Due to the wonders of technology (i.e. mail server fritz) we temporarily lost our weekly Q&A answers. However, thanks to the gracious people who answer our questions every week, here they are. We're happy to ask one final question about playsets; a revised Jabba's Sail Barge R2-D2 with lightsaber smuggling action; and where in the world is that Bespin Confrontation Darth Vader from the CD-ROM era?

Galactic Hunter: Due to the cost of producing plastic playsets for the 3 3/4" action figures being so high, would you ever consider updating the old Toltoys or Palitoy cardboard style Death Star playset with new graphics? There's hardly any plastic pieces so production costs would be low. (From reader Mike S.)

HASBRO: We have looked at cardboard (and other materials) but have been underwhelmed by the results and believe that the majority of fans (kids and collectors) probably would be too.

Galactic Hunter: I loved the Jabba's Sail Barge R2-D2 with bar tray you released in 2004, however it's disappointing that he didn't have an open slot in his dome for Luke Skywalker's lightsaber hilt. The original 1998 R2-D2 with launching lightsaber was far from accurate in design, due to his oversized third leg and the ignited lightsaber inside him. Have you considered redoing a more accurate version in the future with just the lightsaber hilt hidden in his dome? It's one of the only remaining R2-D2 variants we still need. (From reader 'shabbyblue')  

***Note: We could also use a re-release of the Bar2-D2 with a sturdier bar tray! The plastic on the previous release was a little too pliable.***

HASBRO: Yes, we have considered this (the saber-launching version) as a future R2-D2 update we could do. Good point on the serving tray, too - we'll take that into account. 

Galactic Hunter: With tooling very similar to the Emperor's Wrath Darth Vader figure, are we ever likely to see the nixed CD-ROM Darth Vader (Bespin Confrontation) actually released? There are a lot of "samples" of this figure out there, so why not use it? (Seriously -- it's very close in detail to the Emperor's Wrath Vader which has been released several times with different deco.)

HASBRO: We'll look into it thanks.

This is the final Q&A for 2006, and the team will be taking time off until 2007.

We at Galactic Hunter would like to thank the Hasbro team and their P.R. gurus (at Hunter Public Relations) for lending all of the sites out there an ear for our questions, nagging, and nitpicking. 2006 was an amazing year for collectors, and we're all looking forward to spreading the Star Wars action figure gospel even further in 2007.