Author Topic: The Return of Saga Legends  (Read 46860 times)

Offline Keonobi

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #135 on: December 5, 2008, 09:41 AM »
I think for Hasbro the reason they keep this third line out there is they make a lot of money with it.  Time and again in Q&As they've mentioned the huge costs they have to create a new figure.  SL just lets them keep pumping out that same C-3PO without changing anything.  Meaning the development cost is spread over a much larger cost pool.  Same thing with that electronic R2, was ROTS the first time that came out, or do I remember a release prior to that?

I'd be happy with Hasbro rolling this into their regular releases.  Seems like the original idea that I was kind of sold on was to keep the main characters in circulation, but since then has gotten side tracked to keeping highly profitable figures in circulation...  But Hasbro is a business....
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Offline Jayson

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #136 on: December 5, 2008, 09:51 AM »
Here was Hasbro thoughts when probed about the need for the SL subline:

Quote
Q2: I know a lot of collectors are becoming a more selective these days in their purchases considering the price hikes in most of the SW line coupled with the big ticket items like the Falcon and AT-TE. As a result, the repacks (Legends) were the first to go. Granted business is about making money, but would it be a cost savings from a packaging development/printing and figure production standpoint for Hasbro overall if this repack subline was dropped in favor of having the Legacy and Clone Wars line only? It might make the higher prices an easier pill to swallow for collectors.

A2: In fact, the impact of dropping Saga Legends would be the exact opposite! By being able to re-release our most popular figures for the kid audience, it allows us to maintain our focus on newness in the Legacy and Clone Wars lines. Our take on Saga Legends has always been that it is not for the core collector, since the figures in the lineup are unchanged from their previous release (with a very few exceptions such as the 501st upgrade figure). As such, collectors can "ignore" them if they choose and concentrate on the Legacy and Clone Wars lines. If MOC collectors feel "compelled" to get Saga Legends to keep their collections intact, then we are sorry for the burden, but then carded collectors are used to working against some fairly sizeable numbers as we continue to have success with the line.
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Offline Keonobi

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #137 on: December 5, 2008, 09:58 AM »
Here was Hasbro thoughts when probed about the need for the SL subline:

Quote
Q2: I know a lot of collectors are becoming a more selective these days in their purchases considering the price hikes in most of the SW line coupled with the big ticket items like the Falcon and AT-TE. As a result, the repacks (Legends) were the first to go. Granted business is about making money, but would it be a cost savings from a packaging development/printing and figure production standpoint for Hasbro overall if this repack subline was dropped in favor of having the Legacy and Clone Wars line only? It might make the higher prices an easier pill to swallow for collectors.

A2: In fact, the impact of dropping Saga Legends would be the exact opposite! By being able to re-release our most popular figures for the kid audience, it allows us to maintain our focus on newness in the Legacy and Clone Wars lines. Our take on Saga Legends has always been that it is not for the core collector, since the figures in the lineup are unchanged from their previous release (with a very few exceptions such as the 501st upgrade figure). As such, collectors can "ignore" them if they choose and concentrate on the Legacy and Clone Wars lines. If MOC collectors feel "compelled" to get Saga Legends to keep their collections intact, then we are sorry for the burden, but then carded collectors are used to working against some fairly sizeable numbers as we continue to have success with the line.

Basically SL makes it so we can afford to keep basic figures under $9 and still have them be great like the new big Grevious.
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Offline Brian

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #138 on: December 5, 2008, 10:01 AM »
It makes sense, and I can see that the past couple years of having the Legends line at retail has largely eliminated straight repacks from the main line.  Sure, there has been the annual "repaint" wave, which this year almost had straight re-releases in it, and there's also been some slightly retooled figures here and there - but overall it hasn't been too bad.  It seems like we were just complaining about the endless repacks in the main line, and now they have their own line and we say put them back.  I don't think we'd mind the Legends line as much if it wasn't taking up all the space at retail, as it seems to be in the majority of places.  If it keeps the new figures from making it to the pegs, then it becomes a problem.  I know Hasbro will say "different SKUs" and all that, but at least in my areas, all the stores just stock "Star Wars" - not Legacy, Clone Wars, and Legends seperately.

Offline Daigo-Bah

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #139 on: December 5, 2008, 10:34 AM »
What I love about that Q and A answer is that they basically make fun of carded completists without actually sounding like they do  :P.  I personally would love the SL line if it was just frickin' cheaper!  I could always use an extra OT figure like a Biker Scout or throne C-3PO for dioramas, but I don't need them $7 badly.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #140 on: December 5, 2008, 11:18 AM »
Agreed on the price.  If Legends were a more toned down line and a cheaper price, I'd probably be buying stuff.  I'd take more scouts, or BARC Troopers, or ARC Troopers, or even custom fodder...  And given they have the molds ready and able, these figures are (for all intents and purposes) cheaper for Hasbro to make.  The fixed costs are in, it's just the operations costs to crank them out, and those are usually absorbed immediately.  These figures are gravy for Hasbro...

The only problem with a decrease in price on these is that people (casual folk) would buy Legends over Legacy/Clone Wars then, probaby, since they would just see a random figure with a lower price.  Competing with yourself then in the toy aisle, more or less. 

I also think some of their figure choices, year-in-and-year-out, are horrible...  I mean, Grievous shouldn't have been offered if you're offering the new one in Legacy...  The Destroyer Droid shouldn't be in Legends if it's going to be out in Clone Wars, and so on (not to mention the Legends DD sucks balls).  Why not put more effort into getting CW Yoda on the pegs instead of the Kybuck Yoda in Legends (since that was, according to Hasbro, the audience they were going for by getting another Yoda out).  It just makes little sense to me.

I get the repaint waves we get...  They help fund new obscurity.  That's great...  But Legends should be special in at least their price, if nothing else.
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Offline Keonobi

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #141 on: December 5, 2008, 11:34 AM »
I also think some of their figure choices, year-in-and-year-out, are horrible...  I mean, Grievous shouldn't have been offered if you're offering the new one in Legacy... 
This is pretty much true of all the figures in SL.  There is a C3PO, R2, Grevious, Clone Troopers, Anakin, ObiWan, Plo Koon, Windu, SBD and DD in the Clone Wars line.  And there are a couple of the other legends in the Legacy line.

I'd like it if SL was basically the most popular, hard to find figures from the previous year or so.  Right now I'm thinking Evo and Jump Troopers, Gree, Revan and Malak, the McQuarrie figs, etc.  But I guess that's the point of Greatest Hits, which is filling in a couple waves....
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Offline Brian

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #142 on: December 5, 2008, 12:14 PM »
Although Hasbro would never do it for the reasons Jesse listed (competing with themselves, etc.), I think the lower price point, "bare bones" approach to Legends wouldn't be so bad.  Like others have mentioned already, bring the price down to $5 - and maybe even differentiate the cardback more to make sure they don't get "mixed in" with the regular line, causing all sorts of headaches with price differences, stocking and all that.  You could do a basic, silver and black cardback with just a "Star Wars" logo on the top and "Legends" below it.  Heck, you could even narrow the cardback (I'm thinking of the old Super Powers days, where they had the regular line and then the "slim" cardback where it was basically just larger than the width of the bubble).  That way, it would really be different from the main line (other than just the SKU) and we could hopefully avoid the stocking troubles there.  Like its been mentioned, these are mostly figures that have been in circulation awhile - and are all repacks - so this line has to be gravy to Hasbro even at the lower price.

Next comes the figure selection, which has been poor in some cases.  Like Jesse mentioned, we don't need that crappy, underscaled Grievous in that line when a nice new one is out in the Legacy Collection (as well as Clone Wars).  We don't need three of the character in the same get up on the pegs at the same time.  Plus, its an example of an old figure that now needs to be retired.  I'm sure there are reasons why we still see some of these older figures, but to me - using Grievous as an example - once we have this vastly superior version out, retire all the ROTS ones.  From now on, if you repack a Grievous, or "tweak" him, use this TLC version.  Same goes for other main characters and troops.  No more Cantina Hans, SAGA Cloud City Chewies, 300th or action feature Fetts, etc.  Use the best versions, and leave those others in the past.  We don't see the He-Man Luke repacked, start treating these other oldies the same way.

Then it comes the issue of if you want rare figures included or popular figs for kids/parents/casual buyers included.  I can definitely see why collectors would want some rarer figs repackaged, but at the same time when I think of a title like "Star Wars Legends", I'm not thinking of Sio Bibble.  I'd almost rather see figures like that sprinkled into the "greatest hits" portion of the main line, and really make the Legends line (if it is a lower pricepoint, targeted at kids and army building) just focus on the big guns and troops for the most part.  I mean, even if they were repacks, I think a line filled with VOTC (Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, Fett, Stormtrooper/Snow/Scouts, Yoda, etc.), Evolutions (Maul, Jango, Qui-Gon, Vader, Anakin, Padme, etc.), and random others (Clones, Pilot Obi-Wan, ARC Troops, TLC Grievous, etc.) would look pretty good as a lineup, and probably sell well - particularly around the holidays.  Again, they'll never do this, but its fun to talk about.

Offline Nicklab

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #143 on: December 5, 2008, 10:07 PM »
I'm still not totally crazy about the concept of Saga Legends.  Ideally I would like to see a line with as few reissues as possible.  But some figures that could bear being reissued?

-Clone Pilot - AOTC Evolutions sculpt
-Clone Officer - AOTC blue markings from EPISODE II commemorative tin set (also the Evolutions sculpt)
-Destroyer Droid with shield - 30AC line
-Chewbacca - Early bird - hands down this is one of the best Chewbacca's ever
-Luke Skywalker - VOTC ANH
-Han Solo - VOTC ANH
-Princess Leia - VOTC ANH
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Offline Darth_Anton

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #144 on: December 6, 2008, 10:04 AM »

-Destroyer Droid with shield - 30AC line


I'd just like to see that on a Legacy card.
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Offline Matt_Fury

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #145 on: December 6, 2008, 05:56 PM »
I think Legends is a missed opportunity to give us the VOTC type figures without the vintage cards and protecto paks that jack the price up.
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Offline Theta 288

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Re: Legends
« Reply #146 on: January 12, 2009, 11:55 AM »
I have a good question:

For what wave would be the ESB snowtrooper and when we would be be able to see it in stores?



Also it looks very articulated, can possibly be the  Saga 2007 Vintage with removable helmet?
rebelscum report to be seen at stores after christmass but I hadn't seen any...

I want to make a big army of them, i hope they wouldn't be so hard to find as the TFU Shadow Guard  was.

Good pairing with the snow patrols.

I wonder if we would see AT-AT & AT-ST again?  ::)

« Last Edit: January 12, 2009, 11:57 AM by Theta 288 »

Offline Jayson

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Re: Legends
« Reply #147 on: January 12, 2009, 11:59 AM »
The packaging says "Saga Legends" so it's for that line. It is the SA version and he's out now alongside X-Wing Luke (Droidfactory repack), ARC Trooper Commander (Red), Tri-Droid, ROTS Clone Trooper (plain white) and Saesee Tinn.
« Last Edit: January 12, 2009, 12:37 PM by Jayson »
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Offline Keonobi

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #148 on: January 12, 2009, 12:34 PM »
IIRC the Clean Sandtrooper with the Black pauldron is in that same assortment, well, I found the Sandtrooper, saw the Luke, ARC Commander & Tri-Droid, but not the Snowtrooper, which seems to be what others are finding as well.  But since I posted that, I'm sure the next post will be someone with a picture of the squad of Snowtroopers they found at Target this morning.....
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Offline Jayson

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Re: The Return of Saga Legends
« Reply #149 on: January 12, 2009, 12:38 PM »
Oops, forgot to mention the Sandy, thanks Keonobi
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