My guess, and this is just an assumption on my part, is it took them this long to get it to retail and it wasn't tied to them holding it back...  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think if they could've had this on shelves in Jan/Feb, they would've.

Yeah, I'd certainly agree with that.  I didn't word my post very well there.  Much like with the Naboo Starfighter and Tank that are now SOL, I know Hasbro would've preferred to get them into the TPM line originally.  They just failed in that attempt, miserably.  So I was meaning to bash their overall operational effectiveness more than their planning really.  Had they gotten that MTT into the line back when they should've, they may have sold a few more Battle Droids, Droidekas and Gungans.  Had they gotten that Naboo Starfighter in there when they should've, maybe that stupid Ric Olie and Naboo Pilot wouldn't have clogged the pegs quite as badly for the next 7-8 months.  Now they're going to hurt the sales of the MTT's respective mini-rig vehicle by not having that at retail simultaneously to the MTT.  Hasbro is just constantly hurting themselves on both ends with their sloppy organizing and managing of the line.  I'm sure there's outside factors that play into these delays far more than we can imagine, but still, Hasbro has lost the benefit of the doubt when it comes to problems with the line due to their poor decisions.  I blame them - not striking Chinese workers, Lucasfilm, or whoever else they'd like to shift the blame to.

It's still beyond my comprehension that Hasbro didn't get this beast out during the (failed) TPM 3D push.  Holding this non-iconic vehicle back so there's no decent marketing push to help boost it's sales along, while it's saddled with such a hefty price tag is a recipe for disaster - even moreso if it doesn't make it to all the regular B&M stores.  Further, Hasbro trying to coerce collectors into buying this by suggesting it's ultimate sales numbers will likely dictate the potential fate of a Jabba's Sail Barge being made in the future just sucks.  That's hardly an apples to apples comparison, if that's really what Hasbro will be basing it's decision on.  The Barge is a far more iconic vehicle, plus it's from the OT and is the basis for a major plot point's setting (with far more "play-value" built in).  The BMF's sales from a couple years back would be a far more valid comparison (or even the AT-AT's).  Considering these two are coming back to retail again next year, along with Boba's Slave-1, I think Hasbro must know that iconic OT vehicles are a far surer sale than what they're going to be seeing with this MTT.

With that in mind, I'm not too worried about nabbing this vehicle just yet, and will probably wait to get one until they drop into double digits, at least.  Hopefully Pete's concern isn't validated, and I don't get burned for my patience.  I definitely agree that the interactivity with the future mini-rig vehicle is an added plus for this set, but again, foresight and better planning would've really helped, as releasing the mini-rig the year AFTER the MTT's release (I'm assuming) is just flat out stupid beyond words.  Unless, of course, these MTTs are still shelf-warming next year, which is certainly a possibility.

No offense, and I don't mean to single you out, but this is a big part of the problem.  Why do collectors buy one of every figure, or worse, three?

So let's see if I have this straight:
Force Guy is blaming Pete Fett and completist collectors for our current toy woes
Collectors (completist or otherwise) are blaming Hasbro
Hasbro is blaming Lucasfilm
Lucasfilm is blaming...?  They should be blaming the Maker for that Jar-Jar infested atrocity they just worsened by putting in 3D.

I think the most important question that no one seems to be addressing is who are the kids blaming?  2/3rds of these toys are aimed at them, after all.  Or are they really as completely content and satisfied with their Star Wars goodies as Hasbro's been suggesting.  Personally, I think everyone's full of crap.  DDP and Hasbro know full well that this is hardly Lucasfilm's fault, just as Force Guy knows this obviously has next to nothing to do with completists.  Seeing as how few completists there are anymore these days, that's asinine to suggest they have much, if any, pull on the line's development, character selection, and marketing.  Sure, lots of people buy lots of garbage, and yes, I understand that it's especially confusing to some when others purchase items they don't particularly like, but hey - that's collecting.  To each their own.  I DESPISE soft goods, but I'm still buying multiples of that furball of a red tee-pee Royal Guard in a few months.  I blame all you articulation junkies for that garbage (and the dozens of other soft-good fiascos that came before the ERG).  Now that feels better - I got to blame someone for something too!  As an aside on completists, if the handful of them still out there upsets anyone now, just wait until the B-A-D line hits again next year when completists will multiply ten-fold (or more) as far more "normal" people are forced to buy dozens of figures they don't want just to complete their Build-a-Droids.  There's going to be a LOT more blame to go around when that starts happening!

To be honest, I'm glad there were problems with figures showing up at retail this year.

While I certainly understand your point, and have also greatly enjoyed watching Hasbro attempt to squirm through the bitchslap that retail has recently handed them, I would've probably put that a bit differently, or at least more tactfully, considering your current surroundings and the fact that everyone else here is certainly not quite so pleased.  My wallet and wife are certainly less pleased that I have to pay 2-10x retail on eBay to get most of these silly little plastic 4" treasures that I really don't need.

That said, I've got to agree with some of the sentiments above, that based on Hasbro's early showings for the 2013 MH line, with a 100% overlap on their small test sample, they're clearly not learning from their mistakes.  Even if things were quite far along in the 2013 line's planning, the TPM fiasco should've necesitated some hasty re-arranging of things.  That, on top of the fairly uninteresting character selections in the first two B-A-D waves, gets me even further worried that Hasbro's not going to be able to get this retail disaster turned around.  At least not until the OT hits 3D in 2014, when I'm assuming the core fanbase (old farts) will be briefly reinvigorated.  Of course by then, we'll be looking at $15 figures with 5 POA across the board, so who knows how bad the outlook might be at that point.

For anyone still interested in this line, I spotted the new Vader's TIE a couple weeks ago at Target - I think it's new, anyway.  I didn't notice any new figure 2-packs though, and can't even recall what's still on tap for this line at this point, if anything.  Anyone else remember?  I've been grabbing the OT pieces from this line, much like its GH predecessor.  Makes for good play fodder for the nephews when they come over.  Does anyone recall if this TIE is the same as the prior one in the GH line?  I should probably figure that out before I mistakenly nab a duplicate ship here.

I'm not too surprised by the lack of anything new today from Hasbro, but I'm assuming they're holding at least a wave or two and a couple interesting nuggets on the line for their presentation tomorrow, ala SDCC (if not actual figures in the display case, then at least pix or a verbal list).  With them due to skip NYCC this year, I'll be pretty disappointed if they don't mention anything new at CVI and we're forced to wait all the way 'til next February's TF.

Wow - kudos to Jayson for getting a pretty good answer.

DDP admitting that stores like Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, Five Below, etc... are going to be the beneficiaries of these waves is very interesting.

Does that presumably include the usual suspects of TJ Maxx/Marshalls/Ross?  I hope so, since I don't have any of those other stores near me.  I could do without anymore figure dumps at Kohl's however, since they're far from a "bargain" there, and are usually quite a bit more than Target, WM, etc.

I just know him from the inordinate ammount of time he would take photographing everything at a Hasbro display.

Those of us who have been perusing the boards long enough likely remember him better for a particular incident involving a Toyfair Vader and "camera battery".

I was excited with the prospect of them stretching this book out into two films, and while I absolutely love Jackson's film interpretations of these Tolkien classics (especially in their extended forms), a trilogy for The Hobbit is just going way overboard and reeks of nothing more than a cash grab to me.  I certainly wouldn't mind being proven wrong in that respect, but I just can't comprehend how there'd be enough material to warrant such a material adjustment at this late juncture, unless they wind up trimming the runtimes down on all of them to a "paltry" 2 hours or so.  I much prefer the more in-depth and entrenched viewing experience of longer flicks though, as we got with each LOTR movie, and even moreso with each of their EE's.

Harry Potter 7 seems to have set quite the business model precedent that all movie franchises based on book series are now following: Twilight, Hunger Games, and now The Hobbit.  Annoying.  I can't wait for Percy Jackson, Part 9, Vol.'s 1 & 2.

Any Tolkien purists here upset with the added female character?  Amusing rants around the web about that.  Seems fairly trivial to me, to be honest, and probably a pretty wise move by the movie studio/writers since Hobbit lacks any of the various heroines found in LOTR.  Gotta have at least one lady in the movie, right?

If it involves "judges", I don't care...

Well said.  I used to love watching a lot of those judged Olympic sports over the years, but the BS that goes on within and "behind-the-scenes" of each one of them (including the Winter games) has just become too aggravating to invest my time and fandom in anymore.  I usually go into each new Olympics telling myself to take it little easier on the Medal Tracker watching, but somehow I always find myself getting dragged back in.  Then I get thoroughly annoyed with the U.S. team if we're not leading in the gold and total medal counts, as if it's some god-given right for us to do so, which it is obviously not.  It seems the rest of the world is really catching up and/or surpassing the U.S. in many of these sports now (like swimming today).  Maybe they all work harder than we do now, while our athletes (and fans, like me) are getting too arrogant/spoiled/coddled/distracted/entitled/etc.  Or maybe I've just lost the proper understanding of the Olympic Spirit in my old age!

I'm still wondering if McCartney really choked up from emotion at the beginning of Hey Jude last night in the opening ceremonies as the media's suggesting, or if he just temporarily couldn't kick his vocals into high gear at his age.  Hopefully it was just a case of the former, though watching it, it seemed sadly more like the latter.  At least he finished relatively strong.  Pretty good ceremonies, and the James Bond/Queen bit was amusing, but it was definitely lacking the WOW factor of Beijing's performance (as expected).  Hopefully the Brit's weather cooperates over the next couple of weeks though, or we could be in for some less than stellar competitions.