Like some of you others, I forsee this initial wave bombing and the next waves of "real" EU barely seeing the light of day. 
It's the Hasbro Method of Destruction:
PART 1: First wave consists of your worst figures. Overproduce said wave and convince retailers to overorder. Collectors look at the selection and laugh, with only the carded completists and random folks to pick them up. Wal-Mart gets 200 more cases per store, killing any possibility of them getting future waves.
PART 2: Second wave consists of 2 of the requested figures, but the case pack is filled out with more of the crappy figures from wave 1. The requested figures disappear immediately, showing up shortly thereafter on Ebay, and the crappy figures sit. Toys R Us orders 200 more cases per store and receives more of the aforementioned wave 1 assortment, which sit on the pegs alongside POTJ Bespin Guards, Sabes, and OTC Millennium Falcons for the next 20 years.
PART 3: Third wave consists of army builders (Clones and/or Stormtroopers) and for some reason doesn't include the difficult to find requested pack from wave 2. Due to the gluts at WM and TRU, Target only gets one shipment of these, with some stores not getting any due to Target having a backlog of wave 1. Wave 1 is clearanced for 97 cents by Target and Hasbro cancels the line, stating that sales were sluggish and the fan support just wasn't there.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
You said it the best Doc! That's exactly how I see it too.
I don't know why Hasbro likes to doom an experimental line in the beginning. They always send the most product out in the first wave, usually it's undesirable, then they ship less for remaining waves(if any) based on first waves' sales...making subsequent waves rare. Sometimes it seems like they don't take enough risk(new, well-marketed sculpt ideas) which really baffles me since when they do they come out with poorly thought out cross-over to other toy ideas like BIKERS ect. For a toy company that the SW line is their leading seller I just don't understand why they can be so predictably conservative with SW new toy line attempts.
There IS past evidence unlike what Corranhorn said about Hasbro's typical line starting blunders with EU.. Clone Wars- First wave HUGE, overshipped, with several pegwarmers
Subsequent waves were considerably less in quantity with more desirable figs. SOTE figs
high in quantity with pegwarmers--it shot itself in the foot from the getgo.
Look at the present...
--At the Comic Con questions were raised about unleashed figs coming back...what are we getting repacks. Hasbro claims they'll see how well the repacks sell before thinking about making anything else(no risk)...so they are reselling a recent fig, greivous and a common vader
and a rare fig boba
...I argue that had they added the unmasked vader the line woulda had a better shot to see more new figs.
--Marvel comics packs? I'm hearing ALOT of dissapointment, I'll bet it pans out exactly the way the Doc put it
--Unleashed battle packs? Hasbro comes off at the CC like they want you to buy-in that it's one of their best selling lines
. Actually, it appears to be in a similar situation of the original unleashed... they have a wave that they overproduce ( wave 1 and 2 unleashed battle packs)(regular unleashed was the aayla,sandtrooper wave and wave 1) then the rest of the waves do well (less produced)? Personally I'd say the original line did better, though. So, is Hasbro gonna come out in 2007 and say they're cancelling unleashed battle packs because it's not selling like they claimed about the Unleashed...after they tell us at CC the line is doing great
?
Freaks at Hasbro
The Ds
