This was posted over at Hasbro's site a little while ago, an explanation of the Jedi Points, as well as the announcement of "Theme" waves for 2004...Sounds great to me! Here's the link, as well as the text from the article (if that is ok to post here, if not, I am sorry).
http://www.hasbro.com/starwars/pl/page.headlines/id.949/dn/default.cfmArticle:
Jul 18, 2003
Republic News
Comic-Con Announcements
For those of you who aren’t attending Comic-Con this week, here is what we unveiled today at our presentation.
We are pleased to announce the creation of Jedi Master Points Auctions. Since 1999, you’ve been saving up your points, and we have finally come up with a way for you to use them. Scheduled for launch in September, Jedi Master Point Auctions will enable registered users of
www.starwars.hasbro.com to use their Jedi Master Points as currency in a series of online auctions. We are still finalizing what will be auctioned on the site, but we will have hard-to-find items like Jorg Sacul, Toy Fair Darth Vader and the R2-D2 Astromech Droid. The promotion is scheduled to run for a three-month trial period. We will then evaluate the program for the future; however, this may be the only opportunity to ever use your Jedi Master Points, so don’t save them up for something in the future! The total number of auctions will also be limited, so bid early. As more details about the promotion are finalized, we will post on the website, so check back here.
The other major topic was a preview of our plans for 2004. Basic figures will be combined into one collection, and our goal is to release a new wave each month, with three to four new figures per wave. Each wave will have a theme, and the tentative themes for the first five waves were announced, as well as some examples of figures planned for each wave. The themes and some examples are as follows:
Wave 1 - Hoth
Luke Skywalker, Wampa Cave
Wave 2 - Tatooine
Luke Skywalker, ROTJ (previously shown on our website)
Wave 3 - Jabba’s Palace
Wave 4 - Battle of Yavin
Captain Antilles (Fans’ Choice #5)
General Dodonna (close runner up to Antilles)
Wave 5 - Star Destroyer
Dengar (with backpack)
Also announced was the introduction of a new assortment at the deluxe price point in 2004. This line was created to offer characters and accessories that are too large to fit in our basic figure line while remaining true to our 3 ¾" scale. There are seven figures in total, which will only be available in the Spring, and where possible, many of the figures will fit into one of the basic figure themes. Examples include the Wampa and a Jabba the Hutt figure that will be featured in an upcoming issue of Star Wars Insider.