Author Topic: 2013 Droid Factory = Dead  (Read 36834 times)

Offline Jeff

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #15 on: January 4, 2013, 11:29 AM »
no need to go into "sky is falling" mode.

I do sort of understand people going into "sky is falling" mode because there are so many unknowns right now.

The crappy distribution in 2012.  Pushing AOTC 3D back to Fall 2013.  Pushing RotS 3D up to Fall 2013.  The Disney purchase of LFL.  The announcement of Episodes 7-8-9.  Any one of these could have caused Hasbro to change plans, but all of them piling up on top of each other?  No wonder it’s chaos right now.

No one really knows anything, and if you believe the rumor mills, the plan has already changed TWICE since SDCC (once when AOTC 3D was delayed to Fall 2013; again with the DisneyLFL buyout) and for all we know, the plan could still be changing.

Like others have said, it’s reasonable to expect that we will see the 24 figures (20 figures plus 4 BAD figures) planned for the BAD line at some point.  But how and when will we get them?  We just have to wait and see I guess...
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Offline P-Siddy

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #16 on: January 4, 2013, 12:40 PM »
I guess I'm in the 'wait and see what happens' category.  I wasn't too impressed with the BAD offerings, except for a couple figures and droids, so the delay doesn't bother me much.  Reissuing the best-of for most of the year is great for those that had problems obtaining figures the 'first-time 'round' but I hope it doesn't back up pegs in the long run, either.  I guess for me, I'll use this time to reflect on what I have and what I want from the future.  The less figures offered this year means more money for the following years (and that ESB Slave I we're getting).  I'm sure we'll hear more at Toy Fair, so there's no point in panicking (not that I would) until I hear some confirmation.  I totally get that Hasbro probably has a lot on their plate now that Disney has the rights and the new films are coming in a couple years, so I'm glad that they're stepping back and reorganizing before going forward.

Offline Jayson

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Offline Jeff

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #18 on: January 4, 2013, 02:38 PM »
Time to go pull my 2007 Pilot Biggs and 2007 Ceremony Luke out of the fodder/junk pile and put them back on the ANH Yavin shelf...  :P
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Offline P-Siddy

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #19 on: January 4, 2013, 03:00 PM »
Quote
Some of the figures however will be used in other assortments this fall.

Umm, I'm guessing some of the 9 AotC themed figures.
« Last Edit: January 4, 2013, 03:02 PM by P-Siddy »

Offline Scockery

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #20 on: January 4, 2013, 03:33 PM »
Go ahead and delete this subforum. Or change it to "The ???? Collection" until Toy Fair.

Offline Nicklab

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #21 on: January 4, 2013, 04:32 PM »
There's been a lot of speculation at the otheR site about the cause of this cancellation.  So many people seemed hung up on the fact that Disney was taking issue with the Droid Factory value added pack-in, and it being in conflict with the Droid Factory promotion at the theme parks.  Personally, I think they're dead wrong.

I think Disney's licensing people saw the packaging design and balked.  Sure, Lucas Licensing signed off on it, but we're in a new era.  Disney paid $4 billion + for Star Wars, and everything that comes with it.  I think that means they wanted that iconic black and silver packaging, because you see that and it says STAR WARS.  It's part of the brand identity.

As for the BAF droids?  I hope we see them at some point down the line.  I was really looking forward to all of them.
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Offline Phrubruh

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #22 on: January 4, 2013, 05:48 PM »
Targets in my neck of the woods discontinued selling Star Wars figures back last January. No big loss.
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Offline P-Siddy

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #23 on: January 4, 2013, 05:57 PM »
Targets in my neck of the woods discontinued selling Star Wars figures back last January. No big loss.

Don't you mean 'status quo?'

Offline McMetal

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #24 on: January 4, 2013, 06:32 PM »
So, seriously, what does this mean for the Clone Wars line? Are we getting new figures this month or not? If not, when?

It seems silly to me to delay the animated stuff because it has nothing to do with this vintage/BAD mess and the show IS ON RIGHT NOW.

The TCW pegs in my area are all pretty much a wasteland now. The second, and presumably more exciting, half of the season is about to kick off. Maybe get some toys on the shelves?
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Offline efranks

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #25 on: January 4, 2013, 07:53 PM »
I think I posted this over there also, maybe here, but I don't think the Disney purchase is part of it either.  It just doesn't seem to add up.  Hasbro showed off the new line in August at CVI so it had to have already been approved and was in some stage of production. 

The Disney announcement was on October 30th and the FCC approved the sale on December 4th with the purchase not being completed until December 21st.  In order to believe Disney put a stop to Droid Factory, you’d have to assume that Hasbro put on hold their production and waited to see if the Disney purchase actually went through.  Would a company do that?  Put that kind of money on the line when it could be possible the sale didn’t go through for some reason?

It just seems like it has to be more simple than that.  I don’t know when Hasbro knew that AOTC and ROTS 3D releases were both coming in 2013 and not until the Fall, but I’m thinking when they heard that it gave them the chance to carry over all that unsold Vintage Collection stock into 2013 and push off the Droid Factory release, the first wave of which looked like it was solely made to support AOTC in the Spring. 

Whether we get the OT in 3D next year or not, with a new movie slated for 2015, releasing the figures shown, but not the Build-a-Droid pieces, might make more sense also.  They could do more re-packs and re-paints for late 2013 and 2014 in order to spend more time on the new film coming.  I wouldn’t even be totally shocked to see the Movie Heroes/Legends line become the only line for later this year and next, after the 2012 VC cases sell through.  Then they’d just have to worry about that and the tiny Clone Wars line instead of having 3.

I guess we’ll know more next month.

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Offline Brian

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #26 on: January 4, 2013, 08:53 PM »
Although not entirely surprising with the rumblings we've been hearing lately, it is another strange move with the Hasbro Star Wars line in a series of weird things over the past few years.  Admittedly, a lot of this may not be Hasbro's fault at all.  With the 3D releases moving around, the whole Disney thing, along with the sales/distribution problems of 2012, something probably had to give.

I guess in a way, the break is alright with me as well.  I'm going to do my best to have the discipline to just save that money up for when things do start hitting (or for something else) and not just spend it on other collecting areas (LEGO I'm looking at you), although there may be a bit of that too.

I wonder how much Hasbro even knew about the possibility of more movies too far prior to the Disney announcement.  They've often said it takes a couple years from start to finish to make a figure, and at this point there isn't even a cast for the next movie.  Once stuff like that starts getting confirmed, I would guess that Hasbro will have to be dedicating most to all of their resources for the new movie stuff.  I think it was sort of that way going into the prequels even, prior to AOTC we had a scaled back (especially compared to today's standards) POTJ line, and prior to ROTS we basically had the OTC and post-OTC lines (and the first round of VOTC), which - aside from VOTC - was very largely repacks.  Like it was mentioned, I wonder if they'll coast on a largely "greatest hits" style line for the back half of this year and next.

Either way, it seems to be a very quiet year, or at least first half, for SW this year.  I guess the Vintage re-release (or really, first release at retail for much of it) is a good thing for those who are still looking.  I would think that many (most?) of us had already settled and got what we wanted online (or via the recent sales).  I may buy an extra figure here or there, but otherwise I'm largely satisfied with what I picked up this year.  Which is fine, because it would be good for me to save the money - even if it is for the future movie lines ;).

With this news today, I had to go back and double check what all figures were announced for Droid Factory.  After checking them I was sort of "ok, no biggie" with what we'd be missing.  Sure, there are several that I'd buy and was looking forward to, but at the same time it wasn't anything I was too upset about losing (for now) either.  A lot of that comes from the majority of them being resculpts (or resculpts of resculpts) - and I'm a fan of updating figures in general - but so much of it was stuff we already had pretty decent versions of already (although I was looking forward to Yavin Luke and Biggs as well).
« Last Edit: January 4, 2013, 09:10 PM by Brian »

Offline Greg

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #27 on: January 4, 2013, 09:36 PM »
DETH OF TEH LINE!!!!!1111!!!   ;D

Obviously I can't say I'm too worried about this change of plans. It's unexpected and unprecedented (for Star Wars, anyway) but nothing I'll lose sleep over. While most of the Legacy figures were resculpts and repaints, I'm sure they will all make it out eventually. Lots of the characters were no-brainers, and I doubt Hasbro will waste the tooling. At least Toy Fair should be more interesting than usual.

Offline Darth_Anton

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #28 on: January 5, 2013, 11:30 AM »
I'm not sure how to react. A break will do me some good, maybe even allow me to catch up on a few things I missed like all the disney exclusives.
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Offline GrandMoffNick

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Re: 2013 Legacy Collection Rumors
« Reply #29 on: January 5, 2013, 07:30 PM »
I'm not sure how to react. A break will do me some good, maybe even allow me to catch up on a few things I missed like all the disney exclusives.

I felt like the second half of 2012 was a break.
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