Hasbro's Questions & Answers #76

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. A question on Star Wars TV characters: In a previous Q&A session you indicated that some of the unique Holiday Special cantina aliens like the Y'bith and the early Nikto could someday be made into action figures. I personally think this would be a great idea since they had a really nice character design and would fit in seamlessly with the Episode IV cantina figures. I hope these guys really do have a shot. But what I'm really wondering is if there will ever be any new figures based on the Ewok movies, Ewoks cartoon or Droids cartoon (beyond the awesome new Boba Fett and BL-17 of course!) It would be an absolute shame if you didn't at least give it a try. At least for the cartoon series characters, couldn't the the idea of a figure two pack with an episode on a DVD be tried? Apparently there was an issue with rights to the cartoons when the DVD's were still in distribution, so this couldn't be done in the past. Perhaps the situation has changed now since the DVD's have been off the market for a few years?

A. The characters from the cartoon short in the Star Wars Holiday Special are not necessarily off limits (as we have seen with Boba Fett), but the forgettable special and the live action TV characters who appear therein will not be produced in toy form (sorry, Ackmena).  As for live acion Ewoks, they are not off limits but we just have not felt compelled to go there yet.  The cartoon Ewoks and Droids are a different story; Lucasfilm has OK'd that they are OK to do, but they'd have to be produced in an animated storyline (not realistic) which means that they would require extensive new tooling, far more than would make sense for this niche entertainment interest.  As a result, we've decided to skip any more characters from these series and focus our figure slots on the movies and more prominent EU sources.

Q. Is there anything that can be done to ensure that battle-damage or dirty markings are included more often with our action figures again? While we don’t know everyone’s opinion on this, we do hear clamoring that many collectors would like to see these “dirtied” figures in lieu of extra accessories (and even the big missile-firing ones). It is such a shame sometimes to get a beautifully sculpted clone trooper (for example) that is bright white, especially when he appears dirty and banged up in The Clone Wars TV show. We are sure that something could be done to save cost somewhere else and give us the beautiful paint application back that our figures once had. The same is true for the Sandtrooper and Dewback WAL*MART exclusive. Are we really getting a clean Sandtrooper? Please say it isn’t so! Where are the amazing paint ops as seen on the Evolutions Sandtrooper? We need this back, give us less plastic parts and more art please!

A. We made the decision to go clean with the troopers because of the extraordinary cost our factories were asking to actually put that "ditry" deco on.  The cost-cutting elsewhere to be able to add these paint opps is very large, and we did not feel the sacrifice was worth it.  Same issue came up with the Sandtrooper, and we elected to keep the parts the set came with rather than cut elsewhere.

Q. The new AT-ST looks fantastic!  And the demos at Comic Con really helped this vehicle shine.  It seems perfect.  But the driver that's packed in looks frankly, a little lonely in that new, spacious cockpit.  We have not had an AT-ST Driver in the basic figure line (with the exception of Han Solo in his AT-ST Driver disguise) since the POTF2 days.  Can we expect a new AT-ST driver in the near term?  Or perhaps some AT-ST hijacking Ewoks?  If my memory serves me correct, they're named Widdle and Oochee.

A. Glad you like the new AT-ST!  It sure turned out fantastic, in our opinion.  Yes, there are plans for all of these figures next year.  The AT-ST driver should be out by the end of next year as a basic figure, while the Ewoks have yet to be confirmed but will likely be part of an exclusive pack.

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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