noticed, but we are doing our darndest to organize The Clone Wars line basic figures in two ways. We've numbered them 1 through 24 (24 being the Chewbacca/Even Piell wave) and also as wave 1 through wave x under each packaging line look. (And the .5 cases you see are the revision cases that include all straight repacks.) So using that as a basis, I assume you are asking why wave 24 is being found before waves 22 and 23. I don't know. But it is obviously something tied to the ungodly distribution issues. (Remember when people were finding wave 5 of The Vintage Collection before wave 4? It's sort of the same thing here.) There have also been different regional finds as well. Some people (like us) have never seen waves 22 and 23 at retail but have found wave 24. And for others it has been vice versa. The distribution woes are nightmarish and it seems the only people not losing years off of their lives worrying about finding figures are those who are ordering them online. Hmm, that sounds like a splendid idea now, doesn't it? We'll say the same trite thing over and over again. Let's wait and see what happens in a few weeks. But it's very disheartening to wait for product to come that never does.

Are you new to Q&A With JTA? Click HERE to see our previous installments of this column. Each session is chock full of all the things you ever wanted to know about Star Wars collecting and the hobby in general!

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