I've been thinking about this topic again lately. What do you think the future will hold for "big items" in the Star Wars line? We're about a week out from Christmas now, and I can't say that I'm seeing those Turbo Tanks move off the shelves any quicker. Either that, or they are stocking them like crazy. The AT-TEs and Falcons seem to have done very well at TRU here, although a lot of that may have been due to the half off sales.
We've had rumors of both an AT-AT or a Slave 1 for next year, but recent rumblings make it sound like these might be less likely (depending on how the Turbo Tank does). I'm one who loves seeing these re-dos of the OT ships, and hope we get lots more (can't wait for the Snowspeeder and Cloud Car), but I'm wondering how well they will do at retail. Like it has been discussed before, even the Falcon sat (and hit big clearances in some areas), and I don't know that there is a more recognizable "big" ship in all of Star Wars.
Any OT offerings would likely have to have big sales from us - the collectors - because (aside from kids of collectors/fans) I sort of doubt how many kids have an interest in OT stuff anymore. I hate to even say it, but maybe the exclusive route (as the AT-ST and Dewback got this year) might be the way to go. I know we all hate exclusives, but I'm just wondering if there are many other solid options for retail-wide big, $100 (or more) vehicles. Like I said, I hope we see more (I'm up for about anything OT), but I don't want the next offering to kill the whole range and opportunity to get more big vehicles. Unless something new is introduced in the Clone Wars, I'm not sure anything there is too solid aside from possibly the Twilight (which has been discussed here as well). Sure, there are a few droid/seperatist options, but I just don't see those selling well with the kiddos in particular.
I've said it before, I wasn't collecting at the very beginning of the POTF2 lines - but it sure seems like many to possibly most collectors were buying up all the OT ships then when they were essentially just the vintage ships spiffed up a bit and repackaged. Now when we're getting all-new versions of these ships, I don't know that even half of us are biting. It may be a sign of some of us getting older, running out of room, or even just being pickier...but something has changed in that aspect of things.