Adam, and I'll be as nice here as I can be, DON'T put words in my mouth or in this case text.

I'm sorry I misread your "I'm for this set coming out, but at a fair price of $20." as "I don't want that item at that parameters that Hasbro has established."  My fault entirely. 

My point was that this is less a "yes with a but" issue as it is a "yes or no" issue.  Do you like what you see as it is enough to buy it?  I understand that at another price or with changes made to it your opinion might change, but that's not quite what I'm talking about here.  Sure, if it was $20, that'd be nice.  But it's pretty unlikely.

So what praytell is with your crusade across the collecting community against this offering Adam?  I've seen you arguing vociferously against Funeral Pyre Vader on at least a couple of forums.  But surprisingly not at the site where you're on staff. 

Thanks for taking interest in my activities!

Obviously given your position, this will not be something that Entertainment Earth will pick up.  But why are you campaigning so hard to convince other collectors that they shouldn't back the Funeral Pyre Vader idea?  Is it really that much of an affront to Star Wars collecting?  One of your fellow GH staffers clearly disagrees with you.

Good for him.  He's welcome to his opinion.

If everybody really likes this piece, that's exactly what Hasbro needs to hear-- if I end up being the lone crazy person who honestly does not believe fans will throw down the cash if push comes to shove, but everyone else says this is the most awesome item they could possibly release, isn't it great that I caused so many fans to express just how interested they are in purchasing this item?  If my extreme distaste only causes more people to say they want this piece, aren't I helping you get what you want? 

You absolutely should disagree with me if you like this piece, that's exactly what Hasbro needs to hear in order for an item like this to get produced-- that you would buy it, as it is, at the prices being projected, with no additional changes.

(And if I'm totally out of line, this comes out and is a huge hit at a standard exclusive edition size and not as a super-limited item, I'll be the first to admit I was wronger than wrong.)

Are you guys getting the Pyre?

You've seen my opinions in that thread, right?

I do not know the status of this piece.  At Comic-Con, most of the people I spoke to said they hated it (before I said anything one way or the other).  Online after the fact, I see people on these boards seeing they like it.  I'm not sure what Hasbro, being at their booth the whole time, got from their request for comments but I hope it was enough to help them make a decision which will benefit them and whatever partner(s) involved in a hypothetical release.

I hope you have a EE exclusive this year, I supported your exclusives every year and always looked forward to them. In fact, outside of the Astromechs I bought several duplicates of all of them. Bring it on or give us a hint man! I am paying attention, no one else brought it up to my knowledge.

When we have something new to announce, I tend to go around and make sure people know.  Don't worry, you didn't miss anything, nothing was announced.

On a side commentary note: While I did like the Joker squad I will have to say it was the weakest of all the EE exclusives offered in my opinion thus far. Do not get me wrong, I liked it but not as much as the mandos & astros. (The Clones ruled but they are so 2005 & reissued to appreciate them like before). Outside of the clean cut backstreet boy heads those sets were near perfect! The Female Stormie & Maleval were sweet, the others became redundant. Accurate to the book but redundant.

Well, I don't know what to tell you.  Can't win over all of the people all of the time, I suppose.  Glad you dug most of them!

But back on topic, hey, cheapo TIE Fighter.   I like the idea of a hijacked fighter but would've gone bonkers if it had the Wampa skull thing from the Pirates of Tarnoonga.   The idea of "team A steals team B's vehicle, defaces it" is a clever idea for a repaint, as long as it doesn't get out of hand, plus it came from a comic some people liked.   And if you're going to have like 5 big-wing TIEs, and they can't get the middle laser thing right on most of them, at least one has some nifty distinctive markings on it.   It's a nice piece, particularly for $31.50.

I basically agree with you, Brian, as it seems Wal-Mart is the big winner here.  The AT-ST, Octopurra Droid, and Dewback all look excellent as do the new Comic Packs.  Seeing as Target is getting some repaints/retools and those Geonosis sets and Toys "R" Us... yeah.   Despite owning all 4 different modern-era AT-STs, I'm really excited to get my hands on one of this new one.

And Lumiya.   Yes.  Plus the ROTJ wave looks excellent, but I'm heavily biased toward ROTJ anything these days.

Historically (since 2003 at least), higher-dollar Wal-Mart exclusives have been (for me at least) easier to get.  Last year's Gunship, the blue-box TIE Bomber, etc.  So I'm feeling pretty good about these.

I also have to agree that the lack of Twilight is striking.  Were I a betting man I'd put a fiver down on the next item to appear in the assortment with the Y-Wing and ARC 170, if the SKU carries through the holidays into the new year.

Quote from: Jayson on July 23, 2009, 11:05 PM

I think it's shipping with the Geonosis Assault Gunship BP. I'm not sure of the other case mates though.

But from that report a week or so back, Hasbro is saying that this set is ONLY coming out in the blue/white packaging. The Gunship pods BP is coming out in the Red/White packaging....

I was going to write up something potentially refuting that, but this is astonishing.

eBay

Given there have been no pre-orders that I've seen on this... I gotta wonder what's up.

Quote from: CorranHorn on July 23, 2009, 02:06 PM

Quote from: Rob on July 23, 2009, 01:22 PM

Did he even fly a B-wing in the movies?

I believe he is seen in the Rebel Briefing scene as wearing the B-Wing Pilot gear

It thought that the guy in the briefing is supposed to be a different Sullustan entirely? I think someone mad a mistake on the name plate.

Many moons ago I was told that the white-suited pilot Sullustian is a prototype costume, not used in the movie, and the red one was the real movie version of Ten Numb.   White Ten was in the Chronicles book and made it into the toy line and comics... so now it's the "real" one.

Apparently someone changed their minds along the way.

I agree with your assessment and I would not bring up Mattel (I worked there for 5 years so I know their practices well.) HTS profit margins are insane, there is no retailer middleman so that balances out the sales overall and makes it very profitable for their mass product line. I do not think Joe was the best example or idea because they invested in a lot of tooling that could not pay for itself in the long run, plus Joe was really dead at that time which did not help either. I would also venture to say the figures sucked too when you see what they are now.

I don't think anyone would disagree that a toy in 2009 is better than the toy of 2006.  Not much of a stretch, particularly given the complete redesign in how figures were constructed.   Those vehicles in that line were some of Hasbro's finest-- I LOVE that HISS Tank that they did, it's really great-- and the items were priced well with collector-friendly packaging which, obviously, is in line with what we had in the 25th Anniversary line from purely stylistic purposes.  The packaging was gorgeous and the figures were often directly in line with what fans asked.  You want a Crimson Guard?  Here ya go.  Spirit?  Enjoy.  More comic packs?  Why, here they are.   Still, word from the big H was that this experiment was a disappointment-- and as I said, with the support of additional online and brick-and-mortar retail, it *still* was considered a disappointment.  Hasbro feels that they're generally best served selling a few items in big numbers.

Hasbro also flat out said they aren't going to do more HTS DTC exclusives.  As such, I'm going to believe them when they say that isn't going to happen.  Hasbro's last Internet-exclusive direct-to-consumer Star Wars piece was, what, like 1998 with Muftak & Kabe?

If they were willing to sell it through HTS they could set up a presell for this item. Once enough orders are placed and they know they can make it with a profit your credit card is then charged. They could proceed to tooling & ship it when it's made 8-10 months later. (If they were really buttoned up, locked down costing and secured a factory they really could ship this in 6 months, difficult to do but not impossible.)
<snip>

It goes both ways.  A number of products get canceled after seeing what the real-world interest goes, I can point to the 12-inch action figures for The Big Lebowski as one example where I had personal involvement.  Diamond Select had quite a few things that never quite made it to shelves over the years, too, and even Hasbro had a few items (PowerSpark, Sketto, a few odds and ends) in Star Wars that just didn't have what it took to make it out of the gate after interest was measured.

I'm not saying this one won't-- but generally Hasbro doesn't flinch if they have a good idea on their hands.  Asking fans what they think is pretty out of character, unless it's a fan's choice poll.  Giving us the chance to vote with our dollars?  If they can handle it logistically (I'd worry that the time between the pre-order and delivery might be too great), it'd be a wonderful way to test the waters with products needing special attention.

I know I would sign up without question for at least 2. I can see this as a Diamond or EE Exclusive but I do not see Target, Wal-Mart, TRU doing this. As someone posted earlier, the fact that this is a cremation toy. It will make this harder to fly with parents but more importantly will this be desired by kids. I do not think so. They would enjoy a ROTS Anakin with melt away skin/body part but not dead Darth Vader roasting with molded on flames. This is the ultimate in direct to collector type of item.

I can't say I agree with you on the "where," but I don't think the theme of the set is much of an issue.   In Star Wars we've had figures of slave girls, virtually naked Twi'lek clubber girls, drunk aliens, a drug dealer with actual drugs included, figures which can be beheaded (Spirit Vader, Tusken, Jango), numerous dismemberments, a Grievous which explodes and fires out guts, another Grievous with flames SHOOTING OUT OF HIS EYES sold at Target... death or adult themes (edit: don't) make mass-market buyers squirm these days.  If anything, there's plenty of evidence that they're embracing it.

The DTC thing, well, we'll agree to disagree I suppose.  I believe Hasbro when they say they won't do it.  They're welcome to change their minds, or more likely, find another clever way to get this out (shared exclusive, con exclusive, stealth Wal-Mart exclusive) if they're so inclined.