Thanks to Dave for hooking me up with some Indy stuff!

Well, we had Ian McHAig's concepts of Obi and QGJ in POTJ. (pg 202 & 204 in the Art of E1 book)   

I think it all boils down to rarity. Sith Training Maul, Obi & Qui-gon were concept designs, the 3 mini vehicles were concepts. Red trimmed Maul was a concept...yet these were readily available. The original McQ trooper was tough to find, and the latest McFigs are so far 1 per case and BAM $20 on ebay minimum, then add to that rarity hype they feed it by adding MORE figures as over-priced exclusives. It's more hype now. Personally for myself,  I'm angry because I began my interest in design thanks to the art of Ralph McQuarrie, Joe Johnston, Nilos Rodis Jamero, et al. It's a set I've been clamoring for for years!

Another thing that kills me is if you ask Hasbro's Q&A "Why do you repaint and repack so many figures as store exclusives" they always say "it costs soooo much to create new tooling" yet they do it left and right for  the McQ figs...and these ain't figs with 5 pts of articulation. We have alternate heads, near SA posability, etc even TWO instances of TWO figures on a card.

Of course what you get from the Q&A one week isn't what you'll get in two weeks. My favorite was Yakface's Q today about the Grevous Starfighter...Hasbro says if it's in the toon they may consider it...I read that AFTER they announced it at C4. funny stuff. Always in motion the future is...except they also say they have a plan for up to 2 years in advance in some cases.   

Due to the size of my collection and how I wanted to display it, I got (am still getting) rid of anything smaller than the land speeder. I think when I get to it I may buy Titanium ships or if we are ever lucky enough to have the micro-machine line make a comeback and do E2 & 3 ships...I was considering buying the miniatures game vehicles but they have no quality control as far as painting in many cases and the soft droopy deformed plastic they use makes the ships look like crap. Hasbro has had some gems, (even the repainted vintage things) I just didn't want to use the space to display them.   

I posted this on another local list earlier this week.

OK, after some reading and thinking, I'm pretty sure the Luke is exclusive in coin only.
  1) McQ Luke has been listed in wave 5, not as McQ Luke 2 like if it was another design.
  2) it's "while supplies last" not a limited punch ticket like the droids.
  3) That otheR Site said based on their sources (which are usually pretty good) a few weeks ago that the Luke figure was not a con exclusive.


  Also, I'm also betting that after Hasbro has stated many times in their Q&A's that they need to make a certain # of figures to make it cost effective they wouldn't make a limited run of 3 figures...I mean why would they create not 1 but 3 new sculpts and limited them only 2 cons? They say time and time again that limited runs are always kitbashed and or repaints because of the cost of the tooling process, and these are't figures with just 6 POA either, they have ball jointed knees, etc. So that means more detailed tooling and constuction costs to assemble. I'm betting (fairly positive) the Luke will be part of the regular line with a regular coin, and the Droids will be available through the Fan Club and/or Hasbro Toy Shop with a new coin (maybe even single carded, it would not shock me.)     

Also, when was the last time an exclusive of any sort was an original sculpt? They've all been repaints, and\or kitbashed with minor new parts, etc for years. 

I really think Hasbro put little to no thought on these, the best thing about them is the packaging design. They packed bad repacks with ridiculously made up repaint jobs. It's appalling, if this were Vegas, this'd be a sucker bet. They do it because they know people will buy a dog turd if it had the Star Wars logo on it. People buy them, they'll keep doing it. We can't even get an accurately painted Gree but we can get this tripe.   

I'm just slightly sweating, I even managed to get 2 Toy Fair Vaders, but the whole idea in principal has me miffed if these aren't available another way to collectors that CAN'T travel 2000+ miles. Before, the exclusives have been kit-bashed/repaints in nicer packaging, NOT brand new exclusive sculpts....I mean remeber the complaining people did/still do over the Exclusive Walmart repaints? and they are national, not 2000 miles away for half the country. Really previously the only "new" thing was Jorj's head. The C3 Vader had a nice Con specific Base with Con specific sounds, the Silver figures were special repainted exclusives unto themselves, the Mexican and German cons were repacks in nice con specific packaging. But these figures are not only part of a current set but a special McQuarrie  subset, actually 2 subsets if you count the poor coin collectors.

When I think of a 30th Anniversary Con exclusive, obscure figures based on conceptual artwork created in 1974-5 does not spring to mind. I love the idea of concept figures, going back to ones people don't even realize are concept figures (like the Shadows of the Empire Imperial Guard...check the concept Royal Guards in the Art of Jedi book) When I went to C2, the first thing I bought was the limited Edition McQuarrie DVD tin set which actually included a signed Tin card featuring the droids (same picture as the cardback) I just think they did a big disservice to fans, die hard and the average Joe.  The Average Fan/kid gets screwed because they are making it a less than memorable exclusive to most fans, it's nothing unique like Jorj or a talking Vader. If I'm a Joe Blow Star Wars fan that thought it'd be fun to get a memento for myself (if I wasn't a figure collector) or for my kids, what is more unique and fun? a Figure made to look like George Lucas in a star wars costume, A Darth Vader figure that talks, or a pair of figures that look like every other figure on the pegs, except you'd have to explain to people that they weren't in the movie but based on drawings. If I was an average fan or kid, I'd be disappointed. For the Die-hard fans in most of the world, they are making it part of the normal line subsets. An exclusive that will make it harder to get for fans that are fans of the conceptual stuff, new basic figures and the coin collectors.   

Then the figures themselves, they are really more amalgams of concepts. Just look at the carded figure: the picture and figure of the Threepios are different, you can tell in the head and the 'waist area'. The R2, just looks like a hodgepodge of a few sketches. I'm not liking what looks like a 2-part head with that big separation in his dome.  Compared to what we've seen before: Chewie, Fett, & Vader these don't look as good. 

I'll pick them up, because I love conceptual stuff, McQuarrie's stuff is what got me into the design field, I just don't like how they were offered.

-D
 

well, I've never regretted opening anything (even my Toy Fair Vader, althought I do have one still carded also) To me looking at a carded figure online is about the same as looking at a carded figure in your hands, it looks exactly the same, and peoples carded displays look less like a collection and more like a Toys R Us aisle.
With loose figures you can move them around into different poses, display them a variety of ways, display them together, literally "experience" it as a toy like it was meant to be. Kind of like owning a book with a nice cover, it looks nice but you don't get the full enjoyment until you've read it. I still have some carded (Vaders & Yodas) so I can appreciate the art and design, and progression thereof. (except the design of the TAC figures....good lord I hope Hasbro doesn't hire on as a full time designer the sophomore intern from the local community college that designed those atrocities ....)   
 
-Dan, a reformed carded collector