1.Do you think the Build A Figs will be harder to come by down the road as they were shipped in parts and not every kid or collector cared to by all the other figs to complete one? Do you think Hasbro packs these as complete figs ratio wise that say 700,000 complete figs shipped in parts?
--Chris

The thing to remember about toys and toy collecting is that the original 1970s and 1980s Star Wars line is one of few flukes-- they are actually "worth" something to some people. Modern Star Wars is basically worthless. As such, it's really tough to determine the value of droid parts down the road. It's entirely possible some may be rare, but the build-a-droid parts were indeed shipped in the same ratios in every case shipped, save for the rare legit error. When Astromech droids ship, each case has 2 of one and 1 of the other. When protocol droids or larger ones ship, it's 2 per case. So the production is similar (or in some waves, greater than) the new figures in the wave. I'm also hearing buzz that some droids may make a return, although this is most certainly not confirmed buzz.

So to answer your question, each droid has just as many legs as bodies as heads and so on-- the question is, who's buying them, where will they go, and will anyone give a crap down the road? Few 1990s-onward-era action figures are really worth anything, particularly ones originally pitched to collectors. So as dodgy an answer as this is, this is really something we can't predict. Although the current trajectory makes it looks like, barring a reissue, some might actually command decent scratch. (If you don't already have an HK-47, you better hope Hasbro brings this action back to stores.) The sheer abundance of astromechs makes it seem less likely those will command a premium, so far anyway.

2. My questions are in regards to the Willrow Hood figure. Does anyone know who the actor was? Who was he? I mean don't you think fans are now going to want to meet and greet him at conventions and get his autograph on their figures? Do you think this figure will be hard to find and do you think it'll be shipped at 1 per case? I don't think Hasbro will want this one to be a peg warmer so I would assume this one might have a lower production number. Would you agree? And finally...what are the odds that Dark Horse would, and should, do a 1 shot Willrow Hood ESB issue about his events (and escape?) from Bespin of that fateful day the Empire arrived? They could even follow that up with another 1 shot (or 4 issue mini series) about Willrow's post ESB adventures. I'd buy that.
--Bck2DFtr

As of now it appears that whoever the extra was for that scene has not been named.

Due to the nature of fans in general, there's always going to be someone interested in meeting or greeting pretty much anyone associated with these films-- for all we know if he's still around the figure might cause the actor to hit the convention circuit.

As to the production numbers, right now, if you look at Entertainment Earth or any site that has the assortments up, he appears in just one case. And he's one-per-case in that one case, just like several other figures in the mix. Hasbro even confirmed that his production run will be similar to that of the new Malakili, which, so far, hasn't exactly been super-common. Regarding the comics, uh, are you making fun of me at this point?

3. I have been checking the local Walmarts almost every day and nothing except the blue packaged figures (the wave with the storm trooper with the jetpack, Yarna, and also a couple Emperors from the Empire wave) have been out until yesterday... I found at least 8 full sets of the Walmart Ex. Darktrooper 2-packs, about 20 Dewbacks, another 3 full cases of the octuptarra droid and evolutions sets, 2 cases of the New Hope wave, 8 turbo-tanks, and finally 1 of the Legacy Ep 2 waves! (So that's 12 octuptarra droids, 27 Walmart Ex. evolutions sets, 40 Darktrooper 2-packs #1-5, 12 Ep.2 figures, and 24 New Hope figures!) I talked to the toy manager, (new manager, there for about 4 months now, very knowledgeable) and he said after checking the computer that none of the stores in Kansas, except 2 in August, had gotten any Darktrooper sets, and that only 4 stores had recieved, since June, any cases of Legacy figures! Even then, only those 4 stores, in Kansas had recieved 5, 12 figure cases and my Walmart had recieved 3 of those 5. Of course they were all Empire wave figures and people only bought Princess Leia, the Hoth Trooper, and Captain Needa!

I cannot begin to say how happy I was to find the Darktrooper sets, and to see different figures on the pegs! I still don't really understand, and neither did the manager, what happened with the figures; still only one of the Legends cases ever shipped... I am also a little annoyed with the $17 price tag per set, but I can always sell a few of the figures I don't want, so I guess it will all work in the end. Also, no AT-ST, or any new comic packs besides the ones that came out last January, but heres hoping! So, after hearing this, what's your take on it?
--Austin

My hunch is you're being messed with-- as a rule, helpful retail employees are often misinformed retail employees. (There are many exceptions that post to the boards and the like, but generally helpful tips I've overheard from the aisles tend to be wrong.) On the other hand, if your store has a lot of unsold Legacy product in that SKU, it's probably not going to trigger a reorder on anything because they still "have" figures, just not what you want.

As to selling the figures in the Droid Factory set, well, I dunno about that. If they're the new/good ones, maybe, if they're the repacks, don't bet on it. The new AT-ST is just hitting now, it's possible it hasn't rolled across the entire USA yet, and it's also possible your store might just not have them yet. Or it's possible that your state is low-volume enough that someone snagged them all. Small towns and out-of-the-way places have typically been fantastic places to find hard-to-get figures and toys, but given how hard everything has been to get since wave 7, who knows? I'd say it's time to start networking with your fans on the forums and see if you're being beaten to the punch. Or if Kansas is just a black hole for this kind of stuff. (And if it makes you feel any better, most fans still haven't seen the new comic packs.)

Just for fun, I want to share this story from Reader Christian: "This isn't really a question, but I wanted to pass along something that I have found in my local Wal-Mart in Bloomington, Indiana. I have seen over the past 6 months several Star Wars items that go to clearance before going to shelf at the regular price. In September, I found the Turbo Tank on clearance for $60, and then at regular price two days later. I was able to score the ÒUnder the HelmetÓ two-packs for $7 each, the exclusive octupurra droid for $18, the exclusive ÒEvolutionsÓ packs for $12, and finally the new AT-ST for $23.46! All of them had the red ÒclearanceÓ tags, and were regular price within two days." I've seen some of these here and there, so yeah, Wal-Mart is pretty messed up.

4. Do you think there is the possibility that Hasbro might be done with their movie realistic line after the Legacy/Build A Droid collection comes to an end? Maybe they will put it on hold until the new TV series debuts? As a collector I wouldn't mind a break from it. It's getting quite stressful waiting for that EU wave to come out. It does have the some of the best new figures of the year in it. Also, I was wondering if you've seen the Luminura Unduli Clone Wars figure in your area yet? I haven't seen one around Southern Illinois yet.
--Kris

Hasbro is most certainly not done with the movie/realistic line but it's pretty much guaranteed "Legacy" and the build-a-droid program will end in the next year if history is any proof. Like you, I also wouldn't mind a break just to organize stuff and there might be a brief hiatus between lines, but looking at some of the questions-- assuming I'm not being messed with-- there's enough pent-up demand for stuff that Hasbro could probably ship out the past few waves for a while before meeting demand. I have no idea what's in their warehouse beyond what I can piece together from seeing what new shipments online sellers have been getting, and it seems precious little is selling out as of yet. (But that's probably going to change with normal Thanksgiving-era demand.)

The Clone Wars Luminara has been out since around August, but she's been popular-- as have most of the newer figures. She's pretty freaking swell, too. This time of year you should be seeing massive shipments of product for the gift-giving people out there, and if you keep an eye open you should be able to find lots of previously hard-to-find items.

5. So, comic book packs! Just read a Hasbro Q&A response and I couldn't help but get the feeling they were hinting that the comic packs are going completely the way of the exclusive...and not just Walmart exclusive but as in why-oh-why comic convention exclusive !!!???

Why do you think this is? I thought they were selling well, if not VERY well. If not, okay I get it completely, and I guess I'm not in the know on that one. But if they are selling well, why would Hasbro decide to do this to them? I'm trying to wrap my head around it. I know it must have something to do with the Clone Wars popularity and that perhaps they are guaranteed more bang for their efforts if they put more focus on that line, but still, if both sell well, why not sell both? Could it be they fear that these particular offerings (Camie/Fixer etc) might not do so well so they are wagering they'll make more as overpriced comic convention exclusives? Or have global economics, combined with perhaps many collectors for whatever reason suddenly deciding en masse to change their habits etc also played a factor in your opinion?
--Rob

When Hasbro designs a product, and it gets far enough along, they're going to want to use it somewhere eventually. The ALIENS Mini Dropship toy became a VR Troopers vehicle back in the 1990s, and today Hasbro is more likely to use the products for an exclusive that don't make it to the main line-- it's a great way to get some money out of the tooling, and generally speaking convention exclusives do OK.

I'm still trying to piece together what's going on here myself, as most of us are seeing new comic packs fly off the shelves. Part of the reason for this may be stores just aren't ordering very many, because as we've all seen there have only been two new waves of regular, non-exclusive comic packs released to stores in 2009. Both of which have been really tough to get-- so either Hasbro made a mistake, or stores just aren't ordering. The latter is more likely, it could also be that they're not selling many of these internationally due to the English-language comics or some other reason.

Some of the offerings seem really strange that we're not getting them yet, I'm shocked the Clone Trooper packs weren't forced to retail because it seems there's no reason those shouldn't do extremely well, even being repaints. Fixer and Camie-- a pack we've seen that Hasbro never told us about-- sounds like a risky product, and this is coming from someone who'd gladly overpay for that set. Sure, we know who they are, but I can't imagine anyone that's not a die-hard fan would be a potential customer for that pair.

The one thing I'm really curious about-- since we've seen the sculpt-- is the fate of Nom Anor, which I believe we were told was coming in a comic pack.

FIN

That's really all I have for now. It was a nice long weekend and I got a lot done, but it was pretty much a drag for Star Wars other than the rollout of Target's final 2009 exclusives in wider numbers. (The TIE Fighter and Battle Packs should be out now, if they aren't, go to another Target and get them there.) For fans of crazy hair and repaints and figures you already have, well, this is a good season to be you. The TIE Fighter is quite nice, but I'm also hoping that this is the final TIE Fighter we ever see out of Hasbro at this point. I was pretty stoked to see the TIE Interceptor at Toys "R" Us because the ship needed a better movie-specific version, but as to the TIE Fighter, we've got a whole fleet of the big wing one now.

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