The Future of Star Wars Collecting?

[JACKOFTRADZE]

The lack of OT ships of any sort on the shelves for such a long spell is still surprising me.

Ships in general are struggling more than the figures, they really collect dust. The Naboo fighter is going to be very hard to find me thinks.

Agreed on OT ships. I am ready for another 2 Snowspeeder repaints, a new Skiff and the ESB Slave 1.

[CHEWIE]

The problem with the vehicles, is pretty much everything that's been out now for quite a while is a repack or a repaint.  It's just another example of Hasbro's terrible selection choices.  The current vehicles are like super sized versions of the Movie Heroes figures.  Over priced and everyone already has the older versions.  Plus they kind of suck anyway.

[Nicklab]

The lack of OT ships of any sort on the shelves for such a long spell is still surprising me.

Ships in general are struggling more than the figures, they really collect dust. The Naboo fighter is going to be very hard to find me thinks.

Agreed on OT ships. I am ready for another 2 Snowspeeder repaints, a new Skiff and the ESB Slave 1.

I think at this point only 1 Snowspeeder repaint would fly at retail.  Do that with Snowspeeder Wedge & Janson and it would make a nice little exclusive!

ESB Slave I might be a little further off.

[Jesse James]

I don't think the ships out there suck... Well, not all of them.  I think it's a matter of price hikes (again) and lack of diversity.  Cranking out the same thing gets old, and without significant changes in deco, or even altering small things with minor tooling changes, can really add to a vehicle.

Repaints generally do well, at least initially.  Even the JSF's usually kick around for a bit, then trail off.

I think it's a good time to revisit things like Ani's 2nd ROTS JSF, and Obi's 2nd ROTS JSF...  Maybe with a hyped up deco instead of stickers. 

I'd take a McQuarrie Concept Blue Cloud Car repaint, wouldn't you?

I'd take two Snowspeeder repaints...  Wedge's since the tooling was done for this, and Luke's, but actually Luke's to look used/dirty/worn as in the movie.  I liked the ultra clean one, don't get me wrong.  I can dirty it up myself.  But one with a factory deco attempt would be nice and would get me to rebuy and to use my clean ones I got as generics/army builders.

The AT-AP really needs a significant deco change...  Extremely camoflaged like some of the AT-RT's have been maybe.

I wouldn't mind seeing the AT-ST come back out in some form, though not sure it can make it into the mid-size assortment.

I'd still buy the V-19 if they repainted it to actually look battle worn, or changed up squadron markings some.  A Rebel Alliance V-19?  Why not?  I'd buy it, and why wouldn't they have them if they're antiquated by then, ya know?

Some of the maybe tougher to get JSF's from various eras could hit again though, even with a much improved deco or slight retooling.

For "new", I wouldn't mind seeing things like a completely new tooling of the AOTC Jedi Fighter scuplt...  I'd rebuy Obi's ship if it had the 3 landing gear and was more a hyper detailed ship similar in quality to the CC and Snowspeeder.

How about a walking Imperial Artillery gun ala the Republic one?  Make a Death Star gun, slap it on legs...  Hell, slap it on the same legs.  That Republic one did great, and it'd give you something a bit more exciting than a basic OT artillery piece while giving collectors the artillery piece they want (especially if it detached and could sit by itself).  The original from the DS playset is actually scaled almost perfectly, it just lacked modern detailing.

There's ideas they can do...  $25 or $30 is just a tough pill to swallow without something being really new, improved, and impressive.  Great paintjobs can go a long way though.

[Jeff]

Might as well drag the discussion over here for those who don't frequent the other toy areas of the site...

Many "in the know" folks across the web are once again hinting/teasing that Hasbro's collector-themed lines (Marvel Universe, Vintage Collection, 30/35th Joes) are on the way out at the end of the year and a return to "kid focused" lines is coming back to the toy aisles (Marvel's movie lines, the GIJoe movie line, and reduced articulation in the SW lines like Movie Heroes stuff).

Nothing has really been confirmed (though there have been signs - hints from Hasbro employees at Toy Fair, the layoffs they had in the spring, etc), but man the rumors are burning hotter than ever right now with SDCC just a few weeks away.

Thoughts?

[CHEWIE]

My thoughts are the further Hasbro distances themselves from the adult collector market, the more they are going to regret it.

[Jesse James]

Sort of agree with CHEWIE except I think there's pretty much "irreparable damage" with the old guard collectors at this point...  I think they're leaving the hobby in droves.  Tough to tell since there's so little to buy to even tell if people are still collecting heavily but it seems like people just have lost interest and you're not going to get a lot of them back. 

I think if you look around you can tell a lot about the line as a whole by what pegwarms, or at least lingers longer, from repackaged stuff.  I've noticed that Wave 2's Deleted Scene Luke, who should be popular by all accounts, is one of the repacks (or even fresh from Wave 2 cases) who sticks around a while.  I don't think that would've happened in 2007, or 2006.

I think Retail is screaming for changes to the line as a whole, as I think the line's been on a downslope since the prices started to creep higher and higher...  They look at Star Wars as simply numbers, and I think they're the biggest reason things are the way they are now.  No ordering from retail is as equally likely, if not moreso, than "Hasbro just can't get the stuff out to the retailers" ya know?

The only wave I think you can point fingers directly at Hasbro for its scarcity is Wave 3 with Malgus/DSCommander...  And I think Hasbro intentionally tried to start putting the brakes on when Wave 3 was starting to ship.  I think at that point they'd seen that hedging their bets on TPM3D was a bad idea, and that this was an overly competitive Summer Movie Season, and they knew the TPM carry-forwards were a bad idea.  Hate Hasbro?  OK, but I think they probably hurt themselves with Wave 3 to stop the bleeding.  I'd not be shocked in the slightest to see Wave 3 in bins at 5 Below in the coming months.

People blame E1 wave for everything, but I recall not that long ago what a wonderous thing it was to have a solid case, of entirely new figures except two, and how fantastic they all looked, and how in-demand collectors felt about all of them...  They were knocking out all these things people wanted and stuff.  But now 2012 Wave 1 is the devil to collectors...  How is Maul pegwarming, at all?  Kids, collectors, and everyone in between should want him, and if this line truly had a thriving base of collectors and true popularity, that figure wouldn't be found in the first half of 2012... much less pegwarming.

So I think changes are coming...  I don't know that collector-focused figures will be abandoned ever by Hasbro, at least for us.  Marvel, Joe...  I think they're much more likely to face that, but who knows at this point.  Drastic times call for drastic measures I guess.

I think if there's significant price drops then the changes are justifiable, but they'd really have to be significant.  Not 5 POA figures and a $1 drop.  If things go too badly, and prices stay too high, I simply won't buy what I don't want or feel is worth it.  2002 all over, and those were relatively inexpensive, sadly.  It's a lot easier to say a POS figure for $5 is at least something I can fix at some point, while a POS figure at $8 is something I shouldn't have to fix myself.

I'm to the point where I see something has to change, but what?  And should it encompass everything?  Kids haven't been a focus though, for a long time, and the line's not chugged at a good pace since 2007/2008 it seems.

I can always get geeked and excited by, well, just about anything they show if it meets my standards and what I'm into...  I mean, the Ewok set, the rumored Speederbike (I've waited YEARS for that), etc.  I'm into it still.  I'm in the seeming minority there though.  But I'm always excited to see what could be...  If it sucks, so be it.  I'll pick and choose as I have for the last half of my collecting years I guess, and if it's really bad I won't collect at all then.

I don't think it's going out on a limb to say "changes are coming" though.  That's up there with going out on a limb that an ESB BF Slave-I was coming.   Between the firings, changing of the guard in brand management, and the current situation on retail shelves...  Miss Cleo could've called this one, unfortunately.

[CHEWIE]

I'm to the point where I see something has to change, but what? 

I think it needs to start with Hasbro realizing they can't front-load new lines by overproducing initial assortments of figures.  In the past they could get away with it more, and the market could absorb it a lot more when figures were in the $5.00 range. 

But since prices have nearly doubled, the market won't absorb it like in the past - especially when Hasbro is stupid enough to front load assortments like Movie Heroes and Clone Wars with figures that a high percentage of their target market already has; and their dumb idea to carry forward 7 figures from vintage wave one into waves two and three.  That's just stupidity on their part.

In other worse, I may be a jerk, but I blame Hasbro's problems on Hasbro.

[Pete_Fett]

I think it needs to start with Hasbro realizing they can't front-load new lines by overproducing initial assortments of figures.  In the past they could get away with it more, and the market could absorb it a lot more when figures were in the $5.00 range. 

But since prices have nearly doubled, the market won't absorb it like in the past - especially when Hasbro is stupid enough to front load assortments like Movie Heroes and Clone Wars with figures that a high percentage of their target market already has; and their dumb idea to carry forward 7 figures from vintage wave one into waves two and three.  That's just stupidity on their part.

In other worse, I may be a jerk, but I blame Hasbro's problems on Hasbro.

I agree with you Chewie - they have this problem with EVERY line, not just Star Wars. When are they going to get it that Movie Heroes on the whole would have moved a lot better if they had launched with those "supplemental" six EP1 figures, and six truly "Greatest Hits" figures instead of 12 figures of suck?

Look at what they do to the Marvel lines - any movie line the ratio of "main" character(s) to supporting/bad-guy character(s) is like 10:1 - Iron Man 2, Captain America, Thor, Avengers are all excellent examples of the same problem happening in those lines.

I never like to wish that someone looses their job - but I really hope the moron at Hasbro that comes up with the case assortments was fired. Instead of trying to understand the dynamic of what he was selling, what might sell, what would definitely sell and what was most likely going to end up pegwarming, he seemed to flip all of that logic on its ass and do the exact opposite.

You want to just grab the Hasbro folks and be like - "you understand not putting the Chitauri (sorry if the spelling is wrong) in the first wave of Avengers figures is like Kenner not putting out a Stormtrooper in the original 12 figures they made for A New Hope - where are your brains?"

Lastly, if Movie Heroes had been repacks of GOOD versions of figures, I think they might have sold better as well. For example, the Geonosis Battledroid and Naboo Tan variant could have been based on the Target 2-packs mold (if they didn't want to use the new Vintage one), the Darth Vader, Greivous and Super Battle Droid figures could have all been the Vintage figures from last year, the Shocktrooper could have been a pre-release of the one coming in the Carbon Freeze Chamber set which is just the AOTC Clonetrooper from last year with a new paint app and a Phase II helmet. But instead they went with inferior sculpts making up the difference with horribly functioning spring loaded weapons or features that NEVER work right and in the case of most kids - the accessory gets lost five minutes after opening the figure.

[CHEWIE]

Lastly, if Movie Heroes had been repacks of GOOD versions of figures, I think they might have sold better as well.

I agree with everything you said too, and also posted a bit of a rant on how I wish they had handled Movie Heroes in a suggestion thread at Yakface.

I think three waves, designed more like this, would have been a much better approach...

Wave 1
1 - Obi Wan (light up saber)
2 - Qui Gon (light up saber)
3 - Darth Maul (light up saber)
4 - Jar Jar Binks
5 - Padme Amidala (battle outfit)
6 - Anakin Skywalker (with jet/backpack thing)
7 - Battle Droid (2-pk - tan)
8 - Stormtrooper (Tantive IV Battle Pack repack)
9 - Princess Leia (VOTC ANH repack)
10 - Han Solo (VOTC repack)
11 - C-3PO (B.A.D. repack - painted gold)
12 - Vong Warrior (Comic Pack repack)

Wave 2
1 - Darth Vader (light up saber)
2 - Luke Skywalker (light up saber, ESB)
3 - Obi Wan Kenobi (light up saber, ANH)
4 - General Grievous (Legacy repack)
5 - Magna Guard (TVC repack)
6 - Clone Trooper (Evolutions AOTC repack)
7 - Yoda (VOTC repack)
8 - Galactic Marine (TAC repack)
9 - Ki Adi Mundi (ROTS repack)
10 - Galen Marek (Evolutions Raxus Prime repack)
11 - Shaak Ti (TFU Legacy repack)
12 - K'Kruhk (Legacy repack)

Wave 3
1 - Darth Sidious (light up saber)
2 - Mace Windu (light up saber)
3 - Jango Fett (Evolutions repack)
4 - Clone Trooper (ROTS #41 mold)
5 - Battle Droid (2-pk - Kashyyyk camo)
6 - Kashyyyk Clone Trooper (TAC repack)
7 - Imperial Snowtrooper (VOTC repack)
8 - Hoth Rebel Officer (TVC repack)
9 - Snowspeeder Luke (Legacy repack)
10 - Darth Nihilus (Evolutions repack)
11 - Jaina Solo (Legacy repack)
12 - Jacen Solo (Legacy repack)

[evenflow]

At this point with the lack of distribution and inability to find anything new (SW, Marvel Universe, and Marvel Legends) i wouldnt be upset if they all ended. As much as Mattel is plagued with quality control issues, i appreciate the fact that they have a collectors line in MOTUC.

[Scockery]

Not releasing the new Naboo fighter from the get go was just foolish. Since new  tooling costs money...why aren't new mold items front loaded?

The gap between vintage and movie heroes only made the Legends replacement almost soley aimed at gift givers and kids and thus linger in stores even more. Lots of folks complained about legends, but lots of folks got snowtroopers, battle droids and clones and that spacetrooper never lingered around here.

[CHEWIE]

Worse than I thought!

[Phrubruh]

That looks about right. Walmart isn't selling anything. Those pegs are clogged with Quigon and Obiwan. The pegs are full but nothing is moving.

[Pete_Fett]

Could this be a move on WalMart's part to force a merchandise return to Hasbro?

Hasbro sets the MSRP - it looks like all WalMart has done is price the figures at the upper limit of that range.

So perhaps WalMart has a clause that they can ship unsold product back to a manufacturer if it hasn't sold for X amount of days.

Maybe, believe it or not, WalMart is actually being SMART - they have looked at sales trends, realized the product is a turd and want in the worst way to get their money back from Hasbro.