I could see Hasbro basically punt in 2014 but I hope not. If they do let the VC figures ride until the middle of 2013 and then roll out the new BaD figures we've seen, they could use late 2013 and 2014 to do a couple of waves of OT and PT characters from their parking lot to sort of clear them out to concentrate on Sequel Trilogy figures from there on out.
The easier approach, of course, would be just to re-pack a lot of crap in 2014 and basically not do any new tooling. If they put out the right characters it could work, but I don't trust them to do that, they'll keep Maul, Vader, Luke, Obi-Wan and Anakin in the mix, and we really don't need any more of them, basically, ever. Or at least until they've had a good break.
Jeff might be onto something though, about the figures that have recently started showing up at WM and TRU again. This plan may already be in motion and that's why we're seeing them. I guess it's always possible that Hasbro worked with the retailers, said they'd hold onto the new stuff and maybe gave them a deal on the VC stuff so they'd take them. Might be better for Hasbro to cut a deal with the big 3 retailers rather than cutting a deal with the Five Below, TJ Maxx/Marshalls, Ross type stores.
"Fan favorite" is definitely marketing spin but really, there are some good characters in those cases. Some good army builders, Vizla, Tarkin, Anakin, Luke...they're good figures and from reading the forums, it seems like there is still room in the market for more. Lot of people haven't seen some of these and even though they've been online, you have to think that there are still collectors out there not on the forums and that don't order online and they've probably not haid their fill of these yet.
E...