TheJawa's Q&A Section - Ask Away!

[Napseeker]

Fantastic to hear we could get ladders as a standard part of the X-Wing package from now on. It never felt right not to have the ability to pose Luke/Wedge/etc on the ladders....

[Darth Spice]

so I'm confused where is this weeks jawa questions from hasbro, it says they are there on the sandtroopers front page, but I don't see them here?

Sorry for the confusion, they've been posted in the correct thread. Alex put it in the same one as ST's but it's now been fixed. 

[chewykingwookie]

Anyone have questions for Hasbro this month? Let's hear them if you do.

[Napseeker]

Well here's my ongoing list (revised, with older questions removed)...

Q. It's great to see Hasbro finally release a 501st Legion trooper using the #41 RotS mold. However, I bought a few and noticed a problem: the helmet's blue stripe is incorrect!  The stripe should be continuous but instead we have a gap between the black rim and the visor. Also the stripe is too wide and should instead narrow from the top of the helmet to the chin.  Please see the paintjob that was done for your TSC Commander Appo figure which was done correctly (although on Appo, he had too much dirt and his chest stripe didn't reach all the way to the neck). Can Hasbro please correct the problem for a future Legends release, I'd love to army build dozens more but only if it's accurately done.

Q. The black RA-7 Build-A-Droid looks great, but isn't the color of the eyes incorrect?  The BaD has gold/bronze eye lenses, but in ANH it seems as if it has silver eyes (and even Hasbro's PotF2 figure used silver eyes).  If this is a mistake, can Hasbro consider including a corrected head in a future Legacy wave so we can actually get a proper version of this character?

Q. The shirtless Evolutions Darth Maul looks great but if Hasbro ever re-releases this sculpt again, say... as part of a 2pack with a Sith training droid from the Darth Maul comic, could you use a brighter shade of red paint?  It was disappointing that the Evo Maul had such a muddy red look whereas in previous action figure incarnations, Hasbro used a much more intense red that really made him stand out.  And any chance of including a softgoods outfit with a re-release?

Q. With talk that Hasbro might reuse the Ten Numb/Keyan Farlander sculpt again in 2009, can you fix the tendency for this figure to lean over to his left side?  While the problem is not as bad on Keyan, on Ten he leans over quite conspicuously. I wouldn't want to end up with a small squad of B-Wing pilots that all lean over to one side as Hasbro uses this sculpt for future pilot figures.

Q. The only really disappointing aspect about both the TAC Mace Windu and now the TLC Stass Allie is the use of rigid plastic for the Jedi skirt. Hasbro took a big step in the right direction with the elasticized skirts and partial soft goods for the rear when they re-did both Obi-Wan and Anakin for TAC so they could easily sit and pose their legs in more dynamic action poses.  That can't be said for Mace or Stass though and it's frustrating that I can't sit them either in Jedi starfighters or in my Jedi Council set from a few years ago.  Could Hasbro please try to design future Jedi figures similar to the Obi and Anakin for better overall playability and poseability?

Q. For the other rebel ground crewman that was dropped from the Scramble battlepack, can Hasbro include him in a way that makes it easy to army build? For those of us who want to recreate the Yavin ceremony, there are dozens of these crewmen in the audience. Hasbro may love it if we buy a dozen battlepacks to get more of this guy, but our wallets sure wouldn't. And what about making it easier to swap heads with future rebel figures so that we can try to diversify the looks of the crewmen (they aren't clones after all).

Q. Now that we're getting an eps2 Obi-Wan at last, perhaps Hasbro would consider a battlepack that would feature Obi with a spear, the Evo eps2 Anakin with a better likeness, and the Evo eps2 Padme (with torn shirt) included alongside the 3 pillars from the Geonosis Arena?  Folks have already had the chance to get the 3 beasts in an earlier arena BP, but the missing part to the scene would be the accurately scaled pillars to chain our 3 heroes to.   Even if the pillars don't match the real scale (which admittedly would be quite tall), it'd be great to have something to complete the scene. Is there any chance of this happening?

[DarthWormie]

Here's the latest, and YES we are aware that they answered the X-Wing ladder question twice for us.

With talk that Hasbro might reuse the Ten Numb/Keyan Farlander sculpt again in 2009, can you fix the tendency for this figure to lean over to his left side?  While the problem is not as bad on Keyan, on Ten he leans over quite conspicuously. I wouldn't want to end up with a small squad of B-Wing pilots that all lean over to one side as Hasbro uses this sculpt for future pilot figures.

The B-Wing figure was actually designed to stand more "at ease" rather than in a straight lineup, with one leg forward from the other, even though he was not packed out that way.  We try to give our figures an overall neutral pose because collectors like to pose their figures in different ways, but we try to incorporate a natural stance to them so that they feel alive and don't feel stiff.  That probably explains what you are seeing.  At this point, the upcoming red version of Ten Numb will use the same figure.

My son loves the Galactic Heroes line, especially the ships...except for one thing. Why is the Millenium Falcon the only ship that comes with lights and sound features? Just by the looks of the molds on some of them like Vader's TIE Fighter and the Jedi Starfighter, there appears to be enough room to perhaps incorporate some. Was there ever any thought given to including sounds/lights on the other ships or is this simply a price/cost decision?

The reason you don't see more electronics in the Galactic Heroes vehicle lineup is because, in the early days of GH in 2004, the Millennium Falcon and the X-Wing did sport electronics, but at the higher price points that we needed to command, sales were very sluggish.  Unfortunately, interest was so low at those price points that we reached the point where all plans for additional vehicles were abandoned (including the then-modeled but never-tooled Darth Vader TIE Fighter, which was designed to house electronics at that time).  It wasn't until the conception of the Cinema Scene format that vehicles found their way back into the lineup, but the need to strictly manage these to the $20/$25 price point does not allow us to put electronics into the vehicles. The Jedi Starfighter is a recent creation and was not designed to house electronics.

Could Hasbro make it a point to include the ladder with all of your future X-Wing releases?  Or to include the ladder again with another Yavin hangar battlepack so collectors can pick up a few spares to go with their existing X-Wings?

That is a solid plan, and in future X-Wing releases we'll plan on it. No plans right now for another Yavin pack, but if we did, it's a good accessory to include.

[jokabofe]

we are aware that they answered the X-Wing ladder question twice for us.

Yeah, but what's funny is that they gave a similar, but different answer each time. First time it was kinda like "maybe" while the second time it was more like "YES THAT'S AN AWESOME IDEA!!!1!" - wonder which one is the 'right' answer 

[Napseeker]

Wait that doesn't make sense - was the question submitted twice by mistake or did Hasbro mix up and not answer another question and instead chose to answer the older X-Wing ladder one?

[Napseeker]

Questions for the next round deadline (whenever that is, I can't even tell anymore - but I'll keep updating my list periodically as answers come in to existing questions):

Q. The black RA-7 Build-A-Droid looks great, but isn't the color of the eyes incorrect?  The BaD has gold/bronze eye lenses, but in ANH it seems as if it has silver eyes (and even Hasbro's PotF2 figure used silver eyes).  If this is a mistake, can Hasbro consider including a corrected head in a future Legacy wave so we can actually get a proper version of this character?

Q. The shirtless Evolutions Darth Maul looks great but if Hasbro ever re-releases this sculpt again, say... as part of a 2pack with a Sith training droid from the Darth Maul comic, could you use a brighter shade of red paint, like in your original Eps1 Maul figure?  It was disappointing that the Evo Maul had such a muddy red look whereas in previous action figure incarnations, Hasbro used a much more intense red that really made him stand out.  This would also be a great time to release a new Tatooine Darth Maul (e.g. Evo Maul with soft goods cloak but a plastic hood similar to the idea of the plastic hood you used for the TAC TESB Emperor).

Q. The only really disappointing aspect about both the TAC Mace Windu and now the TLC Stass Allie is the use of rigid plastic for the Jedi skirt. Hasbro took a big step in the right direction with the elasticized skirts and partial soft goods for the rear when they re-did both Obi-Wan and Anakin for TAC so they could easily sit and pose their legs in more dynamic action poses.  That can't be said for Mace or Stass though and it's frustrating that I can't sit them either in Jedi starfighters or in my Jedi Council set from a few years ago.  Could Hasbro please try to design future Jedi figures similar to the Obi and Anakin for better overall playability and poseability?

Q. For the other rebel ground crewman that was dropped from the Scramble battlepack, can Hasbro include him in a way that makes it easy to army build? For those of us who want to recreate the Yavin ceremony, there are dozens of these crewmen in the audience. Hasbro may love it if we buy a dozen battlepacks to get more of this guy, but our wallets sure wouldn't. And what about making it easier to swap heads with future rebel figures so that we can try to diversify the looks of the crewmen (they aren't clones after all).

Q. Now that we're getting an eps2 Obi-Wan at last, perhaps Hasbro would consider a battlepack that would feature Obi with a spear, the Evo eps2 Anakin with a better likeness, and the Evo eps2 Padme (with torn shirt) included alongside the 3 pillars from the Geonosis Arena?  Folks have already had the chance to get the 3 beasts in an earlier arena BP, but the missing part to the scene would be the accurately scaled pillars to chain our 3 heroes to.   Even if the pillars don't match the real scale (which admittedly would be quite tall), it'd be great to have something to complete the scene. Is there any chance of this happening?

[DarthWormie]

The latest batch is back from Hasbro:

1) It's great to see Hasbro finally release a 501st Legion trooper using the #41 RotS mold. However, I bought a few and noticed a problem: the helmet's blue stripe is incorrect! The stripe should be continuous but instead we have a gap between the black rim and the visor. Also the stripe is too wide and should instead narrow from the top of the helmet to the chin.  Please see the paintjob that was done for your TSC Commander Appo figure which was done correctly (although on Appo, he had too much dirt and his chest stripe didn't reach all the way to the neck). Can Hasbro please correct the problem for a future Legends release, I'd love to army build dozens more but only if it's accurately done.

Thanks for the feedback on this one - we had not heard that on this guy and will definitely look to correct for the upcoming Saga Legends re-release.  It will probably be a running change at this point.  Thanks much for the email on this.

2. The black RA-7 Build-A-Droid looks great, but isn't the color of the eyes incorrect?  The BaD has gold/bronze eye lenses, but in ANH it seems as if it has silver eyes (and even Hasbro's PotF2 figure used silver eyes).  If this is a mistake, can Hasbro consider including a corrected head in a future Legacy wave so we can actually get a proper version of this character?

We work with Lucasfilm on the coloring of the figures, and this is what was determined was the correct coloration. It sometimes happens that previous color schemes were thought to be correct, but turned out to be slightly off. When we re-release or upgrade figures, we sometimes go back and adjust seemingly canonical figure colors as better reference becomes available.

3. The shirtless Evolutions Darth Maul looks great but if Hasbro ever re-releases this sculpt again, say... as part of a 2pack with a Sith training droid from the Darth Maul comic, could you use a brighter shade of red paint?  It was disappointing that the Evo Maul had such a muddy red look whereas in previous action figure incarnations, Hasbro used a much more intense red that really made him stand out.  And any chance of including a softgoods outfit with a re-release?

Thanks for the feedback.  We will look at this for any future releases. This Fall's Wal-Mart exclusive Droid Factory wave - which uses this figure and a soft goods robe, might satisfy your needs (although the figure is a little darker than the Evo figure version).  Beyond that, we don't have any plans for the figure but if we did re-release we will take your comments into account. Thanks!

[Napseeker]

FANTASTIC!  At last they're going to fix the helmet striping on the 501st.  I'd already bought a couple from the current Legends lineup but it'll be such a relief to see accurately-painted troopers finally!  (That said, I hope they actually do it right.... you never know)

I'll update my question list to reflect the answered ones:

Q. The only really disappointing aspect about both the TAC Mace Windu and now the TLC Stass Allie is the use of rigid plastic for the Jedi skirt. Hasbro took a big step in the right direction with the elasticized skirts and partial soft goods for the rear when they re-did both Obi-Wan and Anakin for TAC so they could easily sit and pose their legs in more dynamic action poses.  That can't be said for Mace or Stass though and it's frustrating that I can't sit them either in Jedi starfighters or in my Jedi Council set from a few years ago.  Could Hasbro please try to design future Jedi figures similar to the Obi and Anakin for better overall playability and poseability?

Q. For the other rebel ground crewman that was dropped from the Scramble battlepack, can Hasbro include him in a way that makes it easy to army build? For those of us who want to recreate the Yavin ceremony, there are dozens of these crewmen in the audience. Hasbro may love it if we buy a dozen battlepacks to get more of this guy, but our wallets sure wouldn't. And what about making it easier to swap heads with future rebel figures so that we can try to diversify the looks of the crewmen (they aren't clones after all).

Q. Now that we're getting an eps2 Obi-Wan at last, perhaps Hasbro would consider a battlepack that would feature Obi with a spear, the Evo eps2 Anakin with a better likeness, and the Evo eps2 Padme (with torn shirt) included alongside the 3 pillars from the Geonosis Arena?  Folks have already had the chance to get the 3 beasts in an earlier arena BP, but the missing part to the scene would be the accurately scaled pillars to chain our 3 heroes to.   Even if the pillars don't match the real scale (which admittedly would be quite tall), it'd be great to have something to complete the scene. Is there any chance of this happening?

Q. If Hasbro ever does re-release the Utapau clonetrooper again in the Legends lineup, could you tweak the orange paint a bit? I own many of the 212th already and noticed that the orange is a bit too strong compared to the movie clones; in the film, they seem to be more of a light gold-orange whereas the action figures are a strong deep orange.  The current Clone Wars line of 212th clones for example, seem to have tweaked the orange to better match the film.

Q. Even though Hasbro won't be making any new tooling for Titanium, is it not possible to just keep some of the more popular vehicles in circulation so that new fans can still add them to their collections?  Would not vehicles like the Obi/Anakin eps2 and eps3 starfighters, Tie Fighters, Falcon, AT-AT, X-Wing, the new revised gunship, and AT-TE, not be strong sellers? These always sold out very fast while the other "EU" repaints (e.g. "Shadow [whatever]") and those speeder-bike-based (Leia/Luke/ewok) titaniums lingered for ages.  To this day, I still never found the eps3 Obi fighter with hyperspace ring for example... what if for 2010, Hasbro simply reissued all of the most popular ships only, nothing new whatsoever, no new tooling made, and just took profit from that until it could be justified again to make new tooling (and even then only for non-EU vehicles that would be strong sellers like the CIS Spider Walker, a revised Star Destroyer, revised Executor, Republic Acclamator, etc).  Surely this would keep the line alive in a profitable way for you?

[philippi]

Dear Hasbro,
Since Ewoks always seem to be good sellers, have you ever considered including a female Ewok to the line? If it's a possibility, how about making it Chief Chirpa's daughter Princess Kneesaa? Even though she was not in Return of the Jedi, she was the most marketed EU character of the Original Trilogy era, appearing as a main character in cartoons and comics, as well as in many different kinds of merchandise: plates, stickers, cards, books, games, dolls...you name it! From '84-'85 Ewoks were huge and Kneesaa was pretty much the number two Ewok character behind Wicket. To this day she is probably the most heavily marketed EU character of all time, yet she has never been made into an action figure. Is there a desire at Hasbro to some day get a Kneesaa figure out there?

[MonkeyCrumb]

1. In a recent Q&A, in regard to the collector-oriented figures you stated that "the collector figures really started to struggle compared to all past years." My question is how do you account for Bane Malar? He shipped in EQUAL quantity to Ak-Rev and Yarna Gargan and yet he completely sold out! Gargan was a very niche figure and not action-oriented, and Ak-Rev was so poorly articulated and as such both had little play value. Based on the success of Bane Malar, does Hasbro recognize the potential of collector oriented figures that are well articulated and chosen wisely? Yes, we know that super-articulation adds to your costs, but compare the sales figures and I'm sure you'll see the benefit. Please look at what you did right in the initial Legacy wave instead of focusing on the mistakes when planning the future of the line.

2. The Scramble On Yavin Battlepack is a thing of beauty! Any chance of seeing the Rebel Technichian released separately at some point? Especially with the variant head originally planned as the second figure in this pack? I really want to army-build this figure and he is such a work of art!

[DarthWormie]

Glad to see some more people getting involved with the Q&A! Hopefully we'll have answers for all of you next go-around.

[jokabofe]

Just send them to me. I'm sure I can give the same answer Hasbro will.

[Napseeker]

What happened to our answers for this round?

[DarthWormie]

1. With talk that Hasbro might reuse the Ten Numb/Keyan Farlander sculpt again in 2009, can you fix the tendency for this figure to lean over to his left side?  While the problem is not as bad on Keyan, on Ten he leans over quite conspicuously. I wouldn't want to end up with a small squad of B-Wing pilots that all lean over to one side as Hasbro uses this sculpt for future pilot figures.

This figure was actually made to stand with one leg forward, rather than the standard "at attention" pose that a lot of our pilots have.  We were trying to give some variety to the posing so scenes could look a little more organic and like we see in many scenes. We have heard from a number of collectors that they would prefer to have figures that are in a standard pose, so this is something we'll consider, especially as we release future B-Wing Pilots.

2. The only really disappointing aspect about both the TAC Mace Windu and now the TLC Stass Allie is the use of rigid plastic for the Jedi skirt. Hasbro took a big step in the right direction with the elasticized skirts and partial soft goods for the rear when they re-did both Obi-Wan and Anakin for TAC so they could easily sit and pose their legs in more dynamic action poses.  That can't be said for Mace or Stass though and it's frustrating that I can't sit them either in Jedi starfighters or in my Jedi Council set from a few years ago.  Could Hasbro please try to design future Jedi figures similar to the Obi and Anakin for better overall playability and poseability?

That's a great comment that we'll pass on to the design team.  Thanks very much!

3. For the other rebel ground crewman that was dropped from the Scramble battlepack, can Hasbro include him in a way that makes it easy to army build? For those of us who want to recreate the Yavin ceremony, there are dozens of these crewmen in the audience. Hasbro may love it if we buy a dozen battlepacks to get more of this guy, but our wallets sure wouldn't. And what about making it easier to swap heads with future rebel figures so that we can try to diversify the looks of the crewmen (they aren't clones after all).

While it's a great idea, we can't ensure a head-swap standard since we don't have a "universal" size and the size of the neck ball differs based on the figure (they are sculpted by an array of sculptors).  As for the future repacking of the ground crew figure, we have no plans to get him back out there but understand the desire.  Perhaps some day we will look at him again.

[philippi]

Hasbro,
I like the 'cameo' figures of cast and crew who played a big part in the making of the saga, and apparently so do the people who put together the Star Wars line. It's been nice to see the Lucas family, Joe Johnston (Spacetrooper), Ralph McQuarrie (Pharl McQuarrie), Anthony Daniels (Dannl Faytonni), Ahmed Best (Achk Med-Beq), and now, if the rumors are true, Jeremy Bulloch being honored with action figures based on their appearances in the movies. Is there a desire at Hasbro to at some point make figures of Rick McCallum (Naboo noble), Nick Gillard (Cin Drallig), Richard Marquand (AT-ST Driver), Warwick Davis (Weazel) and one of my favorites, Ben Burtt as Ebenn Q3 Baobab?

[DarthWormie]

Latest & greatest from Big H:

1) In a recent Q&A, in regard to the collector-oriented figures you stated that "the collector figures really started to struggle compared to all past years." My question is how do you account for Bane Malar? He shipped in EQUAL quantity to Ak-Rev and Yarna Gargan and yet he completely sold out! Gargan was a very niche figure and not action-oriented, and Ak-Rev was so poorly articulated and as such both had little play value. Based on the success of Bane Malar, does Hasbro recognize the potential of collector oriented figures that are well articulated and chosen wisely? Yes, we know that super-articulation adds to your costs, but compare the sales figures and I'm sure you'll see the benefit. Please look at what you did right in the initial Legacy wave instead of focusing on the mistakes when planning the future of the line.


A) That is an excellent point, and one which we recognize and does factor into our decision when picking figures.  Bane Malor was a very well-received figure, but not becase of the articulation necessarily.  He is an intriguing figure, is clearly a fighter/type, and has a certain unique, identifiable "galaxy far far away" vibe about him that places him squarley in the Star Wars universe and makes you want to know more about him.  Some of the other figures that have been struggling - Yarna, Ak-Rev to a certain extent, the Organas, and even Pons Limbic - don't have the same kind of quality to them.  So among collector-targeted figures, there are a couple sub-types that allow them to be separated into the "aggressive" camp (Bane Malor, Rum Sleg, skiff Gaurds, bounty hunter-types) and the more background/passive types.  The former seem the "safe" bets for these collector-figure spots, but we are still going to be pursuing the second type as well because a certain number of these figures every year helps keep the emotional heartbeat of the line going.  We just have to be careful on the overall number we commit to both in the number we produce, since they eat our tooling budget at a rapid rate, and since we don't want to slow down the productivity of figures at retail  The majority of problems should be behind us this Spring as we rgain balance with the collector base.

Since Ewoks always seem to be good sellers, have you ever considered including a female Ewok to the line? If it's a possibility, how about making it Chief Chirpa's daughter Princess Kneesaa? Even though she was not in Return of the Jedi, she was the most marketed EU character of the Original Trilogy era, appearing as a main character in cartoons and comics, as well as in many different kinds of merchandise: plates, stickers, cards, books, games, dolls...you name it! From '84-'85 Ewoks were huge and Kneesaa was pretty much the number two Ewok character behind Wicket. To this day she is probably the most heavily marketed EU character of all time, yet she has never been made into an action figure. Is there a desire at Hasbro to some day get a Kneesaa figure out there?


A) Yes, we would certainly like to get to her some time, but after we have attacked more of the on-screen Ewoks.  There are plenty of them to go, and over the next few years we hope to keep producing them in mainline, and exclusives, to keep growing out that Ewok clan.

3) For the other rebel ground crewman that was dropped from the Scramble battlepack, can Hasbro include him in a way that makes it easy to army build? For those of us who want to recreate the Yavin ceremony, there are dozens of these crewmen in the audience. Hasbro may love it if we buy a dozen battlepacks to get more of this guy, but our wallets sure wouldn't. And what about making it easier to swap heads with future rebel figures so that we can try to diversify the looks of the crewmen (they aren't clones after all).

A) We can definitely look at releasing the ground crewman in another pack or as a single carded item with a different head sculpt. As for the neck joint ball, this is something that we have been trying to standardize with our China vendors. The way it has worked is that we send them the completed sculpt using a standard ball size (we have two sizes that we use for most figures, depending on the figures head size), but from time to time they will make adjustments to the size depending on the specific needs of the figure (i.e. whether it needs to fit into a helmet, etc.). By the time we finally see the figure, the factory has made the decision on final part fit and the figure has already been tooled. We are actually in the process of trying once again to work with the vendors to push for a more consistent standardization of the articulation (especially ball joint necks) and will hopefully have good results to share going forward.

[Napseeker]

You know what's odd?  Once in a while, my question seems to get submitted twice for two Q&A sessions in a row (like the one about the Rebel hangar guy above) and Hasbro gives a fairly different answer each time. I'm assuming there's two different guys who do the answers, taking turns.  I like the clearer answer we got this time about standardizing the neck ball joints - it at least shows Hasbro is trying to make it easier for us to do our own custom figures with easier headswaps!

UPDATED LIST OF QUESTIONS:

1. Now that Hasbro has a more accurately-sized Grievous mold, is there any chance we can get an updated "Demise of Grievous"?  The previous version used the smaller Sneak Preview Grievous, was a pricey Target-exclusive that those of us outside the US couldn't even buy...  A new "dying grievous" with snap-on flames would be a great way to make a more widely available figure to those who missed out on the exclusive and reuse your existing tooling. Maybe you could even put a new interior into his chest so that when the ribcage is opened up there's now a translucent orangey "on fire" effect?

2. Even though I normally only collect the realistic line, I did recently buy the CW "Goldie" figure during a sale and was blown away at how many little features the CW astromech mold has compared to the R4-G9 sculpt used for the realistic astromechs. That immediately begged the question: hey, when do we get a realistic R2 that has the same level of features?  I'd love to get a manually adjustable scope, tow rope (with a C3PO head accessory to tow along), drill, and computer link plug... the most we've ever gotten was the attachable drill and plug and that only appeared once with the VotC R2 and never used again.  Can Hasbro not also pimp up the realistic R2D2 at some point too?

3. In the last Q&A, you mentioned you were trying to talk to the China vendors again about standardizing on the ball-joint of the neck (but that they often tweak the ball size to meet needs like fitting a helmet and this alters the neck size by the time of the finished figure).  Is there any possibility of using Hasbro's own GI Joe 25th Anniversary line as a future guide?  I've never really had any problems swapping heads on my Joes due to their standardized neck ball and if there's one thing I hope Hasbro realizes from the success of BaD it's that kids (and adults!) like swapping around heads and limbs to make their own custom SW figures. There's huge play value in making your own Jedi/Sith characters, or putting an Anakin head on a different Jedi body essentially giving Anakin a new costume.  In fact it encourages kids to build a large collection of SW figures in order to have a big library of heads or bodies to swap amongst.  That said then, it'd be nice to have GI Joe and SW heads be cross-compatible to not only have even more opportunities to customize new characters, but from Hasbro's point of view, it could encourage spillover sales from one line into the other.

[darthjaybay]

Will we be seeing an E-3PO (snooty Bespin protocal droid) in the Build a droid line up before it ends?  If not, could we see a carded version?

[darthjaybay]

I was wondering where a new Ghost of Yoda and Ghost of Obi Wan are on your "parking lot" list?  We need the pair to go with that fantastic Ghost of Anakin you released in the Anniversay Collection!

[Trooper31]

Will we be seeing an E-3PO (snooty Bespin protocal droid) in the Build a droid line up before it ends?  If not, could we see a carded version?

I second this one.

[darthdan]

any new q n a questions for the jawa this week?

[Major fett]

Will we be seeing an E-3PO (snooty Bespin protocal droid) in the Build a droid line up before it ends?  If not, could we see a carded version?

I second this one.

Doesn't E-3PO look exactly like U-3PO?

[darthdan]

Will we be seeing an E-3PO (snooty Bespin protocal droid) in the Build a droid line up before it ends?  If not, could we see a carded version?

I second this one.

Doesn't E-3PO look exactly like U-3PO?

that's what I always thought....

[Napseeker]

Someone asked the same thing over at another forum and they had pics to show that E3PO is silver vs the silver-but-champagne U3PO that we just got as a BaD.  So yeah, I mean small differences but you know how anal we collector nerds are.  I'd like to also treat my U3PO as the version of TC-14 that I always wanted but so far haven't gotten and YET, deep down I know this isn't TC-14 and that'll push me to buy a TC-14 BaD someday I'm sure. 

And yet as  a kid, I had no probs pretending the Death Star Commander was just "Luke in disguise" during play until I finally bought a real Tatooine Luke 2 years later...

[darthdan]

yeah I just use tc-14 as a stand in too

[philippi]

Hasbro,
I'm glad that you have continued on with the exclusive droid factory two packs, and I am really looking forward to the Episode II C-3PO that is supposed to be coming in one of the sets next year. I am a little concerned with the price of these though. I would like to see more waves, but I'm worried that the high price may cause some people to think twice about buying these sets. That being said, I am really pleased that you decided to include a set based on the Droids TV series. BL-17 is a great looking droid! Have you considered including some more characters from the Droids series in future waves like IG-88, C-3PO or R2-D2 in their Droids colors?

[Napseeker]

UPDATED LIST OF QUESTIONS:

1. Now that Hasbro has a more accurately-sized Grievous mold, is there any chance we can get an updated "Demise of Grievous"?  The previous version used the smaller Sneak Preview Grievous, was a pricey Target-exclusive that those of us outside the US couldn't even buy...  A new "dying grievous" with snap-on flames would be a great way to make a more widely available figure to those who missed out on the exclusive and reuse your existing tooling. Maybe you could even put a new interior into his chest so that when the ribcage is opened up there's now a translucent orangey "on fire" effect?

2. In the last Q&A, you mentioned you were trying to talk to the China vendors again about standardizing on the ball-joint of the neck (but that they often tweak the ball size to meet needs like fitting a helmet and this alters the neck size by the time of the finished figure).  Is there any possibility of using Hasbro's own GI Joe 25th Anniversary line as a future guide?  I've never really had any problems swapping heads on my Joes due to their standardized neck ball and if there's one thing I hope Hasbro realizes from the success of BaD it's that kids (and adults!) like swapping around heads and limbs to make their own custom SW figures. There's huge play value in making your own Jedi/Sith characters, or putting an Anakin head on a different Jedi body essentially giving Anakin a new costume.  In fact it encourages kids to build a large collection of SW figures in order to have a big library of heads or bodies to swap amongst.  That said then, it'd be nice to have GI Joe and SW heads be cross-compatible to not only have even more opportunities to customize new characters, but from Hasbro's point of view, it could encourage spillover sales from one line into the other.

3. I wanted to point out an odd aspect to your recent Captain Piett figure. I noticed that the sculpt for his chest is a bit asymmetrical: his left shoulder is lower than his right shoulder, and from the backside it looks as if he's shrugging his right shoulder upward a bit. If you put his arms at his sides, you can see that his left hand is lower down than his right.  While it's not a big deal for a single character, I was a bit concerned that since Hasbro would obviously want to reuse this excellent torso for a ton of future Imperial officers that we might end up with a slew of officers with this same quirk (which, while not that noticeable on just Piett, would become quite irritating when every officer has it too). Any chance of just tweaking this to make both sides symmetrical again?

[chewykingwookie]

The latest round of answers for theJawa questions:


1) I was wondering where a new Ghost of Yoda and Ghost of Obi Wan are on your "parking lot" list?  We need the pair to go with that fantastic Ghost of Anakin you released in the Anniversay Collection!

A) They are a little lower right now, the simple reason being that we haven't had a "repaint" wave in a while and those figures are perfect candidates for a high-impact wave that does not need tooling.  We have been using our "repainting" slots on either new or higher-impact characters lately.  The time will come, though, when these deserving figures see the light of day, so patience will be rewarded.

2) In the last Q&A, you mentioned you were trying to talk to the China vendors again about standardizing on the ball-joint of the neck (but that they often tweak the ball size to meet needs like fitting a helmet and this alters the neck size by the time of the finished figure).  Is there any possibility of using Hasbro's own GI Joe 25th Anniversary line as a future guide?  I've never really had any problems swapping heads on my Joes due to their standardized neck ball and if there's one thing I hope Hasbro realizes from the success of BaD it's that kids (and adults!) like swapping around heads and limbs to make their own custom SW figures. There's huge play value in making your own Jedi/Sith characters, or putting an Anakin head on a different Jedi body essentially giving Anakin a new costume.  In fact it encourages kids to build a large collection of SW figures in order to have a big library of heads or bodies to swap amongst.  That said then, it'd be nice to have GI Joe and SW heads be cross-compatible to not only have even more opportunities to customize new characters, but from Hasbro's point of view, it could encourage spillover sales from one line into the other.

A) Thanks for the "heads-up" about the uniformity of the GI Joe head ball joint.  We definitely have not had that as a priority.  While customizing is a priority for a small number of collectors, the ability to achieve it would allow for more flexibility in custimization, which is a good thing. We'll talk to the GI Joe team to see what they have been able to achieve on the factory side.  Thanks.

3) I'm wondering if you can clarify an issue about Star Wars vehicles, or the reissue of. Why do you reissue the Imperial Shuttle and the AT-AT about every 10 years or so. but with other vehicles you reissue those within no time and even repaint constantly.

A) It all depends upon how iconic these vehicles are, their demand among kids and collectors both, and their entertainemnt support that determines our re-release strategy. The simple reason for the vehicle you cited is that the Imperial Shuttle is a very niche vehicle, and from the OTC movies, whereas vehicles like the Republic Gunship are from Episode III AND the Clone Wars, and remain in high demand among both collectors and kids. One thing we like to look for in any vehicle release is a "new story" to tell, like we had with the Endor AT-AT in 2006. There are others vehicles that have recent entertainment gravitas (like the ARC-170) that merit similar re-release status. We'll put you down as a fan of both the Imperial Shuttle and the AT-AT and look for an opportunity for re-release when we can, assuming we can find a new story to tell with these.