Q&A With JTA: Our Thirty-Second Column!
Date: December 18, 2011 at 09:01 PM ET
Topic: Q&A of the Day


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

Hot Topics: Savage Opress, Darth Maul and the fate of The Clone Wars line (again)!



Q&A With JTA: Our Thirty-Second Column!

featuring Paul Harrison

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

1. Do you think the upcoming [now available] The Vintage Collection Darth Maul will be the definitive modern update to Darth Maul? (Jeff)

JTA: Yes! (And no.) The verdict is out on just what this Darth Maul figure will be as far as articulation is concerned. And it's fabulous news for everyone! Both our friends at Rebelscum.com and Yakface.com published reports/reviews on this very exciting figure. It rocks as far as articulation is concerened. The long overdue to-be-updated swivel elbows are now history and upgraded with ball-jointed articulation. But perhaps even better than that update is the new ball-jointed hips. This new Darth Maul will be able to do anything you "ask" it to do and that excites me greatly. Some are disappointed in the head sculpt, particularly in the horns. I have to side with those that feel that way. If you've noticed, it's been Hasbro's historical behavior to do so much to a figure and then leave out an important "decorative" detail out or rush through it. Remember 2009's LC Clone Commander Cody? The prototype on the convention floor at SDCC showed the figure with a beautiful paint job below the waist. But this awesome detail never made it to the final figure. I am sure something similar happened with Darth Maul, hence the muddy paint job on the horns. Hasbro has good intentions with so many of their figures, but it seems that these ideas become cost-prohibitive by the time they go into production sadly.

2. Hey Paul - I am relatively new to the site, found you guys in a Google search and let me first say that I am so happy I found you. I love how JTA organizes Hasbro collections by how the line looks change. This is very helpful to collectors who remember how an item is packaged. On some other sites I visit they have it all lumped together and I have a hard time finding what I need. Do you plan to continue this trend and how do you think you will handle the new line looks hitting in January? (Jose)

JTA: We are glad you found us Jose! We are archivists here and are quite anal-retentive with how we organize stuff. (Our closest friends even make fun of us.) I think it's a little too micro-managed to have three separate categories for The Clone Wars line already (with a potential fourth and maybe fifth change coming), but it does clearly delineate when something was released in the line. The new The Phantom Menace 3D line is giving us great diffiuclty at the moment. We think it's important to keep The Clone Wars line a separate entity like the last three line looks, but for the first time, hasbro is treating this and the Movie Heroes as two distinct assortments in The Phantom Menace 3D "banner". What happened to the days of The Saga Collection or The Legacy Collection? That made things very simple for people like us. We will continue to keep line look changes separately from each other, but at this moment we're exactly unsure how we're going to catalogue the 2012 lines. (Obviously The Vintage Collection will continue as is. Thank goodness Hasbro didn'treset the numbering on these. That has made things easier for sure.)

3. Hey Paul, great work on the site and the reviews, as always. I had a couple of questions about The Phantom Menace figures. I chanced upon The Phantom Menace wave of The Vintage Collection at Target and got my hands on the battle droid which, sadly, lacks the elbow and wrist articulation necessary to pose it in the battle droid's most familiar pose from all the films (both hands on its rifle). This has been a problem with all previous battle droid figures too. Do you think Hasbro might update this, or is this basically "the" definitive battle droid figure we're going to get? Finally, I was surprised to see Ric Olie made into an action figure but not Captain Panaka, a figure long overdue for an update, in my opinion. Think we might see him in a future wave, or do you suppose this will be it for The Phantom Menace figures in The Vintage Collection? Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this. (Jacek)

JTA: Similar questions have been brought up to Hasbro about the new Battle Droid's future and the tweaking to fix things that aren't perfect with it. Hasbro has stated very confidently that this is the Battle Droid they will be using here on out and don't have nay plans to tweak it further. Let's be honest. They should be proud of this sculpt. It's almost perfect and can transform into their storage mode very realistically. That is an accomplishment in and of itself. They've already fixes the painted on eyes and I believe that's all they're concerned about for the moment. I would love to see swivel wrists to help achieve the pose you are talking about, but I also see their point that this Battle Droid is as close to their vision as possible (for the moment). Anything can change however. I never thought they would add swivel wrists to General Grievous when he got released in The Vintage Collection, so that surprised me a lot. I am sure the same convention can be easily applied to the Battle Droid as well. (And let me be clear that I would love to see this additional articulation applied - you have a great idea here.)

I too am VERY surprised that Captain Panaka was not a first choice for Hasbro to bring into The Vintage Collection. But I do think that Ric Olie is another important choice and glad to see him getting reinvented to super-articulated status. We all just need a little bit of patience for Captain Panaka, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he is one of the next The Phantom Menace characters coming out after the 2012 relaunch.

4. I was wondering if you could give more insight on why you think the armored version of Savage Opress is better than the shirtless version. They both come without ball-jointed ankles so that is a deal breaker for me on either version. (Pete)

JTA: This simple question warrants a simple response. Read our review of the shirtless version of Savage Opress (CW55) HERE and the armored version of Savage Opress (CW59) HERE. In summary, the armored version of Savage Oppress has a stunning paint job in the face. The shirtless version is too bright yellow and looks fake to me. The armored version has a closed mouth, the shirtless version is snarling. There are other points, but please read our reviews for all of the details. As far as your comment about ball-jointed ankles, well, I can't cast my pearls before you if you are unwilling to appreciate an awesome action figure because you don't like that it doesn't have ball-jointed ankles. The armored Savage Opress is an incredible action figures and is absolutely one of our most favorite action figures in the entire The Clone Wars line. You'll soon find out that you'll be passing on many masterpieces if you must have ball-jointed ankles. They aren't a priority for Hasbro and not needed on many action figures. The armored version of Savage Opress briefly appeared as early as August, but didn't start showing up again until December of this year. You should be able to find plenty of him in the wild now. Don't miss out!

5. As The Clone Wars episodes seem to get better in animation and visual so go the episodes. The episode come out week after week and there are many new character introduced and created into the Clone Wars television show. As the Mon Cala, Citadel, Mortis, Geonosis, Nigthsister, Mandalore, Umbara, Boba Fett, Ryloth, Zygerrian Slavers story Arcs are show we get a lot more different characters from the Arcs (eg. Riff Tamson, Osi Sobeck, Father, Daughter, Son, Poggle, Talzin, Satine, Krell, Killian, Republic Commandos and Dats D'Nar etc. Just to name a few) Will the major character of the great Arcs of the Clone Wars be transformed into their plastic cousins? Or only the ones that would be easier to make in figures? (Damian)

JTA: I doubt Hasbro has any of these characters on tap for The Clone Wars line any time soon. The Clone Wars line is pretty pitiful for 2012 with only 19 figures coming, half of which are straight repacks. Perhaps by 2012's SDCC Hasbro will have some good news for The Clone Wars fans as the Fall 2012 season begins. I hope there is some new revitalization in the line, because I persoanlly have grown fond of it now and I am quite disappointed by Hasbro's apparent lack of interest in the line. They are CRAZY to focus on the Movie Heroes line. That line is going to die a quick and grim death. I fear they have all of their eggs in that one basket. We will continue to let Hasbro know of your interest in these characters however. Cross your fingers.

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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