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Q&A For December 19, 2005
Season Finale!
1. is there any definitive place I can find which movies the Astromech droids from Entertainment Earth are from?
I've been looking all over the place and there's NOTHING DEFINITIVE
--Jeff
As I couldn't find the press release I wrote many months back, I have this definitive article for you from Comic Con 2005 that I wrote: Comic-Con 2005 Hasbro. In it, I go on way too long about this to the point where I got lots of angry email from people who do not share my id's glee.
A full review of these figures-- oh, don't pretend like you didn't see it coming-- should come when the figures hit in January.
2. I just read that Hasbro is doing some Titanium Galactica stuff but no one knows the extent of the lic. Hasbro has to Galactica...
Ok how hard is this to "figure" out? Hasbro, by far the best 3.3/4" action figure company ever and will never be surpassed [Gi-Joe and Star Wars], have the Galactica line in which money spending people can't wait to get an opportunity to buy SW style carded action figures of the 3.3/4" line and there are so many that can be done, the line can easily support 100 figures or so and a couple of ships. So please shed some light on this and let them know we [the fans collective voice] give them the green light, many of us have waited years on this.
--Sam
It's my understanding that most new toy companies getting Battlestar Galactica are signing on for classic and new, much like you do with Star Wars-- it's all or nothing, you don't just say "gimme the ROTJ part" and move on. Right now, Art Asylum signed on for busts/statues and minimates, RC2/Ertl has a figure license through at least Spring, and yes, Hasbro has a die-cast license which supposedly covers figures, vehicles, and so on. The old series had legendary toys, and the new one has a tremendous fanbase. Does that mean it needs a giant figure line? Nope.
Very few movies or TV properties do well with toys. Trek, beyond Playmates' 1990s venture, pretty much only works as the main characters so far. Playmates also did well with The Simpsons when Mattel dropped it and it looks like McFarlane's first products will be major character-centric. At best, a good Galactica line would probably be a couple dozen figures unless it takes off and becomes The Next Big Thing. Heck, even Lord of the Rings' sizzle ran out pretty quick, as did the toy-friendly Pirates flick. (Which is supposedly being rectified by newcomer Zizzle in 2006. I got a meeting to find out more.)
So don't hold your breath for ANY line to turn into another Star Wars-- but rest assured that the Titanium line could very well include multiple figures and vehicles, if Hasbro wants to go that route. (If I don't see a nice die-cast classic Cylon I'd get pissy.)
3. Most vintage collectors have heard of the unproduced prototype of
Gargan, the fat 6-breasted dancer from Jabba's palace. Speculation
has been that Lucasfilm balked on the figure back in the 80s because
she was essentially a child-unfriendly prostitute. While I don't know
if that's actually true, we have seen more "stimulating" characters
of similarly questionable virtue in the modern line, like Oola and
the slave Leia. This would imply to me that Gargan would probably not
see much resistance.
With the new fan's choice poll and its "vote for any character", what
do you suppose the odds are that, if Gargan won (through no small
miracle), we'd actually see her finally hit plastic? And for that
matter, what if one of the Tonnika sisters won? (I haven't followed
the latest developments in the legal saga there.) Are there any
actual restrictions on what could be made if the votes were there?
--Brad
Gargan's an oddity. Fans ask for her all the time, and Hasbro has come out and said they weren't feeling the love for everyone's six-boobed space whore. Dancing girl figures are a tricky business, and Gargan's no looker. I personally have my doubts that unless Hasbro pulled a BoShek and released it in low numbers and never spoke of it again, or released it out of spite, you would not likely see it. BoShek's more realistic than Gargan, which is why one takes up residence on my home and I think the little spot in Jabba's palace reserved for Ms. Gargan will likely go unfilled, not for the "well, space whore" reasons so much as... well, have you looked at her? While anyone can make an argument that any figure would be worth getting made just for kicks, let's look around and ask two questions. One, seeing as how Amanaman, the Duro, and Captain Antilles were less than stellar sellers, and two of the three fans were RABID for, there's a potential problem here. (McQuarrie's Trooper had the fortune of being an army builder that shipped in but one case and Ephant Mon was shipped in one assortment and was never seen by most fans in the wild.) Now, if you look at the five (technically six with the Scanning Tech) figures, can we as fans say Gargan will perform well?
While it's none of our real concern how a figure sells, it's something that worries me because a bad figure can back up on the pegs for months-- preventing new assortments from showing up. Gargan would only work as an exclusive, and even then, are there thousands or whatever collectors that want one?
The Tonnikas would be fun and as far as the legalese goes, I'm not privy to the status of the week-- but it'd be a damn fine con exclusive if Hasbro can get it done. If legally squeamish characters "win," I'm sure they'll be ironed out before any of us ever sees the top 25. If the entire fan base got together and said "give us Bea Arthur," it's not going to happen. (I don't care if she is Larry's mom, the holiday special will probably never sire another figure.)
The "Vote for Any Character" thing for me is highly amusing on many levels, mainly because I can detach myself from the process to know that I will receive hundreds if not thousands of angry emails regarding the winner before it comes out. And depending on who it is, these emails may continue for quite some time. I can see from the forums that Quinlan Vos is the most chatted about choice and to me, he wouldn't be on my top list. Not even as far as Expanded Universe goes-- there's Scuba Troopers, more Dark Empire Dark Jedi, old Rogue Squadron pilots, and what about poor Lumiya? She's awesome. Where's the love, people?
On a tangent, you no doubt saw what I said when confronted with the idea of voting for any figure-- the legendary "chess monsters," from the Dejarik sequence in the original Star Wars. It's really the only part of the entire saga that has never been touched on outside a tiny clear figurine that sits atop a game board on one of the more iffy incarnations of Chewbacca. The fact that this does not still have figures to this day disturbs me, scale be damned. The Mantellian Savrip was a boss in Super Star Wars too. But I digress.
Is Gargan the answer if Hasbro sat you down and said "Brad, we're gonna do you a favor. We'll make any figure you want. What's it going to be?" I'm not saying it's a bad choice-- given creative direction at Hasbro, I'd be putting a massive push on the four pillars of Star Wars awesomeness (core characters, droids, aliens, troopers) and Jabba's Palace is one of the more popular and least represented families out there. (Well, compared to how many figures that can be made that aren't being made.)
I'm expecting this whole fan's choice thing to result in something that'll make me mad. Not that Quinlan is a horrible choice, it's just that I wish we as a fan base could agree on something more visually striking than a human Jedi antihero with fancy hair and a rectangle on his face. After the 5,000 fans who read the comics AND buy the toys get theirs, he's going to be around for a while as a stern reminder that there's a reason toy companies don't let us pick out much. (This answer brought to you by Debbie Downer.)
4. I am a completely baffled over the subject of Hasbro producing playsets. There seems to always be constant interest and demand yet Hasbro maintains they are too expensive and don't sell well in a non-movie year. What baffles me is that why is there so much demand and then the playsets that do come out don't sell; if we all want playsets shouldn't we show Hasbro our commitment to buy them by buying any sort of playset that comes out. I think one of the best methods Hasbro could use is to produce small sections of playsets that could all be joined together (like the death star, cantina, and Jabba's palace), that way we could likely get more accurate and detailed playsets. I think their heads were in the right place when they did those death star playsets in 95 with Hoth and Endor environments following, but I think we all wanted more with those. Dose Hasbro consider all these issues?
--Thomas
One of the fun issues with this column is I discover just how bad I am at conveying information. Right now, what Hasbro wants is what Wal-Mart wants, and that's lots of high-volume, low-cost goods. They want to make tons of money with little shelf space, and how do you do that? Action figures. Traditionally, what doesn't sell too well? Playsets. I've been going on about the "do small parts that join together" thing forever and it's nice to see some companies, like Palisades, consider such ideas from their teams and run with it. Have you seen the second series Invader Zim playsets? I'm sure they sold a lot of Zim's robot parents based solely on the notion that fans wanted to complete the playset. Hasbro's foolish NOT to do a 60+ piece packed-in playset, should such a thing be possible through the Magic of Toy Engineering.
The playsets in 1995 and 1996 sucked-- don't let nostalgia or the fact that you haven't tried playing with them recently fool you. The arena was merely good, and the Mustafar set just disappointed on many levels. (It FALLS APART because those damn beams are too heavy. NOT COOL.)
Right now, the almighty dollar is preventing your playset pleasure. It takes Hasbro time to figure some things out, in part because if we want it, well, we don't always have good ideas. But we sometimes do. In 1996-1997, Hasbro introduced two electronic lightsabers and that was pretty much that except for a brief blip in 1999. Fans loved lightsabers, but Hasbro flat out refused to make more-- and then AOTC came around and they were the biggest item, second only to the figures themselves.
So where am I going with this? If you're made, COMPLAIN. I work in a position where I hear parents, uncles, aunts, kids, collectors, people buying for those "Christmas Angel" things, and general fans go "so, why can't I get a Jedi Starfighter anywhere these days?" Some fans want environments, and let me tell you that I'm first on the list to buy these things. I remember the vintage ones-- the old Dagobah, Hoth, Death Star, and Jabba's Palace sets were all neat and fun and more or less worth the price. I'm sure we will see a company, Hasbro or otherwise, someday pick up the torch and make something nice. But when? Who knows.
So for now, what do you do? Should you buy every playset you see? It can't hurt. I would definitely go out of your way to point to all the other ones out there, or interesting non-traditional ones (like Palisades') that might be what you like. But money talks, and if there's unsold Mustafars in the system, what possible reason does Hasbro see for making more of a product type that didn't sell out? (Of course, I'm not seeing an abundance of Gunships and those suckers go for an arm and a leg.)
5. I was thinking about how much some people bitch about repacks in your
column, and a thought crossed my mind. Do you think there would be any
problem with these collectors if there were minor retools for the core
characters? I was thinking of stuff like a reissue of Han, Luke, and
Chewie with their Falcon headsets from ANH, Han with gloves, Lando
without his cape, or even Ponda Baba with the big flipper-hands instead
of the fingered ones. There's a small handful of these now (R2's,
mostly), and I believe there's a repacked Chewie coming with Padme's
AOTC chain to make him Boushh's prisoner. I'm sure kids and new
collectors would barely notice if their Han had gloves, but do you
think these minor changes drive collectors nuts? Or am I the only one
that digs that kind of thing?
--Brian
I don't think the issue is so much "oh I'm such a dork for buying a figure I own in a new box" so much as it is "I'm buying figures I don't even want please someone shoot me." (OK, maybe not that. But you follow my thinking, yes?) I'm of the mindset as a collector that I don't want new "versions" of crap I have. I've got more than 30 Luke figures that are all just a little different. The vintage line more or less satisfied me with 7.
Fans who buy 1 of everything, especially 1 of every variant, are not the average collector. If Hasbro actually did something to make them all up and quit, it wouldn't matter too much. It'd matter, of course, but how many collectors do you know that compelled to buy every version of every figure ever from 1995 to today anymore, packaging variants included? It's a small number.
The problem now stands with Hasbro and fans deciding what both groups need to make happen so the line doesn't die. I don't think half-baked retools would make fans happy, as any new tooling is work, time, and money spent on something that isn't a new figure. I'm sick of "Luke with a new hat" at this point-- I'm good on Luke figures. And Han figures. What I want to see are characters and figures I don't own, and while there are fewer of those every year, and while part of me smiles with glee over the new Boushh figure, another part of me is like "wow, another figure that I bought in 1996... and 1983."
Boredom is not conducive to a new, good line. Looking at 2006, I'm not sure if I'm wholly happy or depressed yet. I see new sculpts, some of the best ever. I also see figures fans paid $9.99 for in 2004, repackaged, with more accessories, and better deco, for half the price. With all the rehashing, repackaging, and revisiting of concepts that many (if not all) of us have seen since 1995, the future of this line is going to get more and more bleak. Hell, look at 2005-- Revenge of the Sith toys were largely characters you already own in new costumes and/or repaints.
What I want to know is what do fans really want? Are we satisfied with human Jedi when we can have any figure our minds can possibly imagine? Do we really need more variations? There are new figures to be had with retooling, so if I'm going to see the effort of a new mold being made, let's see something like a new protocol droid or a new Senator (Tikkes can be made from Tessek, people). I hate the thought that the toy line that inspired me to spend pretty much all day around toys could get boring before it ends.
6. Any idea if Bootleg Army Builder ROTS Clone Troopers are out there or are coming? Simply the Asian AOTC bootlegs with new heads.
--BingoWitch
As we got official AOTC army builder packs after some bootlegs were made, I can only hope! Truth is there's a little more difference between the two clones than just the helmets-- but hey, it's a bootleg. So we can hope, yes.
7. Echobase Collectibles offered a Padme Amidala Collector's coin a year or two ago that was supposed to be number one in a series of three. Have the other two EVER been released? I know they just released an exclusive Boba Fett coin in the same style as the Padme', but have yet to see Padme'/Queen Amidala coins #2 or #3.
--JediBear123
I get asked this a lot and as far as I know there's no known release for these coins. I haven't ever followed the story as to WHY, or what happened, so if anyone would like to share I'd love to broadcast this information to all interested parties.
8. I just had a quick question about storage of my figures. Because my collection has gotten to be so big I've had to put a lot of my figures in a climate controlled storage unit for now till I get more room. As of now, I have all my figures in the starcases and then they are put in Plastic tubes that I got from target. The thing im wondering about is, will putting them in plastic tubes hurt them. Because I had read about acids that come off of some plastics that can hurt things like comic books and figures over a period of time. My figures, like I said are in the star cases then put in the tubes so there not in direct contact but my other things such as Ships, Battle packs, Delexe figures....do come in contact with the plastic.
--David
As far as how you store figures, well, here's the thing. These are disposable playthings, as much as we like to pretend otherwise. They aren't meant to last forever, and it isn't always easy to know what will keep them happy and healthy. Do they need air to circulate? Who knows? All I know is the traditional "cool, dry place" directive you hear about most collectibles because you don't always know what can happen. I got a Qui-Gon figure whose lightsaber paint "melted" off onto the figure I stored in a plastc tacklebox-- who can forsee this crap?
There are so many issues that can cause the utter annihilation of your collection that things like acids-- especially acids after you put them in a Star Case-- are likely inconsequential. Things to worry about include tape-- yes, tape. Have you seen toys from the 1980s? That tape can dry out, become brittle, and pop right off-- and if you look at Revenge of the Sith and 2006 The Saga Collection action figures, there's a lot of tape there. So be careful.
Frankly, I think the best you can do is try not to worry. Just monitor your collection for signs of trouble, and worry when you see it. Fact is I don't know what your boxes are, and don't know enough about plastic to even tell you if all modern plastics are designed to not have acids that'll eat your collectibles over time, or how much time it might take. (I store all my stuff in plain brown cardboard boxes.)
The modern stuff is all so common and made in such big numbers that it may not warrant your vast concern-- should anything happen, with few exceptions, you can replace it all on the cheap. (It looks like the sales figures for ROTS are as high as or possibly will be higher than TPM, and the collector market absorbed a LOT of it.)
When it comes to the issue of toys that I can't store in my own residence, I have a solution I like and it might work for you-- Toys for Tots, or trades. Make 'em go away. It's not worth the hassle unless you plan on making a big room devoted to them later, the modern stuff as a whole isn't worth the headache as an "investment," if anyone out there still has that mindset. (There will, of course, always be items that go for decent scratch on eBay.)
9. I had a question on the new unleashed battle packs. I know that the first waves are of specific battles with the specific characters to that battle, but are they going to include other characters like Anakin and Anakin/Darth Vader, Shock Trooper, etcÉ?
--Jacob
The entire 2006 line is focused around the notion of "battles," and while there will be exceptions to the rules, keep in mind that every major figure does indeed fit into the mold of a battle. Major characters will indeed fill out the line as it continues, and while specifics aren't 100% known yet, I can say it's safe to assume that you will see your favorites filter in as time goes on.
10. Do you think that Clone Troopers are wildly more popular than Stormtroopers ever were? If so why?
--Barbara
Variety! In the vintage days, you could get 1 Stormtrooper. In between 1995 and 2000, there were only 2 unique "styles," plus the Sandtroopers and others. With clones, there are six unique clones from Attack of the Clones that were done up in various styles with different articulation, accessories, poses, and more. Plus ARCs. And then for ROTS, how many dozen are there so far? It's easy for fans to get excited about these new troopers because they come in multiple styles, colors, and are all conducive to troop building. (Seriously, are there any fans who AREN'T happy that battle packs exist with a full squad ready to fight?)
A lot of toy lines have subsets that collectors collect more obsessively than others. For example, 3 3/4-inch Joe fans have subsets of collectors that troop build the snot out of Cobra figures. Transformers enthusiasts have a subgroup of toys called Mini-Cons which exist in a variety of configurations, repaints, styles, and more from all over the world-- and they get these too.
The Clone is quite appealing on numerous levels. I think fan burnout is quite possible if Hasbro makes more $13 Clone Troopers-- fool me thrice, shame on me-- but at $7 or so per? I'll take what I can get. Bring on Scorch, baby!
FIN
So... that's it for 2005. It's been a heck of a year. In 2005, I saw my favorite movie series come to an end at the same moment I entered the toy industry full-time. I got Hasbro to crank out some exclusive Clones and Astromech droids, the former of which is almost sold out (less than 20 units remained of the battle damaged color Clones on Friday) while the latter is literally on the boat from Asia as you read this and will be here in no time. (Well, one shipment. Which is probably sold out. But I digress.) With over 70 basic carded figures, dozens of exclusives, tons of multipacks, and the most overrated figure ever, Hasbro delivered quite a bit of awesomeness, as has Gentle Giant, Master Replicas, Code 3, and so many other companies. Surely, this was a year to remember, mostly for good things. Also, Star Wars modern action figures turned 10 in August.
The Prequel Trilogy is now fodder for the history books and I have no doubt we will some day be discussing plans of Hasbro to make a fan-wank line of repackaged figures in the "Prequel Trilogy Collection" that all have stupid stripes, no photo backgrounds, and CommTech Chips.
So what's coming next year? Well, we don't know everything yet. But I do have some fun surprises in motion that you'll no doubt enjoy as you take a step back, look at your giant toy stash, and start to thin the herd. (Don't kid yourselves, I know I've got trade fodder that needs to be in someone else's collection at this point. I needs space so I can get me a Sentinel Maximus.) I've got some fun plans for Toy Fair coverage-- oh yes, I'm going back, and on my employer's dime-- and I want to be sure I can ask many many toy companies questions on your behalf. But more on that later.
I'll be back in early 2006-- I'm taking a couple of weeks off to go see the people I lived with most of my life that continue to insist that I am not adopted, and to feast upon the post-holiday sale-o-rama.
So for next time, just email me with your question and I'll put it in queue. (If you do not put "Q&A" in the subject line I cannot guarantee it will get through due to the high volume of spam these accounts get.)
Click here to read the previous installment of Galactic Hunter Q&A!
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