Author Topic: 2012 Movie Heroes Battle Packs  (Read 45862 times)

Offline iFett

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #30 on: February 22, 2012, 02:12 PM »
Weren't those TRU sets like $25-$30 back in the day?  I don't remember, but it's TRU afterall.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #31 on: February 22, 2012, 02:36 PM »
I see nothing remotely appealing about the sculpts...  Look at them.  Fett, QGJ, Vader...  They're all oversized/unrealistic.  That Fett truly harkens to his POTF2 counterpart.

Any parent wanting to spend $20 to $25 (last I looked BP's went up in price again, after they'd just gone down in price due to the dropping of one figure) on this crap can gladly come to me and I'll sell them POTF2 figures for the same price.  I'll even toss in a 4th one as incentive.  Hell, I'll toss in a 5th.

I know guys are saying "Vintage homage" here, but I think you're overthinking their goals here.  I think these are intended less as that, and more as "sturdy and more kid-friendly" than anything.  If they were truly vintage homages, like  arms/legs straight up and down and whatnot, I'd maybe almost be a little interested, but for maybe $4 each and not a dime more.

I'm not taking this news too hard since Battlepacks haven't been on MY radar for years now, but this is a little disconcerting.  No wonder Hasbro didn't want the Slideshow out though.  They knew collectors would want answers on these, and what this crap means for the future of the line.  I think collectors have a fair question there too and one Hasbro's maybe not willing to answer for fear of how big a drop off it may cause.
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Offline Diddly

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #32 on: February 22, 2012, 02:52 PM »
LOL. Well that's at least $50 I can put towards something else.
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Offline Scott

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #33 on: February 22, 2012, 02:53 PM »
I know guys are saying "Vintage homage" here, but I think you're overthinking their goals here.  I think these are intended less as that, and more as "sturdy and more kid-friendly" than anything.  If they were truly vintage homages, like  arms/legs straight up and down and whatnot, I'd maybe almost be a little interested, but for maybe $4 each and not a dime more.

I'm not taking this news too hard since Battlepacks haven't been on MY radar for years now, but this is a little disconcerting.  No wonder Hasbro didn't want the Slideshow out though.  They knew collectors would want answers on these, and what this crap means for the future of the line.  I think collectors have a fair question there too and one Hasbro's maybe not willing to answer for fear of how big a drop off it may cause.

I really don't think this was their intention though.  I just thought that because of Luke's hair.  They could have painted Fett in vintage deco and done a vinyl cape on Vader and THEN it would be a vintage homage.  It is just crap and agreed with everyone else on the main complaints (waste of tooling dollar, step back in articulation, why not rerelease existing sculpts)

I'm also with you Jesse in that I really don't care about BPs.  I did pick up the Clone one in Wave 1 for my kids since they were all new paint apps.

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #34 on: February 22, 2012, 03:19 PM »
yeah the biggest punch in my gut was all the hype...  Hasbro said at TF that these were "the best sculpts ever"...  Seriously?  I see some guys on Scum's board are claiming these are great sculpts, but I'd like to see how they feel Bespin luke in that pack is superior to Vintage Bespin Luke?

Take articulation out of that equation even.  Just tell me how that, or any of the other figures, are better ya know?  The Vader looks fat, the Fett looks like he has a 1995/96 Fett torso it's so oddly bulky, Maul looks like he's maybe 1999 quality if he's lucky, Obi and Qui Gon look terrible (including their headsculpts...  I see nothing there better than the 1999 figures).  If the only positive thing to be said about them is they fit in vehicles better, well then there's that I guess.  There isn't anything else, but there's that I guess.

I see what you mean about the hair Scott and I was thinking the same thing about that...  That might (probably will?) change by production even.  And if they had done some weird hybrid vintage/modern figure (like I mentioned about the perfectly "straight" sculpt, but maybe updated, and have Vader's saber slide out of his arm, etc., and decoes more Vintage and subtle than detailed), it'd almost be more interesting to me.  As it stands now though, I really just view these as highly wasted tooling dollars.  I mean, Qui Gon and Obi-Wan and Maul should all be pretty easy to get again these Battlepacks come out to retail, and in various packaging between Movie Heroes and Vintage and Deluxe to boot...  Just seem like a huge waste to me.  Put out the 1999 figures again with cloth skirts, and you've got your Jedi that fit in vehicles, if that's what you want/need, plus you just saved money and the sculpts are on par with these in every way IMO.

Swing some of that wasted cash to the Clone Wars collectors you bum rushed this year then.  It's win win and plus you help a line that is also geared towards kids for the most part.
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Offline Scott

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #35 on: February 22, 2012, 03:37 PM »
Everything happening with the entire SW line seems like a colossal cluster**** right now.  Do they REALLY need to be rereleasing all of those Wave 3 and 7 figures this spring?  I mean I get Wedge and Gammy but the rest?  The carry forwards, the lack of any new vehicles, this crap, the lack of exclusives, the demise of the Clone Wars line, the quintuple releasing of figures (Mau, Obi and Qui) at the same time...ugh.  It is like they are trying to kill the line

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #36 on: February 22, 2012, 04:34 PM »
I agree...  I think the RFT and Echo Trooper could stand to hit again, maybe Bastilla, but spread that **** out and drop some of the E1 figures you have friggin' duplicates of too...  I mean, afterall, if the Vintage line is the collector line then treat it as such.  Spread out any of the repacks to satiate demand though, don't just dump them all.  Even doing some multi-packs instead of re-releases might've made more sense too.

Right now though yeah, they're making the same mistakes they've made for other movie years this year.

I said before this line launched that how that movie does will be very telling of this line's future, and I think the movie has done worse than they anticipated.  They wanted to capture kids for at least half this year, and I thinnk they'll be lucky if they captured kids for 3 months.  It's a big toy/movie year with all the super heroes, GI Joe...  It's stiff competition.  Star Wars made what I thought was their minimum to consider it a good relaunch, no?  And from what I read thanks to a friend, their 2nd weekend didn't do so hot with a very significant drop-off.  Hasbro should be in some emergency thinking right now with some of this stuff.

There's Obi-Wan figures in Battlepacks, DTF packaging, Movie Heroes, Deluxe, and Vintage.  That's a problem right there.  And there's more to come too.  By Christmas TPM3D will be a distant memory.  Add in that Clone Wars has slipped in the ratings and that just piles onto everything.  I really think they need to consider scaling the entire Star Wars brand back some.  It's wearing out its welcome more each year.
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Offline Mister Skeezler

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #37 on: February 22, 2012, 05:10 PM »
These are laughably bad.
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Offline P-Siddy

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #38 on: February 22, 2012, 05:12 PM »
Yeah, I was at TF and didn't realize the lack of articulation. I just noticed the Real Vintage look of Luke's hair and thought that it was a cool throwback... but how many Bespin Lukes do we need in the past, what, 5 years? And there hasn't been anything different about him.

As for carrying figures forward, why carry only TPM ones in wave 2? Why don't they spread the TPM ones out and put a Gammie, or RFT, or Wedge in Wave 2 instead of having a full wave of repacks?

Offline Darby

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #39 on: February 22, 2012, 07:23 PM »
I agree with the general assessment on these.  A little confusing why they even invested the tooling, when less articulated and better versions exist of these figures.  Hasbro clearly has no issue re-packing old, out of date sculpts in this subline, so... the investment in the ESB figures is particularly curious.  Numerous better versions exist of these guys.

Offline DoctorPadawan

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #40 on: February 22, 2012, 08:01 PM »
Everything happening with the entire SW line seems like a colossal cluster**** right now.  Do they REALLY need to be rereleasing all of those Wave 3 and 7 figures this spring?  I mean I get Wedge and Gammy but the rest?  The carry forwards, the lack of any new vehicles, this crap, the lack of exclusives, the demise of the Clone Wars line, the quintuple releasing of figures (Mau, Obi and Qui) at the same time...ugh.  It is like they are trying to kill the line

I can honestly say that I never saw a single case of Wave 7 at any store I went to last year, and I'm still without Bespin Han and Barriss because of that.  The only reason I have the other four from that wave is due to them reshipping in random "Revenge of the Jedi" cases two waves later.  I'm actually happy they're reshipping that wave, and that Wedge and Gammy are getting another go around (especially since the former was nonexistent seemingly everywhere).

But yeah, all the other decisions Hasbro's been making lately seem like deliberate attempts to kill the line.  It's like 1995 and 2002 got together and had a baby who looked like ****.


Offline Brian

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #41 on: February 22, 2012, 08:51 PM »
These are definitely a head scratcher.  If it is indeed from the "vintage throwback" angle, I guess I can appreciate that some.  In some cases, I can even understand the sturdier toy aspect.  It doesn't happen with all of the newer releases, but I will admit that some do feel fairly fragile (and that goes for many lines these days).  Thinking back to the vintage days, I don't think I ever had a SW figure break back then.

Anyways, not sure what to think of these.  I, like others, haven't really paid any attention to the battle packs for awhile now anyways, so they don't effect me much either way.  Plus, we already have what I would consider "ultimate" or near ultimate versions of all these characters already.  We've had situations similar to this before, but I don't understand why they don't just repack those versions (or even others) if they're going to release these characters anyways.  It is hard to tell really clearly, but the sculpts might be decent on these, but the articulation is obviously lacking.  If we had seen these in '95 I'm sure they would have looked great, but the line has just come so far since then.

It just seems strange that they would do this.  They have to know it would get collectors in a tizzy (especially after talking them up in the TF presentation), and they could have put out battle packs with the new Maul and the TVC Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan - all figures that were already made.  Same with the Bespin pack.  I think these become a little more concerning if it is a sort of "testing the waters" scenario.  I'm not saying it would happen, as I think they are abundantly clear that collectors want more articulation, etc. - but what if they wanted to switch the line over to figures like this?  It could be interesting.  I guess we have talked on the forums in the past about how they are getting closer to covering everything, perhaps this is a different direction they are thinking about.  Probably not the case, but like it was mentioned, the SW line has been a little weird lately so you never know.  If they were going that route, I think they'd have to drop the price considerably for these to sell at all as basic figures.

Offline Jesse James

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #42 on: February 22, 2012, 09:04 PM »
As for carrying figures forward, why carry only TPM ones in wave 2? Why don't they spread the TPM ones out and put a Gammie, or RFT, or Wedge in Wave 2 instead of having a full wave of repacks?

This is a good point and what I was trying to say...  I'm not against figures from last year making it into this year, unless it's a white Clone or a clean Sandtrooper anyway.

But spread that **** out Hasbro!  WTF is your problem with that!?

2nd wave of figures in the Vinty collection starts shipping in 2012, and guess what?  Yeah, **** you collectors!  It's 5 new figures and 7 ones from the last wave!  No doubling up on the new ones, much less maybe mixing in one or two of the 2011 figures that were tough to find.  Like, say, for instance, mix that Wedge in NOW.  And an Echo Base Rebel (which they refused to carry over anyway.  If I were a betting man I'd bet he's one of the rarest Vintage figures ever).

Next wave, mix in Fleet Trooper and Gammie.  Wave after that mix in Bespin Han and Barris Offee... 

And yeah, keep carrying stuff like Maul over, and some TPM stuff since you've got such a big bet on that being profitable, but don't make EVERYTHING you rehash in a wave something from Vintage Wave 10 this year.  Be a little less selfish with your case packs.  It'd do retail, and e-tail, a favor.

I know we're getting away from these ****** battlepacks, but these are all in the realm of logical steps that don't seem to be taken.

Back to the battlepacks though, this makes me all the more glad my only character focuses are on things so obscure they don't get much attention in general. 

I can't wait to start my "Bossk's Bungalo" website.  It'll be a very new concept.  And I already own my 6 POA Bossk figure and doubt Hasbro squats out another similar deuce for me to feel compelled to own.  ::)
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Offline Darth_Anton

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #43 on: February 23, 2012, 09:44 AM »
Wow, what a weird step. I was happy with not buying battlepacks anymore because of re-packing. Now they make 'em with newly sculpted inferior figures? I sometimes tend to think that they're trying to tap into a specific market like me who will avoid straight up re-packs, but will pick something up because it's "new."
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Offline Qui-Gon Jim

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Re: Movie Heroes Battle Packs
« Reply #44 on: February 23, 2012, 12:03 PM »

I said before this line launched that how that movie does will be very telling of this line's future, and I think the movie has done worse than they anticipated.
Not to beat a dead horse, but I think TPM3D did pretty much what they projected it would.  The BD is already planned for spring, so it doesn't sound like they expected this to sit in theaters for months and months...