Hasbro's Questions & Answers #99

JTA: The ARC Trooper Commander (or Captain Fordo as Tartakovsky fans like to refer to him as) in The Vintage Collection is absolutely one of the most incredible action figures you have produced to date. We hope the obvious success of this figure has shown you how much we as collectors (and no doubt the kiddies) still want characters from the original Clone Wars micro-series as action figures, even if those who bought it may not be aware that a figure like that is originally from that first beloved micro-series. The release of this figure has jogged our memory about another character in the Tartakovsky Clone Wars. Quite a while back during a Q&A session more than a year ago, a fan site asked what are some of the top characters employees at HASBRO want to see realized in the basic figure line. One of the notable standout characters you selected was the Nelvaan Warrior (also from the original Clone Wars micro-series) in realistic style. Hardcore collectors (and we would bet everyone else) still want this character desperately made into an action figure. It seems like the Nelvaan Warrior is one of the few last NEEDED characters to “complete” the cast for collectors from the original Clone Wars micro-series. Since Captain Fordo was so successful, would you be able to somehow work this in a similar way into the basic figure line even despite some direction by Lucasfilm, Ltd. to avoid characters from this series? (You could call him “Blue Man” or “Wolf-like Warrior” or something silly like that to get around this direction, couldn’t you?)

Hasbro: The Nelvaan Warrior would be an extremely interesting figure to tackle. But we do not have planned because our focus remains on supporting the ongoing The Clone Wars animated series and movies.

JTA: After the official launch of The Vintage Collection in the summer of 2010, fan sites (including JTA) started asking Hasbro pretty much immediately if some of your “greatest hits of all time” could be released as carried forward figures in the new “classic” The Vintage Collection packaging. Hasbro showed a great deal of interest in this idea, but it got left somewhere on the back burner (or pushed to the side completely) and we’d like to know if we could play a part in helping to revive the idea at your headquarters. You have so many wonderful figures that desperately need rerelease in The Vintage Collection format. And with all of the incessant peg-warmers you decide to carry forward in the line (Sandtrooper, Clone Trooper, 212th Battalion Clone Trooper and Yoda are just a few) we think now is the time to go this route and get fresh “new” product on the shelves. When you release of wave of only 3-6 new figures, instead of carrying forward a Clone Trooper, Stormtrooper, Luke Skywalker or even Darth Vader, how about squeezing in The Legacy Collection’s Zuckuss, AT-AT Driver or Paploo by slapping them on a new TVC card back? You’d make collectors extremely happy and you would have three new figures out in the wild instead of peg-warmers to offer the general buying public more variety. Since The Vintage Collection is not getting any easier to find at retail, if we do have to resort to online orders, at least we’ll be getting 12 new figures instead of 3 new ones and 9 carry forward figures. Let us know if you need a complete list of figures we’d love to see repackaged in The Vintage Collection because there are a ton we’d love to see this get “vintage” treatment.

Hasbro: We sincerely appreciate the continued interest in The Vintage Collection. We understand that there are many more characters that are "due" for the Vintage treatment and fans can expect to see many of them in 2012.

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