New York Comic Con 2011

[Scott]

Thanks Jayson...missed that one...but, again with all of the doubling up? Seriously?  That is one of their biggest problems right now with Legends/Vintage

[Scott]

For instance...

Darth Maul Vintage
Darth Maul Movie Heroes Wave 1
Darth Maul Movie Heroes Wave 2
Darth Maul w/ Sith Speeder
Darth Maul Discover the Force
Darth Maul Emergence of the Sith

[DoctorPadawan]

So, is it just me, or does it seem like the guy/gal who ran the SW line during 2002-2003's dark days is back in charge?  There is an assortment of crap that was trotted out today that makes me wonder if Hasbro even realizes what their market is anymore.  Sure, the basic vintage figures look great, but if Saga Legends was "The Human Centipede" of action figure line-ups, the Movie Heroes line is easily the sequel to that film: horrible, pointless, and destined to make people vomit after only seeing brief summaries of it, much less seeing the full thing in action.

A lot of redundancy (as Scott pointed out, six Mauls at one time; there weren't even that many when TPM was first released in 1999!), a lot of rehashes (95% of which are completely useless; who among the world actually wanted a version of the 2002 Sith Training Maul in movie colors?), and a whole lot of material to warm those shelves at Wal-Mart, Target, and Toys R Us next year, while I trot over to the other side of the store and spend my money on Lego stuff, since Vintage will obviously be the red-headed-stepchild of the Hasbro SW lineup once again, and, as with this year, I won't be able to find anything new hanging around. 

[P-Siddy]

The thing Hasbro made a point of was that 2012 was the year of Maul . TPM is coming out and he's returning in Clone Wars (I'm sure he'll be shown at Toy Fair for Clone Wars, so make that a seventh Maul). I think most of this is aimed at the kids collectors.

[Scockery]

I didn't realize that not only would they add new action feature figures, but they'd DOWNGRADE previous Legends offerings by going to worse older versions.

Lets see, I might get a repacked 30th Super Battle Droid to boost my army, but I'd never pay any real money for a ROTS one. I'm doubting that's a place holder now.

The Jet Pack Clone trooper...a mold that should've been retired permenantly. But hey, it's like getting a ROTS deluxe for only $8! 

For future offerings, they'll bring out hunch back ROTJ Luke and screaming Mace Windu (or save that for AOTC' 3D).

These aren't for us, they are for the kids...of 6 to 8 years ago.   

Also, I really, really don't care what kids want. At all. Just saying.

[Dressel Rebel]

Jesus H. what a snoozefest!!  Hasbro really dragged up a whole bunch of old crap for the legends "movie heroes" line.  Not too much exciting for vintage, just a few I guess.

Hasbro's Marvel stuff has just been killing star wars lately.

That said there were a few nice vintage figures on deck for the spring, Evazan and Kithaba and the Imperial navy figure and a couple others.  Guess not too exciting if I can't remember them.  Maybe just because it's midnight I don't know.  Oh Ben Quadinaros and Mawhonic are good.

But Marvel Universe has like 30 fantastic figures coming over the next half a year like Scarlet Witch, new Hulk, new Punisher, She-Hulk, Angel, Beast etc. which just thrashes the star wars lineup.

[Jeff]

I really can't get upset with Hasbro for trying something different (Movie Heroes figures with action features). 

Maybe in the eyes of the average collector it does seem like a return to the "bad" days of 2002-2004 with all the action features and pre-posed nonsense, but honestly why not let Hasbro try something different?  It's not like they are setting the world on fire with the current Legends set-up. 

All anyone ever does around here is bitch and complain about how ****** Legends sell - "the pegs are overflowing with this crap!"  If Legends are so ****** and don't sell, then why not try something different?  Why not swing the pendulum back to "action features" and light-up sabers and see if that brings in the kiddos.  If Movie Heroes figure sales suck ass, they can always dump it and go back to pure repacks a la Saga Legends.

I guess I see it this way.  In the past two years, I've picked up at least one (if not more) of every new Vintage Collection figure and just one Saga Legends figure (Hoth Han, for my carded collection).  In 2012, I'll keep buying at least one (if not more) of every new Vintage Collection figure and I'm already thinking about picking up a couple of the Movies Heroes figures, so technically Hasbro is ahead of the game with me as a buyer. 

[Jesse James]

I get both sides, but I'm leaning towards Jeff's thoughts mostly...

Legends sucks now, everyone hates it, and it hasn't really "worked" for some time.  Why not give something new a whirl, ya know?

But overall with NYCC I was a little deflated...  Moreso than the previous shows this year.  I was excited by some news, but it was limited.  Exclusives do appear to be scaled back now, stuff just isnt' as interesting or at least plentiful or something.

Maybe that's for the best though.  This is getting way out of hand some years.  Just too much junk, and so to be honest, the less I feel compelled to buy, the better I think.  I'm glad to see figures returning that people want.  Hasbro's acknowledging a lot by putting out figures that were tough to get, and making it a part of the presentation.

I love the E1 stuff geared at collectors too.  So many gaps filled.  That line may have had the aesthetics down pretty well but their figures lacked a lot of umph, and the new ones make up for it immensely.

I Tweeted pics of the Naboo pilot and Ric Olie, and will be doing a little review after the weekend, and let me say, they are superior quality IMO.  The skirt flexes well by the way, so those afraid he won't fit in a naboo fighter will be pleased to learn that he easily does.  It's slit up both sides, and made of very pliable plastic.  All plastic skirted figures shoudl have this IMO.

But that's only some of the "good" and these are just two random early figures.  There's a lot more good I think to come yet out of the other "collector-targeted" E1 figures.  I think htat movie's going to get wrapped up nicely.

There was stuff to like though, regardless.  I'm geeked on that...

But there was also a lot of the line shifting to kids, and in a way I didn't care for way back when.  At this point it may be good, or at least less painful, since most of the new figures they do already have pretty superior sculpts out.  So a bulky and dumb looking light-up figure doesn't sting so bad since he has a hyper articulated realistic counterpart.  Maybe 2002 wouldn't have hurt like it did, had there been something similar at the time.

It's a lot to digest and I just got home so I'm going through stuff yet, but yeah, I'm not all doom and gloom with the line at this point.  Just maybe underwhelmed, and yet somehow relieved a little bit too?

[JediJman]

So, there are some pics floating around out there of the Walmart TPM figures (Ric, Aurra, Mawhonic, etc).  I know there aren't too many carded collectors left out there, but the ones that are left have to be rolling their eyes at those Walmart basic figure packages with the 3D glasses attached to the cardback.   

That's me.      

[Pete_Fett]

On the whole - like that the line seems "scaled back" in comparison to recent years. Definitely a lot of stuff I can either grab only one of to have in the MIB collection (like all the re-released vehicles). Here's my thoughts broken down by sub-line...

Vintage Collection:

The good: Hoth Luke, Death Squad Trooper, Darth Malgus - nice reveals. The stuff we were shown at SDCC is still cool - love the focus on EP1 this year. Lots of ultimate versions being offered and some nice gaps being filled.

The bad: Where's Ponda Baba, Bastilla Shan & Echo Base Hoth Rebel on those "They're back" slides? Why is Barriss Offee on there? There's one of her just sitting at my local Target right now, she has NOT been hard to find. Same goes with Bespin Han, I love the figure, but he has not been hard to get either.

The huh?: Vintage Collection Vehicles - gonna wait on these, probably going to completely pass unless I find out the decos are new and improved. The paint aps on the Torrent Starfighter could have totally been improved, so here's hoping.

Clone Wars:

The good: I personally like that we're getting one more of the Training Armor clones for the squad, would be cool to see them finish them off eventually. Like the Clone Wars version of Republic Commando Boss. Good to see Aayla coming back - she was a hard-to-find figure.

The bad: Not pleased that we're not being given more opportunities to get some of the Fall '11 figures again and with all of the releases of Shirtless Savage, you mean in 2012 Wave 1, it couldn't have been the armored version instead? Also there didn't really seem to be too much "new" in there. Oh - and if you're going to give us Cody w/the super-huge backpack and a Phase 2 helmet, why didn't the recent Rex just come with a Phase 2 helmet? Why did you need to have yet another Rex release just for the new helmet?

The huh?: The Obi-Wan and Anakin figures look to be soft-goods/better articulated versions of the ones that currently clog the pegs, not sure why these versions couldn't have just been the versions they released in the first place, maybe they'd be clogging the pegs less. Also why isn't the new version of Ahsoka also making a come back? She should be consistently in rotation IMHO.

Saga Legends Movie Heroes & Discover the Force:

The good: The idea of the light-up lightsabers is cool, so gotta give Hasbro credit for trying it again.

The bad: We're going to be swimming in Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul figures - there will be FOUR versions of each figure out there at once (MH Wave 1, MH Wave 2, TVC Wave 1, DtF Wave), I guess they've learned NOTHING from the Anakins and Obi-Wans we're constantly swimming in now between the CW and Legends lines. Also, not sure why the new Anakin and Padme sculpts couldn't have just been in the Vintage collection. These outfits are iconic to those characters and really should be represented at some point in the vintage line - hopefully they will be in the vintage collection keeps going...

The huh?: The entire concept of the "Discover the Force" wave has me scratching my head. This looks like the same thing as the Dark of the Moon Optimus Prime that came with 3D glasses only expanded out to a 12 figure wave. But why? With there already being so much cross-over between characters in the Movie Heroes wave 1 and this (five figures), it almost seems to me that WalMart would be insane for even carrying the Movie Heroes Wave 1 case. And out of the six new figures, why only put four of them on Vintage cards later in the fall? With how bad WalMart has been lately, I cringe at the idea of even being able to find all 12 of these, let a lone doubles of Ric and G8-R3 to open. And like Jman, I am totally rolling my eyes at this cardback design with the 3D glasses attached.


So all-in-all - not really wowed by anything shown, again, glad the line seems rather dialed back compared to previous years. Almost looks like they're "winding down" Clone Wars, with this being the second-to-last season, I can see them being totally out of the Clone Wars animated line by the time the 3D version of ANH hits.

[Matt R.]

Does anybody like the Movie Heroes Jar Jar, Anakin (Podrace) , and Queen Amidala (Theed).  Jar Jar looks pretty good, Amidala looks like a great sculpt except no legs articulation, and Anakin  is whatever.

[Pete_Fett]

Does anybody like the Movie Heroes Jar Jar, Anakin (Podrace) , and Queen Amidala (Theed).  Jar Jar looks pretty good, Amidala looks like a great sculpt except no legs articulation, and Anakin  is whatever.

I commented previously that the Tatooine version of Anakin and the Assault on Theed version of Padme are much more iconic versions of those characters and definitely belong to have been included in the Vintage line. So yeah, I do like them - nice improvements over the 1999 versions. I also like the new Jar Jar, I had left him off 'cause for some reason, I thought he was in the Vintage line EP1 wave, but I just looked again and saw that he's not, so yeah, I wish all three of them had actually been given the Vintage treatment instead of the "Movie Heroes" one. 

[Nicklab]

Looking at some of the images of the Theed Padme, and I think I know why she's in the Movie Heroes line.  I think there's an action feature with a rapelling line, harkening back to the ascension gun scene.  When I see it in person tomorrow I'll be able to confirm that particular suspicion.

[Diddly]

Lately I've been considering hopping off the bus, so to speak, of Star Wars Hasbro collecting, and if this reveal is any indication, next year will be the perfect time to stop.

I do like the new TVC figures and the Movie Heroes Padme/Jar Jar/Anakin, but the rest? Meh overall, but I'm just flat out insulted by some of these figures. Why would Hasbro expect ANYBODY to hand over nearly $10 for a figure that was originally made in 2002, TEN YEARS after the new release? Light up saber figures aren't my cup of tea, but at least they're interesting. I can't find any positives in rereleasing crap like Sith Training Darth Maul (which most people only purchased way back when for the awesome metal lightsaber), Saga 02 Bespin Vader, Kamino Escape Jango, etc. And I can't add anything to the discussion about character overlapping between lines that hasn't already been said. Pete hit the nail on the head in regards to the Movie Heroes/Discovery lines. Wal-Marts are going to be clogged with so many Mauls, Qui-Gons and Obi-Wans that I might have to cross them off my search list like I have TRU.

I don't know, collecting hasn't been as much fun the last few years, and I'm starting to get the LEGO bug again, because they're products are actually interesting to me now. I've also been getting into buying/reading comic books lately, and not only is it more fun to me, it's cheaper too. These prices and distribution, if anything, are pushing me away.

Sorry for the personal rant, and I'll try not to let the door hit me on the way out, but I just don't see how Movie Heroes is going to magically solve the line's problems when it isn't really doing anything differently.

[Dressel Rebel]

Sorry for the personal rant, and I'll try not to let the door hit me on the way out, but I just don't see how Movie Heroes is going to magically solve the line's problems when it isn't really doing anything differently.

You'll be back.

They always come back.