Wait - is there a place for all the Q&As? Because that would be really convenient.

what are the main differences, other than the hats, between that posted above and this

It's exactly the same set. There are two different types of packaging, one with the hats on, and one without, but they both have the hats included (which are removable).

Saw it.  Liked it.  Not for $50.

If you're into the Mattel line, these are a great deal, considering they charge $20 a piece for single figures as it is, and they've never released any GBII figures at all until now. Separately, they'd be $80 if they sold that way. If you really do like them, you're not gonna find them cheaper, that's for sure.

Interesting to hear this info, and congrats on the award!  Like others have said, it doesn't necessarily surprise me.  Keep in mind, it sounds like the guy making the "cellar dweller" comments about SW fans/etc. is not a guy who even works remotely close to the line(s), but a corporate person. 

He is definitely a corporate guy, being a VP, and I don't think he has any direct link to tooling around the minutia of the lines, but he is definitely involved with the company's direction, and that's just as important as the smaller teams for each brand, if not more so, because that decides what gets the share of their marketing, money, and overall focus. I wouldn't discount the power of he or others at his level in the company.

While the collector communities for any brand are the minority, they obviously still pay attention to us, as any great number of obscure or obvious collection-minded merchandise has been made available to us over the last nearly two decades that the modern line has been around. I don't think they're ignoring us; I just thought that in a presentation to a group who knows nothing about Hasbro at all, that Star Wars was barely a blip on their radar in informing those ignorant of what Hasbro does. I would have thought it would have shared some amount of focus, but it was barely there.

Oh, and thanks for the congrats on the award - it's not a huge one, but it's always nice to be recognized.

I should also note that based on one of the several money graphs he showed, it appeared that SW was their top money brand, interestingly enough, falling just under Barbie and one other brand I can't recall in all worldwide brands. They're happy to be producing it, but it's not their top priority. I think they know they're just printing money off of the Lucasfilm development strategy, but a good portion of that cash must go back to Lucas, of course, as opposed to the brands that are theirs outright. It makes a lot of business sense, when you think about it.

So I'm in Providence, RI right now, attending the NCMPR conference (basically a conference for public relations and media workers in Community Colleges - I'm here because the lit. mag I run won an award - anyway...), and the keynote speaker from this morning was Terry Scott, a senior VP for Hasbro (which is located in Providence) who manages global marketing and creative services, etc. It was a pretty interesting presentation, which focused on how Hasbro has evolved and is continuing to reinvent itself as more than a toy company, moving towards a multimedia corporation.

One of the more interesting parts to me, as a SW collector, is that, based on the presentation Mr. Scott gave today, Star Wars is not even CLOSE to their main focus - they mentioned it in their powerpoint presentation just a few times throughout. Their focus is very much on the brands they own - Transformers, GI Joe, My Little Pony, board games, etc. I don't think this is news to anyone here, but it was interesting to see just how little they really focused at all on a general Hasbro presentation on anything SW related. He did seem excited to see what would happen in the aftermath of the 3D rereleases, as well as the future prospects of TV shows, but they're committed mainly to their own brands, which makes sense, obviously.

Another area they're not focused on? Collectors, again, pretty obviously. He at one point mentioned the "cellar dwellers", the 20 somethings living at home who buy out of nostalgia, but it was with a sort of sarcastic look to the crowd in passing.

I don't know how much of this is really news, but I thought it worth mentioning here, as usually the interactions any of the collector groups have with Hasbro is directed towards us as an audience, so they know what to say to keep us engaged. It's quite a different rhetoric to the general public. We're not the biggest cash source for them, so it's not without business sense, but the next time you wonder about all the minutia of issues collectors have, keep in mind, they're worried about a far larger picture.

Well, obviously Hasbro is aware of carded collectors, but they're also certainly aware that they make up an incredibly small portion of their buying population. Has Hasbro ever come out and made any note or notice concerning attempts to take care of packaging for the benefit of the few who never open their toys at all? I know the plight of the carded collector is a grand one, but I just don't see Hasbro having much concern over whether their shipments (either to homes or to retailers) end up with a bent corner or two so long as the product itself is undamaged. That's what those bubbles are made for in the first place, right? They're not made for display, but to protect the product in shipment. I'm sure that, as far as they're concerned, they did their job in delivering the goods intact, and aren't likely to make concessions to protect the minority who won't be buying their products for the reasons Hasbro intends in the first place (i.e. opening and/or playing with Star Wars toys).

Has there ever been any official reasoning behind why Kenner made the saber yellow? Was it just because of the first version's coloring? I've never understood that.

What a dick. I hope that guy is killed by a huge rolling barrel, a sentient fireball, or an enormous mallet coming down on his head. Being mauled by a giant ape would be acceptable as well.