Toy Bender

This last week saw another round of nerd questions sent to Hasbro. Again, I collected some of the best and the worst here for your reading enjoyment. Remember to click on the links to give the sites where the questions came from some loving, please.

Action-Figs.com will start us off for this round:

Action-Figs.com: Now that we’ve gotten updated versions of Luke Endor, Leia Endor, and the Biker Scout, that is everybody who has ridden a Speeder Bike in ROTJ (minus Paploo if you want to get technical). While asked before, now all the other pieces are in place so it bears revisiting: can we get an updated Speeder Bike vehicle for these guys to ride on? The one used most often is nearly 25 years old and the mold’s showing its age with the legs and flaps, plus the giant incorrect handgrips and t-bar. Even more importantly, the Saga Ep 2 Speeder bike is already close enough and hasn’t seen a major rerelease - adding clear positionable stands to go with it would be the icing on the cake. So, new Speeder Bike chances?

Hasbro: Good points on the handgrips and t-bar. We like the speeder and still think it has some great future use ahead of it, but we’ll take your comments into consideration the next time we are in a position to update. Good comment on the clear stands - that too is an interesting idea to enhance displayability and we’ll look at that when we have a chance.

This is the one area that I really geek out on. I can’t believe Hasbro, one of the largest toy companies in the world, is still using the same mold for the Speederbike they did in 1983. Come on already, spend a couple of bucks. It’s the main reason I didn’t purchase the exclusive Comic-con Shadow Trooper bike. I’m not falling for it anymore, Hasbro!

In the same vein is a question from Jedi Insider. They wanted to know what they would do differently if they could make the Millennium Falcon today, instead of using the mold that’s been reused about eighty billion times.

Jedi Insider: If you had the opportunity to re-design the Millennium Falcon toy from scratch, what is one thing you would want to incorporate that was not on the original toy?

Hasbro: Hah - that’s a great question. While there were a variety of responses from our team when questioned, the #1 answer seems to be room in the cockpit to fit four figures and actual smuggling compartments. Sorry, that’s two things, but we can always dream, can’t we?

I love this question from Galactic Hunter, because it’s so lame.

Galactic Hunter: With all the talk lately in Q&As about lost tooling preventing the reproduction of older toys, I was wondering if that is the real reason we’ve never seen a re-release of the TPM Eopie creature? If the production tooling still exists, then is there any hope for seeing this creature repacked at some point in the future since it was never widely distributed back in 2000? It seems like an ideal choice for the centerpiece of a TPM or ROTS Battle Pack. Given the difficulty and expense some collectors went through in getting the original release and the continued demand for this product (currently averaging at $40-60 on auction sites), the Eopie would be a sure winner on toy shelves if you ever released it again. (From “shabbyblue”)

Hasbro: The tooling certainly exists. While we have other ideas ahead of it, we wouldn’t rule out the Battle Pack possibility at some point in the future.

You know why they haven’t made an Eopie yet? BECAUSE IT’S A STUPID CREATURE FROM A STUPID MOVIE!

This question is from German Star Wars collector’s site 4-Inches.de, which would explain why it barely makes any sense:

4-Inches.de: Could you possibly decide to overthink your managing-concept that goes with the battle packs assortment? It really is a nice assortment concept that provides sufficiant possibilities for realising figures or accessories that would not run with a basic figure card, that combines former concepts like the cinema scenes, deluxe and ultra figures or screen scenes, that we loved very much. And at the same time battle packs allows you to resell existing figures again and perhaps again and again. As you stated in former q&a sessions you manage them double tracked, either compiling existing figures in a more children perspective or combining repainted or kit-bashed figures with some new big accessory that would be more collector-related. The most battle packs in the recent past seems to be straight repacks but with their theme specificity offer quite a range of possibilities to do them in a collector-related way. For an example the Betrayal on Bespin Battle Pack would have been a nice opportunity to releasing some environmental accessories like the dinner table and chairs that are just hinted with the cardboard realisation. Another examples would be the Jedi vs. Darth Sidious Battle Pack with its just hinted statues and so on. We all agree that those environmental accessories never would be realised in other ways. I know that this suggestion implicates more plastic and more production costs but it similarly would be another inducement for collectors to buy those Battle Packs like children will do. Could you think about this to come to a conclusion that allows more than just two options, not just beeing children- or collector-related but beeing something in between that anyhow holds costs balanced?

Hasbro: Short answer is that we are looking into some things to continue our periodic exploration in this area (like we did for the Senate Pod in that battle pack). Our current strategy has been working very well so we plan to continue that for the most part. We will be looking at some ideas that you suggest for collector-based environmental pieces; the challenge is that for the most part the items, as you suggest, are not particularly integral to the scenes or uniquely identifiable with Star Wars, and thus, not as appealing to the general fan as other things are. We will look for opportunities to do the more recognizable, and uniquely Star Wars, scenic elements as we can justify them in the line.

Hasbro’s answer should have been, “…what?”

Hasbro decides to go super brief to this clone related question from swCollector.com:

swCollector: Are there any plans to make ARC Troopers in their phase II armor? Fordo appeared in the later part of the Clone Wars animated series in his new armor, as well as Alpha had appeared in the comics in his new armor. With the popularity of clones it just seems like a good chance to make some popular figures.

Hasbro: We have not looked at this, but we’ll give it a closer look. Thanks.

How… insightful.

I can’t believe Yoda’s News expected any kind of real answer from this question:

Yoda’s News: Has Hasbro been given access to upcoming Star Wars projects, like the new tv shows, to begin working on products that will be released when the projects debut? Any tidbits of information that you can share, if so?

Hasbro: Lucasfilm shares with us information as it becomes available to help our development of toys so we can be there when the series launches and match the toyetic experience to the on-screen experience as much as possible.

However, entertainment news is not ours to break so, as much as we might like to, we can’t share any tidbits.

By the way, Hasbro is now making up words and you better like it, because “toyetic” is here to stay!

Boba’s Bounty had a good Indiana Jones question:

Boba’s Bounty: 2. I believe you previewed a 12″ Indiana Jones figure at SDCC. Are both Hasbro and Sideshow Collectibles going to make 12″ Indy figures or will there be an arrangement similar to the 12″ Star Wars figures which Sideshow produces?

Hasbro: While Sideshow produces 12″ figures under sub-license from us, they have a separate arrangement with Lucasfilm on Indy.

Yakface.com had an Indiana Jones question that had a pretty revealing answer:

Yakface: Now that the Indiana Jones figures have been confirmed and a few revealed at Comic-Con (which look great by the way, I’m extremely excited). Will you be accepting any questions about this line in future Q&A sessions as well?

I know it’s the Star Wars Q&A, but SW and Indy have always gone hand- in-hand down through the years, and since they’re being worked on by the same team, I’m hoping you’d be willing to field a few questions about this exciting new line.

IF so, let me attempt to be the first by asking whether or not the “vintage” playsets will get an update (Well of the Souls, Streets of Cairo, Map Room) as well as vehicles (German army truck w/ Ark crate). The flying wing with shredible German Mechanic would also be a cool new addition.

Finally, IF the playsets and vehicles get an update, will they utilize the molds from the vintage toys like many of the current Star Wars vehicles or would they be all new sculpts?

Hasbro: Yes, Indy questions can be sent to the same address here, and since it’s the same team bringing you the IJ excitement, we can answer. The answer to playsets is about the same as you might expect from Star Wars - It’s a been a struggle so we are adopting a wait and see attitude on them and seeing where our figure/vehicle demand nets out first before going too far in the playset direction. The cargo truck is a definite probability for 3-3/4″, but the wing is tough because it really is a big one. One thing that is known is that NONE of the original Indy tools exist anymore, so we will not be going back to the vintage tools.

That’s extremely disappointing that the old Indy tools no longer exist, but the possibility of any sort of vehicle is exciting. I’d kill for the flying wing. KILL!

Now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Ultra-Geeky Award^TM. This time we’ve got a bit of an upset and Sir Steve’s guide two time winning streak is beaten by the forum of Sandtroopers.com.

Sandtroopers: Do you have plans on releasing a repaint of the Gunship Pilot to match his color scheme from the Clone Wars series? He had blue marking and was flying the ARC troopers Gunship while attacking Muunlinst.

Hasbro: This is something that we are looking at for the next time we release a Clone Wars Pilot. While he isn’t slotted in yet, there’s a strong likelihood he will come out at some point.

This is geekery distilled into it’s purest form. While other sites might write volumes of detail, this question follows the old adage, “less is more” for that ultimate in geekastic geekdom.

toy, toy collecting, action figure, Hasbro, star wars