If they made animated style figures, I know it would certainly be hard for me to stop. I think about how I passed on opportunities to get the Droids and Ewoks animated cartoon figures and now I look back and I'm kinda upset with myself for not getting them back in the 80s.
So if the Clone Wars series produced animated style figures, would I pass on them now, only to regret it 20 years from now? It's a question that only I can answer of course.
Perhaps I wouldn't get any to open - that's what I did with the previous Animated Clone Wars series, only got one of each to have a complete MOC/MIB set. Perhaps I would do the same thing with these.
I think Hasbro KNOWS that an animated style line would/could be disastrous for the line and for sales. There would definitely be a lot of collectors who would be angered/upset by such a move.
I look at it this way too - if you want to do five or six new clones and a handful of Jedi - why would you choose the more expensive/less profit/more difficult route? Let's analyze the situation:
Realistic Style Figures
Pros: Fits with the 3.75" platform, collectors will continue to collect the line, kids already are buying up the figures, these would add to their current play patterns/collections, some of the new figures could be created using parts from previously released figures saving development costs, any vehicles that have been previously issued in the 3.75" line that are featured in the cartoon can be repainted and re-released to the benefit of no additional tooling costs.
Cons: Characters don't "look" exactly like they did in the cartoon.
Animated Style Figures
Pros: Characters look as they do in the cartoon, kid-friendly designs
Cons: Figures do not fit with the existing 3.75" platform, collectors could choose the make the design style a deciding factor on whether or not to buy into the line, all figures have to be developed using 100% new toolings, figures could not be created using existing tooling until an adequate library of parts had been developed, existing vehicles that might be featured in the cartoon need to be completely made from scratch.
That's all I can think of right now, if anyone wants to add or subtract my points, feel free to do so to further the discussion. I just can't imagine a manager at Hasbro going with the second option in light of how many "cons" that are so blatantly obvious when compared to doing realistic styled figures.
One more point of evidence that leads me to believe that the figures will be realistically styled: the glimpse of the AT-TE we got looks pretty spot-on in terms of the vehicle. Sure it might be slightly smaller than it should be, but it looks as good (if not better) than the current AT-AT we have. If they were doing the cartoon style, I don't think it would have all of the detail that appears to be present on the toy.