Anyone else read Adam May's Galactic Blogger entry today over at GalacticHunter.com? Sounds like the gods have been angered over the leak of the Falcon photos. And I'm not surprised since the press release, after the leak, mentioned Wired as having first dibs on breaking that news.
I'm assuming that the "prominent" site is RS and, if so, I could make a guess on who they think leaked the photos. But I could be wrong. Either way, it's interesting to actually hear about this from a site as normally this sort of thing seems to get swept behind the scenes and we only hear about it after the fact and in even more vaguely written forum posts or in whispers at conventions.
E...
I read it and I'm in agreement with GH.
Hasbro is just POed because they didn't get to break the info the way they wanted to do it. Hell if you ask me, it was BETTER to have been broken by a SW collecting site than some mag that many of us don't buy.
Having this info come out early HAS enabled many a collector to BUDGET for it.
At the hefty $150+ price, not every collector who would want one could save that much in a months time (the perceived time of the "official" release of info had Hasbro had their way).
These extra few weeks have helped those folks to save up for it. Otherwise it could have been a matter of people picking either the AT-TE OR the Falcon. And that would have had some serious negative repercussions to it for future large items.
The buzz created by the release of the pics has been overwhelmingly positive (regardless of those few who are naysaying the toy).
So Wired didn't get to release the info first. So WHAT!
It's the people who mattered and yes by that I mean we collectors, who should have gotten this info first.
If we'd have been blindsided by this, while we would have been excited, again the short amount of time for many to save up for it, would have hindered sales.
I don't blame Adam for not disclosing his source. It's not some government secret. IT'S A TOY!!!
Get over it Hasbro and be glad we the FANDOM have accepted this toy. It's a great product to be sure from what we've seen, yet it IS pricey.
You tok a risk on producing it, and with just a little bit of effort to check all the major collecting sites, you can see that it's going to pay off.
In today's world, it's rare for things to stay secret. And a toy from the most popular movie franchise in history is not one of those secrets that is going to be kept. It's ridiculous to even think so.
So don't be mad Hasbro. Consider it an early test market and that it's a success. You're going to reap the benefits from this come July.