Hasbro 3.75" - 2009 Wave 1 (RotLA)

[Pete_Fett]

Considering how hard it was to find Henry Sr., Elsa, & Vogle from the TOD wave in carded figures, but they appeared in the Box Sets at Target from when the movie was released and now a lot of those sets are going to clearance it is entirely possible that the set would sit for some time. Collectors would be big into it, but the average toy market would probably not be interested since there is nothing new for Indy at this time to drive the line fo toys.

Couple of things - only Henry Sr. and Vogel from the Last Crusade wave appeared in a Target box set. The figures in those sets were also missing many of the accessories that came with the individually carded figure. So I know a lot of collectors of this line who passed on the box set simply because it didn't give them Henry's bag, umbrella, grail diary, etc...

Second point, like I said in my original post, the "Crucible" set of figures is being sold solely through on-line vendors and via comic shops by way of Diamond Distributors. This is the part that you seem to be missing, I'm not suggesting at any time should these box sets ever show up in Target, WalMart, or TRU.

Third point - even if these sets WERE to hit the brick-and-mortar chain stores, this box set of five figures would have one thing that those three Target sets did not. NEW FIGURES. If the Vogel had been different from the carded version or the Henry had a differently painted suit, or the Indy had been the TLC Version but with dirt, I think a lot of collectors would have wanted that box set for their collection simply because there was a "new"-ish figure in the box. Same thing could be said about the KotCS and RotLA box sets. Fortunately for collectors like me who only collected an open set of the entire line, I had no need to buy these box sets. If the RotLA box set contained Marion in the White Dress, the German Mechanic, Toht or Indy disguised as a German soldier, there wouldn't be a single RotLA box set on clearance.

Final point - Hasbro has told us many times before that they do not want to show us things until the item's release is an absolute certainty. Hasbro has also told us numerous times that the lead/development time required for a figure is anywhere from six months to one year. Combine these two facts and I would bet good money on the fact that when Hasbro showed us those RotLA figures at SDCC, they were all ready to mass produce these figures. What stopped them was probably the fact that Target, WalMart and TRU all came back to them and basically said "this line isn't working, there won't be space for it in our resets after end-of-year inventory in January." This put the breaks on producing individually carded versions of each of these figures.


So anyway, my original post was mainly meant to communicate this question: If Hasbro can get online retailers to pick up CRAPPY sets like the Crimson Empire "Crucible" and Legacy of the Saga (which also found it's way to K-Mart), then why couldn't they put all five figures into a modest box design and offer them through Diamond Distributors?

[CHEWIE]

I completely agree, Hasbro should have been able to find a way to get these to collectors in some sort of capacity... very disappointing in how they handled this line from day one.

[Captain Piet]

The sad fact is Hasbro has to want to do it. The company just doesn't want to.

[Jesse James]

For your scenario to work Pete, a retailer would have to want the item as well...  It's possible nobody does.  From what I hear every etailer is pretty pissed off about the Indy stock they're left with right now, and Indy's like a hot potatoe to them.   

I'd love to see it happen too because that wrapped up pretty much the last ROTLA figures anyone really REALLY wanted, but IJ has had the fork in it for some months now, and Hasbro and retail both see it as a plague I guess.

[Pete_Fett]

For your scenario to work Pete, a retailer would have to want the item as well...  It's possible nobody does.  From what I hear every etailer is pretty pissed off about the Indy stock they're left with right now, and Indy's like a hot potatoe to them.   

Ok now - this is a good answer. I wasn't aware of this. Sure, I can understand Walmart being upset with having to blow out the rest of their IJ figures at $3 each, but an e-tailer is going to be hit even harder with the left-over wave 1 figure cases.

I'm sure EE will have no problem selling through their Temple of Doom cases (even though the second half of the case is absolute crap) simply because the ToD figures are hard to come by. But I did notice that EE has the first two waves of both basic figures and deluxe figures as part of their Winter Blow-out sale.

I'd love to see it happen too because that wrapped up pretty much the last ROTLA figures anyone really REALLY wanted, but IJ has had the fork in it for some months now, and Hasbro and retail both see it as a plague I guess.

It's unfortunate that e-tailers and Hasbro can't look at the situation and try to work something out that. I'm perplexed that Hasbro would not want to show some sort of ROI for taking the time to sculpt (and possibly tool) these five RotLA figures. If the figures of Indy in German Soldier disguise, Marion in the White Dress, the German Mechanic and Sapito haven't been tooled, fine.

But what about Toht?

Toht's body w/o any modifications was used for the suited Cobra Commander at Comic Con. You mean to tell me that as a single carded exclusive, no one could swing a Toht figure with both heads? How about finding two e-tailers and split the figure where you have to buy it with a normal head from one and the melty head from another. That way, you can get the collectors who would want both to make two figure purchases instead of just one. I know I probably sound pretty out there for even suggesting that, but I would have wanted to buy two Toht figures ANYWAY simply because I would want to display both head versions as opposed to just a figure with an alternate head at its feet.

I'm hoping that as a minimum they will possibly do that for a SDCC exclusive or something.

I have to wonder how big of an overlap there really is between IJ collectors and SW collectors. I guess it must be a lot smaller than say the sub-set of SW collectors who will purchase EU based items. I know quite a few guys locally who pass on anything that wasn't in a movie. So you mean to tell me the projected audience of that Crimson Empire Crucible set is more than the projected audience of a box set of figures that updates all but one of the old vintage RotLA figures?

Perhaps I'm taking it a bit too far, but to me it's almost like Hasbro pushing the Crucible set on Diamond and going "it's Star Wars, no matter how bad the figures are, the lemming collectors are still going to buy".

Whereas, they really should be shopping a set of these five figures around going "these are great figures, they complete updating most of the vintage Kenner line, they are going to be exclusive to you, anyone who bought RotLA figures is going to want one, etc..."

Like Pieter said, you almost get the feeling that Hasbro just doesn't want to be bothered and you have to wonder if there is a fifth Indiana Jones movie, are they even going to support it with an action figure line?

But hey - I heard that Darryl DePriest is taking dumps in a box and slapping the Star Wars logo on them - I'm sure those will sell! 

[Captain Piet]

For your scenario to work Pete, a retailer would have to want the item as well...  It's possible nobody does.  From what I hear every etailer is pretty pissed off about the Indy stock they're left with right now, and Indy's like a hot potatoe to them.   

Ok now - this is a good answer. I wasn't aware of this. Sure, I can understand Walmart being upset with having to blow out the rest of their IJ figures at $3 each, but an e-tailer is going to be hit even harder with the left-over wave 1 figure cases.

I'm sure EE will have no problem selling through their Temple of Doom cases (even though the second half of the case is absolute crap) simply because the ToD figures are hard to come by. But I did notice that EE has the first two waves of both basic figures and deluxe figures as part of their Winter Blow-out sale.

I'd love to see it happen too because that wrapped up pretty much the last ROTLA figures anyone really REALLY wanted, but IJ has had the fork in it for some months now, and Hasbro and retail both see it as a plague I guess.

It's unfortunate that e-tailers and Hasbro can't look at the situation and try to work something out that. I'm perplexed that Hasbro would not want to show some sort of ROI for taking the time to sculpt (and possibly tool) these five RotLA figures. If the figures of Indy in German Soldier disguise, Marion in the White Dress, the German Mechanic and Sapito haven't been tooled, fine.

But what about Toht?

Toht's body w/o any modifications was used for the suited Cobra Commander at Comic Con. You mean to tell me that as a single carded exclusive, no one could swing a Toht figure with both heads? How about finding two e-tailers and split the figure where you have to buy it with a normal head from one and the melty head from another. That way, you can get the collectors who would want both to make two figure purchases instead of just one. I know I probably sound pretty out there for even suggesting that, but I would have wanted to buy two Toht figures ANYWAY simply because I would want to display both head versions as opposed to just a figure with an alternate head at its feet.

I'm hoping that as a minimum they will possibly do that for a SDCC exclusive or something.

I have to wonder how big of an overlap there really is between IJ collectors and SW collectors. I guess it must be a lot smaller than say the sub-set of SW collectors who will purchase EU based items. I know quite a few guys locally who pass on anything that wasn't in a movie. So you mean to tell me the projected audience of that Crimson Empire Crucible set is more than the projected audience of a box set of figures that updates all but one of the old vintage RotLA figures?

Perhaps I'm taking it a bit too far, but to me it's almost like Hasbro pushing the Crucible set on Diamond and going "it's Star Wars, no matter how bad the figures are, the lemming collectors are still going to buy".

Whereas, they really should be shopping a set of these five figures around going "these are great figures, they complete updating most of the vintage Kenner line, they are going to be exclusive to you, anyone who bought RotLA figures is going to want one, etc..."

Like Pieter said, you almost get the feeling that Hasbro just doesn't want to be bothered and you have to wonder if there is a fifth Indiana Jones movie, are they even going to support it with an action figure line?

But hey - I heard that Darryl DePriest is taking dumps in a box and slapping the Star Wars logo on them - I'm sure those will sell! 

Shew! I was just able to preorder the DePriest Defecation Recreation set through Excretion Earth. I was worried they'd be all wiped out.