This session gets a sneak peek at the upcoming Return of the Jedi wave; a brief review of the "vault"; and the lowdown on upcoming Mini-Rigs. (There might be a blog post about ressurecting them somewhere.) So get your spectacles out, and have a gander.

Galactic Hunter: Many collectors are eagerly waiting for more information regarding the upcoming Return of the Jedi wave. Our evil spies report that you intended to show the wave at Toy Fair, but that it was not possible due to time constraints. Is there any chance that you could share pictures with us when it becomes available? We are all very excited to know more about the Death Star II Luke Skywalker, the 'innovative' "Slave" Leia , Skiff Guards, etc. — From Cloner118

HASBRO: We did indeed intend to show the wave, but did not get the hard copies done in time. We still don't have great photos of this wave, but will send along one of the images we have - for the Nikto Skiff Guard.  Enjoy!

Galactic Hunter: Hasbro, you obviously keep the molds used for figures and vehicles, where and how are they stored? I'm picturing the government building in Indiana Jones right about now.... — Jodo

HASBRO: That's about what it amounts to.  Generally, each tool is stored on a pallet and stacked up on large heavy duty racks. We have a vast amount of tooling spread out across the various factories in China, and even some (although doubtful any Star Wars) in Rhode Island.  Periodically, we have to go through and scrap tools that we do not plan on using again, although on Star Wars we try and keep just about everything.  You never know when it will come in handy...

Galactic Hunter: Finally, with everything shifting pretty heavily toward the latter part of the year, a few of the products heading our way feel a bit like "placeholders". In particular, I'm interested in asking about the Mini Rigs that were mentioned at the Toy Fair presentation. Can we safely assume that even if certain products (the Battle Droid and Tank) don't sell gangbusters, we're still going to see NEW Mini Rigs vehicles on our shelves in for the "back half" of the year? Also, just to calm (my) shaking nerves, is the maestro of the orginial Mini Rigs line (Mark Boudreaux) heading up this very honorable extension of a beloved vintage favorite?

The Mini Rig type concepts will be coming in 2010 for the most part. We don't plan on going too long with the assortments this Fall so we will be in a good position come Spring when the newly tooled ones arrive. Of course, if the whole assortment is a disaster for some reason (which we doubt), then all bets are off.  Our preference for this assortment is to work with on-screen vehicles from the Clone Wars, but the number of choices we can make in the "personal craft" size is still unfortunately limited.  So we needed to take some liberties (just like the original Mini Rigs) and Lucasfilm liked our suggestions.  Mark is indeed involved in the new Vehicle/Figure assortment.