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Q&A With JTA: Our Eleventh Column (It's Back!)

Posted by Paul | January 23, 2011 at 07:02 PM ET

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

Hot Topics: The Vintage Collection, super-deluxe vehicles and whiners!

 

Q&A With JTA: Our Eleventh (It's Back!) Column!

featuring Paul Harrison

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

1. Do you think that The Vintage Collection has invigorated collector interest? I am am frankly shocked to see all the whining in various forums and to be honest I am very sick of it. Each year, the line seems to get better and better, yet the whining gets "louder and louder". Why do you think this is? (Rob)

JTA: Rob, you sound like a man after my own heart. The quick answer to your questions? Entitlement. Entitlement is a debilitating disease in the collector market and until we all get ourselves in check, the complaining and whining will remain an incessant issue. And we likely will never be happy with what Hasbro brings to us until we put our "selfish" nature aside and be thankful for what they are doing for us. Does Hasbro make some odd decisions or mistakes? Absolutely! But they really do more good for us than we realize. And we need to remember that. My goodness, the Attack Of The Clones has just started to hit, but it's amazing. There is definitely a lot to be happy about in this day and age of collecting.

The Vintage Collection has absolutely brought more than just a few collectors back into the hobby and this can easily be seen with recent performance at retail! While many of us saw (or still see fragments of) the Return Of The Jedi wave at retail, it has essentially disappearead and unless Hasbro orders additional units to be made, those of you who haven't seen it yet will be sorely out of luck. You have to realize that Hasbro has been gun shy with returning to large production numbers with the perofmance of previous lines, so it will take a while for them to properly gauge how many units of each figure will be required. While it may be initially frustrating, this is a good thing because it means Hasbro will make more.

2. Your 2011: It's Down to 7 special report was just amazing. Thank you for doing that. It obviously took a long time to do and it's clear you guys are quite passionate about seeing all the vintage figures in the modern line eventually. That being said, why did you include both Ugnaughts in the comparison shot? Using that logic, you could have chosen two of many other figures to decide what is definitve. This isn't a criticism, but just one of those "got to know" questions. (Jason)

JTA: Thank you so much for your kind words Jason. It was a hit with so many readers. But we would like to acknowledge first the help we got from all of our colleagues who posted the Special Report as front page news. Our good friends at Rebelscum.com, Yakface.com, GalacticHunter.com, ImperialShipyards.net and Sandtroopers.com all posted links to our site and without them, it wouldn't have reached all of the people it did. So thank you again my good friends at these sites!

It took more time than we care to explain, but we think it paid off. Between deciding on an ideal layout and the huge photo gallery, we wanted to spice up the original report we did in 2010 to unprecedented levels. As a result, we went all out to make it really, really special. To answer your question, yes, the Ugnaught decision also perplexed us. The Special Report got a lot people buzzing in forums and the Ugnaught was one that was brought up frequently. As much as we would like to claim that we had a formula for choosing the best modern update for each candidate in the Special Report, we honestly looked at each figure separately to determine what would make the best modern update. The Legacy Collection (BD 43) and Legacy Collection (BD28) Ugnaught action figures both have parts which when combined will make an exact match for the vintage Ugnaught. We didn't want to head swap and/or part swap the figures, so we thought that by choosing both, the best of both worlds would be there for the reader to decide. I hope that's an acceptable answer.

3. Do you think the super-deluxe scaled vehicles will soon be going the way of the dinosaurs? (Peter)

JTA: By now you have probably seen the unofficial announcement for the Republic Attack Shuttle. But you probably want to know about Original Trilogy vehicles, right? If sales continue to hold on for each big vehicle Hasbro makes, then yes, we should expect this platform to continue. I personally need Hasbro to make Jabba's Sail Barge for me before I pass from this earth. I hope they are holding close to the vest as the biggest announcement for the 30th anniversary of Return Of The Jedi. That would be such a tremendous gift. It would just need to be big enough to properly fit the Jabba's Throne playset we got Fall 2010 and they could include a lot of "off-screen" play features like trap doors and tons of other things to make it interesting for both kids and collectors. It may just be wishful thinking, but it would be a dream come true for me. So as long as we keep suppoting this big vehicle line, I believe it will continue to thrive. But we have to support it.

4. Do you think there will be a day when Star Wars toys will cease to grace the toy aisle?! (Jeremiah)

JTA: No.

Star Wars is forever and if Hasbro keeps making action figures, I believe there are enough crazy people like myself out there that will continue to purchase them. Now, if all new product did cease being made and Hasbro resorted to a Saga Legends line instead, then yes, those figures would eventually get old and people would probably stop buying them. Keeping new product in the line is key to the toy line thriving. Also keep in mind that new generations of Star Wars fans are being born and it's hard to believe that this property won't be around until kingdom come. Star Wars is a quintessential property that transcends age, race, sex and culture and appeals to all people from all different sects of life. It will be a complete shock if it one day disappears in my opinion. And if it does disappear, I am sure it will be a day decades to centuries from my last day on earth.

5. Thanks for restarting the Q & A! Around these parts, the Vintage pegwarmers are the Clone Trooper (Moldtrooper) and the Sandtrooper. I can find them everywhere, some places in high numbers. Two questions from this observation - Why are they clean? Especially the sandtrooper, they should be dirty as [heck]. And why were these waves shipped in such high number, yet the ROTJ, best wave so far, was not? (Brad)

JTA: The reason you are seeing such high numbers of the Clone Trooper (VC15) and Sandtrooper (VC14) still sitting on the pegs is because they were carried forward (in very large quantities) from the 11 different case assortments of the Return Of The Jedi wave. So, the Revenge Of The Sith wave likely shipped in similar numbers to the Return Of The Jedi wave but those "repeat" figures had much more opportunity at retail because they are army builders and Hasbro loves ensuring that they keep shipping. And you'll be able to tell by closely looking at the white Clone Troopers. If they have the extra helmet detail on them then most nearly all of them are from the Return Of The Jedi wave. We admit that the Clone Trooper initially had a funky green sticky slime on it which drove us mad, but Hasbro has miraculously corrected that issue. We haven't seen green helmets in quite some time. Don't get us started on the clean paint jobs. This is one of those unacceptable things Hasbro does to the figures which really bothers us. Clone Troopers and Sandtroopers should be somewhere between dirty to filthy. Hasbro needs to find cost-effective ways to bring this back.

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