New York City, NY
February 11, 2006
Story and Photos by Chris Spice (Darth Spice)
SANDTROOPERS IN THE BIG APPLE After successfully completing passage to the Empire city, we checked
in at Toy Fair NYC and made way to our appointment to see what Hasbro
had to offer for their annual collectors day. It has been quite some
time since I have made it this far east, but Hasbro had a couple of
items that made driving all night and working all day worth it. The
first area I requested to take photos of was the Titanium
collections. Along with Star Wars, we are also going to see some
Battlestar Galactica and Transformers in the near future. The 3.5 inch lineups looked good but paled in comparison to the 3.75 inch
lines that are slated for release. I can’t wait to see the 501st
Clone Trooper, Bossk, and especially the Sandtrooper that will force
me into buying at least some of this line for sure. The silver
figures will be short-packed and were labeled “chase” by our guide.
These will sell for $15.99.
There were quite a few new figures,
but what alarmingly appeared to be quite a whole lot more that were
not. Captian Piett has found his way to the Saga line, as well as
Chief Chirpa, C-3PO with bendable knees and his “throne”. Some
pleasant surprises were an all-new Death Star Gunner, as well as the
Galactic Hunt, which will have everyone chasing down the five new
VOTC figures, which photos surfaced online last week. With 5 proof
of purchase you will be able to mail away for a George Lucas in
Stormtrooper disguise. So I guess it’s safe to say now George has
armor! I also got a look at the newer packaging Hasbro will start to
use, and I also got a shot of what appeared to be a pewter looking
non-hologram pack-in mini figure. We will also see another Darth
Vader TIE Fighter and Mace Windu will finally receive his Jedi
Starfighter we never saw him fly. We could only speculate seeing as
the Hasbro reps didn’t know who the purple Starfighter belonged to.
There was also some interesting Galactic Heroes on hand; most
notable would be the Sandtrooper and Shock Trooper. The Unleashed Battle
Packs will continue, even though most die-hard collectors
would much prefer the 8-inch assortment. While the Star Wars
Transformers have yet to captivate me, I really liked the Millennium
Falcon that transforms into Han and Chewbacca. With electronics and
priced at $34.99, these should really help bring in a new crowd of
recruits. Only to be followed at a close second by the ARC-170
Fighter that converted into a Clone Pilot but the rehash has begun
with Jango Fett as well as many, many other products.
The Attacktix continue to roll out,
and they had a wide variety of samples that they were giving away.
The press received a 2006 Convention Exclusive gold-plated Darth
Vader TIE Fighter, which was nice gesture. I would like to thank the
people at Hasbro for inviting us out and with all the commotion we
barely had time to go to the gaming area and take a look at the new
Revenge of the Sith role-playing game which will most definitely
draw in a whole new dimension of Dungeoen and Dragons players.
Overall not quite as impressive as last years Revenge of the Sith
onslaught but with the Saga line and what has been released so far,
we couldn’t have expected any different. While I’m not completely
disappointed in the line, I still have hope that this will remain a
hobby, which collectors will love for many years to come. I look
forward to meeting up with Master Replicas, Sideshow Collectibles
and Gentle Giant to see what they have to offer this year. We will
report back tomorrow with our findings. United We Find!
PHOTO GALLERIES To see the different
photo galleries click on one of the links below.
After successfully completing passage to the Empire city, we checked
in at Toy Fair NYC and made way to our appointment to see what Hasbro
had to offer for their annual collectors day. It has been quite some
time since I have made it this far east, but Hasbro had a couple of
items that made driving all night and working all day worth it. The
first area I requested to take photos of was the Titanium
collections. Along with Star Wars, we are also going to see some
Battlestar Galactica and Transformers in the near future. The 3.5 inch lineups looked good but paled in comparison to the 3.75 inch
lines that are slated for release. I can’t wait to see the 501st
Clone Trooper, Bossk, and especially the Sandtrooper that will force
me into buying at least some of this line for sure. The silver
figures will be short-packed and were labeled “chase” by our guide.
These will sell for $15.99.
There were quite a few new figures,
but what alarmingly appeared to be quite a whole lot more that were
not. Captian Piett has found his way to the Saga line, as well as
Chief Chirpa, C-3PO with bendable knees and his “throne”. Some
pleasant surprises were an all-new Death Star Gunner, as well as the
Galactic Hunt, which will have everyone chasing down the five new
VOTC figures, which photos surfaced online last week. With 5 proof
of purchase you will be able to mail away for a George Lucas in
Stormtrooper disguise. So I guess it’s safe to say now George has
armor! I also got a look at the newer packaging Hasbro will start to
use, and I also got a shot of what appeared to be a pewter looking
non-hologram pack-in mini figure. We will also see another Darth
Vader TIE Fighter and Mace Windu will finally receive his Jedi
Starfighter we never saw him fly. We could only speculate seeing as
the Hasbro reps didn’t know who the purple Starfighter belonged to.
There was also some interesting Galactic Heroes on hand; most
notable would be the Sandtrooper and Shock Trooper. The Unleashed Battle
Packs will continue, even though most die-hard collectors
would much prefer the 8-inch assortment. While the Star Wars
Transformers have yet to captivate me, I really liked the Millennium
Falcon that transforms into Han and Chewbacca. With electronics and
priced at $34.99, these should really help bring in a new crowd of
recruits. Only to be followed at a close second by the ARC-170
Fighter that converted into a Clone Pilot but the rehash has begun
with Jango Fett as well as many, many other products.
The Attacktix continue to roll out,
and they had a wide variety of samples that they were giving away.
The press received a 2006 Convention Exclusive gold-plated Darth
Vader TIE Fighter, which was nice gesture. I would like to thank the
people at Hasbro for inviting us out and with all the commotion we
barely had time to go to the gaming area and take a look at the new
Revenge of the Sith role-playing game which will most definitely
draw in a whole new dimension of Dungeoen and Dragons players.
Overall not quite as impressive as last years Revenge of the Sith
onslaught but with the Saga line and what has been released so far,
we couldn’t have expected any different. While I’m not completely
disappointed in the line, I still have hope that this will remain a
hobby, which collectors will love for many years to come. I look
forward to meeting up with Master Replicas, Sideshow Collectibles
and Gentle Giant to see what they have to offer this year. We will
report back tomorrow with our findings. United We Find!
