I'm gonna wait to say anything about these. I figure they'll most likely be shown at Comic Con and THEN I'll have something to say.
EDIT:
Thought I would elaborate on my non-statement.
First, I've seen a few too many reports of things we'd like to see turn out to be the result of poor reporting. How many times have we been told the Cloud Car was on the way? Or more recently, what about the case of one collecting site that reported Hasbro stated at Toy Fair '05 that there would be a prequel equivalent of the VOTC line? Instances like these can give one cause to be skeptical. The situation is compounded even more since Hasbro has been playing things so close to the vest since about 2001.
There is an upside. The Clones described in these sets are the most signifigant in
REVENGE OF THE SITH, so from that standpoint these particular Clone Troopers make sense.
So what if the report is true? Then we get into the very murky area of how will these Clone Troopers be presented? The fact is that there have been a number of different 3-packs in the Hasbro Star Wars line over the years. Just look at some of them:
-Cinema Scenes - These were in the POTF2 and EPISODE I lines. They depicted a specific scene, and had an accompanying title, much like the titles that rs reported in their article. The packaging on these is also similar to the more current EE exclusive Clone Trooper 4-packs.
-Screen Scenes - The SAGA equivalent of Cinema Scenes but packaged in a more three-dimensional fashion.
-Clone Wars Army Builder Sets - The first incarnation of the deluxe 3-packs that are now shipping in the ROTS Deluxe assortment.
-ROTS Deluxe Clone Trooper 3-Packs - The same product as the Clone Wars 3-packs, just in new paint schemes with new helmets.
-ROTS Evolutions - 3-Packs of well articulated figures.
The next issue is price point. All of these products have shipped at a variety of pricepoints. Once again that's an issue that the rs article was not able to confirm, and as a result we're only left to speculate.
Then figure in the exclusivity factor. Hasbro has come to see that collectors would spend $13.99 for a single, exclusive Clone Trooper in a protective package. Exclusives have ranged in price from $9.99 to $30+ for the EE Clone Trooper 4-pack. Where will these sets fall? Nobody knows outside of Hasbro and Toys R Us.
Now, rs DID editorialize that they THINK these sets may be repaints of the ROTS Deluxe 3-packs. Once again, more speculation and no hard facts.
The whole situation is certainly interesting, but it also has the potential for people to get their wheels spinning in anticipation of a product that we may or may not get. That's one of the reasons why I'm skeptical and I've adopted a wait and see attitude. There are just far too many variables to make any kind of definitive statement on these 3-packs.
