Star Wars Rebels Toy Rumors!

[Jesse James]

By most of what I've seen of the ship's design the BMF might actually be about what a scale one of this would need to be...  Given prices rising though I'd guess they'd aim for something fairly smaller...  MTT at best, in terms of size.  And that, everyone bitched about price.  I think Hasbro's generally dismayed with collectors and what they claim they'll pay for stuff.  You can tell by the way they're juggling prices and how they make things.  Vehicles are made far different now than they were just 5 years ago.  Lots of "hollow" parts and whatnot.

Collectors like to talk big, but wallets rarely open.  I'm as much a part of this as anyone, except the "talk big" part.   I know what I want and what I'll pay for.  Give me a scale Y-Wing, you'll see my purse strings loosen.  Give me anything underscale, and I'll pick and choose, wait for sales...  It's nature of the beast.  I don't fault anyone for that either, but I think Hasbro's just well aware these days most collectors talk out their ass when they say, "I'll pay X for Y", when in reality they're probably pitching a fit if Hasbro makes it and it's not their perfect dream of what they claim they wanted.

The ones willing to shell out obscene money are few and far between.  Most I think consider it financially irresponsible even, at our age anyway, to just go nuts over toys...  I know I'm not in my early 20's anymore and I'm shelling out every year for trips to football games for the kids, or upkeep on 6 or 7 cars at a time, two houses, college, college soon for another...     Hell just feeding two boys trying to gain weight, and who are both bigger than I ever was at their age, is straining.  So toys just take a backseat for me and I try to aim for sales unless it's something I really want or know won't be there again.  Figures are about all I don't mind shelling out for when I see them or by the case. 

Big vehicles?  If it's not ideal, why pay full price?  And rarely is anything "ideal" to me.  The fact sales and clearances are so predictable makes you just know Hasbro's viewing these things as high risk, low reward situations.  Not even big vehicles, but look at $40 sets at TRU...  We'd have gone nuts over stuff like those Jedi closer to 2005, but once multi-packs got up to $40?  Collectors take the stance that TRU has sales, usually stocks well, so why commit to the full retail?  Me too, but it just goes to show the typical collector price threshold is low...  I think really 6" is a sign that $20 for a figure is tough for many to swallow even.

Everyone's different of course, but there's clear trends too where collectors will abandon anything no matter how awesome it is if they get even a sniff that they can get it cheaper at some point.

[McMetal]

I'm not averse to paying a lot out of pocket up front for a big vehicle if it's something that's part of my focus. (The only exception being the Republic Attack Shuttle which is literally the only Clone Wars I didn't buy immediately upon sight, I did get two eventually though) I know there is a tendency to wait things out sometimes and I get that, $$$ are tight nowadays, but I do think they could crank this thing out under the $100 range and still do it justice.

I also don't begrudge them for playing it safe out of the gate, but I think if the show gets a warm reception this thing has a good shot at a holiday release, which would mean it's already in development. Fingers crossed!

[Nicklab]

The Twilight was too so I don't think its a lock at the moment...  I think they may wait to see if the shows popular before committing to a big ticket toy.  There are still sdcc and such to go though.  I just could see them go conservative this time around is all.

+1

Even at SDCC we're still going to be at a point where we haven't even seen a single episode of REBELS air on Disney XD.  The series premieres in the fall of this year.  So does Hasbro go for a 2014 Holidays release for the Ghost?  That seems incredibly optimistic for Hasbro to plan the release of a $100 vehicle that's sourced from a TV series that may have only been on the air for 2 months.  If Hasbro is playing things conservatively, would they really take a risk on a vehicle that's pretty costly to develop?

So what are the other options?  Release it in the summer of 2015, after a full season of REBELS has aired?  That release schedule gives the show a chance to gain some traction with viewers and demand for the Ghost to build.  But then there's no direct entertainment support if the show is on summer hiatus.

There's also the matter of the promotional rampup to the release of Episode VII.  Does the release of a $100 Ghost vehicle fit into that scheme?  Or will there be some other $100 vehicle associated with Episode VII that requires that space in the line?

Keeping that kind of strategy in mind makes the release of a Ghost vehicle over the next year or so seem unclear.

[Muftak]

I think the Ghost is gonna be a victim of the timing, as Nicklab spelled out. No way we're getting one this year. It's only hope would rest in the off chance that the Millennium Falcon makes it into EpVII as the hero vehicle, which would allow Hasbro to rehash the Falcon and develop the Ghost for release in the same window.

Oh, and the show will really need to perform. Like, make new Star wars fans.

[Jesse James]

TCW steadily declined in ratings...  Cite what you want, it still did.  I'm not sure Rebels can do better than TCW did, it just has a home that's less likely to off it because its home is its parent company ultimately.

And I think a $100 tag's even optimistic given the MTT's cost, which wasn't very big in the BMF world...     Let's say it's BMF sized, which would make a darn nice Ghost I think...  I forget the last Falcon's price, but it was more than the AT-TE at the time, so I just cringe.

This is a show falling at a weird, weird time...  I am not counting on much obscurity being made from it, honestly.  I think obscurity may happen for "Troopers" types of figures, but stuff like Whorm Loathsome from TCW I think is a pipe dream for this show right now.  Depending upon how wildly popular it may or may not be...  It's all hinging on that right now, but big ticket anything I think has less a chance than ever of coming out till the new movies are here.

[Brian]

I was just starting to listen to the Rebel Force Radio Collector Cast (with Curto/Burns) today, and while discussing Hasbro - and specifically the new Rebels vehicles - James Burns said that Hasbro told him that we wouldn't be seeing the Ghost in 2014, but it was on its way in 2015.  Grain of salt and all that, but it sounded - at least to him - as if it was confirmed.  He also said we'd be getting a new Rebels TIE Fighter that was an all new sculpt.

[McMetal]

You guys make some good points to be sure, but I think the up front commitment they have shown for the show already is a pretty good indicator of what we can expect going forward. Those three big ships were legitimate class II efforts, not like those horribly out of scale things they were trawling out earlier. That's at least as much tooling, etc if not more than the Ghost would require, so it's not that big a jump, IMO.

The whole timeline thing just seems to me like it old be more conducive to getting this out than anything from ep. 7, at least for this year and next. They have known about the Ghost for awhile now, have all the specs, finalized art, dimensions, etc. Have they even started shooting ep 7 yet? JJ is notoriously secretive with his projects, I wonder how much he would let out of the bag at this stage simply for merchandising considerations. Maybe there is no iconic big ship from the next film?

Plus who knows if that thing even comes out on time...I still think it gets pushed back to the following spring. Gotta fill that lull somehow!

[Jesse James]

Not to say I think they're "poor quality" items by any means but I think these Class-II are probably not on par in terms of complexity, compared to the old vehicles of similar size...  Like say the old Jedi Fighters and things.  I wouldn't personally say I'd compare 2 Class II ships to 1 bmf really...  Just personal experience they're way far apart.

I think if you took apart a "bmf" type vehicle you'd see its REALLY complex compared to even the old class II stuff which, by my eye, I can see corners cut on even these Rebels ships that didn't happen on old class II.  They're definitely better than 2013's midget ships tho but I see some of the recent vehicle tricks to save on tooling are being used.  Still look good to me but they're also open to more interpretation than say the cloud car or something.

Since Burns is saying he was told 2015 I believe that.  Fall maybe?  Be surprised if its earlier.  But The Ghost seems destined for next year at this point.  It may not be ATTE sized though...  Maybe it'll be fairly small?  Maybe it'll be the only big ship all year?

[Jedi Idej]

To scale is around 8' long.

I can picture them marketing a 30" version.

[CHEWIE]

I dunno, seems to me that in Fall 2015 would be a weird time to release a big item from Rebels... Seems by October-ish it will be Ep7 time for the toy focus.

[McMetal]

I dunno, seems to me that in Fall 2015 would be a weird time to release a big item from Rebels... Seems by October-ish it will be Ep7 time for the toy focus.

It seems unlikely they would release a big ship before the movie even comes out though? If it even gets released on time, so much can happen between now and then to potentially create delays.

I think people will like this ship when it comes out, it's a cool design.

[Jesse James]

Idej, are there dimensions out already?  8', you sure?  That's bigger than the Falcon and the ship looks on par or slightly smaller just eyeballing it.

I think toy lead-ups for Episode 7 will hit closer to its release...  November I could see a big toy blitz.  I could see an August release for a Rebels ship, but then again I think the timing doesn't bode well for its release at all.  Burns is saying he heard it is so I'm taking that as a solid rumor that it'll happen but none of the timing jives with anything, to me.

I suspect any Ghost ship is going to be grossly underscaled...  It's certainly bigger than I originally thought it was.  I doubt they even go BMF in terms of it size...  I'd guess smaller.  AT-TE, MTT...  I'd be shocked if they went as small as the Republic Shuttle though.  That's really a small toy that relied a lot on "opening up" to look bigger than it actually is.

Assuming it does come out, I'd think it'd have to come out late Summer.  Just my guess.  I suppose it could come out Spring, but it's not a very good toy buying season for something big.  Then again, maybe it won't be very big at all?  Maybe it'll be small, simplistic, designed for small hands and not collectors at all.  I'd not be shocked to see something along those lines.

[Jeff]

What if The Ghost is both?  A Rebels ship AND an Ep7 ship. 

Thought about that the other day... based on the era of the show, it wouldn't be impossible for The Ghost to be around in Ep7... or any of the Rebels crew for that matter.  Even something as simple as the same ship type/class showing up in both.  Help it sell both ways - cartoon and movie.   

[Jesse James]

I was thinking that too...  Certainly possible.  It's like the Falcon was around at the dawn of civilization in Star Wars.

How do ya sell more different toys though!?  - George Lucas

[Nicklab]

Nice to hear that Burns got word of a Ghost release for 2015.  If it's happening then, I'm thinking it would be a Spring '15/Q2 release.  Because the rest of the release calendar for 2015 would probably have Episode VII previews come Q3, and the Episode VII line would launch in Q4.  So perhaps April or May of next year, when REBELS is still airing episodes?