Ok, since this is a speculative thread, let's do more of it.
Since we've heard 53 is the magic number for figures next year we'll go with that.
Assuming we have 8 waves of figures that's 7 figures per wave (give or take one as the total would be 56 figs and we are told 53)
So I'd speculate that the first 5 waves are "Classic" or TAC or whatever they want to call it.
Followed by ONE wave of TFU figs (which makes sense as that's all we've seen to this point).
Then lastly 2 waves of Clone Wars figures. (Which could carry over into future waves in 2009)
TFU has at least 7 figs that I can recall:
Maris Brood
Juno Eclipse
2 troopers
Vader
Sumo Jedi Master
Vader's Apprentice
That's all that's prolly needed from the game too (to start-if the game does well, and there's every reason to believe it will, we'll prolly see more figures in 2009).
So the shortage of 3 figures (even amounts of 7 figures per wave=56, minus 3, since the total is supposedly 53), will most likely come in the first 5 waves.
This works out quite nicely I think. Not a deluge of figures, broken up into larger "themes," and manageable. For those who are movie only collectors, you'll have a cheap year. For those wo don't buy video game figs, you'll get a break about mid-year. For those who don't buy repeated figures, there's plenty of opportunity to save. And for those who have to have one of every figure, it's still a decent amount.
-Sal