Author Topic: Rogue One Rebel U-Wing Fighter  (Read 16445 times)

Offline Nicklab

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Rogue One Rebel U-Wing Fighter
« on: August 15, 2016, 07:44 PM »
Check out this posting at From 4-LOM to Zuckuss.  They've got our first glimpse of what look like official Hasbro images of the 3.75" U-Wing Starfighter.  This vehicle also includes a 3.75" Captain Cassian Andor figure ..... and Nerf action features. 

These images appear to have leaked from a French product listing that was posted a little early.  The vehicle definitely looks scaled down.  And the original article stated that they think the price point will be around $50.

Quote
STAR WARS – E7 CLASS HERO III STARFIGHTER VEHICLE

A new vehicle on the scene with the NERF strike force! A magnificent ship to ship your figurines and launch missiles.Nerve! Vehicle up figurines 10 cm.MEGA compatible with Nerf darts.

« Last Edit: August 19, 2016, 11:25 AM by Jeff »
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Offline Darby

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #1 on: August 15, 2016, 08:19 PM »
Definitely scaled way down. Glad to see it but the deciding factor to me will be whether there's a troop compartment under there that will accommodate a couple figures. If not, then no thanks. Looks good though. Appears the swept wing feature is present.

Offline Jeff

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2016, 09:45 AM »
Wow, yeah that looks really underscaled (not that that's a surprise these days).  Maybe they designed it based off pictures without really knowing it was a troop carrier...  reminds me of how undersized the Sith Infiltrator was kinda.

Maybe I'll just pretend there are different versions of this thing, kinda the same way there were Republic Gunship variants for different purposes - troop transport, cargo transport, etc.  This one can be the "solo pilot" bomber type thing #collectorrationalizing

I'll probably end up buying it eventually (since there probably won't be too many other vehicles if things play out like TFA did), but I'll probably wait for a decent discount/sale.


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Offline Darby

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2016, 11:30 AM »
I'm thinking they probably didn't get confused by early art/pics as the Lego version appears to be accurate to the production ship. I'd rather Hasbro went the extra mile and charged the extra $$$ to make a truly representative toy. Probably that's a $100 nowadays. The more I look at the pic, the more I think it's impossible there's any kind of troop compartment under there. The compartment is probably not open or functional. If so that's a huge disappointment.

Offline Rob

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2016, 11:44 AM »
I'm going to be tempted to hold off on most of the vehicles this time around... I paid way way too much for those crappy speeders and walkers, half of which didn't even appear in the movie.  I bought two TIE's and two X-Wings at full price, all of it's on clearance now. 

Offline Matt_Fury

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2016, 12:09 PM »
One will probably end up in my son's room.
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Offline Jeff

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #6 on: August 16, 2016, 12:22 PM »
I'm thinking they probably didn't get confused by early art/pics as the Lego version appears to be accurate to the production ship.

Maybe.  LEGO's production/development time is a lot shorter than Hasbro's though.  Not as many new parts to spec out and majority of their manufacturing is controlled by them. 

Eh, no matter what, we all knew it was going to be way underscaled anyway.  Especially with the AT-ACT already occupying the "big thing" slot for 2016.
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Offline Dave

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #7 on: August 16, 2016, 12:51 PM »
I'll reserve judgement for now, but have no problem with them significantly downscaling a large ship.  I think that is really the only way these things can work economically.

From a kid perspective I have no problem with a $50 significantly downscaled toy as opposed to a $150 slightly downscaled toy.

As a collector with a fat enough wallet to pay for expense stuff I would prefer they made more $200 toys - e-wing, The Ghost, etc., but I'm sure the market just wont support things like that and completely understand them going smaller.

I'm sure Hasbro has good numbers on sales volumes, profits, price points, etc. on how many of the $150 MF ships they sold vs. the $50 X-Wings.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2016, 12:52 PM by Dave »

Offline McMetal

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #8 on: August 16, 2016, 03:12 PM »
If five different companies can do 6" figures I don't see why another company can't step up and make properly scaled "SW vehicle collectibles" that are actually representative of the onscreen source material.

Hasbro can keep making their ****** under scaled Nerf toys, and we collectors can get stuff like The Ghost and Kylo Ren's shuttle that actually go with the figures we buy. WIN WIN!

I'm just spitballing here, I know all the factors that would combine to make this highly improbable. But I would be more than happy to shell out $100 or more for a quality Ghost, even if I had to have it shipped from Japan.
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Offline Darby

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #9 on: August 16, 2016, 03:47 PM »
Didn't know that about the LEGO development time. Explains some things, like why Kylo's shuttle was black from the get go from them and not the initial white that Hasbro had on at least the Titanium (changed late in production).

Offline Muftak

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #10 on: August 16, 2016, 06:22 PM »
If five different companies can do 6" figures I don't see why another company can't step up and make properly scaled "SW vehicle collectibles" that are actually representative of the onscreen source material.

Hasbro can keep making their ****** under scaled Nerf toys, and we collectors can get stuff like The Ghost and Kylo Ren's shuttle that actually go with the figures we buy. WIN WIN!

I'm just spitballing here, I know all the factors that would combine to make this highly improbable. But I would be more than happy to shell out $100 or more for a quality Ghost, even if I had to have it shipped from Japan.

I don't like being Mr. Wet Blanket, but I don't think $100 would even get you the Galactic Heroes version of the Ghost if it was coming from a smaller company doing a more limited run. If you were looking at a figure-sized Ghost with some kind of playset-like features on the inside to interact with figures and the existing Phantom, near the size of the TFA Falcon, I feel like a far more realistic price would be somewhere more in the ballpark of $600-$800.

As for the U-Wing, I like it and am tempted to get this toy. The TFA TIEs, X-Wings, and Speeders had no pull on me at all, so this is a step in the right direction as far as I'm concerned.


Offline Nicklab

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #11 on: August 17, 2016, 05:17 AM »
I like the swing-wing feature.  And the design of the cockpit is somewhat like that of a Y-wing.  As for it being underscaled?  That's definitely disappointing.  And so is the Nerf feature.  But I have to wonder how much it would have cost if it were more appropriately scaled.  Would it be sized somewhere between the ARC-170 and Republic Gunship?  How much would a new vehicle tool cost consumers?
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Offline Matt_Fury

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #12 on: August 17, 2016, 08:35 AM »
If five different companies can do 6" figures I don't see why another company can't step up and make properly scaled "SW vehicle collectibles" that are actually representative of the onscreen source material.

Hasbro can keep making their ****** under scaled Nerf toys, and we collectors can get stuff like The Ghost and Kylo Ren's shuttle that actually go with the figures we buy. WIN WIN!

I'm just spitballing here, I know all the factors that would combine to make this highly improbable. But I would be more than happy to shell out $100 or more for a quality Ghost, even if I had to have it shipped from Japan.

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Offline JediJman

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #13 on: August 17, 2016, 12:17 PM »
I wish there was some happy medium here.  I get that Hasbro wants to scale it down because of costs, limited shelf footprint, play factor, etc.  But they clearly could have made this a little bigger like the $40-50 X-Wing and TIEs we got for TFA.  I don't care so much that its to scale, but when the movie clip shows two people in the cockpit and this clearly only seats one, that's a big miss for me.  Skimp on the cargo hold or other areas if you need to.  That's the best part of the BMF for me - the fact that you can get four figures in the cockpit the way you see it in the movie.  I'm less excited about the design than most people anyway, so this is another one I'll probably wait on for a sale. 

As for 3P companies, you would be surprised what's out there for other toy lines. The Masterpiece Transformers market has several 3P companies constantly releasing new items, to the point where there is probably 3-4 times as many 3P products coming out as official Hasbro figures.  Despite being smaller, their costs are typically on par with what Hasbro is charging.  What they lack in volume and staff, they make up for in not having overhead, marketing, etc.  And once the design is out there, there are copycat companies that reproduce a fair amount of official and 3P figures for a fourth of the cost. 

Here's an example - a 3P company called Warbotron made a Combaticons set, with all five individual bots that transform into their own vehicle, then also combine to form Bruticus.  The designs and quality are incredible.  You could buy the set for about $450, but that's under $100 per figure and these are far more complex designs than a standard figure/playset/ship given that they need to transform into multiple things.  Once these were on the market, two different companies started producing knock-offs with different color designs.  You can buy a knock off version, which apparently has similar quality standards, for about $20 a bot.

So, the dream of having 3P companies produce ships isn't that unrealistic from a "can they do it" aspect.  There just hasn't been much of this in the Star Wars space for some reason.  Hasbro is probably more protective of the Star Wars property internationally, and I think there's some loop holes in getting around the licensing depending on the country of origin.  They would just need to be creative in keeping it differentiated enough to not incur copyright infringement. 
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Offline Qui-Gon Jim

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Re: Rogue One - U-Wing Starfighter
« Reply #14 on: August 18, 2016, 07:22 PM »
I'll reserve judgement for now, but have no problem with them significantly downscaling a large ship.  I think that is really the only way these things can work economically.

From a kid perspective I have no problem with a $50 significantly downscaled toy as opposed to a $150 slightly downscaled toy.

As a collector with a fat enough wallet to pay for expense stuff I would prefer they made more $200 toys - e-wing, The Ghost, etc., but I'm sure the market just wont support things like that and completely understand them going smaller.

I'm sure Hasbro has good numbers on sales volumes, profits, price points, etc. on how many of the $150 MF ships they sold vs. the $50 X-Wings.
Nonsense. The Galactic Heroes Ghost is about 50% of how big a Hasbro version should be and it clocks in at $30 with plenty of accessories and play features.

No reason Hasbro couldn't do a very decent, mostly correctly sized, version for $100.