The Plight Of The Clone Wars Line

Ever since NY Comic Con, fans of The Clone Wars line have been perplexed (and stressed) by Hasbro’s announcement that there would be a total of 19 figures released under The Clone Wars banner for 2012. JTA spoke with Hasbro about the plans for the line in the future. Sadly, the answers we got will be interpreted bleakly by fans. If you’re interested to learn more of what they said, then click through.

19 figure in The Clone Wars line? Surely Hasbro was incorrect? Sadly, Hasbro WAS correct. Let’s not burst your bubble right away. There is a lot to be ecstatic over this year! The Toy Fair Hasbro presentation was one of the best we can personally recall in recent history. Lovers of the original vintage line were essentially salivating uncontrollably because of all of the confirmed updates to characters we haven’t seen in the modern line for over a decade (and many first time modern updates like Lumat and Nikto). The focus of the Star Wars toy line often shifts depending upon what multimedia event is occurring at the time. As a result, we have to accept that the product that gets released must support it. If you are a movie only collector, you know that for almost the last half decade Hasbro have given some fantastic basic figures and exclusives from both the Prequel Trilogy and Original Trilogy, but there was an undeniable focus on The Clone Wars television show. It was a tough period of time for these types of collectors. It may have been unacceptable for many, but others with a bit more understanding of why this was necessary were less vocal and tried to find the positivity in it all. While much of the Star Wars line between 2008 through 2011 may not have been exactly “your time,” (for movie collectors) – things are looking up for you. But now another sub-group of collectors have reasons to be jaded.

First and foremost (and we’re going to rip off the band aid quickly), The Clone Wars line is absolutely on the back burner. And this will be the state of the line for the next six years (until all films have been released in 3D – unless that plan will change in the future – like the cancellation of them due to poor attendance). Back burner does NOT mean dead in the water, but the plans have been revisited so that proper tooling dollars can support the multimedia happening now. The fact of the matter is that STAR WARS is back in the theaters for many years, and Hasbro NEEDS this publicity to make the most of their basic figure lines. This will afford the opportunity to release all-new “big” vehicles into the line, or update other already established large vehicles and repaint them to make them specific to the films. And of course it forces Hasbro to release incredible updates to figures we haven’t seen on shelves in years. Like it or not, it is what it is. We spoke with Hasbro about this. If you recall, many of you had many questions about the status of The Clone Wars line and if Hasbro has plans to release figure x, y or z. We thought it would honestly be a waste of time to ask about specific characters and ask more general ones.... and we made a good decision. We asked some, but looked for general answers for the rest. Here is what Hasbro had to relay to us.

The Clone Wars line will be an important part of the Star Wars line for the next 6 years, but it will function more like a “sub-line” than a “main line”. (This is exactly what we believed the reason for the lack in figures for 2012.) But new action figures (as well as the obligatory repacks) will continue to be released each year. Characters from The Clone Wars line will also show up in exclusives and multipacks, but again, in a reduced scale. Hasbro confirmed with us that the television show has been hit by a reduction in ratings the last few years, and yes, it does effect how much time and tooling ultimately gets allotted for The Clone Wars toy line. This is terribly sad because Hasbro admitted, after our comment to them, that some of the greatest moments are happening in the television show this season.) Hasbro is going to be strict on which characters they will be releasing since the slots will obviously be filling up quickly since the amount of figures have been drastically capped. They will also rerelease some of the “rarer” figures to help meet demand, but figures like 2011’s TCW Ahsoka (CW44), 2010’s TCW Darth Sidious (CW45) and others will basically “NOT” be released... at least no time in the future that can be seen from now. They admit that the amount of figures in those assortments just didn’t go out as they had hoped (number-wise), but there are so many other figures that appeal to a broader audience that they need to get out first. (We didn’t entirely agree with them – feel free to disagree too.)

We can basically expect an average of 20 The Clone Wars figures each year. That number is terribly light in our own estimation. And we have commented for the last one and a half years that collectors who would never even give the line a chance has fully embraced it and actively collecting them now. Perhaps this is what happens when Star Wars fans don’t support a multimedia event like The Clone Wars. We’re sure many of us DVR stuff and that doesn’t count in the ratings, but there are a lot of factors. We know this won’t sit well with The Clone Wars collectors. But we have to tell you, this is exactly how “older” collectors felt when Hasbro ignored so much of the Original Trilogy during the years of the Prequel Trilogy. There may be some light at the ends of the tunnel here. Hasbro has hinted to us that they have some incredible figures on tap for the next year. We believe them when they said that they are going to discriminate which characters will make for the best releases. We’ll encourage you to keep your collective chins up and continue to support the line as it is. Don’t give up because ANYTHING can change on a dime in this hobby. Maybe change your focus for the time being, or something else, but we do believe good things are in store for us.

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