Clone Wars Wave 30 (2013 Wave 1)

[Jesse James]

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.

Think about that a minute though...  besides the articulation, that's sort of happened.

Fan-interest in 3.75" is at an all-time low I think too though...  It's hurting all over.

I don't know on some of those vehicles.  "Big" vehicles kicked off with the Falcon and At-TE...  The show may or may not have helped one of those.  I think that's a matter of some debate.  Some of your vehicle choices, again I think that's of some debate...  I think the Swamp Speeder would've happened, and so on.  The V-19 I don't think would've necessarilly been looked at thoroughly without the toon though.  I think they needed a small affordable Clone Fighter and that fit the bill at the time.  I could go either way there I think.  Droid Gunship, I don't know...  I think the tank droid would've happened.

The Republic Fighter tank is a tough call.  It's from a video game actually, and had nothing to do with the toon...  Again was it that they needed a Clone tank?  or did they just want something new that they hoped everyone would appreciate?  I don't know there.

I DO think the giant tri-droid might not have happened without the whole Cristophsis pimping of it though and it's to this day a glorious piece of armor.

I think a lot of the Class I stuff though, no way it'd be out without Clone Wars for inspiration more than realistic stuff.  And the nice new AT-RT I think wouldn't exist either.  Far superior, to me, than the battery operated ones which I actually kinda liked.

I agree on the Turbo Tank, but then again I thought it sucked too at the time.   I think the big ships kind of needed Clone wars, but then again nobody supports the big ships either.  I rarely see people pay full price including the MTT this year, the shuttle last year for sure, the AT-AT, etc.  Maybe thanks should go to kids instead then.

What's funny in all this is often times people should just thank kids because kids got them some of this goofier junk.  Kids who buy the Ani's/Obi's...  Hate the business model but the rehashed recarded junk funds the obscurity.  Hasbro's laid that out plain over the years.

[McMetal]

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.

I appreciate what you are trying to say, and I don't really want to seem argumentative but I think this whole CW is in its death throes (sic) thing is sort of a manufactured perception. If the line's life was tied to the cartoon why did they decide to put it on life support when the show had 3 seasons left to run? With some of the most compelling character designs out there to draw from?

I tend to have a different take about the trajectory of the line overall too, I thought it started as a very ho-hum affair but when they started adding increased articulation and getting into the more obscure character choices it really took off, in terms of quality. I can't agree about the quality of the show being in steady decline either, it has always been a hit or miss affair, nothing in the past 2 seasons has been as bad as those Senate debate/poison drink episodes. And the stuff they've done the past 3 weeks has been insanely awesome, IMHO.

As far as moving on, I'm guess I'm not really looking for the next thing to waste money on, I collected this line because I loved it. I really could care less about the 6" line or Angry Birds, or whatever else it is I am supposed to be spending money on now. I think Hasbro just assumes the $$$ will move in a different direction, but they're never going to get my money back and they're never going to recapture that kid market like they had it. Not until the next movie anyway.

ps - my point about the Droids/Ewoks thing is just that it is not really accurate to say that the action figure line has always been realistic style...it would be more accurate IMO to say that the action figures have always been released in a source accurate style, and that 90% of the source material historically has been live action.

[Jesse James]

I think you could look at the show's ratings though, and correlate that to the line's decline...  I thought out of the gate they were good.  The first two years or so...  But as the show's viewership has dropped off, Hasbro's dropped off with new CW stuff too.  That's the point I was making.

I'm not moving onto the new things either, but I am sticking with realistic 3.75"...  It's always a possible wealth of fun, and if you got into it late there's lots of backlog to look into for cheap.

My point on bringing up Droids/Ewoks was they were the death of the Vintage line more or less despite the media they came from and being on Saturday Mornings which were golden timeslots back at that time, plus kids then having generally higher attention spans than they do now...  Like I said, not the point I would've wanted to have made.

Also, flash forward, figures have actually more rarely than not reflected their media...  Video game figures weren't made to look video gamey, comic figures were largely done realistic except for some decoes, and Tartakovsky toon figures wound up being both, but the realistic style stuck with those while the animated figures sort of bombed.  They had a vocal minority too though and their sculpts were outstanding at the time.

[McMetal]

Yeah, that's a good point about the video game/comic stuff...that occured to me but I see it as a  sort of a nebulous affair where it just mimicked whichever line they ended up getting released in, like Snow Plo and Kul Teska being done in the animated style because they got released under the CW banner.

I was one of that vocal minority that loved the animated Tartakovsky figures, because again, they looked like they actually appeared on the show. Those were basically statues though, and did not offer much play value, admittedly. But yeah, I guess I stuck around after that ended, so who knows...

[Jesse James]

I felt Kul was offered in the realistic style actually...  A less toned down 3-D animation.

[Nicklab]

Well, no CW shown at Toy Fair.  It appears that this wave truly is the last gasp of the animated Clone Wars line.

[McMetal]

No one bothered to confirm yet?

Hey, they didn't show anything for Clone Wars at SDCC either, as I recall. But we still got new stuff after that.

I know, longest of long shots...just hoping they might go out with a surprise multi-pack or mail-away offer or something else as a nice nod to all the collectors who actually did support this line.

Probably too much to expect from that lot though.

[Jayson]

Arnie from Star Wars Action News:

Just found out-Clone Wars animated style figures done for the time being. Some characters in realistic style may be in the low articulated Saga Legends line. Black series ( both scales) to stay focused on films

Or what Jeff posted in the other thread

[Greg]

I had noticed some Clone Wars figures in this picture with the Mission Heroes stuff:



I guess these are just misplaced Wave 1 figures, huh?

[Jayson]

from GH FB page:

Clone Wars figures shown at CVI will not be released in US.

 

[Jeff]

Aw, crap.   

Off to eBay to grab that Rex, 501st Jetpack trooper.   

Thought I saw on Twitter that the R2-D2 from this wave may be part of the Mission Series with C-3PO (see Greg's pic above)?  Or is that a different R2-sculpt?

[Greg]

from GH FB page:

Clone Wars figures shown at CVI will not be released in US.

 

Well that's some **** right there. The wave was solid, and would have been a fine release for now until summer when new stuff hits. Is it safe to assume that the remainder of Movie Heroes will also be international only?

[Rune Haako]

The Battle Droid is being being released in the Mission Series with Rex.

[Jeff]

Is it safe to assume that the remainder of Movie Heroes will also be international only?

Pretty much - also from GH:
"Movie Heroes (2012 and 2013) Sandtrooper, Boba Fett, Anakin, Battle Droid will be European release only"

[McMetal]

Aw, crap.   

Off to eBay to grab that Rex, 501st Jetpack trooper.   

Good luck finding one, there are none out there, even on ebay.UK, where these have already started hitting retail stores.

I would like to know definitively if any of these Wave 1 figures were ever actually produced in US packaging or not. Are these going to suddenly turn up at TJ Maxx six months from now?

edit: screw it, I just ordered a case from Germany, I'm not messing around and missing out on these....better safe than sorry, the way things have been going these could end up being the rarest figures of the line.