Hasbro Star Wars Panel - Adam's Impressions As They Happened

By Adam Pawlus — Friday, July 10, 2015

Editor's note: Adam wrote this up as he sat in the panel.  As such, it makes about as sense as you might expect for first-impressions as they happen.

Argle bargle panel! It's dark, it's noon, and I'm sitting near the back of a partially filled conference room. Jeff Labovitz is starting the talk with a bunch of other people whose names are too far away for me to see with all the heads in the way.

Also surprising, Ashley Eckstein is here! On Black Series: "When are we going to see Sabine Wren?" We're now seeing the prototype sculpt of the 6-inch Ahsoka Tano figure, and a painted version is up on the dais in person and heck if I can see a dang thing. A painted photo looks pretty great, though, so do check that out. Well, by now you've seen it.

 

Next up: Kanan confirmed for 6-inch. Some dude in a Kanan outfit just held his lightsaber up and screamed "YEAH!" The prototype sculpt has more wrinkly in face and costume - he looks more like a cowboy than the animated model. The lightsaber breaks apart like on the show, you get a blaster, and it looks real nice. Painted it also looks real nice - so there's a decent pull.

 

Jango Fett! Removable helmet, the second smaller jetpack from Geonosis, and it looks great painted too. I can't tell if the helmet has a dent, so hooray.

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Classic ANH Luke Skywalker! After a long, drawn-out intro. But hey, round of applause! Soft goods shirt, binoculars, lightasber, belt, and it looks pretty OK painted. The shirt may be a bit off from the look of things, though.

Force FX Lightsabers - all new guts. New accelerometers. New stand. Darth Vader and Yoda are coming.

Star Wars Rebels 3 3/4-inch collection. The new Inquisitor... got some applause but who the heck is this guy? The second Inquisitor is sort of an empty shell at this point, but he's tall. "New Inquisitor" is the name, and the applause feels a little weak or forced.

Fan's Choice Poll - Before the show, Darth Revan constantly had a double lead over Sabine Wren at #2. Every time I checked, the number of votes changed but the percentages wiggled very little. We're being told this will be done on an annual basis - if not more often - which is actually fantastic news. And of course, after a countdown, Darth Revan wins. "It was such a tight race, maybe we should do a bonus figure." This explains why Ashley was here earlier talking about Sabine - a swappable head, rather than a removable helmet, seems likely to keep the hair nice. I appreciate that. The Gamorrean Guard got last place.

All new 6-inch package has a new, unique-to-Hasbro illustration on the boxes. Fancy! It's a definite improvement over the last version - and it's multi-lingual on the back while retaining the bios. Numbering will be on the front and sides.

New movie - new First Order TIE Fighter Pilot Elite! Red stripes, one hose from the helmet to the armor, and it comes with a pistol. A positively huge 26-inch vehicle will join it, with seating for two figures. The price tag will match.

...that's it?  We're done about 30 minutes in.