2008 Rumors and Speculation

[P-Siddy]

Although I'm always ready for more/new information, I guess I don't mind if we get it in doses throughout the year.  I don't necessarily like having only Toy Fair and Comic Con be the times when we actually get concrete information from Hasbro about the upcoming year's releases. 

I wouldn't mind if Hasbro handled product news like the QnA where one QnA participant a week is given a true exclusive tidbit on new merchandise, rather than denying the existence of a known product or the happenstance of the right site asking the right question on the right cycle.

I like that, Jay! That's a good idea.

[CHEWIE]

I agree with JACK too, as well as what Jaybird said.

Nicklab has an excellent point as well by pointing out that Hasbro holds some responsiblity here.  Their website isn't being used to communicate information adequately.  Fan sites are going to post what information they can find. 

RS should have been a little more careful with the news article in my opinion though, and not made all the news they posted seem so official.

[P-Siddy]

Nicklab has an excellent point as well by pointing out that Hasbro holds some responsiblity here.  Their website isn't being used to communicate information adequately.  Fan sites are going to post what information they can find. 

I agree with that, too, Chewie. If Hasbro wants to be the presenter of new goods, they should put more effort into their site. But that SW site is not very informative I believe most collectors look to their favorite SW collecting sites, like JD, to find their news.

[JACKOFTRADZE]

I believe most collectors look to their favorite SW collecting sites, like JD, to find their news.

Damn right!

[Pete_Fett]

Like you mentioned, if they would debut figure waves/etc. on their site, and not act like these toys are national security issues, they wouldn't have nearly the problems with rumor lists and speculation most likely.  Its part of the age we live in now with the internet, but if they kept their site a little more update with news and not just new games or things like that, it would probably help the situation a bit for Hasbro.

I totally agree with this and I have always felt this way with regards to Hasbro releasing information as soon as they possibly can as opposed to waiting for Toy Fair or the Summer Conventions.

First Argument: They don't want fans to be disappointed if something doesn't come out
This makes absolutely no sense to me. Ok, so they said a Yuuzhan Vong figure was coming and they decided to push it back to next year. BIG F***ING DEAL! I mean, we all got to drool over the Force Unleashed figures at Toy Fair in Feb 2007 and what happened to them? They got pushed back to being released in 2008. I saw all of the collectors out there committing suicide or sending death threats to Hasbro over this delay, it was truly a dark day for collecting indeed. 

Second Argument: They don't want other toy companies to know what they are up to, afterall selling toys is a competitive business
Ok, this one is b.s. too. When I was a kid and my mom asked me which I wanted for my birthday, of course I said "Star Wars figures!". I did not care that they had less articulation than GI Joe, I liked Star Wars and that's what I wanted. My mother and I did not jump from Star Wars to GI Joe because Hasbro had out-innovated Kenner with their line of army-based 3.75" figures. There is only ONE maker of 3.75" Star Wars figures. Hasbro has the monopoly on the Star Wars franchise. No one competes with them directly. Kids who are fans of Star Wars are not going to want Ben 10 figures because they "look cooler" - if they think Ben 10 is cooler than Star Wars then you've already lost their purchase, it had NOTHING to do with what innovations Ban Dai put into their P.o.S. toys.

Third Argument: We need to hold information back for Toy Fair
To this, my response is simple.

Why?

With all of the fan forums out there, you couldn't BUY the kind of marketing research we provide them. If Hasbro were to post pictures of the AT-TE today and a list of features of the vehicle. They could scour the boards between now and Toy Fair and everytime they speak with a buyer for a major retail chain, plop the stack of message board comments a mile high and say "all of these fans are EXCITED about this vehicle and 95%+ of them don't seem deterred by the $100 price tag - you can't loose with this piece!" The converse could work to their advantage as well. Propose something like Star Wars Customs/Choppers or whatever those turds were called, see all of the negative feedback on the collector boards and perhaps you might decide to rethink them since it sounds like they might rot at retail (which the DID!), perhaps you pull them and don't even bring the line as a discussion point with the buyers.

I can come up with MANY more examples like this where showing us stuff BEFORE Toy Fair could help them better sell aspects of the line that might otherwise be a tough sell with the buyers for the chains.


Perhaps I'm over simplifying things a bit, but I do not understand why they have to react like they do. How about just coming out and saying "Yeah, we're planning on doing A, B, D, E, F, H, I but items C, G & J have been held back for re-imagining/re-work to see if we can improve on the concept." No harm, no foul, no one boycotts Hasbro, cause afterall, they are the ONLY game in town when it comes to Star Wars 3.75" action figures.

[Daigo-Bah]

Man, I agree completely, Pete Fett!  I think the major problem here is that Hasbro does not acknowledge nor respect the fact that we older collectors make up the majority of SW spending.  I don't care if there is a kid or his mom buying a Vader or a Luke once a month- how about guys like Darth Anton and Chewie (and me, and many more of us!) who get multiples upon multiples of army builders every week?  They won't listen to us when we say SW Choppers is a dumb idea- because they think the kids will want it.  Fine- screw up your sales there over and over until you realize that you have to focus on us collectors to support this industry for the next 10 years and beyond.  (By the way, I think overall 30AC has been great for us with all the pack-ins and McQuarries; it's like Hasbro says one thing and does another)

[jedi_master_sal]

Hasbro can't break the tradition of breaking news at either Toy fair or SDCC. It's an industry standard to do so. So bucking this might be a black mark in the toy industry. That's bunk though to me. They can do the complete official news then, but in the meantime, little tidbits here and there, a pic once in awhile...

As I mentioned before holding onto this news and claiming it's not true only to have the toy in stores less than 6 months later says they were lying.

Gawd, this stuff is SO not secret, nor has anything to do with national security so why NOT let the cat out of the bag, when a collecting site reports the info.

If Hasbro were diligent about reporting news on their OWN site, then there really wouldn't be much need for the Q&A sessions.

Mind you I like reading those from all over the net, but if we could find this same info out on their official site, KNOWING it's official well....   It still wouldn't deter me from coming here or the other sites I go to. It would be an added "stop" to my browsing.

As has been mentioned before, all of these collecting sites provide Hasbro with FREE market research. They may choose to ignore it but that's been to their detriment. Gawd I forgot about those horrid choppers....whomeve thought of those should be fired...heh. Big waste of time and space on shelves. Those were TOO niche.

Now things like ships and vehicle as well as playsets that actually GO with their bread and butter action figure line....that's a different story. If all holds up, 2008 WILL be a banner year for vehicles. Yet playset will once again be trounced.

I did a rough esitmate of my purchases for SW this year. It was $7K. This was 84% Hasbro, 14% Gentle Giant, and  2% other misc SW purchases. I went over by $1K. But that was due to those damn Commander Busts. Next year I'm cutting the SW budget in half. No more repaints of Titaniums; no more rehashes of figures unless they are SIGNIFICANTLY improved-not just one better articulated joint, I mean Complete SA; no more Galactic Heroes; no more ship repaints (execept maybe Aayla Secura's JSF if that rumor is true); no more massive army building-cutting down from an average of 20 troops for a given figure down to 5.

So...fine by me if hasbro want's to hold back info. They are keeping me less and less excited about the future, so I'm budgeting less for their product. I honestly belive that if every collector cut their spending in half, many lines, not just SW, would die fairly quickly. I don't see parents spending close to $7K on a kid for toys. With exception to Christmas toys, I'd doubt even half of that. Yet, I can believe there are many collectors who spend at least $5k on toys (not just SW either).

So Hasbro can play their game. But they've lost a huge chunk of my business. Pony up on the info Hasbro and keep me enthralled! And I want some damn playsets already! I need them for the approx. 4000 figures I have!

[Rune Haako]

2008 Wave 3?

I find this hard to believe when there's a Clone Wars line coming out but,

From, http://potf2.com/potj/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12706

Obi-Wan (in General's armor)
Clone Trooper with quad cannon
Clone SCUBA Trooper
Saesee Tiin in General armor
Padme Ilum
Black IG-88 Speeder-Bike Droid
Mon Calamari Warrior
Quarren Soldier

[Dan]

That's a sweet looking list- 

[Pete_Fett]

I find this hard to believe when there's a Clone Wars line coming out but,

Agreed.

Unless they are looking to cover all of the designs from the Cartoon Network series before delving into the designs of the new cartoon.

Can anyone think of any other Clone Wars cartoon designs that you would want to see done once a wave like this came out? I can't think of any right now.

[Rune Haako]

Nelvaan Warrior (mutated and not) (A mutated one would be HUGE!)
Skakoan Techno Union Scientist
San Hill and the other Muuns.
Battle Droid with speeder sub.
Jedi Sha'a Gi
Jedi Daakman Barrek
Jedi K'Kruhk
Jedi Tarr Seirr
Muunilinst Neimoidian
Gooey unarmored Durge
Sidious w/ Hologram Walker
Phase 2 Captain Fordo
Jedi Nem Bees (we don't see him in the cartoon in Jedi attire, but they could still make it with it.)
Kon'me

[Pete_Fett]

OK - point taken. Looks like I need to go back and watch the DVDs.

[Darby]

If there's any truth to that, wave 3 will be the best of all next year.  I can see it happening, especially if Hasbro wants to get the first CW show out of the way as they focus on the new one.  Also, there's that mail in promotion sometime this year...

[Darth Broem]

To be honest that is the best wave I have heard of for 2008 in regard to basic figures at least.  The other 2 are ok but I'm interested in every figure listed there.  Yes, I realize it's just a rumor but it looks good to me.   

Of course I would assume Kenobi and Padme Ilum would be all new nice sculpts.  People may be sick of clones but the SCUBA trooper geeks me up a bit   Gotta like Saesse in General's armor and an IG droid!

[ctonra]

I wish this wave is true I want every figure on that list, please be true.