After digesting the news for a few days, this announcement is starting to make more sense.  And it's for a range of reasons.

A few months back we heard Hasbro acknowledge that the Episode I TVC wave created this huge logjam in the distribution system.  And a side-effect of that logjam was that there were warehouses filled with cases of the waves that followed that TPM wave that would not get to retail.  What did Hasbro offer on that front?  They talked about offering some of these waves via discounters, but so far I've only seen figures from 2011 at chains like 5 Below.  Are we really going to see 2012 TVC figures at 5 Below or TJ Maxx/Marshalls?  Because if we do, Hasbro is going to take a bath on these figures!

And then there was the announcement of "TVC's GREATEST HITS".  It's pretty easy to see that this is a ploy to get some of those older 2012 cases out to retail.  The figure lineups pretty much confirmed that.

How will this likely play out?  I get the sense that Hasbro will use the first half of 2013 to try to right the ship.  Get those 2012 TVC figure cases out to retail and clear up the distribution system.  I think that the discount chain avenue for 2012 TVC figures may have been shot down by someone higher up at Hasbro who saw how much that would have hurt their bottom line.  So how do you clear out all of these older cases?  Get them out to your core brick & mortar retailers who barely got them in the first place!  And repair retail relationships with chains like Walmart that have been shrinking your shelf space.

That probably means that the new figures that we thought were in the pipeline for Spring '13 will probably be pushed back to July/August '13.  And that release schedule will jibe much better with the 3-D release of Attack Of The Clones which comes out in the fall.  As for the Droid Factory packaging sample that we saw from SDCC?  I get the sense that Disney's licensing arm may have offered some "guidance" to Hasbro about the packaging look.

And then there's the announcement of Episode VII in 2015.  For Hasbro to launch a toy line that's going to be ready for retail by March 2015, they need lead time of 2 years to 18 months.  Development of a figure alone can take about 1 year.  But a full toy line?  That's another thing.  Hasbro's team needs to get started on development of that line within the next few months.  This is very likely a major factor into Hasbro's organizational plans for Star Wars this year and 2014 as they start getting ready for the E7 line.  Especially if they're planning on an E7 Preview wave like we saw for both Episode 2 & 3.  IIRC, those were released 2 - 3 months before the movie line debuted.

But overall, I think this is a reset period that is being used to right some of the wrongs of the past year+.

Christmas was good to me

Nice, Name!  I've been meaning to check out the Woodford Reserve, but I can't bring myself to buy more bourbon while I've still got a fair ammount of Makers in the house.

My wife was nice enough to get me a bottle of this:



I'm not sure if they're technically allowed to call this bourbon, since it's not being distilled in Kentucky. 

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.

Sad to hear that we won't be witness to how JJ Abrams would try to shoehorn some lens flare into the Star Wars saga. 

Good showing, Ryan!  Your team got hot when you needed them to.  I'm still cringing about RG3 being out on week 15.  That might have been the difference between 1st place and 3rd place for my squad.  Either way, congratulations!

I picked up Yoda's Jedi Attack Cruiser and the Republic Attack Dropship in 501st deco tonight.  I passed on the MTT Droid Fighter and 501st AT-RT for now.

According to JTA, these have hit Canada at TRU.

Canadia can keep them.