Nobody is disagreeing that someone at Hasbro is being held accountable for the crappy design of the legs.  Scott has the relevant point here though that this could scare some parents off in the future, which I think is what Hasbro should be more concerned with.  Star Wars is so popular and fortunate for Hasbro, the brand can probably absorb this sort of thing from time to time, but they certainly need to ensure this doesn't happen again in 2009.

I would think that retailers are going to order whatever large vehicle (or playset) Hasbro offers up next... I don't think the retailers are going to be shy about it until a large item ends up burning them. 

In the meantime, I picked up another AT-TE yesterday for $64.00 at a Walmart out in the sticks... first time I've seen one in about a month anywhere, and the only one on clearance.

How long is the cartoon going to last anyway?  I don't know, I haven't watched one single episode and really don't care to.   

As for some Falcons hitting 30% before Christmas, remember all those big fluffy horses and dinosaurs saw markdowns around 50-65% before Christmas. 

 

Quote from: Jesse James on December 30, 2008, 02:15 PM

For your scenario to work Pete, a retailer would have to want the item as well...  It's possible nobody does.  From what I hear every etailer is pretty pissed off about the Indy stock they're left with right now, and Indy's like a hot potatoe to them.   

Ok now - this is a good answer. I wasn't aware of this. Sure, I can understand Walmart being upset with having to blow out the rest of their IJ figures at $3 each, but an e-tailer is going to be hit even harder with the left-over wave 1 figure cases.

I'm sure EE will have no problem selling through their Temple of Doom cases (even though the second half of the case is absolute crap) simply because the ToD figures are hard to come by. But I did notice that EE has the first two waves of both basic figures and deluxe figures as part of their Winter Blow-out sale.

Quote from: Jesse James on December 30, 2008, 02:15 PM

I'd love to see it happen too because that wrapped up pretty much the last ROTLA figures anyone really REALLY wanted, but IJ has had the fork in it for some months now, and Hasbro and retail both see it as a plague I guess.

It's unfortunate that e-tailers and Hasbro can't look at the situation and try to work something out that. I'm perplexed that Hasbro would not want to show some sort of ROI for taking the time to sculpt (and possibly tool) these five RotLA figures. If the figures of Indy in German Soldier disguise, Marion in the White Dress, the German Mechanic and Sapito haven't been tooled, fine.

But what about Toht?

Toht's body w/o any modifications was used for the suited Cobra Commander at Comic Con. You mean to tell me that as a single carded exclusive, no one could swing a Toht figure with both heads? How about finding two e-tailers and split the figure where you have to buy it with a normal head from one and the melty head from another. That way, you can get the collectors who would want both to make two figure purchases instead of just one. I know I probably sound pretty out there for even suggesting that, but I would have wanted to buy two Toht figures ANYWAY simply because I would want to display both head versions as opposed to just a figure with an alternate head at its feet.

I'm hoping that as a minimum they will possibly do that for a SDCC exclusive or something.

I have to wonder how big of an overlap there really is between IJ collectors and SW collectors. I guess it must be a lot smaller than say the sub-set of SW collectors who will purchase EU based items. I know quite a few guys locally who pass on anything that wasn't in a movie. So you mean to tell me the projected audience of that Crimson Empire Crucible set is more than the projected audience of a box set of figures that updates all but one of the old vintage RotLA figures?

Perhaps I'm taking it a bit too far, but to me it's almost like Hasbro pushing the Crucible set on Diamond and going "it's Star Wars, no matter how bad the figures are, the lemming collectors are still going to buy".

Whereas, they really should be shopping a set of these five figures around going "these are great figures, they complete updating most of the vintage Kenner line, they are going to be exclusive to you, anyone who bought RotLA figures is going to want one, etc..."

Like Pieter said, you almost get the feeling that Hasbro just doesn't want to be bothered and you have to wonder if there is a fifth Indiana Jones movie, are they even going to support it with an action figure line?

But hey - I heard that Darryl DePriest is taking dumps in a box and slapping the Star Wars logo on them - I'm sure those will sell!