Author Topic: More from TFU - Rumors/Speculation  (Read 56119 times)

Offline ruiner

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #30 on: November 27, 2007, 05:01 PM »
the movie was nothing more than a marketing ploy to sell toys anyway.  

You might as well as throw the other two PT movies in there as well.  He's milking this cow for all it's worth and I can't blame him - I'd do the same damn thing. 

You want black stormies?  Not a problem at $15 a pop.

You want an AT-AT sprinkled in ****?  I can do that too...


Offline Matt

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #31 on: November 27, 2007, 05:07 PM »
¢lonetrooper, now $tormtrooper:  It all makes cents.
« Last Edit: November 27, 2007, 05:08 PM by Matt »
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Offline CHEWIE

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #32 on: November 27, 2007, 05:42 PM »
Didn't ROTS buy into the themes of the OT quite a bit though?  I'm not sure that the OT has been bastardized like some claim it has... sure, Lucas has made some changes to it but the only ones I don't really care for are Greedo shooting first and adding ROTS Anakin to the spirit scene...

Anyways, the shadow troopers/etc. are just gimmicks.  I don't see this Stormtrooper as being in that same category (well to a degree it's a marketing ploy, but this makes more sense to me than a shadow trooper).  In the two decade gap between ROTS and ANH, there's a hell of a lot that can go on.  And remember it's a huge galaxy with planets with different garrisons on them. Why would it be surprising to see different legions with different markings before the Empire finally transitioned their troopers to be all white for uniformity?

Offline Jesse James

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #33 on: November 27, 2007, 05:48 PM »
How's a shadow trooper a gimmick, but this isn't?  Shadow Troopers came from EU birthplaces...  Comics were the basis for the concept, and Hasbro just ran with it.  Black's cool, and black stormtroopers are cooler, or so the theory goes.

The game's EU, and it's no less gimmicky than the comics by slapping a deco on a stormtrooper to separate it.  It's especially gimmicky when you think Hasbro's had these years of marketing to realize, "Hey...  Why don't we mix up some colors on the stormies to sell some to the public?", because that clearly seems like a reason to do such a thing...

As for the figure, I don't hate the idea if it's contained to Force Unleashed...  It's a game, it's EU, and it's something that takes place close to the time-frame of ROTS...  I'd say pretty shortly after the armor changed from ROTS armor to Imperial era armor.  I can "believe" that, and the figure doesn't bother me horribly in that regard.

If Hasbro starts doing "Red FU paintjob Scout Troopers" though, and they're not in the game, then I'm gonna start getting annoyed at the whoring I think.  If it's contained to FU, I can deal with it though, basically.  They're not OT characters to me...  They're EU, and very close to PT at that.  The whole Force Unleashed thing, and the pre-ANH era, is really something that we're gonna have to deal with I think.  It's unexplored territory you knew they were gonna get into.  The live-action TV show is supposedly centered on this era. 

It's coming folks.
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Offline jedipurge

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #34 on: November 27, 2007, 06:23 PM »
How's a shadow trooper a gimmick, but this isn't?  Shadow Troopers came from EU birthplaces...  Comics were the basis for the concept, and Hasbro just ran with it.  Black's cool, and black stormtroopers are cooler, or so the theory goes.

The game's EU, and it's no less gimmicky than the comics by slapping a deco on a stormtrooper to separate it.  It's especially gimmicky when you think Hasbro's had these years of marketing to realize, "Hey...  Why don't we mix up some colors on the stormies to sell some to the public?", because that clearly seems like a reason to do such a thing...

As for the figure, I don't hate the idea if it's contained to Force Unleashed...  It's a game, it's EU, and it's something that takes place close to the time-frame of ROTS...  I'd say pretty shortly after the armor changed from ROTS armor to Imperial era armor.  I can "believe" that, and the figure doesn't bother me horribly in that regard.

If Hasbro starts doing "Red FU paintjob Scout Troopers" though, and they're not in the game, then I'm gonna start getting annoyed at the whoring I think.  If it's contained to FU, I can deal with it though, basically.  They're not OT characters to me...  They're EU, and very close to PT at that.  The whole Force Unleashed thing, and the pre-ANH era, is really something that we're gonna have to deal with I think.  It's unexplored territory you knew they were gonna get into.  The live-action TV show is supposedly centered on this era. 

It's coming folks.

I think Shadow Troops were more of a gimmick just 'cause they were overpriced exclusives and nothing more.  Well as for these red ones, and more then likely the blue ones that are in the mini unleashed line to come later, follow a theme from the game.  These guys are in the same line as the Repub Comm in my opinion, but like you said Jesse they bust out with Scouts in Stripes for no reason then it just sucks.

I try to be a purist when it comes to the OT, but really Hasbro/Star Wars/Lucas are going to do whatever they can to keep the gravy train running on this, but it's just a matter of how long I'm willing to ride it with them.  Any one of us can stop buying this stuff if they don't like it.  And Hasbro can only sell so many background characters, which would probably actually kill the line faster since most of us won't army build Ice Cream Maker Guy but would probably buy more then one of the striped stormie.
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Offline Rob

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #35 on: November 27, 2007, 06:41 PM »
If Hasbro starts doing "Red FU paintjob Scout Troopers" though, and they're not in the game, then I'm gonna start getting annoyed at the whoring I think.  If it's contained to FU, I can deal with it though, basically.  They're not OT characters to me...  They're EU, and very close to PT at that.  The whole Force Unleashed thing, and the pre-ANH era, is really something that we're gonna have to deal with I think.  It's unexplored territory you knew they were gonna get into.  The live-action TV show is supposedly centered on this era. 

It's coming folks.

Instead of making Red FU Paintjob Scout Troopers that aren't in the game, they'll just work with the game developers to incorporate Red Scout Troopers.

Voila.



Offline Force Guy

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #36 on: November 27, 2007, 09:02 PM »
How's a shadow trooper a gimmick, but this isn't? 

Exactly.  A Shadow Trooper is Exploited Universe material, same as this new Stormtrooper "Commando" figure.

Quote
It's coming folks.

Yep, and people will buy it with glee.
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Offline RC-0379 Marev

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #37 on: November 27, 2007, 09:14 PM »
You know, what really puzzles me is the mentality that everything not OT is just to make money, but OT products are somehow more. Like the original trilogy is akin to some kind of "spiritual codex" and thus above the concepts of economy. Star wars is not some kind of life blueprint or existential codex, it's a money making venture. That it brings joy to people, great. That people can identify with it is awesome. But at the end of the day, the OT, the PT, and every licensed and marketable object derived thereof exists to make people money. So why is the PT and EU considered some kind of base corporate vehicle for greed and the OT is somehow above that? Very puzzling.
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Offline Force Guy

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #38 on: November 27, 2007, 09:18 PM »
So why is the PT and EU considered some kind of base corporate vehicle for greed and the OT is somehow above that? Very puzzling.

The fact that it's so blatant is probably what makes it bothersome.  It applies to the OT, too.  I mean, what next?  Purple Ewoks?  Black Wampas?  A rare hybrid "Blue" Bantha?   
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Offline Morgbug

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #39 on: November 27, 2007, 10:47 PM »
You know, what really puzzles me is the mentality that everything not OT is just to make money, but OT products are somehow more. Like the original trilogy is akin to some kind of "spiritual codex" and thus above the concepts of economy. Star wars is not some kind of life blueprint or existential codex, it's a money making venture. That it brings joy to people, great. That people can identify with it is awesome. But at the end of the day, the OT, the PT, and every licensed and marketable object derived thereof exists to make people money. So why is the PT and EU considered some kind of base corporate vehicle for greed and the OT is somehow above that? Very puzzling.

It's really that the OT had some consistency with reality, in terms of military dress.  There's relatively little variation, aside from actual camouflage, in real world military uniforms.  That's consistent with the OT approach to thing.  Stormtroopers have a basic look.  Scout troopers are modified slightly for greater mobility and riding bikes.  Any changes to uniforms, aside from a rank insignia on an officer (either side), were directly related to the functionality and/or designation of a position held within that military.  It's simple, quasi-realistic (yeah, I know, it's a movie) and not blatantly directed at marketing.

AOTC had clones with rank designations according to their colors.  Those colors were relatively few: red, yellow, green, blue (that's all I recall) and their degree of occurrence was again relative to what you'd see in a realistic military setup - coloration differences only really designating rank and the colors were at worst, uncommon.  Completely livable situation. 

Enter the ROTS version and all of a sudden everybody has a color scheme and now rank designations are different variations of that same color scheme.  Oh yeah, that's practical and realistic.  A militaristic organization isn't likely to spend a boatload of timing prettying up it's grunts.  They're fodder, more or less, and that's about it.  Presumably clones, like regular soldiers, are relatively intelligent enough to realize what unit they're in without looking at their uniform and going oh yeah, I'm in the 501st.  Cool

It has nothing to do with any great existentialist philosophy or anything remotely spiritual.  It's staying true to the movie that was originally made and we all fell in love with.  That's all.  But everyone saying things are coming or changing is absolutely right.  Lucas has made no bones about it at all, revising all sorts of things along the way.  They are his films.  But that doesn't mean we can't comment on the obviousness of the cash grab or the revisionist approach to history, does it?  Just because I don't march in lockstep with everything Hasbro does or Lucas devises doesn't mean I should abandon the hobby, does it?  We all get the economics of the situation but there's ample fodder there to make money with, we've proved that for them time and again.  Hell, all they have to do is change the packaging and no new tooling or paint is required for 90% of the figures to move off the pegs. 

Why is EU/PT considered a vehicle for greed?  It's not obvious?  Back in the old days, OT times if you will, they didn't realize nor could they practically accomplish painting everything a different color and that would generate way, way more money.  Action figures were 12" scale to be successful or 8" scale to fail for the most part.  No one back then would buy multiple figures for the most part.  So what was the point of making multiple paint versions?  Geez, the original 12" GI Joe figures were hard pressed to have half a dozen variations in what was the most successful action figure line of the preceding decade.  Times changed, people are a lot less debt averse and production costs are a fraction of what they were, so multiples are easy to do, especially if you use CGI to create those variations in the first place.  All of a sudden you can and will do so because economically you'd be nuts not to.  But that doesn't mean we have to like it. 

Hey, I buy most of the PT clones.  I'm ok with that in spite of the obviousness of the marketing because for the most part they were in the movie.  As Jesse J said, if it's FU stuff, then it's no different than PT and so be it.  My only issue is not that they're doing it for money, it's my fear that they won't stop at FU, they'll just continue on and Turner-ize the original movies by coloring up all the Imperials.  And what would be the point of that aside from greed?  It's no longer about a story and a movie and the artistic enjoyment that brought us all joy.  Now it's about the almighty dollar.  That's problematic to me.  That's about all.  Not everyone agrees.  So be it. 
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Offline JangoTat

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #40 on: November 27, 2007, 11:04 PM »
i actually love it. the figure looks great and it is something new....well paint wise. Besides now I can get a commander for my stormies and still be able to identify him. ::)
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #41 on: November 27, 2007, 11:46 PM »
Or you could've used the already laid out designation of an orange pauldron, a number of white pauldrons then at the head of each squad (with or without black pauldrons), if you wanted. :)

About what Morgbug said though...

That's pretty much what I would've said in response...  It's not 100% provable, but it does seem plausible that LFL intentionally wanted a lot of "flavors" of clone, because they saw the clone popularity from 2002 that spread in the EU during the 3 years to 2005...  It was pretty evident, and clearly it's an easy way to generate new interest in old figures, and make money...  One need only look at the clones we have, at all the variety of film, EU, and simply Hasbro-made-up paint aps on Clones as well...  ROTS trumps AOTC in variety, and with little real logic/reasoning behind it.

I don't necessarilly agree that there is no logical reasoning for the colors/variations in ROTS.  They're explainable in a "real-world" sense if you consider their Jedi Generals are giving them "personalities", and as personalities emerge, so does pride in who they are, etc.  So they decorate to distinguish, as a means of gloating, if you will.  It does then make some sense, but it's not so much a means of military recognition as it is a means of individual expression.

But that's neither here nor there...  I agree there's simply clear attempts by LFL between 2002 and 2005 to "cash-in" as much as possible.  Add in that 2005 did even better than I think people expected in collectibles, and it's carried over now for going on 3 years...  There's intent there I think, that wasn't really there quite as much in 1977.  At some point the lightbulb just went off in someone's head I guess.

I personally don't differentiate the PT and OT as much as other people, but at the same time I still question the multi-colored Stormtroopers in Force Unleashed.  I've not seen teh story outline or played the game to make my final call on what I feel the intent there was...  For all we know the different colors are for only one or two characters, not whole legions, but at this point I wouldn't be shocked if it was legions, and was simply a way to get that extra cent out of the FU push in 2008.
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Offline Nathan

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #42 on: November 28, 2007, 12:09 AM »
As for the figure, I don't hate the idea if it's contained to Force Unleashed...  It's a game, it's EU, and it's something that takes place close to the time-frame of ROTS...  I'd say pretty shortly after the armor changed from ROTS armor to Imperial era armor.  I can "believe" that, and the figure doesn't bother me horribly in that regard.

If Hasbro starts doing "Red FU paintjob Scout Troopers" though, and they're not in the game, then I'm gonna start getting annoyed at the whoring I think.  If it's contained to FU, I can deal with it though, basically.

As Jesse J said, if it's FU stuff, then it's no different than PT and so be it.  My only issue is not that they're doing it for money, it's my fear that they won't stop at FU, they'll just continue on and Turner-ize the original movies by coloring up all the Imperials.  And what would be the point of that aside from greed?

Yeah, I'm gonna go with these.

I'm still going to skip it just because it looks silly to me, but that's not the point.
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Offline Jesse James

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #43 on: November 28, 2007, 12:13 AM »
Agreed too, on bastardizing the films...  No reason but greed.  As it is, the SE's were a slippery slope.  Jango's voice inserted into Fett's, etc.  Some good things changed, some bad things happened too, and that's not cool...  Spraying graffitti on Stormtroopers probably wouldn't be difficult.  That's a big fear for me too, because it tears up my impressions of the films.

I'm more fearful of that, than the goofy toy crap.
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Offline Morgbug

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Re: More from The Force Unleashed?
« Reply #44 on: November 28, 2007, 01:12 AM »


I don't necessarilly agree that there is no logical reasoning for the colors/variations in ROTS.  They're explainable in a "real-world" sense if you consider their Jedi Generals are giving them "personalities", and as personalities emerge, so does pride in who they are, etc.  So they decorate to distinguish, as a means of gloating, if you will.  It does then make some sense, but it's not so much a means of military recognition as it is a means of individual expression.



Bah, to what end?  Didja ever see clones from different designations in the same place when deployed?  So they have those colors just for butt slapping back at the base and bragging rights? ;)
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