Q&A For May 12, 2003

1. Are the lightsabers that come with the Anakin and Dooku swoop and speeder attached to their hands like the flipping figures?And when cleaning and dusting loose figures do you think Armor All wipes will harm them?You are a chemist,right?
--ABarra9721

First, the Lightsabers included with the bikes are not attatched to their hands. (For more on these two toys, watch for our full reviews going up this week.)

As far as cleaning loose figures go, I recently discovered that rubbing alcohol on a cotton square can take paint right off a figure-- so whatever you do, be careful. A good rule of thumb is to try whatever cleaning solution you have on a part of the figure that's hard to see first, that way if it does cause it a problem it won't be too big of a deal.

2. Hi, From your observations have you observed that the packaging conditions or bubble plastic is less sturdy in '03? I FINALLY found some '03ers (Anakin, Dooku, Han, Chewie, etc.) and all cards had some blemish if not (and mostly) bent to He__. Are the packers tired of packing the figures? The plastic bubble also seems flimsier. All of my recent finds were at Wal-Mart in the Allentown-Philly PA area.
--Jedined

Having found 2003 figures, you should consider yourself lucky. I have not found the new figures to be more prone to damage, and the quality of materials seems to be the same as 2002. Wal-Marts, in tradition, have a higher damage rate over most stores. For some reason, certain people also tend to damage that which they cannot afford for a variety of reasons. Some so they can get it later (as "nobody wants damaged figures"), others to "thwart scalpers", and others still just to tick off other collectors. But hey, look on the bright side-- at least Target decided against punching holes in the figures.

3. The new figures are shipping with a European kids warning. All of the ones I have picked up say Hasbro UK, living in Texas I was just curious has the shortage of figures this year been due to new shipping routes, or is Hasbro now using the same packaging in Europe and the US??
--charlie

All 2003 figures (and some late 2002 ones) have shipped with this revised warning. It might be rolling out on their other product lines as well, but one thing is for certain-- it isn't just in Texas.

4. Seeing endless rows of cantina sets at Wal-Mart has me wondering about the production level of the second wave. I have read Wal-mart is probably not going to carry the second wave, and see several on-line retailers already pre-selling these at $20 a pop. Would patience pay off or should we treat this as an Episode 1 wave 2 accessory pack situation?
--Charles

Well, I ordered a set online if that tells you anything. Hasbro has told us in no uncertain terms that these wouldn't be shipping to stores in 2003. Which, of course, means nothing for 2004. Exclusives are a strange area of collecting, where it's often easy to panic and overpay, or to wait too long and then miss out.

Before you place your order, though, remember that these items were originally supposed to be available online in April, then they were delayed to mid-May and we haven't heard an update yet. Just because you order them doesn't necessarily mean they'll show up anytime soon.

5. When should I start calling Disney about the third wave of the Star Tours figures?
--cworthy

While some people think they're going to show up for the next round of Star Wars Weekends I'm not optimistic. Packaged samples for these figures have yet to surface, which means their distribution system is air-tight or that we still have a few months to wait for them.

6. I have a Galoob MicroMachines Epic Collection (the book sets) question for you.

I know sets 4, 5 and 6 are very difficult to hunt down. My understanding is these sets were available via Galoob's 1-800 number and they had overseas distibution.

Have you heard if any of these were ever released to stores here in the States?

I have enjoyed completing my set of these sets and am just looking to know more about their history.
--Nick

That is correct-- Galoob made them available through their web site for about $8 per and as far as the USA goes, that was it. While I have yet to hear reports of international releases, maybe they did show up elsewhere. I know my second series of X-Ray Fleet came from the UK, but as far as the Epic Force, I'm still fairly sure it was never distributed outside the country.

7. Just in reference to Q6 of the last Q&A (May 5), I have seen this same question paraphrased in a number of other sites. I live in Australia & my local K Marts, etc, that had had all the latest carded releases last year dried up in January! Last week, a box of older AOTC stuff (Nikto Jedi, etc) lobbed up & disappeared very quickly. I appreciate that Hasbro does not consult you about release dates but this seems to be more of a problem than has happened in the past, and not a local phenomenon. It makes no sense that Hasbro is not releasing this stuff, could the retailers have stopped ordering this stuff? Any ideas on why we seem to be in a 5 month drought of little or no new Saga figures?
--Rootrooper

The first part of the year is traditionally bad for new toys... if I recall, 2001 was pretty slow for Power of the Jedi and if it weren't for Episode II, it was pretty slow for 2002 as well. With some brands, like Transformers Armada, flying off the shelves in several markets it seems stores have less space to devote to... well, space. Odds are the lack of product has to do with a lot of things, even TransFormers haven't had all that many new toys released this year (of course, you can find most of them without a problem.) Odds are it has to do with the glut from last year and new orders not having made it through the system yet. I mean, here in Phoenix you can still waltz into quite a few Wal-Marts and Kay-Bees and be greeted by pegs of green POTJ figures. I remember getting the figures from the end of 2000/beginning of 2001 was a royal pain as well, with the new Han Bespin, IG-88, Scout Trooper, and so forth being hard to get for a while for many collectors. And who can forget the trials of the R2-Q5 wave?

Last year, except for Ephant Mon, was more or less a fluke. Wait a month, and you were all but guaranteed to get your plastic. It seems that since the popularity of the film has died once again, and many fans have left for greener hobbit-filled pastures, that we're going to have to do a lot more hunting now. Online buying and trading could end up being very important this year.

8. I recently bought Kenner's vintage Darth Vader's Star Destroyer Playset from the Empire strikes Back era, at a toy convention. I felt like Indiana Jones when I stumbled across an unopened, like new box with the toy I always wanted inside. As I looked it over when I got home, I noticed an interesting feature description on the side of the box. The box specifically states: "Darth talks to the Grand Vizier with the pretend viewing screen." Who is the Grand Vizier? I assume he is the Emperor, but who came up with that name? Grand Vizier sounds much more interesting than "The Emperor," why was it dropped? Was the Grand Vizier in any of Lucas' scripts? I have never heard this term, and I am surprised it made it to final print on the box. Please shed some light on this if you can.
--psnitkin

In the old days Kenner filled in a lot of the blanks on their own, and fans didn't scrutinize boxes the way we do now-- they just clipped the proof-of-purchase seals and threw the cardboard away. As such, little details like this fell by the wayside, most collectors never really giving it a second thought.

As the Emperor was referred to as the Emperor in A New Hope, this is probably just a case of Kenner making a small error. Why did they pick and use this name? No idea. But I do know some people from that era read this column some times, so if you're out there and you know, kindly send us an email as we'd love to know if it had any great significance!

9. I have two questions for you; 1) About a year or so ago I head that Lego was going to re-issue the X-Wing. What ever happened with that? 2) Is Hasbro ever going to make a decent R5-D4 droid? The only one they ever made was with the stupid missile launching feature. They could just take an R2 body, add a different head, and apply a new paint job, just like R3-T7 and R4-M9. Prest-O, new figure.
--John

As far as the reissue of the X-Wing and Falcon in LEGO, we don't know what happened there. The company has been pretty good about reissuing sets that do well, especially lately with its Legends sets. Right now, all we can do is wait and hope.

As far as R5-D4, Hasbro knows. Trust me, many of us have mentioned this before, and they listened! Well, sort of. A Star Tours R5-D4 that's very similar to the one in the films will be in Wave 3 of their exclusive Droid figures, but it still won't be enough to satisfy the hardcore robot enthusiast.

10. Do you know if the upcoming Saga A-Wing appeared in any of the movies or is it another EU vehicle being produced by Hasbro?
--Joel

While the design is best known as being from Action Fleet, its true origins remain a mystery to me. I've heard it made an appearance in at least one of the PC games but I don't know this to be fact. As far as I know, though, it wasn't a background vehicle in ROTJ or anything like that.

FIN

So, coming this week: AOTC Speeder Bike reviews. Find out if they're worth your time, or rather, find out if someone else thinks they're worth your time.

Looking to waste more time? My good pal Zac just sent me a link-- no, it isn't Star Wars or toys or anything-- to some goofy web animation thing called "Strong Bad." It made me laugh, feel free to check out "English Paper" or "Dragon" when you click here.

Anyway, get those questions in for next week. Just email me with your inquiry, and we'll see what we can do.