"Jango's Jargon," Numero Siete! Odelay!
Well, we got Hasbro's answer to all our Jedi Master Point questions today. Here it be:
Hasbro is going the way of eBay by auctioning off some rare goods, with which you can bid and "pay for" with your "JMPs."
This technique is not too new to those of you who are familiar with Frito Lay "ePloids", which ran a similar style prize campaign for hard
to find, promotional Star Wars: Episode 2 goods. Bidders would try to score stuff such as
stand-ups, Star Pics, and more.
Now that you're all caught up on how these points are going to be used for something better than a UPC paper mache, lets break it down!
The Good:
Auction fodder is going to include Jorg Sacul, Toyfair Vader, Silver R2, and a host of other new, rare, and hard to find figs. Never has 5
years worth of collectible cardboard seemed so valuable!
The Bad:
The reception to this is less than warm. In fact, it's frigid. So cold, even a Wampa would cry. An auction!?" is
what's running through the minds of countless collectors. Collectors, myself included, would much
rather have a mail in type promotion, like the FF binoculars from the POTF 2 era. Something akin to the old school "Mail Away" vintage
promotions would kick ass just as well!
The Ugly:
Oh, and I do mean ugly. With the number of figures, as well as the test run of this promotion being limited, there in lies some problems.
1) Say Johnny Fanboy "wins" a Jorg Sacul for say, 4,000 JMP's. He knows he doesn't have that many, so is Hasbro going to just ASSUME he does,
and wait for him to mail in his precious UPC's. How do we know the bidder is not some shyster, with NO points at all, playing us all!
Exactly, we don't.
2) Hasbro is making it abundantly clear that we SHOULDN'T save up the Jedi Master Points for future auctions!? In the words of the
WWE's "Hurricane Helms", "Wussupwitdat!" People wait 5 years to use these things, pissing off recycling buffs, and now THEY are being told
that they have a limited amount of time in which to use these?
Whew, really kinda contradicts Hasbro's "Making the world smile" slogan, eh?
The Conclusion:
The promotion is going to give a lot of kids the chance to score some really nice stuff for all their spending on Hasbro's SW line. Sure, the
auction format looks like it's got some wrinkles that need to be ironed out, but hey. Hasbro is like a fine wine, in which it gets better with
age. Besides, we did JUST hear about it.
The 2003/2004 Saga line up is just out of this world and has collectors praise worldwide. Just give the whole thing time, and I am sure that
everything will work out just fine.
Until next week..
Jargon
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