I could be wrong, but I took it to mean there will be 32 CW figs before next fall. I doubt seriously they would only field 21 total new figures given how popular the show is, and also that the Legacy line would have more new offerings. I think CW will be much larger than Legacy next year.
Sorry, my math was crap - I should have typed 23 new figures in the 2010 packaging, not 21.
If you continue to fix/do the math from my prior post, you'll see that there are only 24 "new" figures this year in the Red/White packaging. If you combine that with the nine figures we got this calendar year in the blue/white packaging, that brings the total of "new" Clone Wars figures for 2009 to 33.
So for them to say that there are 32 new Clone Wars figures in 2010, really doesn't seem to be that big of a deal. If anything it indicates that the Clone Wars line is going to stay consistent year-on-year, whereas in 2009 there were 24 blue/white Legacy figures that came out (four of them were re-releases/repacks) and 54 red/white Legacy figures (with 17 repacks), so here are the totals for the 2009 calendar year of both lines:
Clone Wars - 33 "new" figures, 46 figures total
- 9 "new" figures in Blue/White packaging
- 24 "new" figures in Red/White packaging
- 13 repack figures in Red/White packaging
Legacy Collection - 57 "new" figures, 78 figures total
- 20 "new" figures in Blue/White packaging
- 4 repack figures in Blue/White packaging
- 37 "new" figures in Red/White packaging
- 17 repack figures in Red/White packaging
So if Hasbro says there will be 32 "new" Clone Wars figures for the Spring and Fall, they could very well indeed mean in both the Red/White and new 2010 packaging style. Who knows how many of the 60 unique Clone Wars figures that have been/will be released in the Blue/White and Red/White packaging styles will be re-packed in the new 2010 style? Repacking anywhere from 15 to 20 of them in the new 2010 style would help keep the Clone Wars line on the shelf pegs in force w/o Hasbro having to sculpt more figures.
They have clearly said that there will be 24 "new" Realistic-line figures starting in August, but they also said that there will be core-character repacks to round out each of the lines. My interpretation of that is to mean that each wave will feature 12 figures (they seem to like case packs where each figure is in there only once) with 6 of them being new and 6 being repacks (or carry-forwards from the previous waves in the later waves) to help keep the cost-per-case down.
So the potential totals for 2010 could look something like this:
Clone Wars - 32 "new" figures, 47 figures total
- 9 "new" figures in Red/White packaging
- 23 "new" figures in the 2010 packaging
- 15 (guesstimate) repack figures in the 2010 packaging
Legacy Collection - 31 "new" figures, 49 figures total
- 7 "new" figures in Red/White packaging (6 EU figures and the Bespin Wing Guard variant)
- 24 "new" figures in the 2010 movie-line packaging
- 18 (averaging the 2009 Legends and TLC repacks) repack figures in the 2010 movie-line packaging
So year-on-year the Clone Wars would be a +1 gain, and the Realistic Line could see around a -29 loss.
I don't see them actually increasing any line in 2010, but they have said they are pulling back on the realistic line, so a decrease like I'm estimating would make sense.