Toy Fair 2011

[JACKOFTRADZE]

Man, I really wish another company would make modular scenes displays. I really believe there would be a market for it. I am getting tired of having to make them myself as I just do not have the patience or time anymore. Chewie nailed it with all of their crappy sub lines that you know are doomed to fail.  Invest in the bread/butter of the line 1/18th scale, it always comes out on top.

Going to mass retail is not going to work, I have agree with Hasbro here. In order to make it compelling to all audiences they would be forced to hit a certain price point and they would have to include play features that will comprise the design too much. They would either become too much like Lars Homestead/Sarlacc (BTW - I loved both of those items!) or the Mustafar play set. The former was not compelling enough to kids so sales suffered and the latter was too "toyetic" that it did not appeal to adults. They need to take a MOTU Classics/Mattel approach, I believe if they went that route they can make this work. Sideshow would be more than capable to pull this off if they were licensed and it would be so much better than their subpar 12' line with the same lanky out of proportion body.

I actually like the POTF DS hall, I would not mind that format if they were a little larger and more detailed.

[Jesse James]

Paul posted this last year in the What are you Collecting thread...unless it was some crude joke?

My plan at this point is to collect:

Star War Vintage (Original Trilogy stuff) figs and vehicles (and the modular Death Star Playset they told us we couldn't show pictures of yet.   )

That would be a joke, since every site (and ours) would've gushed over any such news.

[jedi_master_sal]

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

[CHEWIE]

I'm all for modular, but heck - something like this would be amazing too!



At least I think so.

[Paul]

Paul posted this last year in the What are you Collecting thread...unless it was some crude joke?

My plan at this point is to collect:

Star War Vintage (Original Trilogy stuff) figs and vehicles (and the modular Death Star Playset they told us we couldn't show pictures of yet.  )

Wow, sorry about that, I planted that Landmine almost a year ago and just now somebody stepped on it... Princess Di was right.
There was no playset shown. As far as we are able to report...

[speedermike]

The real trick to a mudular set would be to make parts that can be used more than once.  How many conference rooms do you need?  One.  How many gunner stations could you use?  Two, maybe three...

How many Trash Compactors?  One.

How many control rooms/hallways?  Many...

[JACKOFTRADZE]

I'm all for modular, but heck - something like this would be amazing too!

At least I think so.

You are not alone, I would be all over that.

[speedermike]

I was just reading that Star Tours is opening up again in May with the new design.ride update.  I wonder if there will be any figure tie-in, and is that something we'd see at TF?

[Jesse James]

As long as Hasbro's making it, I'd put it in the, "maybe" category because store exclusives sort of don't get the love there except in the slide show.  I'm assuming the only 3.75" scaled item likely to be there is the big Star Speeder though, which Hasbro's not doing so that won't be at Toy Fair unless Disney has a booth in the Javits Center.

[JACKOFTRADZE]

I hope we see that 3.75 scale non Hasbro Starspeeder they showed drawings of at SDCC. I like the generic look of it, I really hope it gets made and shown!

[CHEWIE]

The real trick to a mudular set would be to make parts that can be used more than once.  How many conference rooms do you need?  One.  How many gunner stations could you use?  Two, maybe three...

How many Trash Compactors?  One.

How many control rooms/hallways?  Many...

I'd say they could make a basic "frame" for most of the sets, if not all.  Then the walls/etc could be pieced in, kind of like how they slid into the old Terror Drome for those rooms (though I'm envisioning something much more detailed and spacious than those little rooms).  The Conference room though?  Could be used for generic rooms too, which I'm all about. 

[Jesse James]

There's a military playset that I really liked, and think it'd work for a modular style anything, basically.  It's hyper modular though.  Seriously.  Every piece comes apart, and can be stacked, put in front, behind, left, right...  Walls are thin stamped detail plastic, they slide into slots on the top of the floor pieces and plug into slots on the underside of the floors.  Unfortunately the set's rare, as I'd probably buy 30 of them if I had access to them, haha.  I got some extra pieces from someone, and felt lucky to do so. 

Cost Vs. Risk is Hasbro's largest concern with playsets...  This is a cost-reducer for sure, but it's also not the general level of complexity/detail that a Star Wars item usually requires.  It's neat though, and really it's the ideal design for modular style playset design.

[Nicklab]

I hope we get to see the final product of Bastilla Shan, I've been looking forward to her figure since she won the fan's choice voting.

Well, it appears more likely that our first look at the production version of Bastila Shan, the Fan's Choice Figure Poll winner, will be at Toy Fair.  Especially in light of the news that ToyFare magazine has ceased publication.  Whether or not their website gets to make the reveal is questionable.

[Jesse James]

During the Forcecast it's interesting that DD sort of mentioned that they feel like the Vintage Collection is righted a little bit, but that they controlled the line somewhat, especially through Christmas, so not as much shipped and deluged the pegs.

DD directly addressed that the $1 difference on the pegs was a reason for them controlling this more strictly now.  Vintage ultimately suffered then, due to the CW and Legends having the lower pricepoint, as not as much came out through the holidays.

I've never heard of them really controlling how much of a line gets out like that too often in the past.  This direct competition is playing some hell with the line I think.  That said, no question was asked (so far) about figures competing with figures between the three lines out at one time.  Would've probably been an ideal time to ask that.

[McMetal]

Seems a little quiet the past few days in advance of Toy Fair this weekend. No new leaks, no rumor reports, etc.

When should we expect the news to start breaking? Hasbro does their presentation Saturday, right?