Galactic Hunter: We've seen a couple of Star Wars pieces appropriated and recycled in the G.I. Joe line. The Geonosis Arena was tweaked to become Cobra Mountain in 2003. With playsets involving larger investments, has there been any thought given to re-imagining existing playsets? The Mustafar Battle playset from Revenge of the Sith could easily get a nice snow deco, and become a Wampa Cave or a Hoth Echo Base. Does it boil down to the big box and the lack of shelf real estate, or is it the overall cost in a hypothetical situation like that?

Hasbro: It's all of that.  Primarily it's a large, receptive audience (which goes beyond collectors and is driven partly by kids), followed by shelf space and the retail productivity for the large footprint that is needed, and then the unit sales expected for the retail price.

Galactic Hunter: Two weeks ago it was mentioned that Hasbro has three concept Death Star playsets around the office. Are these ideas that are being currently (or recently) kicked around, or are they older concepts that have been rejected? How much collector support would it take to really get a substantial Death Star playset made?

Hasbro: They are older concepts from a couple years back.  Unfortunately, there is little chance this specific idea will happen as they are ambitous and expensive.  With the cost of plastics having increased even further, the
idea of doing a large Death Star playset is even more prohibitive.

Galactic Hunter: We often hear that Hasbro's Star Wars items are being marketed to kids and collectors. With kids still very much in the equation, where are the TV commercials (and viral video for the net generation) for the action figures and vehicles? The vintage-era TV commercials were instrumental in selling the line.

Hasbro: We have taken a different strategy toward advertising the line, which seems to have paid off.  However, the fan base is doing a great job of driving the viral video portion with the various stop-action fan clips that folks have done. Great stuff!

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