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

Posted by Paul | May 10, 2012 at 06:38 PM ET

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

Hot Topics: Insider information on The Ultimate Action Figure Collection book (not really), The Vintage Collection's Aayla Secura, distribution woes again and again....

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

featuring Paul Harrison

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

1. If I say I am one of your biggest fans, can you please (squeal) reveal anything about the new Steve Sansweet book that you’re involved with? Can you give us anything at all? Please? Please Please? (Mike T.)

JTA: No. Flattery will get you nowhere in this particular situation. :)

I apologize for being so curt with my response, but I have been entrusted with a wonderful responsibility and I won’t do anything to jeopardize that. I will tell you what I can however.

Those involved with the book have signed very explicit contracts, nondisclosure agreements and other detailed rules about the book. I can assure you that my pal Dan Curto and I are working as hard as we can for Mr. Sansweet and we are all doing our best on our end assisting him so that we can bring the best book possible to Star Wars collectors. Meeting deadlines has been very challenging, but it has all been well worth it because what we’ve seen so far we know will impress the collecting community very much. This book is a massive undertaking and one area I have tremendously grown in is my organization skills. It will certainly help me in the future. Steve Sansweet has been an amazing mentor in this process, an energetic Star Wars zealot and he is a very humorous person and has made me laugh multiple times. It has been a pure joy working with him in this capacity. I wish I had the opportunity years ago to meet him.

I will tell you that this will be a tremendous supplement to the tools you already use to organize your Star Wars collection. And you may learn a few new tidbits of information you hadn’t known previously. Keeping the anticipation high on this book is one of the goals. So keep salivating over it because once you get it, you’re not going to want to put it down. It is simply amazing.

For you Mike, I will see if I can ask Mr. Sansweet if JTA can post something about the book exclusively. Keep checking here to see what we can (or cannot) reveal.

2. Will Hasbro ever get distribution back into a functioning status? (Bryan L.)

JTA: I don’t know. I have said this a lot lately. I am very concerned about the Star Wars toy line. Explain to me first how Hasbro reset the SKU for The Vintage Collection in January 2012, yet the only thing that has hit retail in acceptable to barely acceptable numbers is The Phantom Menace wave and the ROTJ Deleted Scenes wave (to a much lesser extent). What is most flabbergasting about this is that even though retail was inundated with the TPM wave, stock is very, very light (in most areas – there are exceptions). Even the first 12 dreaded Movie Heroes figures and the weak first waver of The Clone Wars line has moved off of shelves somewhat (to a much lesser degree of course). So if stock is lighter in many areas, where are all of the new waves of figures across all three separate lines that are hitting online etail? I am no expert in these matters, but either Hasbro has done their part and the figures are sitting in a warehouse somewhere, or Hasbro is holding back so that retail can better organize for the new stuff. I don’t know either way what’s going on so please don’t use my assumptions as fact.

In my humble (yet aggravated) opinion, I feel that we should have seen all TVC figures through the Aayla Secura wave by now. Hasbro “promised” us that and it isn’t happening (except for etail). I have been in the Philly area since June 2005 and I have never seen a worse state of affairs than right now. Before this point I could find EVERY single wave of figures. For the first time I had to resort to buying stuff at Big Bad Toy Store and other online shops because I cannot find the stuff anywhere. This is totally unacceptable. I am starting to think that maybe a store like Toys R Us should be the sole distributor of Star Wars action figures. But as part of this deal I would like to see them sign contracts with Hasbro about maintaining the MSRP, running stock check reports and in return Hasbro would come to locations and pull off dead product on a regular basis as to not disturb the replenishment process when new figures were available for purchase. As a reward for exclusively taking on the line, Hasbro should accept from Toys R Us local pre-order lists from customers in an effort to forecast how much product that store would need to meet demand. This “pre-order” information would be above and beyond what they store would get for normal everyday stock. Hasbro would also be able to gauge where on a national level product should be shipped too.

I am beginning to believe that stores like Walmart may be poisoning the Star Wars line because of their chronically horrid organization. They have no idea what they have. Ask ANY Walmart toy manager. They will tell you things are run horribly thanks to the new protocol set forth by corporate. The employees are only being done what they’re told to do. Did you know that Marshalls bought the Brain Invaders and Legacy Of Terror DVD sets directly from Walmart. What does that tell you? Hasbro shipped these out to Walmart in time for a summer 2011 release. (These sets WEREN’T stuck at Hasbro somewhere.) And they didn’t hit Marshalls until March the following year. That is egregious. It’s totally unacceptable. And I believe this is what happens to basic figures too.

3. Thank you for the great review on the new TVC Aayla Secura figure. I have to echo your sentiments on it. It’s definitely one of the greatest figure’s Hasbro has produced. I noticed from your review that you wished she came on an Attack Of The Clones card back. I think it was more desirable to have her on a Revenge Of The Sith because that is ultimately where she meets her final fate. (Mark O.)

JTA: I respect your point of view very much. I believe I have even mentioned in my review how great the card back looks with the Felucian back drop. Since Aayla Secura hardly changes (if at all) between Episode II and Episode III, I think the spirit of The Vintage Collection in general is to show the modern update against their “first issue” in the basic figure line. The historical information of Aayla Secura is a 2003 Star Wars “Saga” figure. So in my opinion, that makes her source of Revenge Of The Sith a bit perplexing. (Again, that doesn’t mean I don’t love it because I do.) Obviously Aayla Secura isn’t the only figure in the line that doesn’t refer back to her original appearance.

2011’s TVC Stormtrooper came on a The Empire Strikes Back card back first and then was reissued on both a Revenge and Return Of The Jedi card back. But the picture (and the original figure) dates back to that very special 1978 vintage Kenner figure. I would have much preferred to see the Stormtrooper (without a removable helmet first) issues on a Star Wars card back. But that’s just my opinion. We’ve just found out days before this posting that the upcoming Darth Vader (Emperor’s Wrath) will be coming on the semi-rare “Vader pointing” pose from Return Of The Jedi. This is incredible to me and I am so excited that this card back has been updated for the modern The Vintage Collection. It’s all about how a figure and its packaging can strike your fancy, and that’s how these figures have struck mine.

4. Hi Paul, great review on [the Imperial Navy Commander] figure! He is an awesome addition. However, you may want to add to the review (or let readers know) that Hasbro messed up the insignia on his sleeve-- it is actually the Republic insignia, not the Imperial insignia like it should be. Thanks, and have a great day! (Josh M.)

JTA: Thanks Josh! I was involved with someone else on a discussion about this same exact thing about 4 weeks ago and I forgot to update the review! Thank you for the reminder. Since the daily pace of the RDRs is hard to keep up with for us sometimes, we do make mistakes or overlook details like this here and there. But because our readers and just as important to this experience, we are thankful when you point things out to us to make improvements. So thank you again for your insight! An how terrible of Hasbro to make this insane mistake on a classic figure, huh?

I must give my 2 cents about this figure as well here. How in the world can this figure be short-packed (so far)? It makes me wonder if this figure will ever get the full respect it deserves. As one of the original 12 backs, this should be a peg-warmer before a rarity like it is at the moment. Oh man is it a frustrating time to be a Star Wars collector of The Vintage Collection!

5. Paul - I have really enjoyed the work you and the other do for Jedi Temple Archives. I don't always agree with every one of your perspectives, but I have to say that your passion sells it to me almost every time. I wanted to know who JTA has been influenced by and what are your favorite Star Wars fan sites. (Jeremy A.)

JTA: Hi Jeremy! Thank you for your feedback. If I have one goal here at JTA, it's for me to inspire and incite others to talk about Star Wars including everything good, the bad and ugly. I am a Star Wars fan first, then a collector second. And it's wonderful to meet other kindred spirits like yourself because just like music, Star Wars transcends race, color, gender, political affiliation and the like. It's a topic that unifies and I love being in discussions where all of those spearators don't even come into play. Star Wars is the universal language of geeks. And I love that!

I can really only speak for myself. I am a fan of many Star Wars fan sites for many different reasons. Our "sister site" SWAN is just about the best podcast your ears will ever hear. Arnie and Marjorie are close friends of JTA and they have been invaluable to our site in promotion, collaboration and a whole bunch of other things including friendship. I have been a huge and longtime fan of Adam Pawlus and Adam May (although May is on indefinite sabbatical now) from GalacticHunter.com. I believe they are two of the best writers you'd ever find on a fan site. I also started to get to know Mike Sullenger much better the last couple of years too and he is too cool for words as well.

As you probably already know, I am good friends with Dan Curto, so Rebelscum always used to be a daily stop for me. I've always read Yakface.com for years and years and shortly after joining JTA, Jayson Krebsbach and I struck up a friendship. He has been a lifesaver and we often serve as each other's editors in our respective Toyguide and RDR entries. His attention to detail is astounding and picks up things that the average Joe collector would NEVER pick up otherwise.

Someone who I don't know entirely that well but is someone whose writing I thoroughly enjoy is Chris Swanski from BanthaSkull.com. (If you read his review on Dr. Evazan, it basically echoes my sense of humor. I think his writing is brilliant.) We have started to get to know each other better the last year and if they could just clean up their potty mouths, I would be so much happier. (Love you guys!)

There are so many other sites I visit daily including Sandtroopers, JediNews.co.uk and JediDefender. There are a ton of options out there. Surf around and see who else captures your attention. There is a lot of great stuff out there!

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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