The tools exist. Hasbro is going to want to recoup some of that investment. That means selling units.
The Droid Gunship showed up in trailers, too. The tools for that exist as well.
Hasbro made the bulk of their investment in tooling for both vehicles, and the only way to see the rewards of those investments is to sell the toys.
Yeah, and how many other scarce/low distribution items were 100% new tooling that have never seen reissue? A few actually. Probably not just from Star Wars, too.
And Hasbro's willingness to make new tooling for convention exclusives (not just for Star Wars) put their past "cost of tooling" comments to doubt.
We might see the Droid gunship next year or it might be for 2014 for Revenge of the Sith. Or never if they don't think it's a viable seller. I mean, it's a pretty safe bet that the Falumpa set, Queen's Starship and Fambaa will never be reissued. (With those, we can assume those molds paid for themselves a decade ago or were written off.)
You say that there's a lack of confidence in Clone Wars toys.
Me? Hasbro has all but said that. They said Clone Wars is becoming a sub-line...with limited numbers of new items released...that started this year. Focus is down to leading character and clones and recognizable baddies, articulation has dwindled to worse than when the whole CW line began. Will that change next year? Who knows, since Episode 1 product seems to be a big dud for the most part (maybe they should've made half the figures in the episode 1 vintage cases Darth Maul...seriously....okay, a quarter of the case.)
Because I see plenty of OT & PT vehicles from the SOTDS line still lingering on shelves, too. I can still get an AT-AT pretty easily at retail. The same goes for the Trench Run pack with the X-Wing & Darth Vader TIE at TRU. Sales across the whole boys toys sector are DOWN. Attempts to pin this just on the Clone Wars line are misdirected, and you're simply not looking at the bigger picture.
I agree. That's why I'm surprised by rumors of more Vintage boxed exclusive vehicles. But again, last year, Hasbro said their focus on Clone Wars would be reduced, and it is true. This has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with their brand strategy and whatever sales figures they were looking at.