Clone Wars Wave 30 (2013 Wave 1)

[Jayson]

Sounds like The Clone Wars is dead after wave 1.

[Jimree]

I hope not. This line could be amazing, but the repacks are crazy

I know its a lot more deeper than that with viewership and stuff, and kids wanting the main characters. its tough

Sad to see it go if it does

Jim

[Jesse James]

I'm not shocked, to be honest.  I think the toon's down further than ever, it's also seemingly approaching its end-game scenario...  I think there's definite appeal for realistic CW among the realistic collectors (I know I would buy almost any CW figure done realistically), but the animated suffered out of the gate IMO, by being made wholely separate...  I think the line suffered because of that, to be honest.  No big shock that's around the same time sales declined for the 3.75" line overall.

Figures like Worm Loathsome and Yularren, which were good figures, failed miserably.  Even Embo became a pegwarmer around me not long after the hype wore off.  The Sidious figures were the rarity...  Even repainting Clones wasn't helping it along too much, and that used to be a no-fail scenario (they've not done it as much in the realistic line lately though either).

Class I & II getting the axe, I can't blame them on Class II...  Those are horrid.  Class I, yet to see where that's going to wind up but the first round in the green package, after I got to think about it, weren't amazing really.  Not to me anyway.  Even Yoda. 

[P-Siddy]

Is it the Curse of the Yoda packaging?    BAD figures=axed.  CW=Axed.  Class I & II vehicles= Axed.  All on Yoda packaging. 

[McMetal]

Ah, some dude named Volker said it so it must be true. 

If this actually DOES turn out to be true, I can't say I'm surprised, but I'm not going out with a whimper. I'm going to continue to scream from the top of my lungs that this line could be a great success if Habsro had a clue WTF they were doing. I just don't buy that the show is doing badly and no one cares about the figures anymore. Go find me a pegwarming Commander Fox or Scuba Ahsoka and then tell me that. People care.

I don't think it was a mistake going animated at the outset either. The point of making figures is they should look like they do on the show, you know? I'll tell you what, I'll support the realistic Clone Wars figures when guys start supporting animated OT figures, because one makes about as much sense as the other.

As much as it sucks to think of all the great stuff they left on the table, I can't stomach the thought of any more dreadful realistic styled crap like child-bearing hips Ahsoka. Just don't make any more period. Leave those slots for Cantina Alien #15 or EU stuff. Clone Wars is an animated line and it should always stay that way.

I'll wait until the axe officially falls at Toy Fair to unload my Final Rant.

[Jesse James]

I think there's a handful of adults that support it, but because it was a kid-oriented line it always needed heavy kid support and had it for a while.  But the show has declined in quality itself, I am pretty sure it's had steady ratings declines since it began, and I think at this point it's setting itself up for wrapping up at some point.  It has to...  It was stuck in a period of a fairly tight timeline.  If they had taken other EU into account they'd have even more of a confined space to work in.

But what the line lived off of was kids, and kids didn't support obscurity as much as they supported the dreaded Clone repaint and Ani/Obi.

Citing that Ahsoka or Fox is like me citing Revan and Malak...  They sold well, but were probably the shortest run of figures in the 30AC...  There's always rare stuff, in any line.  Especially in a line's waning days. 

Also, don't know that there's any point to making action figures...  LFL wanted them to look as they do on the show, but at the onset, Hasbro wanted to, and pushed for, doing realistic versions.

Initial 2D Tartakovsky CW figures were done realistic...  They were fairly well received too, depending on the figure, and the later Tartakovsky figures were fantastic...  The animated Tartakovsky figures, not so well as I recall.

I think the line's been realistic style since day 1...  I think Hasbro needed that cohesion, and while I think they tried to blend the two by releasing "Legends" figuers that were realistic and tied to Clone Wars (Super Battledroid, etc.) at the line's launch, I think Hasbro knew the difference separated adult collectors for sure, and COULD separate kids...  I think people underestimate how observant kids are about things like that.

They took literally decades of a line though, and basically segregated a new line from the old line...  I think that separation hurt Clone Wars out of the gate, and you throw in a show that its curtain is dropping, and I think that's just a recipe for this outcome ultimately.

I think Hasbro really hoped collectors would support Clone Wars as much as they did the regular line, but I just think there were too few, and then the kid audience started to drift away too.

I'll never argue they're leaving a lot of cool characters on the table, but they could easily bring them out in the realistic line...  It's lost traction in the last 4 or 5 years too though, so I imagine there will be a little less risk with figure decisions this year.  Or more main-character-heavy assortments with the obscurity representing a lower portion...  As much as I want Adm. Trench too (I think I'd take him either style), I just don't know if he'll ever happen, much less animated looking at this point.

For the realistic fans, I think Ahsoka was a good figure...  I just wish we had a young Ahsoka with a Rotta The Hutt to go with the older one.  Mine's quite nice, and other than my first one having 2 left feet, I don't know many realistic fans who felt she was a bad figure.  Same with Kenobi, and Anakin is outstanding...  one of the best Anakin's, if not THE best Anakin, ever made IMO.

I don't want a lot of that stuff left on the table either...  and who knows, the line isn't dead yet, but the further they get from the show, and I think the show is on the way out sooner rather than later, the less likely a Trench figure is, or whatnot.  I prefer things to be done realistically, but I think a lot of that stuff is fading fast in either format at this point.

[Jayson]

Is it the Curse of the Yoda packaging?    BAD figures=axed.  CW=Axed.  Class I & II vehicles= Axed.  All on Yoda packaging. 

BAD wasn't on Yoda packaging, it was on that Black & Silver astromech Legacy packaging. 

[P-Siddy]

Is it the Curse of the Yoda packaging?    BAD figures=axed.  CW=Axed.  Class I & II vehicles= Axed.  All on Yoda packaging. 

BAD wasn't on Yoda packaging, it was on that Black & Silver astromech Legacy packaging. 

Ahh... I thought it was going to be on the Yoda packaging too.  Good to know.

[Nicklab]

VolkerC is one of the more well regarded collectors on the European scene.  And he's been a fairly reliable source of info.  The report supposedly came out of the German Toy Fair.

I can't say that I would be surprised by Hasbro announcing the cancellation of the Clone Wars animated figure line.  It's been diminishing in popularity over the past 2 years.  And when Hasbro started offering real-world renditions of Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka you had to expect that this would eventually happen.  Plus, it seems that the series might be wrapping up in the next year.  I just re-watched the season 5 trailer, and saw some key indicators that we're headed much closer to Revenge Of The Sith territory.  The ROTS era Jedi Interceptors are featured in that clip, most noticeably.  If the series is coming closer to an end, you've got to expect the same with the toy line.

[Jesse James]

What bums me some is there ARE good things left on the table...  I have my preferences how they'd get done obvioiusly, but I honestly think anything but "mains" are a lot less likely here on out, regardless of what style they're done in.

Trench really bums me out, but at the same time he gives me something to shoot for in the customs realm.

There's seriously almost part of me wishes 3.75" would cease all together...  That part of me is the customizer in me that would then focus on that area of the hobby that I've neglected for years now. 

[Greg]

At this point I'm hoping Clone Wars is indeed cancelled, but if it is it will still be bittersweet. I want to see some Mandalorian repaints, fully-clothed Darth Maul, a Pong Krell, and maybe some Phase 2 Clones with legion markings, but that probably won't happen even if the line continues. Distribution has been a fustercluck since 2011, and the quality of the few Clone Wars items last year was overall a joke.

Despite all the recent crapiness, I have enjoyed the line over the last FIVE years (can you believe it has been that long?!?) and it will be somewhat sad to see the animated style go. The Clone Wars has become a pretty sizable portion of my collection, and has somehow managed to deliver some great items every year. Some stuff like the Mandos, Embo, Seripas, Dropship mini-rig, the giant Tri-Droid, and that very first "dirty" Clone figure will be in my collection until I quit Star Wars, which I can't say about everything I own.

Maybe Hasbro killed this line by not making more characters, or by designing it in animated style and alienating most collectors, or maybe the kids supporting it have hit puberty and moved on... who knows? The line is just limping along at this point so it might be best for Hasbro to just pull the plug. All good things must come to an end, and TCW delivered a large amount of "good" in the last half-decade.

[Scockery]

Kids are fickle, especially in this age. So many lines aimed at kids die after a year or two. Some may also suffer from a certain channel trying to kill the shows it should be supporting (THundercats, Green Lantern, Young Justice...farther back, Justice League and Masters of the Universe) so they can show Johnny Test and Dreamworks Dragons in 4 hour blocks and stuff that is not cartoons.

What about the rumors of Class 1 and Class 2 ending. Are we are heading back to  no vehicles at mass retail like Power of the Jedi? Guess we will find out.

[McMetal]

Yeah, it was a great run to be sure, although I still feel strongly that the line limping has more to do with Hasbro kneecapping it then lack of consumer interest ultimately. Last year and this year could have seen a lot more sales I am convinced had they made better figure selections and actually gotten them into stores.

We're still getting figures like Kneesa 20+ years after DROIDS went off the air, so it won't surprise me if they throw a threw bones our way over the coming years. (BTW, Droids and Ewoks figures - both "vintage" lines made in the source-accurate animated style) I can't say if I'll even care at that point unless they somehow decide to release them in the animated style though.

It sucks, I mean, I got nothing once this goes away. It's going to be hard, honestly. I loved this line with a passion and it's pretty much my only SW 3&3/4" focus, outside of a few cherry picked TVC figures here and there. I know for 99% of people it's just a little window getting shut, but for me, ugh, it's the end of SW collecting as I have known and embraced it for the past five years or whatever it's been. I would never have gotten pulled back into this world otherwise. It's super disappointing to see it circling the drain like this.

 

[Jesse James]

But there's always something to move onto...  That's the point.  For me, the animated line was more a blip in the radar than what the hobby's always been about (the "main line" as it were).  I always kind of figured this line's life was tied to the cartoon, and the cartoon was a finite thing.

I'm not sure if Hasbro ruined CW by knee-capping it, or if it knee-capped it because CW was in its death throws...  I tend to think the latter.  I think it's a line that came out of the gates strong, as did the series, and the series has done nothing but decline every year in quality (IMO) and so has the toy line with it.  I don't know that those things are coincidental really.

It never helped (for adult collectors) that Hasbro had the line pigeon-holed for kids...  They really never seemed to have too much faith in collectors supporting it, and you can't blame them there.  I mean, I remember the initial reaction to the toon movie, and the outrage at it (I loved it, personally, and still do...  I can watch those verticle AT-TE's all day) from adults.  I think though, they gave it somewhat of a collector flare and that fizzled fast and bit them in the ass.  I think that's a big reason the line wound up getting shrunk down to basically all mains and repaints.  As cool as Embo was, I would be willing to bet many kids didn't care about him.

Either way, I'm sorry for the adult fans of the CW line...  Collecting will go on though, and I think they'll all find a new way to collect.  I remember people mad that the animated 2D figures were canned too.  Life went on, and the realistic ones we got, are almost all outstanding figures.

(BTW, Droids and Ewoks figures - both "vintage" lines made in the source-accurate animated style)

Not an example I think I'd have made. 

[Scockery]

Realistic fans owe the Clone Wars line some thanks. I think the CW got a lot of stuff made that might not have been otherwise: the Fighter Tank, Swamp Speeder, Corporate Alliance Droid tank, Droid Gunship, V-19 Torrent, AT-TE, Turbo Tank...and show only stuff, obviously. They might have made the smaller ROTS vehicles at some point, but doubtful they'd have made the EU V-19 or fighter tank (never appeared in the toon) without a more kid aimed line out there. And the big ticket items? Their releases opened the door for the new AT-AT.

I was slow to warm to the line, the first super-extra (at the time) articulated Clone trooper got me interested. Once they had more articulation for all characters, I was interested. My interest faded with reduced articulation and hard to find releases and no new characters. Honestly the same would happen to some degree with realistic if all those things happened.