Hasbro Q&A Sessions

[Hobbie]

I got you now. 

Perhaps the big delay had more to do with Walmart/Target not ordering figures due to surplus holiday stock they had to grind through instead of Hasbro being recalcitrant about producing new waves.  I suppose we'll never really know the answer (unless you can write a good Q&A question asking them!).

[Pete_Fett]

Ok - this post is going to be long winded, so I apologize in advance...

I think Hasbro laying the Legacy Collection sales numbers problems at the feet of the collector segment is absolute crap. Here's why:

1) Collectors do not plan the line - as much as we'd like to think we influence the line, our voice is a very small factor in which figures are picked for which waves. Yarna should have been the "bonus" figure with a ROTJ Jabba Battlepack and a more kid-friendly Jabba denzien should have been in the wave. I can't even remember the last time I saw a Bane Malor figure on the pegs. Breha Organa should have been saved for a Comic 2-pack featuring her and Beru Lars with the Skywalker baby accessories, or perhaps even a collector exclusive, she should not have been in a B-A-D assortment.

2) Collectors do not plan case assortments - case assortments should be straight-forward as a result of the Build-a-Droid model where assortments are either 8 figures = 2 droids or 6 figures = 1 droid. For 8 figure waves there should be two different case pack-outs 2x Figs 1-4, 1x Figs 5-8; 1x Figs 1-4, 2x Figs 5-8. For 6 figure waves there should be one case pack-out: 2x of each figure.

3) Collectors don't plan on which figures come back for repeat shipping in later waves - I have started being strategic about what I buy - if I had known that the Scuba trooper or the Quad Gun Clone were shipping later, I would have held off army-building that figure so that I could get a variety of droid parts and not just end up with a slew of Green R4 domes and torsos! So now that I know the Spacetrooper is shipping in the next wave, I've held off getting more than two to open. My hope is that the part the Spacetrooper comes with in the ESB wave will not overlap the part that comes with the Hoth Rebel Trooper and the Ugnaught so that way, I'll be half-way complete with a second U-3PO thanks to the purchase of figures I already wanted to army build. So in a way this issue is related to my #2 issue - if no figures were ever re-shipping with a DIFFERENT droid part, collectors would be just buying what they wanted of each figure as they are released. If ever figure was treated like Bane Malor where if you don't get it when that wave is shipping, you will miss it - so not only is it your ONLY chance to get the figure, it's also your ONLY chance to get that droid part.

4) Collectors do not plan which build-a-droid parts end up with which figures - If for example, you have an assortment like the Wave 2 (Animated Clone Wars) one, why wouldn't you pack four of the army builders with the parts to one astromech and then package the parts for the other astromech with the remaining four figures? I know that this wave technically had five army builders, but it would have at least been nice if they had either the Quarren or the Mon Calamari warriors come with the fourth part of the Green R4 droid instead of two parts to the R7.

5) Collectors do not change the packaging every time the wind blows a different direction - ok, so this is the old-timer in me talking - pick a generic card back style, have the "Star Wars" logo on the top and ship everything in a single assortment. Get rid of the "Saga Legends" assortment entirely. If you want to have assortments for the TV show be separate, fine, but everything else should ship under a single SKU. If you want to keep putting out Darth Vader with Force Unleashed Battle Damage - that's fine, but at least the completists won't have to worry about having one in the TAC packaging, one in the TLC-Blue packaging and one in the TLC-Red packaging. So their repeated tactics of re-releasing items simply because the packaging changes has basically made the completist an endangered species. Collectors are now more picky about what they buy because there's really no reason to buy the same item twice. I know I fall prey to it, but very few people are as OCD as me when it comes to this stuff. Don't release the same figure over-and-over-and-over and then wonder why sales numbers for a particular SKU aren't as good as a line that is pretty much comprised of completely new figures (Clone Wars). Once you force a completist to make a concession it opens the door to that collector starting to pick and choose what they buy and by that point in time, it's too late to get them back into the mode of buying at least one of everything.

6) Collectors don't choose what items you offer as high-end exclusives or the quality of those products - Case in point - the Lars Homestead and Sarlaac Pit. Those two sets would have sold MUCH BETTER if the quality of the product had been a lot higher. The use of the flimsy plastic bases really turned off a lot of collectors on these sets. If you wanted them to sell, then the product should have been of a higher quality. This is a great example of collectors "voting with their wallets" and Hasbro's reaction this is simply "playsets don't work, see we told you so" - heaven forbid they actually admit that they know they put out a shoddy product.

[David]

[jedi_master_sal]

I agree with you on pretty much your whole post Pete.

Here's another take on this as well that I posted to my SW state collecting group:
One person asked:
"Can't they just go back to the "good ole days" when we had one line with multiple waves?"


And I responded:
This would be the best IMO. If they want to have different styles fine.
It can still be in ONE LINE.
Have 5 waves of animated style figures, 5 of realistic style figures and two SAGA Legends waves (one wave is animated, the other realistic).
Alternate between realistic and animated every month. During the predictable slowest 2 months is when they can release the Legends waves. Base those Legends waves on the hottest selling figures from the previous year. No more than 6-8 figures per any wave. In this way, we'd get 30-40 new figures each of animated and realistic and then whatever Legends figures. Each wave would only be produced enough to sell for two months. So at any given time there is only one wave each of animated and realistic on the pegs (of course leftovers from previous waves that might be pegwarmers).
Doing this gives us enough figures each year to collect, gives us a little break between waves if you only collect one style or another, and gives Hasbro a break at trying to crank out more than 100 new figs per year. Since the number of figures would be more limited in both amount of total figures per year and availability, they (Hasbro) can finally pull out all of the stops and add SA articulation to nearly every figure.

Anyone else think that might be a reasonable plan?

[Brian]

Nice post Pete, lots of good points.  I'd like to see the line "simplified" a bit, for the lack of a better term.  I like the thought of "why can't they just do it like they used to?" as well.  Sure, the marketplace is different now - and I can totally understand having the Clone Wars animated stuff seperate if they are going to have both styles (realistic and animated) - but everything else should just be under one line.  I've said it before, I sort of miss the POTF2-style collecting days.  It wasn't a full time job just to keep up with things, things at least seemed to come out at a nice pace, and the prices didn't break the bank.

I think they could pretty much do away with the Legends assortment as well.  Sure, it has allowed for some re-releases of a few harder to find figures, as well as some nice army builders, but other than that it just seems like something to get in the way of the "new" figures.  I'm just fine with bringing out some of the real nice figures, and I'm a person that does believe the "big guns" should be available to kids and new collectors almost all the time - so just repack them in with the new wave refreshes every so often.  Heck - and again, it was a different time/retail landscape - you could still find a "cantina" Han Solo during the ROTJ run of figures in the vintage days if you needed one.  No reason that they couldn't figure out a way to do that now.  One other thing that I'd like to see done is retiring all previous versions of a figure once the "ultimate" one comes out.  You've got that nice, never re-released VOTC Han Solo there Hasbro - we don't need the commtech one anymore.  Same goes for the action feature Fetts, any non-Evolutions Darth Maul, and the stubby ROTS Grievous figures.  Use the best version of the character if we're going to see them re-released in any capacity.  Anyways, getting too long winded here, but with all this talk from the recent Q and A's of "collector support", its apparent that Hasbro needs to make some changes to bring those who have left back in the fold.  It isn't our fault, its something wrong with the line/prices.  And, as a second thought, I do think the whole issue of so much stuff in any given year (particularly the last half of the year) burns a lot of collectors out.  Sure, some people budget, but not everyone is prepared to buy 3/4 of their collection in the last four months of the year.

[Jesse James]

We've got answers for this session coming up on the front page, however I'm afraid to say that due to my own stupidity, we won't have answers for the next session.  I, unfortunately, had a misprint on my calendar when I confused two dates, and so I didn't get a series of Q's into the H this time around.  It's my own fault for not checking my schedule with the Hasbro one more closely.  We'll get 'em in next round.

[Jesse James]

By the way our Q&A session is posted on the front page...

-What's the deal with Deluxe and will it go beyond Clone Wars?

-What body is used for Red Leader (which we already knew), and why (which we didn't know!)?

-Will we get more unique headsculpts for the maskless Troopers?

Check out the front page for the answers folks!

[Jayson]

Red Leader used the Luke figure. When the set was originally created, the Wedge/Nrin Vakil body was not available and thus the Luke body was selected. In fact, if it wasn't for some heroics from our engineering team, Nrin may not have had that body at all since he was supposed to use it *after* we were done running the Wedge/X-Wing exclusive, which was subsequently delayed until this Fall. We managed to push the tooling dollars around, and we were lucky to get him, but not soon enough to impact Red Leader.

I'm confused. They managed to get the tooling done in time to get the new X-wing pilot body out for the comic pack but not the battle pack? The comic pack came out well before the Yavin set no?

[Brian]

There's a nice question/answer over at Han's Hideout discussing how the Ewok NoApaak came about as being part of the two pack on the way (with Paploo) in this year's ROTJ wave.  Kind of a nice story I thought.  Also a question I was curious about, why not put VOTC Han/Chewie/Luke, etc. into the Legends assortment?  They mention that the Han tooling is being used elsewhere, so maybe that has something to do with the Han coming in the other ANH wave this year.

[Darth_Anton]

Cool. Good to know about the Red Leader body.

[Darby]

Looking forward to Wedge, but not the likely price tag.  And I agree on all fronts, Pete.  Hasbro owns some of the problems in the line, as much as the economy or collector fatigue.  I praise them to high heaven for even doing Yarna, but there's a time and place, and the major launch of an animated kids movie is not where I would have introduced her.  The idea of Jabba BP is perfect, and would have been more appealing than say, the Sarlacc BP or the Lars BP.  A giant box of aliens and Jabba and his throne maybe doesn't sound kid friendly, but then neither does a box of a hole in the ground.

[speedermike]

Or two senior citizens standing next to a dome.

[Brian]

Although I don't remember now which site it was from, somewhere in this latest batch of Q and A's, it was asked if we would see an all-new C-3PO (gold) using these latest droid articulation advances (through things like the Build a Droids, 4-LOM, etc.) and Hasbro essentially said that the Endor Throne is going to be as good as it gets.  They said that Lucasfilm insists on 3PO being "shiny" or something to that effect, and that those procedures are difficult to use on something with that sort of articulation (or something to that effect).  I like the Endor throne C-3PO, but I guess I was sort of hoping we could get something along the lines of 4-LOM or U-3PO for ole Goldenrod.

[Jesse James]

Electro-plating is a pricey process in and of itself.  I assume that's part of the problem, however it also is prone to chipping at points of articulation and that cannot be helped unlike, say, paint which can be bonded to plastic itself and not chip.  All those points of articulation on 3PO type figures then leaves you with a big problem if you wanted to get it totally chromed.

Also it appears the process does not take to the types of plastic used to create most figures these days.  Most are made of pliable PVC, or poly-vinyl.  Most 3PO's (and many figures in the line's past) used a lot more ABS or "styrene" type plastics.  It's more rigid, and takes the electro-plasting process better for that chromed look.  Most figure's torsoes were made of that but now only figures with a ball/socket torso have that type of plastic used due to the design.

I'm ok with Endor throne 3PO being the pinnacle of C-3PO.  He isn't really "action oriented" so having him able to sit is nice.  I like the SA droid bodies we've gotten of late though, but I must say that any gold deco 3PO that wasn't chromed out, just never looked right to me.  I recall people gushed over the escape pod 3PO back in Saga days, and to me that figure was attrocious looking because it wasn't accurate.  I always prized the Purchase of the Droids 3-pack figure over that one, as a Tatooine 3PO.

[Brian]

I haven't seen a ton of Q and A's yet, but from the ones I read this week it looks like there is more reinforcement of the "Legacy's not doing so hot, be prepared for less 'collector targeted' figures" coming from Hasbro.  They wouldn't even go as far as saying that the realistic figures would not end, as they had this comment in one of their replies at RS:

"What we did say, and we are happy to clarify, is that the number of active collectors seems to have softened, which presents a problem for a basic figure line like The Legacy Collection where new sculpts of more obscure, fan-requested or as-yet-unmade characters remains part of the "heart" of the line. Because of the high volume expectations for the basic figure line, it needs to be very tightly planned or we will miss our targets and retailer expectations will not be met. We are very committed to the main Legacy figure line and do not foresee this fading out as long as there is a strong collector following."

Personally, I don't expect the "Legacy style" figures to end anytime soon, but it was a little disheartening to see Hasbro waver from their previous replies of "its not going anywhere" to "well, if collectors buy it should be ok".  As far as fewer collector-oriented figures - well, we've been hearing that for awhile.  Hopefully we'll still get some here and there, but when I started thinking about it, we've really had a pretty nice run of them over the past few years:

TLC: Bane Malar, Yarna, Organas, FX-6, Wioslea, Brainiac, Trinto Duaba and Dice Ibegon, Willrow Hood, Rum Sleg, Owen/Beru, and others (on the way)
TAC: Lava Miner, Honor Guard, McQuarrie figures, Miyoom Onith, Elis Herlot, CZ-4, Hermi Odle, Darth Revan/Malak, Po Nudo, Mustafar Panning Droid, Force Unleashed figures, etc.
TSC: Bren Derlin, General Veers, Firespeeder Pilot, Lushos Dofine, Hem Dazon, Garindan, Moff Jerjerrod, Rep Been, Gragra, etc.

Plus, there are several Jedi and others that I'm not listing that are more obscure figures.  I'm not saying I'm happy and hope we don't get any other "collector oriented" figures along the way, but we have had a nice run of them lately.  Even looking at a lot of our Top 10 lists at this point, it seems like more and more resculpts of main/supporting characters are starting to take up slots - and aside from a few exceptions (more Cantina/Jabba's Palace stuff), I'd be happy seeing a number of those get made too.  I will say that I get a little more concerned about the Legacy line each time we hear the comments in these Q and A's about how much they are struggling.  They even mentioned (I believe in the RS Q and A) an option of going with mostly "hero" figures in the assortments again:

One solution, which we don't plan on implementing, is going to only versions of the more popular characters....this would ensure sell-through but would eliminate a lot of the newer and more niche characters. Finding the balance is the key.

Anyways, nice to get some more information on Hasbro's thinking - and hopefully some other nice bits of info along the way (new DSE Han Solo from Han's Hideout Q and A).  Also, and I mean no offense here, but don't the questions at SSG seem awfully confrontational this week?  It sort of seems like they are asking "Hasbro, why do you suck?"