Fan Choice's On Repacks

[SilverZ]

Sorry if this was brought up earlier, but why are they even discussing repacks like this without first correcting the situation with Kitik Keed'Kak?  

[Snively Bandar]

Sorry I'm a little late to the Hasbro bashing party here, but I wanted to express my extreme dismay with Hasbro's latest gaffe - the Fan Choice poll #6.  They should be embarrassed for passing a Fan Choice off as this sham.  What a load of crap!  

If Hasbro's finally figured out that NONE of these figures were easily attainable at retail for many collectors, then stop screwing around and just put them ALL back out!  How hard is that?  I just don't get it.  They're recarding and rereleasing all this other crap over and over, what with previous standard releases, HOF, Burger King glasses, OTC, etc., etc.  Yet through it all, they STILL won't rerelease any of the harder to find figures.  It's as if they're afraid to make a dent in the secondary market prices on these, as if it even mattered to them!  

These fan's choice polls should be for new products.  That's what gets the fans and collectors excited.  As it is, Hasbro's just getting bashed left and right for this goof, so hopefully they're learning a valuable lesson, and will surprise us real SOON with fan choice poll #7, to make up for this atrocity (kind of like when they showed the Tatooine Saga Luke shortly after disappointing a lot of fans with the TRD version).

Come on Hasbro, you can do it!  You've proven to be more collector friendly now, so get back to that strategy and forget this nonsense!

[JediMAC]

So this was certainly encouraging news out of Hasbro's Q & A today...

Question: Why isn’t there a new sculpt option in the latest Fans' Choice Poll?

Answer: First, we should clarify a slight error in our original posting of this poll.  This is not Fans' Choice #6, and there will be no burst on the package when it is released.  An error was made in the editing process, and the sixth option was inadvertently removed instead of "#6".  That was quickly corrected, and we apologize if anyone who had already voted would have chosen differently.

They've somewhat restored my faith in them again with this announcement.  Wonder if they really goofed, or if they actually just backtracked after all the negative publicity and reactions to their new Fan Choice Poll...

Either way, I'm glad they've revised it...  

[Force Guy]

"An error was made in the editing process." - Hasbro

Riiiiiiight....

[Jesse James]

I'm gonna wager it's backpeddling at this point.

Otherwise that's a pretty stupid, and large error.

I think they saw the 99% negative feedback about it and rethought the concept.  I do agree that they wouldn't get a figure out in a years time if they held a poll for one, but who cares?  Hold a poll and make it a 1.5 years from now then, or whatever...

I don't mind the idea of asking us what to repack.  By all means, do so in an email format like their other market research and things, but don't pi$$ a Fan's Choice Poll away on reissues.  

And for god's sake, I wish people would stop with the "Hasbro doesn't owe us anything" BS I've read at some forums...  You'd think they worked for the damn company.  

Hasbro DOES owe a lot to its consumers.  That's business.  They SHOULD be kissing our rears, because it's us who makes this line profitable for them.  That's business.  

You utter words like that over at this same thread in Scum though, and you'll have umpteen people up your butt claiming you're "whining" too much.

[SilverZ]

Not a tough wager, they're backpeddling faster than watching a Tour De France tape on rewind. As hard as I try not to, I have to harp on another Hasbro Q&A point:

First, we should clarify a slight error in our original posting of this poll.  This is not Fans' Choice #6, and there will be no burst on the package when it is released.

So what was the poll you were actually running, if not a "Fan's Choice" poll? Because, one paragraph down, it sounds like that's exactly what it was always planned to be.

Since it takes approximately 12 months to create a new figure and the DVD was not announced until Toy Fair, we didn’t have enough time to run a Fans’ Choice poll for the OTC line with all new figure options.

So you slapped together a bogus Fan's Choice 6 ATF and hoped it would do, and caught **** for it. And Hasbro didn't know anything about an OT push in 2004.   You knocked out the V/OTC concept, packaging, and figures the night before the show, right?

Unless they didn't consciously run a poll in 2003 when they should have, in fear of spoiling the OT DVD announcement in Winter '04, that's a weak justification for this week's F-up and a pretty weak lie overall.

I realize I'm being really harsh over something in the end completely harmless and probably was put forward with good intentions to begin with, but man, it just was handled so poorly. In the end I guess they put things straight, but it sure hasn't built a lot of confidence in them. If I was working with a marketing group that launched a specific message, put our initiative in the fan base to support it, screwed it up, then backpeddled out of it, I'd be furious.

[JediMAC]

My take on their spin Jared, is that it's not "Fan Choice #6", which would constitute an ALL NEW figure, like the previous 5.  This isn't that exciting type of Fan Choice Poll, in the series of the rest.

This is just a "fan choice poll".  Not the big time official type, but rather just Hasbro's way of trying to say, "hey - this isn't that big a deal really, but we'd love to get your input.  What do you collectors think about this topic?  Who should we re-release?"

As long as they stick with the Official Fan Choice (new figure) Polls, they can do as many of these little "sub-polls" about lesser issues or ideas.  Fine by me.  Just don't try to pass it off as the "real thing", like they tried to and got burned on.  Backpedaling?  Yeah, most likely...  But I'm still all for offering up our input on whatever's on their mind.  Glad to do it, as long as they still give us NEW figure polls to vote on too!  

[SilverZ]

I'm certainly not knocking the attempt to open the doors to collector participation. I guess what it is that I find suspicious, or at least unproductive, about this poll (Fans' Choice or Fan Survey) is that they're asking questions they already know answers to. They realize that all of those figures, including the DST and even Scanning Crew Guy, didn't get proper distribution and should be corrected. What offering a poll does, is create a backdoor for them to say they saw no demand for Figure X after Poll A, and therefore the collectors have spoken, and not ship a figure that, at some point, if not NOW, should be reshipped.

I know there's a lot to argue against this thought, but I'm of the mindset that they should just pick one of the figures, ship it, and let us guess when the next rerelease will happen, and who it will be.

[Darby]

I also find the current atmosphere at some other forums regarding this a little over the top.  I can't say I'm upset about the 'mistake' but what irks me is that it shows Hasbro still has yet to figure out the fan base.  

They know we all want those figures repacked, and if we have them already, we want them for our fellow collectors.  They know we want new, obscure figs and more Fan's Choice polls.  They know we want X, Y, and Z, and yet they do things like this that tank SO BAD they had to know it would suck from the get go.  

We're getting great figures.  Great selection, good value, this has been a good year so far.  Don't get me wrong.  It just makes you wonder.  How long have they been doing this now?  Nine years?  Give me a break.

[Ben]

"An error was made in the editing process." - Hasbro

Riiiiiiight....

That 'editing process' line is about as dumb as the 'wardrobe malfunction' line. How stupid do they think we are?

Anyway, I just want the damn figures. I want the V/OTC, I want the scanning crew trooper, and I don't want repacks. I don't want HOF reissues or stupid exclusives packed with kitchenware. I want a TIE with properly scaled wings. And, I'd like to find new waves at retail, because I'm now two waves behind. Take it as ye will, Hasbro.

[Jesse James]

For those of us who DON'T agree that it's backpeddling (not that there's many of you hear so I'm really talking to myself on this one), the infamous MisterPL made mention at GalacticHunter that Hasbro knew as early as all other LFL Licensees (And I'd only thought of this after he pointed it out) back in November that they were releasing the trilogy on DVD.

So Hasbro's whole "Well this was a surprise to us" line is raw sewage.  

Lying's part of business, as sad as that is to say.  But as the consumers we have a right to be disheartened with a company that lies to us when we find out they do.  THey've lied about the plastics they use, and how low quality it is at times.  They've lied about other things.  It's just the way of things in business, but I guess I just get irritated at those who would blindly let this slip past without calling Hasbro on it.  Again, there's few here (if any) that I think would disagree with me, but Scum in particular has an army of people willing to jump right up and tell you to stop complaining.

If anything it's the complaining that GOT this response from Hasbro.  BS or not, it forced action on their part.  I for one say good for those of you who spoke your mind honestly about this rather than sitting there and "feeling lucky you got anything" like some would have you do.

Now if only we could get some word from them (Honest word) that the Vintage OTC figures will be released on basic cards for basic prices at some point in a "Hall of Fame" style re-release.  Even if it's after E3's onslaught.  I don't care.  I just wanna be able to BUY these things as often as I want.  They're too great NOT to pimp to the masses.  Hell, I'm buying them on the Vintage cards too.  I just want more than 2 sets.

[SilverZ]

Yeah, I've gone back to lurking at RS for a long long time now since discussion just never has any contrasting opinions anymore. I'm frankly suprised that so many people have taken a "take it the way the serve it and like it" attitude there. Maybe it has to do with the younger age range of posters there, I dunno.

Now if only we could get some word from them (Honest word) that the Vintage OTC figures will be released on basic cards for basic prices at some point in a "Hall of Fame" style re-release.  Even if it's after E3's onslaught.  I don't care.  I just wanna be able to BUY these things as often as I want.  They're too great NOT to pimp to the masses.  Hell, I'm buying them on the Vintage cards too.  I just want more than 2 sets.

I'd like that too, but honestly, I don't expect them to address this until after the 3rd wave of V/OTC hits the streets. I'll hold off on my attack of thier product planning and distribution until it actually has a chance to sell, and once I've held the figures in my hand. Maybe they're actually worth (in the figure alone) more than the $4.99 price. I think if they announced that these would be available later at a reduced pricepoint, a lot of sales would be lost. So on this point with them I'll not criticise.

I'm frankly quite interested to see if the idea of $10.00 figs flies at retail, because I'd like to see a higher-end 3-3/4" line continue in some form in years to come. Maybe the 2nd go-round could be a more realistic $7.99 or something. A price where they have flexibility to design "Ultimate" versions with lots of articulation and better parts than they're forced to use to keep costs down.

Again, I completely agree that these are in danger of being too rare, and more than likely too expensive, for army building purposes and mass-consumption. But, it's an interesting market test and might yield some good things for the line. If that Stormtrooper is as jawdropping as the Vader that showed this morning, there's going to be HUGE demand that's going to need to be addressed somehow.

[Scott]

Imperial Scanning Crew Trooper : 28%

Han Solo in Stormtrooper Disguise 23%

Admiral Motti : 17%

R2-D2 with holographic Princess Leia: 14%

Ree-Yees : 12%

Death Star Trooper : 6%

 

[Brian]

Not that it matters a whole lot really, but I guess I am kind of surprised that the Scanning Trooper is winning.  I personally don't have one either, but from the pictures I have seen of it online, it is definitely not in the category of today's sculpting/articulation, etc.  I mean, of course, I don't have to buy it if it wins...but I would just as soon have seen one of the other figures win this poll.  Especially since they are going to be placed on the nifty OTC packaging.  The Han Solo looks like the only one within striking distance, and I would much rather see a carded Stormtrooper Han for once, even though the figure isn't perfect.  It would still be neat to see I think.

[Scott]

I don't care who wins really...kudos to the Scanning Crew supporters I guess