Galactic Hunter.com - Star Wars Q&A with Adam Pawlus


	Galactic Hunter.com's Star Wars Q&A with Adam Pawlus January 23, 2006 1. I was wondering if anyone noticed that the Pit of Carkoon Han Solo is smaller than General Veers...a lot smaller. And Leia is even smaller still. I'm gonna tap on a really old subject here, but what ever happened to the real scan technology that they supposedly used for Episode I or II? I find it really difficult to display my Carkoon Han Solo next to the OTC Skiff Lando and Boba Fett...they just look out of proportion. --Scott The whole issue of scanning to make a figure is, apparently, a constant cause of confusion for fans. What does it mean? What will it get you? And when did Hasbro start using it as a tool in the toy creation process? As you know, Gentle Giant scanned pretty much everything they can get their hands on, and this started around Episode II. (This was around 2001. ROTJ was released in 1983.) This gets people a new form of reference for a variety of purposes. In case you didn't know, Gentle Giant and Hasbro employ sculptors-- they may start with a digital file, but they still have to add in a variety of details. Even if they use the direct output of this scan to make a figure-- they don't, by the way-- it would still need to be altered for pose, facial expression, hair, etc. The file can make a great rapid prototype, but you still need the skilled sculptors to make the item look great. Some features need to be exaggerated or toned down when you shrink a toy, just because if you don't, it might look off. So, how about those Saga figures? The obvious answer is, well, they didn't exactly scan any of those Original Trilogy actors. If they did, it wouldn't help-- Harrison Ford has aged over 20 years since Return of the Jedi and as such, he would require significant touching-up, his hair wouldn't match, and so on and so forth. (For all I know he put on some weight, too.) Scale has always been an issue with these figures, and having a perfect scan doesn't mean perfect proportions across the board. Ever see "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids"? Not everybody ends up reduced or increased to the exact same size, although proportions may remain the same. So scale isn't perfect. Well, the questions come up-- does it matter? Obviously Leia should never be taller than Chewie. And most fans have a horrible sense of scale, thinking that Jabba the Hutt towers over every other character. (He doesn't, watch ROTJ again.) As such, ask if it really hurts your dioramas or displays. If it doesn't, get over it-- but in the interest of nitpicking, I checked the heights of Han Solo and Lando according to the official site. Lando's 1.78 meters, Han is 1.8 meters. Standing the Saga1/OTC Lando back to back with Saga2 Han, Lando is a couple of millimeters taller than Han. While it is unfortunate that Lando is taller than Han while the reverse should be true, fact is that Lando was originally released in 2004 and Han was released in 2006. Production, materials, plastic shrinkage, and so forth happen and do sometimes cause figures to be a size that's less than ideal. If you're THAT upset by these figures, I advise you move on to high-end items where it doesn't quite matter as much. For a $5-$7 toy, I'm plenty happy with these renditions. 2. I'm pretty pleased with the Saga Collection so far....but all of a sudden, I'm going through Clone withdrawl....I mean, I loved the SA Clone Trooper from ROTS. What an awesome figure! I wish I would've bought more! My question is...do you think Hasbro will re-issue this figue(just plain white armor)in the Saga Collection? Also, any chance with the success of the Entertainment Earth AOTC Trooper Sets, we might see a ROTS Trooper set...SA body with new helmet? --John Clones-- the brightest and darkest spot of our collections. For 2006, there are supposedly going to be more Clones. What are they? Well, we're going to have to wait to hear what they'll be. There are all sorts of rumors going around but you'll probably get to hear the final, legit, official answers come Toy Fair in a couple of weeks. As to Entertainment Earth, well, the question is just how many clones do people want, and more accurately, will Hasbro wish to grant them another Clone-based exclusive? Market demand, fan outcry, and Hasbro's interest in granting an exclusive all play a major role in these things. If fans as a whole feel very strongly that Entertainment Earth should be granted more Clones or some other exclusive, just so you know, part of my day job is monitoring forums for what you guys say about the exclusives I/we develop and sell. (We're going to have some new ones this year, too. Although I can tell you right now-- new Clone Troopers are not in the cards, but if you'd like them to be, post on forums, let Hasbro know, and demand your Grand Army of the Republic every chance you get!) Fan outcry is going to be very important going forward. From exclusives to the basic line, you need to take a small step back and look what Kenner, Hasbro, and various retailers have brought to market since 1995. Speak up when you want something-- but before you do, check eBay. If it's out already and cost the same as it did when it was first released, or less, asking for it again isn't going to get anyone's interest. (For example, I like Banthas as much as the next guy-- I got 4, and they can be had on eBay for as little as $12. A reissue doesn't make sense.) Conversely, I know there's a lot of fans of KOTOR and other Expanded Universe properties that use characters that really don't look like any of the existing figure line. To you, I say keep requesting, and don't forget to put your money where your mouth is. Hasbro has already confirmed Foul Moudama (Muftak/Talz Jedi) and Scorch (Republic Commando) for 2006, and to a lesser extent, there's also Sora Bulq-- who, without the comics, is nothing. When you see these figures, buy them-- and then tell Hasbro that game-, comic-, and novel-based toys are what you want. Just don't give the powers that be an excuse to say "oh, those don't sell well." Brown bag your lunch a few times, it'll cover the expense. (And you can send me your Scorch if you didn't really want one when you bought it.) 3. With the new Unleashed Battle Packs (2Ó figures) do you think that Hasbro might offer them as a trade in for jedi master points. Say 150 Ð 200 jedi master points per figure plus customer (us) pay shipping and handling. I still have quite a few jedi master points left. I sure would like to get a couple of Grievious Body Guards and Clone Troopers in a certain position with out having to buy the whole set. What do you think? --Aaron Jedi Master Points are over. Let's move on. 4. I've heard of some new changes in the status of the 7" Unleashed line, particularly regarding the delayed Shock Trooper/Han Solo/Chewbacca wave. Could you clarify what the future of these figures will be? Also, are there definitely only three sets for the Hoth wave of Battle Packs? Any chance we'll be getting variant figures in any of these waves? Finally, any rumblings on what might come next in terms of figures for either the 7" or 2" Unleashed lines? --Rich It's my understanding that the 7-inch Unleashed line is no longer being offered to any of the "smaller" accounts but just the big boys. So Kmart, Kay-Bee, Wal-Mart, maybe. Online, no. As far as what's actually happening with these, all I know, you already know, and hopefully we'll hear more at Toy Fair. 5. do you think there is any chance in the future of Hasbro offering sets of the bases through their website or something for using to display past figure collections (like POTF, TPM, etc.). --Tom Despite collector interest, Hasbro has been quite hesitant to produce "collector supplies" up to 2005. Last year, they did their own branded "Star Cases" which can be found in some stores on clearance for about a buck. Making a standard stand for Hasbro might be somewhat tricky, as you have to ask yourself what that standard may be. Last year, you may have said "oh, it's the planet-esque bases for ROTS" while the year before, it may have been the Saga/OTC black bases. This year, we have personalized, movie-based bases. So what would Hasbro make? And would fans want to throw out old bases like their CommTech chips in favor of new ones-- even when figures like Senator Palpatine rely on them for use of their included accessory? Would fans want movie-themed bases, even if it meant they couldn't all be personalized? Heck if I know. I would, however, love to see Hasbro mass market some sort of bases. A pack of 10, maybe the 2003 movie-themed ones. Those were all great, and I think fans would love to buy more of them if the price was right (sub-$0.50/base.) While I think that right now, having a complete set of personalized bases would be nice, it's completely unrealistic. How many fans out there have (or intend to have) 1 of every figure, ever? And when does a variation constitute a new figure requiring a duplicate stand? Would fans even want stands for the 1995 collection of POTF2 these days, or are those figures tossed and hidden never to be spoken of again? So to Hasbro, I say I would love to buy semi-generic stands en masse. Movie logo with no name, fine. Generic OTC style, sure. It's all good. 6. Does Tarkin know Vader and Sidious are Sith? Since Mas Amedda apparently knew about Sidious couldn't Tarkin as well? He did not seem too alarmed by Vader's power in ANH. Does Tarkin know Vader's identity? --Thomas In A New Hope, it is indicated that Vader is all that remains of that "ancient religion" right in front of Tarkin-- which, to me, means he's at the very least aware WHAT he is, not necessarily WHO he is/was. I tend to think this wasn't something that was on the mind of the writers of these movies, but the line "the Jedi are extinct. You my friend are all that remains of their religion," seems to indicate that a) Vader is not exactly a Jedi, but also b) that Tarkin doesn't quite know exactly what Palpatine's deal is. It's a pretty safe bet that a lot of people know something's up with Palpatine, as if there's legions of troops and backstabbers against a frail, hunched-over man with a cane, something is obviously up. As far as Vader goes, I think it's a safe bet that very few people know what his deal is, but people do know. It seems as if there was some intent to indicate Owen & Beru knew, plus Vader had them killed, possibly indirectly, but either way, they're dead. For me, there's a simple answer to all of this. In the 1990s, Lucas wrote that he said these as fairy tales for an era that didn't have any of their own fairy tales. I think that's the best answer to your question-- it's a big tall tale. There's no blue ox, but there's a man in armor as black as midnight and a beautiful princess and space pirates and a giant walking carpet. The less logic applied to these films, the better, as they were kinda sorta meant to be viewed largely by young boys. (Not that we can't like them too, of course.) 7. Like probably everyone else I am glad to see we will finally get a decent R5-D4 this year. Do you think that maybe Entertainment Earth would release a multi-pack of R5 units? How many were there throughout the Saga? Wasn't it like 10 or so? --Sean As you know, it's inappropriate for me to say "yes," "no," or answers like that due to a large amount of things I could say that could get me fired or annoy the wrong people. What I will say, though, is that Entertainment Earth has just started to receive the very very popular Astromech Droid sets. These are the first ever exclusives devoted completely to the overweight blobs of grease. If you like what you see and feel that people who make decisions about these sorts of things need to hear your interest for R5 units. Vote with your dollars, those of you that know me know that there's certain things I constantly go on about in this hobby and my desire to do something about it if I can get away with it. Besides, who here doesn't want to see a droid for Red Leader's X-wing someday soon? 8. . This year, we're getting an AT-AT driver, a Snowtrooper, a Sandtrooper, and a biker scout, courtesy of the VOTC line. What are the odds, in your opinion, of a TIE Pilot coming out this year? Heck, while we're at it, how about a Galactic Marine Unleashed battle pack? For that matter, how about a basic BARC trooper, or basic Galactic Marine? Maybe a Neyo trooper with a cape? Or that other fighter pilot from ROTS...the V-wing guy, right? I'd assume all are possible, but are any of these more likely than others? --Nate First, while it has not been confirmed, some VOTC-looking images of cardbacks which do include a Scout Trooper have shown up on the Internet. I'll leave that at "hmmmm." TIE Pilot? Well, it's possible Hasbro will decide to re-release one, but we already got a great one. In 2004, we saw this TIE Pilot repackaged a couple of times, and by "this" I mean the superior, all-new sculpted one that's quite good. I don't expect to see a new sculpt any time soon, but there's the old one which you can get if you do a little hunting, and as such, there you go. As far as Clones go, Hasbro seems to be taking it easy so far. But how many exclusives have been announced? Who knows what's in store for ShopStarWars, Comic Con, or even Hasbro Toy Shop as 2006 exclusives go? It's still early, so stay tuned-- all are possible, but nothing is confirmed or in many cases, even rumored. 9. With Toy Fair a few weeks away, will we see the rest of the line from Hasbro, or will they still release pics of one wave at a time? I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the line. --Coastermark Hasbro shows what they feel like showing at Toy Fair. Some years, it's virtually the whole line while others, it's barely anything. We don't know what they plan on showing just yet but we have been informed a lot of recent questions will be answered in full. 10. I was disappointed, but of course not surprised to see the muftak jedi appears to be a tweak of the figure from the POTF kabe/muktak set. Do you know if we are getting any added articulation with it?? They could also do a jedi of the kabe since one has appeared in several comics. --Rich I think I'm going to start charging people a dollar when they email me and their first five words include "disappointed." For being so upset, everyone sure seems eager to want to spend money... but I digress. Foul Moudama is indeed a tweaked Muftak-- Hasbro's looking to cut costs and it's supposedly 66% cheaper to make a new part (or parts) for an existing figure than it is to sculpt one from the ground up. (Not official, just gleamed from various sources.) Muftak lends himself to a Jedi conversion quite nicely because the base figure was naked-- all you have to do is throw a robe over the top, and you're done. Easy. You could probably do the same thing with K'Kruhk, too. Would a Chadra Fan Jedi be an easy conversion? I'm inclined to say no. (And my memory fails me as to where he/she appears.) Foul Moudama seems to be just Muftak with new accessories. Seeing as Muftak hasn't been available on the primary market for a while, and has never been sold as a mass-market figure, I think this is a figure that makes sense. You can probably pop off most of the Jedi accessories and have a regular Muftak if you want-- so it's going to be a new, but old, figure. I wouldn't expect any new articulation. As a final tangent-of-the-week as far as answers go, I ask a semi-rhetorical question: how many figures can you, the consumer, buy in a year? Dozens? Hundreds? It's not in Hasbro's best interests to produce too many figures in a year, because after a while, the market will sour on it. 2005 was an exception, as the company was caught a little with its pants down as to the number of figures they could sell in a "movie year" and still watch fans rabid for more. But let's take a quick history lesson, shall we? 2003 had 51 basic carded figures between "Saga" and "Clone Wars," plus exclusives and other special figures. That's quite a bit. In 2004, Hasbro released 21 "Saga" figures and 38 "OTC" basic figures. For the OTC line, only seven were "new," and of those, two borrowed heavily from existing figures-- R2-D2 was a modified POTF2/Saga Electronic R2-D2, and the Spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi was a modified 2000 POTJ figure-- much like we're seeing with "kitbashed" figures this year. (To continue on this thought, K-3PO, Mon Calamari Trooper, and an Endor Leia were all made using similar old and new part combinations in 2000 as line filler. Plus droid repaints-- it's nothing new.) Most fans see 2004 as one of the best years ever for Star Wars figures, and, not counting repaint updates of old figures, there were really only 28 "new" figures released and a crapload of packaging variants. So really, if you want to point a finger to cost-cutting, it started in 2004 and we daresay Hasbro did well with it. 2005 was different. The year started with a whopper of a year. 16 figures were in the post-OTC collection, 8 of which were all-new, 8 were repackaged figures, and the Revenge of the Sith collection contained a total of 68 basic figures, plus intentional repaint variations like the Wookiee Warrior, Quick-Draw Clone Trooper, Clone Commander, and Clone Pilot. (Plus multipacks, etc.) So while there were some revisits of old molds in there, if you bought one of every basic figure, you'd end up with either 88 carded figures or about 80 unpackaged figures, minimum, to complete your collection. (This number is, of course, insane and does not include things like the Blue Palpatine Saber variant or any of the many Anakin variations you can find [i.e., Sith Eyes vs. not, changing sabers, etc.]) So this brings us to 2006. My spies tell me that we can expect upwards of 60 new basic carded figures and it's going to be about half 100% new sculpts and half, well, not. So these include repaints like Barada, accessory swaps like Obi-Wan Kenobi, "kitbashes" like Boba Fett, and repaints like the Utapau Clone Trooper. And depending on your tastes, some of these "lame rehashes" will count as a good new figure and others, well, not. In the interests of not killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, I'm somewhat glad we're not necessarily going to see a completely insane 2006 with tons of new sculpts left and right and such. While I would have liked to have seen an all-new Muftak mold used for both a new Muftak and a new Foul Moudama, there's no getting around the fact that Hasbro is cheap and the current head of Star Wars marketing is the same guy that brought about countless rehashes and repaints to G.I. Joe to degrees of varying success. (On the whole, I liked the direction of Valor vs. Venom.) Hasbro decided to spend money on new molds like Scorch instead of Foul Moudama, and overall, I'm glad they did. If an old mold can be tweaked and tweaked well-- and let me tell you, the 1998 Muftak mold is one of the better of Kenner's twilight years-- I'm all for just taking the "modified" old figure and being happy. I just need to see more figures like Scorch, Major Derlin, Hammerhead 2006, and yes, R5-D4 to keep me on the happy-and-optimistic side of things. FIN Oh, joyous week. For those who preordered, Entertainment Earth has started to ship out the Astromech droids. (I was handed bolt cutters and was able to crack open-- with some help, as I have the strength of a small girl-- a giant container filled with thousands of units of these sets. Good times.) While I get excited about every new figure release, this one was especially special as it's the first time I got to guide ANYTHING to production from the ground-up rather than just weigh in on or develop an idea into something more exciting... like the Clones. So the initial reaction to these 10 droids, by me anyway, is great. There's a few paint ops that don't quite match the reference photos, but seeing that your average fan doesn't have access to said reference, I find it hard to believe most fans will know or even care. (It'll haunt me to the end of my days, however.) While R3-T2 didn't quite deliver what I had expected, R3-T6 exceeded it. The clear dome droid looks superb and is probably sufficient reason to buy the set. R2-X2 is great, but the weird thing about him is that he appears to have a white body painted black, and was not molded in black. (He looks cool, though.) Across the board, I'm quite happy with these, and will go into more depth in an upcoming feature. Keep your eyes on Lee's Action Figure News, ToyFare, and the Star Wars Insider for some really spiffy advertisments for these. (Black is the new black, you know.) In a real shocker, media companies are sending us (as in "me and my stupid projects, like this one) stuff to review. One that may interest you: Dark Horse's new Star Wars: The Comics Companion. I'm still thumbing through it because the first thing I do when I see the words "definitive guide" is start looking for errors. (I've got a list. I'm not seeing the serialized Tales from Mos Eisely Cantina, for example, which was published in both Topps' Star Wars Galaxy Collector as well as a one-shot from Dark Horse proper-- yet other serializations are mentioned. Overall, though, if you weren't in the comic shops in December of 1991 for Dark Empire #1 like some of us, this is a treasure trove of factoids and much more useful than thumbing through hundreds of comics when trying to find a specific storyline, and it does highlight some tales you may have missed-- we found one that totally slipped under our radar. But a full review is coming, like many other full reviews which I will some day get to rather than eating, sleeping, or spending quality time with the wife.) 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.) 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