Toy Fair 2015

[Jesse James]

But I thought only we were important?  That's what all the collector sites tell us!  Why is my world crumbling?! 

[Nicklab]

WOW.  Well, forget all of this....

I've been a little pessimistic about the state of things.  But I think that general feeling has been going around throughout the hobby.  I almost get the sense that this current dry spell may be an attempt to reset the hobby in some way.  Anyway, my predictions for the Hasbro presentation?

-3.75" Basic Figures (Black Series) - 2 new waves in addition to what's been shown and yet to be released
-3.75" Saga Legends / Rebels - 2 waves (maybe).  The remainder of the figures that were seen on that poster and perhaps one more wave
-3.75" Mission Series - 1 wave (as seen on the poster) and perhaps one more wave.
-6" Black Series - 2 waves in addition to the NYCC wave.  Maybe a bounty hunter (Dengar or Aurra Sing), Jedi (Mace Windu or Qui-Gon), a trooper (Snowtrooper), clone (Phase II 501st), droid (C-3PO)
-3.75" system vehicles - More Starfighter repaints, possibly including Anakin's green & white ROTS Jedi Interceptor.  New wave of Rebels vehicles including TIE Fighter, scaled down X-Wing.  *POSSIBLE* large Ghost vehicle.

Bladebuilders lightsaber. 

Hero Mashers. 

Furbacca. 


THAT is the extent of the Hasbro Star Wars presentation at Toy Fair 2015.  See you at Celebration, huh?

[Jayson]

[P-Siddy]

Furbacca. 

Yeah.  But... he farts. 

[Scockery]

Is it times to starting calling the company Hasbroken again?
Wonder is we are heading to a movie release only line, like GI JOE (some exclusives aside). And after they overproduce for Force Awakens, then they'll REALLY scale thing back. 

[McMetal]

Wow...talk about insult to injury. Might as well pack up the van and head back to Providence. No point in sticking around to pimp 3 lame-ass toys.

[Jeff]

I'm 40% hopeful that we'll get to see some new 3.75" figures from the collector/premium line...  but 60% worried that Toy Fair will be all about the 5POA line and the 6" Black Series. 

Huh. Didn't even expect "Toy Fair will have nothing new for 3.75" or 6" scales" possibility.   

More money for Tamashii Nations Robot Spirits and Acid Rain, I guess! 

[Rob]

Did they even SAY anything about the lack of product being shown?  You know, like explain it as part of a huge upcoming new movie year reveal for the Summer?

[Jesse James]

Quad Eyes Marine is on sale on bbts Jeff.  Just saying.

I'm a lil surprised no figures, period.  In my case more $ for MaK, acid rain, army builders, shelving, and customizable dioramas like on my random Twitter pic backgrounds.

I will be glad to get Moseps wave and a couple 5 POA like gree's phase I duds. 

They're clearly focused elsewhere, other properties.  That's fine by me. 

[Jeff]

Sitting here a day later, I'm still surprised there was nothing new, action figure wise.

I was pretty sure they'd have nothing for the 3.75" Black Series.  With Wave 7 due in March (now looks like it's pushed back to Apr) and Wave 8 due in May/Jun, was it realistic to expect them to show off  a Wave 9 for Jul/Aug/Sep before the Ep7 deluge in Sep/Oct?  Probably not... but everyone sure seemed like they were supposed to do/announce something.  Probably just wishful thinking that Hasbro would squeeze out one more "parking lot" filled fanboy joy wave before Ep7. 

It's disappointing, but ultimately it was probably unrealistic they'd have time for a Wave 9 in 2015 at this point.  Much more likely they will use the later summer (Jul/Aug/Sep) to do a clearance at retail and reset the board for the Ep7 stuff in Sep/Oct.


Rebels though?  I thought the 5POA Rebels/Legends was what we'd see at Toy Fair.  I thought it was something that could continue to run over the summer and exist alongside the movie stuff since the show was it's own thing... but I guess not.  It makes me wonder if Rebels was always planned as a short-gap set of figures or if they'll find a way to sprinkle them things into the Ep7 line somehow.


And I thought they'd have some sort of 6" tease for us, if only to show off a potential SDCC thing...  them not showing off the SDCC exclusive or even hinting about it now has me thinking that SDCC may be the first place you'll be able to buy Force Awakens 6" figures with some sort of sneak preview figure there or something...

[Darby]

I agree, there's not really time in the schedule for anything new. The summer will be focused on Marvel and clearing the decks on SW for the fall. For the best really. I figured any teases TFA wise will come at Celebration and then SDCC will be where we get our first real look at stuff. Some of the comments I've seen around the web... one example that stood out was speculation Hasbro had somehow lost the license. I mean, what? This fall we'll be complaining about all the stuff they want us to buy.

[Matt_Fury]

It wouldn't surprise me if Disney is making Hasbro keep a tight lid on things.  Honestly, I think it will be more like November before we see anything for Episode VII in stores.  Remember it was late April 1999 before Episode I stuff was in stores.  I might be a bit off with timing this time around since this is the first time we're seeing a new movie not premier in May, but it wouldn't surprise me either.  If we go by my timeline, the first we'd see of anything would be SDCC, but there will most likely be some teases at Celebration VII.

It does bother me that there's no Rebels items at Toy Fair.  I figured that there would be a BMF style Ghost hitting shelves at some point and this year would be the time to do it.  Next year will most likely be dedicated to Episode VII figures, ships and the like, so if we're ever to get the Ghost, now would be the best time for it to sell.

[Jeff]

It wouldn't surprise me if Disney is making Hasbro keep a tight lid on things.

At this point, it shouldn't surprise anyone.

Honestly, I think it will be more like November before we see anything for Episode VII in stores. 

Jedi News UK was told by LEGO (at UK Toy Fair) that the street date for The Force Awakens merchandise is September 4th.

So, unless the LEGO guys there were wrong/misinformed, everyone is expecting the Ep7 flood to start to hit retail Labor Day weekend...  not like James and the crew there to put out something like that unless they were pretty sure it was solid.

[McMetal]

Is Jedi Defender going to be part of the gladhanding strokeathon known as "The Pulse Initiative"?

 

[Jesse James]

It wouldn't surprise me if Disney is making Hasbro keep a tight lid on things.

It would've been funny if Hasbro went rogue and just started blabbing all the details of TFA they've been privy to (which are ample...  I can attest to this!), and blew the lid off stuff at Toy Fair.

Honestly, I'm really shocked NONE of the stuff we saw at NYCC was shown at NYTF, but really what else were they EVER going to show at this event?  I saw all these posts around the net about guys thinking they'd see a giant Ghost, or an expansion of Rebels figures (despite them having really much of any character expansion on the show)...  It's really like fans forget there's a movie coming out BEFORE Christmas.

Again I point to the uncharted waters thing...  This is the first major (TCW doesn't count) Star Wars movie release before Christmas, it's the first time a cartoon will have had a little mini-run to lead into the new movie...  It's weird, and as everyone can see now, pretty unpredictable territory.

Kudos to Hasbro keeping things close to the vest, I guess.  They've not always been very successful at that.