Just reading through that article at the Official Site, and it mentions this line look should start appearing on shelves "early next year".
Yeah, that's just the look in general though and not necessarily when Hasbro will go all in on this look. For example, LEGO debuted the current "Dark Sky" blue packaging look on their stuff in Spring, but it took Hasbro until the Summer/Fall to debut it. It could be that LEGO or puzzle makers or whoever else will start cranking out TPM stuff with that look first and Hasbro will get to it later. Or not... who knows?
I thought they mentioned at Toy Fair that the vintage line would continue "through 2012", so I figured lasting the entire year, or at least until Fall.
At TF, they were coy about how far into 2012 the Vintage stuff would go. I'm sure we'll see some stuff in Spring 2012, but I don't think they had fully settled yet what they were going to do for Fall 2012.
I mean, for all we know, maybe the plan is to move the Legends line to the Vintage cardback? Those would continue the Vintage look with repacks and greatest hits, while the new movie figures get the Maul card design? Or maybe they decide to dump the Legends line and split the movie line - use the Maul card design for the TPM movie stuff and then continue to do the OT thing on the Vintage card alongside the movie stuff?
Until Hasbro offers up their comments/plans for LFL's new Maul card design, it's just a guessing game on how/when they are handling the switch...