Quote from: Scott on July 27, 2008, 05:07 PM

The thing that bothers me is the #1 thing that bugs the absolute hell out of me about EU

Hoth is a backwater planet with no civilizations and should not be well known throughout the galaxy, let alone one of the few wildlife creatures that exist. Hell, the Alliance doesn't even know that Wampas are on Hoth.  And yet...here is a wampa showing up on a starship.  LamEU

There could be wampas on other planets...

Yup!  If you played Shadows of the Empire on the Nintendo 64, you might recall some brown Cliff Wampas on the planet of Gall.  Of course, with a name like Cliff Wampa, I'd expect it to be telling me obscure trivia at some bar. 

Asajj Ventress also fought a Wampa in the original Clone Wars series in that arena on Rattatak.  They get around.

I hope this succeeds, this could pave the way for a new Jabba with throne!

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It's my hope/expectation that the as-of-yet unconfirmed-but-mentioned-at-the-panel "Mystery Clone Wars Ultimate Battle Pack" is indeed a Jabba with Throne and a bunch of Clone Troopers.

The clearance scam won't work with this, btw.

Nobody's saying "let's wait for a TRU exclusive clearance sale," because those are like the Easter Bunny.  Target's plenty impatient to clear out, but still, a good exclusive sells *quickly* when put in front of enough people.   There's definitely a "magic number" or "sweet spot," and whatever it is, I think Wal-Mart more or less has it figured out. (And I think it's just foot traffic.)   It's just, as people pointed out, if the Bantha didn't grab the kids, well, I can't say I'm hopeful.  But the Geonosis Arena did just fine, it seems, and I don't think a lot of collectors (save for variant huntin' freaks like me) got excited about that one.

I think the basic point I was trying to make is "as cool as it is, it's probably gonna sit."  TRU's vehicles have done great-- I'm really astonished to see how fast those TIE Interceptors went.  But there's no shortage of Banthas, at least around where I shop, and those had at least some action going on.  Although not much.   Maybe someone will play up the "Troops" angle on all the fan sites and that'd ramp up the interest... I mean, when you think about it from a marketer perspective, there's already a super-popular viral video that will support the set.

I completely agree that now is as good of a time as any to release this item.  For years, we've been seeing Master Replicas, Illusive Originals, Icons, Sideshow, Gentle Giant, and so many others going after the medium dollar and high-end collectible market, while a lot of fans spend just as much if not more on Hasbro goodies annually, just in $5-$30 morsels, save for the odd $50 Ultimate Battle Pack (arguably aimed at gift-givers) and $70 gift set bundle from Diamond and/or Entertainment Earth.

This year, it's ridiculous.  As of last Saturday through the end of the year, there will probably be $600 worth of big ($35+) exclusives coming that we either have had confirmed or vaguely alluded to by Hasbro.   Hopefully Star Wars will continue to be huge and the kids can help support it, because when I know I'll be curious to see what kids buy when faced with a giant ship with a fire-breathing snow monster on the side against two old people, a rat, and a stormtrooper with an igloo.  (Heck, it'd  be a hard decision for me.  I freaking love wampas.)

...and there's tons of $20 vehicles, Battle Packs, Evolutions sets, low-high-end exclusives, basic figures, and other stuff too.

Hopefully it all works out well.  I mean, who wouldn't love to have one or more little scenes like this from each major film?  I'd be quite happy to see a snowy Hoth cave, or the gantry from Cloud City, or Jango's landing pad on Kamino, or, yes, even Palpatine's office.  I can't imagine a year with this much great stuff, but if it all works, odds are we're going to get just as many big ticket items in 2009 or 2010.  I don't think it's even fair to look at past attempts of Hasbro or even Kenner as a comparison, I don't think this much variety has ever been on-shelf at any given time in the past.  (For figures, OK, yes-- but scenes and vehicles?  Not unless you count the micro stuff.)

I can't wait to see what Santa brings us in the future if the market can accept all of these goodies.  Looking at my own collection, I can say it's going to be a tight fit.

Not to sound like a moron, but he's confirming the Death Star, Slave I, and AT-AT?

That someone inside Hasbro is considering it for release in some stage of preproduction?  Sure.  That sort of thing happens all the time.  Doesn't mean it'll see the light of day.

I have to say that the colors are far less wacky in person than the original pics made the ship out to be. 

I picked one up and don't regret it.  Yeah, it was $35, but I did get a free holo grievous, so ir wasn't too bad to pay $35 for it. 

They refused to give me the free Grievous. No joke.  They said the $35 B-Wing "didn't qualify."

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The thing about both the BMF and the AT-TE is, they reflect a pretty major investment by Hasbro, so they're not going anywhere for awhile, [...]

Yeah, about that-- I hit up some places on the way back from San Diego and basically saw Falcons everywhere, but not a whole bunch of AT-TEs.  Has anyone not been able to find more than enough Falcons to stuff your vehicle of choice?  Has anyone noticed them selling out?

I've been playing with one for a week and change, and it kinda sucks.  Maybe I don't know how to talk into a microphone correctly, but I'm not all that thrilled by how it seems to work.  The Vader one seemed to at least *look* nicer.

The only people who are going to put a real stop to this are the retailers.  But sometimes when you're dealing with an employee who barely makes more than minimum wage, they're not going to care that much.

Not only that, but there's also some real issues of the toy not matching the packaging, or no real illustration of the toy appearing on the box.  For example, there are a number of Transformers Energon repaints that had a photo of the *original* toy, so Ultra Magnus (a white and blue vehicle) had a picture of Overload (a red vehicle), and to make things more interesting, it also showed a bunch of car Mini-Cons when in fact space  Mini-Cons were included.  An employee seeing that would probably cry foul if they weren't a collector.

At the same time, G.I. Joe presents a potential problem because the 25th Anniversary toys all have illustrations of the figures, but not any photos of the toy.  So it'd be really easy for someone to take another Shipwreck, or Cobra Commander, and stuff it into the packaging and return it.

Thankfully, swapping seems to have become less of an issue in recent years.  But I just have a bad feeling that swapping and swiping are going to pop up again soon.