I have read about peoples "modular" ideas, and still, it doesn't sound very exciting to me as, for instance, the Sail Barge. Which would I rather have - a series of long, gray corridors with doors that shut sealing off sections, a gunnery, a jail, a briefing area, a garbage area, etc...
Well as one who has posted the modular idea several times, I have to whole heartily disagree.
Just take your own post here. You're focusing on the "boring" parts. The halls and doors are just connecting pieces. The real gems would come from the large and medium playsets like:
Hangar Bay (finally a place to put our Falcon/Imperial Shuttle)
Emperor's Throne room
Red Control Room
Garbage compactor (and yes this is a fun set and could be done even better than before with moving walls)
Prison ward (includes receiving area, long BLACK hallway with lit-up floor, and a few cells, one of which includes Leia), this set would also connect to the garbage unit via a tube/duct that you could toss figures into
Gunners Stations
Conference room (finally something proper instead of the cardboard thingy we got a few years back)
Trench (that Luke and Leia swing over), can also double as the trench Obi-wan depowers the tractor beam on, so double modular.
An elevator to connect stacked sets.
Plus of course long, short, and corner hallways, and doors.
These sets can be stack high (to a safe height, likely not bigger than 3ft.). And/or connected side by side.
So YOU can make your own Death Star modular playset however YOU want and as BIG or small as YOU want.
See, it's not just about hallways. Yes, those in and of themselves would be boring.
Were Hasbro to make the modular sets, they would have to commit to several years of this. And it would be better to say what would be coming out than to make us wait. This way those of us with plans to make a large set can plan our dioramas out.
This is TOTALLY feasible.
Each large set could come with either two small hallways or one long one, each medium set could come with a small hallway or corner one. Those hallways would be VERY cheap to produce, yet and a level of modularity that would be unprecedented among toys today.
While I agree, I'd love a Jabba's sail barge, that would be way to massive (if done right) and too pricey. But the modular Death Star would be affordable as sets. Ultimately it would be much more expensive over time than ONE ship such as the Sail Barge. But that's the beauty in it. We get these sets at affordable costs individually, yet Hasbro yields a ton of money over time.
I think their big problem is they want as much money NOW and aren't thinking about a longer term prospect like the modular Death Star.
Anyway, aren't you just a little bit swayed or excited about this idea now?
I'm still stoked and really wish I could pitch this idea to Hasbro and get them to not only believe in it, but make it happen.
-Sal