Author Topic: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation  (Read 179556 times)

Offline Greg

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #510 on: July 13, 2012, 05:02 PM »
I think the animated stuff is being phased out, and it makes sense. The show has had a big-time drop in ratings and popularity, and the Clone Wars sub-line as a whole appears to have performed poorly over the last year or so. As much as I have enjoyed collecting the toys based on the cartoon, I will have no complaints if the line is wrapped up. Four years is a very good run, and Hasbro has covered so much from the show. I wouldn't mind getting the occasional battle pack or exclusive figure, but I am more excited about getting the Clone Wars characters in realistic format.

Offline TheSon

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #511 on: July 13, 2012, 07:19 PM »
I am still holding on to my hope that as long as new episodes are coming out, that here will be some type of toy line to follow it. The new season has some great episodes, and even better figure potential. It's too bad the distribution issues have seemingly robbed us from seeing how truly healthy or unhealthy this line is.

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #512 on: July 13, 2012, 07:59 PM »
I have confirmation that CW isn't ending....  Not exactly great news that they're getting anything new, but confirmation it's NOT ending.
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Offline Rune Haako

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #513 on: July 13, 2012, 08:04 PM »
From GalacticHunter Twitter,

Hasbro knows Pong Krell's popularity with fans. Will find way to get him out there.
« Last Edit: July 13, 2012, 08:05 PM by Rune Haako »

Offline McMetal

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #514 on: July 13, 2012, 10:55 PM »
I think the animated stuff is being phased out, and it makes sense. The show has had a big-time drop in ratings and popularity, and the Clone Wars sub-line as a whole appears to have performed poorly over the last year or so.

I think this is somewhat of a misnomer.

I don't doubt that the sales have dropped, but that decline has been hastened by the random and erratic shipping of the last few waves of 2011 and the churning out of mostly rehash/repaint waves so far this year off of some very lackluster figure choices. There's been pretty much only one wave on the pegs for six months now.

As someone pointed out over at 'scum,  Hasbro can probably justify it with saying that sales dropped off a cliff, but they seemed to make sure that would happen with their poor decision-making and execution...

Regardless of popularity, the quality of the show last season was resurgent. Would like to see the toy line rebound similarly...certainly there is a wealth of great toy fodder out there now to mine from.

Of all the yearly cons, seems to me SDCC has the highest "kid quotient" so not sure why that would not be considered a receptive audience for discussing the animated line. NYCC is more of an industry type deal and CVI seems like an even harder core vintage focused group than SDCC.
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Offline JediMoses

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #515 on: July 13, 2012, 11:51 PM »
I think the animated stuff is being phased out, and it makes sense. The show has had a big-time drop in ratings and popularity, and the Clone Wars sub-line as a whole appears to have performed poorly over the last year or so. As much as I have enjoyed collecting the toys based on the cartoon, I will have no complaints if the line is wrapped up. Four years is a very good run, and Hasbro has covered so much from the show. I wouldn't mind getting the occasional battle pack or exclusive figure, but I am more excited about getting the Clone Wars characters in realistic format.

Ever since Adam at GH started asserting that CW is dying because of the huge drop in ratings, I have tried to actually find the source that proves it.  Yes, the ratings have dropped but not by 25% or anything near that.  On top of that, streaming media is far more prevalent now than it was a four years ago and I have no idea how they would figure ratings for it.  Sure CN can't be terribly happy about the drop but they don't seem to be complaining either.

The last two celebrations have had awesome buzz about the show and DF talks about the show as if it still has a green light to proceed past season 5.  Yes, it will come to an end but I have not seen the hard evidence that suggests the show is in trouble.  Hasbro shifting to focus on the 3d rerelease makes some sense as to the low profile. 

I find the lack of talk about AOTC 3D to be more interesting.  After all, it was SW Day.

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #516 on: July 14, 2012, 01:16 AM »
By all accounts LFL needed a minimum of around 20mil in sales to go with AOTC3D and so on...  I think any lack of discussion there has less to do with it not happening and more to do with it happening in a way not originally planned.

That said, I don't keep up with ratings on TV shows...  If CW has dropped steadily it may have something to do with it though?  Maybe not the overall size of the drop but consistant ratings drops?

I've seen nothing to say for sure CW is dead, and like we reported, CW as a line isn't dead...  It's still continuing as per Hasbro.  They just didn't show anything...  If C6 doesn't deliver anything I'd really be worried.  SDCC is what it is.

I wouldn't say SDCC is a more kid-friendly event.  Actually the opposite.  By most accounts it seems very anti-family, while C6 encourages family.  I think it would make sense to hold CW stuff till then...  Sounds like Deluxe is continuing too.  It'll be interesting to see what C6 delivers though since so much is left on the table yet that didn't get touched on today.  This really felt like a collector-event though.  Realistic, line look changes, exclusives...  And all kind of aimed at that adult market.  No MH, no CW, no Class I and II Vehicles.

It was kind of weird really...  Not bad news, but not really all good news either.
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Offline McMetal

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #517 on: July 14, 2012, 08:47 AM »
If the ratings are good enough for Cartoon Network to keep paying for the show, they're good enough to keep making toys. So I think we can put that argument to bed. Cartoon Network has a little more business savvy then Hasbro I think it's safe to say. They are not in the business of losing money and if anything the TV medium has more of a zero tolerance for any decline than the toy industry. If it's a profitable venture for them, that can translate to the toys as well. You just have to make smart choices.

That said, I'm going to on record as predicting the 20 figures next year will consist of 3 obi-wans, 3 anakins, and 13 repainted clones, plus one figure that never gets made like this year.  ::)
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Offline Captain Piet

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #518 on: July 14, 2012, 10:47 AM »
I just cannot understand how, with current media support, Hasbro produces so little for this line.
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Offline MasterFisto

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #519 on: July 14, 2012, 07:00 PM »
Ever since Adam at GH started asserting that CW is dying because of the huge drop in ratings, I have tried to actually find the source that proves it.  Yes, the ratings have dropped but not by 25% or anything near that.

As far as I can tell, there is no source.  No offense to Adam, because I love his site, but I think he is prone to exaggeration when he talks about this.  I just roll my eyes when I read it.  There has been a drop in ratings, but is nothing out of the ordinary for a show going into its fifth season.  Here is a breakdown of the ratings over the course of four seasons:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars:_The_Clone_Wars_episodes#Season_1:_The_Clone_Wars_.282008.E2.80.932009.29
« Last Edit: July 14, 2012, 07:04 PM by MasterFisto »

Offline Jabba the Slug

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #520 on: July 15, 2012, 03:11 AM »
I find it somewhat irritating that Hasbro is more invested in their Fighter Pods than the TCW line. >:(
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Offline Jayson

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #521 on: July 15, 2012, 05:58 AM »
I think with the other properties Hasbro has to juggle, and the fact of rising costs to produce and distribute the figures (insert obligatory distribution jokes here), Hasbro has tied into the ebb and flow of serialized TV. When it's on the air, the toys are popular. When it's in between seasons, there is a dip (a bad "talky" season in the middle didn't help either).

Couple that with a slight decline in viewership and you have our current retail situation. They say they'll be back big with CWS5 merchandise but I'm not sure if that means bigger than 2012 (which wouldn't take much) or bigger like the 2008-2010 number of skus. My guess it'll be somewhere in the middle and hopefully we'll get a nice mix of S4 and S5 characters.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2012, 09:35 AM by Jayson »
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Offline Pete_Fett

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #522 on: July 15, 2012, 08:22 AM »
I find it somewhat irritating that Hasbro is more invested in their Fighter Pods than the TCW line. >:(

Me too - I was watching the streaming panel on Friday and when they put up the first Fighter Pods slide, the room did all but groan. There really wasn't any sort of cheering or applause that I could hear.

Why is it that we can see what kind of dud the Fighter Pods sub-line is, but they think it's going great?
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Offline Captain Piet

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #523 on: July 15, 2012, 09:13 AM »
Yeah, I don't think homeboy understands ALL TV shows lose audience as they go. It's inevitable.
Hasbro better have some good stuff planned for this line at Celebration VI. There's too much good stuff not been done yet.

Ever since Adam at GH started asserting that CW is dying because of the huge drop in ratings, I have tried to actually find the source that proves it.  Yes, the ratings have dropped but not by 25% or anything near that.

As far as I can tell, there is no source.  No offense to Adam, because I love his site, but I think he is prone to exaggeration when he talks about this.  I just roll my eyes when I read it.  There has been a drop in ratings, but is nothing out of the ordinary for a show going into its fifth season.  Here is a breakdown of the ratings over the course of four seasons:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars:_The_Clone_Wars_episodes#Season_1:_The_Clone_Wars_.282008.E2.80.932009.29
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Offline TheSon

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Re: Clone Wars Figure Rumors/Speculation
« Reply #524 on: July 15, 2012, 09:23 AM »
And also with the ratings, the show is on pretty late to pick up new viewers. Remember that the gap between the 7 year olds who started watching the show with all the advertisements and a movie to help launch things are now 12. Most of that audience is now abandoning toys for the chance to brush against a boob somewhere. The current 7 year olds have been exposed to little to no marketing and Cartoon Network has not helped much only rerunning the shows once on Saturday. If I could see the episodes 9 times a week like adventure time, the characters, even the more obscure ones, would be more identifiable on the pegs. "mommy I wan't that" is still going to be the driving force behind Hasbro making money. Saturation is one way to accomplish that, and in par with the ratings slide nothing is being done to replace the viewers "lost to puberty".