I wrote most of this Q&A before going to San Diego this week, because of schedules and multiple trips - so very little SDCC. Instead, have 3D Movies Stuff, the 6-inch line, and of course let's complain about vehicles as that seems to be our lot. More newness next week!

Also, don't forget to send in your questions for next time. Read on!

1. Whatever happened to the plans to put the original trilogy back in the theaters in 3D?
--Tom

Disney.

Shortly after the announcement that Disney bought Star Wars, StarWars.com made a post saying that the 3D movie plans were shelved, and no new dates were given. It wouldn't stun me if we had a big surprise next year and saw them out again in some capacity - after all, to build up to the new movie you can make a lot of money showing people the movies they actually enjoyed already. But right now? No plans.

 

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2. Penny for your thoughts about the 6" Black Series up to this point? Based on your reviews, it seems that the figures themselves are always coming up short in some aspect that has usually already been handled well in an older 3 3/4" version of the figure (which puzzles me, frankly.) And what do you think about distribution and assortments? Toys R Us is coming out with an exclusive two-pack of the biggest shelf-warmers in my area: Han and Greedo. Meanwhile, Boba Fett is still scarce (although the Walgreens exclusive Boba Fett might actually satisfy some people.)
--Luis

It's a mixed bag, but so is almost everything lately - no matter who you ask, someone will have a problem about something. I have nothing to say about distribution and assortments, because - as you may have seen - I am kind of sick about those topics.

Collector expectations rise with price, and on any mass-produced item there are going to be quibbles. Bigger figures means you can see things more easily, and minor problems are big quickly. A 3 3/4-inch figure with the wrong eye color may not be something you ever notice - but it stands out pretty quickly at 6-inches, particularly when you have a line where authenticity and adult collectors are your driving forces.

I think it's good overall - we'll probably see the original Boba Fett again a few times, because that's easy money. Greedo and Han Solo coming back as a 2-pack, well, OK, that's just hard to comprehend. I'd wager the concept was dreamt up before the figures came out.

The line is small, which is the best thing right now because any bugs can be worked out before it ramps up. Hopefully Hasbro will face stricter internal (and external) approvals so thing like Greedo or Han eyes can be addressed earlier, but figures like Bespin Luke are, all things considered, pretty good. Figures like R2-D2 are pretty small. Figures like the Stormtrooper and Boba Fett are quite good, though, so I don't know what you want to hear here - no line is perfect, and Star Wars in any size has been notorious for its errors over the years. (See: Walrus Man, Blue Snaggletooth, Hrcheck Kal Fas, "green" AOTC Clone Troopers.) If you're going to collect this line, you need to expect some weirdness - from where I sit it's easier to recognize that Han's eye color is wrong and accept it than it is to stew, so I'd say overall the 6-inch line is on the happy side of acceptable if you enjoy 6-inch figures. With thinks like the Speeder Bike, Darth Vader, and Chewbacca on the horizon I'm going to be a little less chipper when things go bad, but right now the slow drip release schedule certainly makes it easier to be forgiving.

3.The 2010 (BMF) Big Millennium Falcon is an amazing toy, but it's improper proportions were a disappointment. Had it been 40 inches long, It could have been much more accurate and blew fan's minds. I knew we'd never see a true to scale Falcon, but it and the BMF AT-AT have the same problems as the vintage vehicles: The proportions are wrong. I did not want or buy vintage ships as a kid for this reason. I never expected exact scale, just make it look right.

The modern land speeder, x-wing and tie fighter all look great. The BMF Falcon's oversized cockpit, landing gear boxes (like the BMF AT-AT's head) were said to be due to Hasbro wanting to add "play value. I seem to recall you stating the BMF would be the last Falcon we would ever see, yet Hasbro is soon releasing a much more accurate, properly proportioned, but slightly smaller Millennium Falcon with absolutely NO play value. I think adult collectors will love this as a display piece and something to repaint, but I guarantee that's kids and parents will be very disappointed to find when the open the box that it is not compatible with figures.

So, to my question, or proposal to Hasbro, why not a make a large Falcon that is accurate, has the correct proportions, an interior and play features? And again, how about a new scaled down movie accurate head for the BMF AT- AT.
--PJS

You didn't want toy ships as a kid because the proportions were off? I take it your house was an endless parade of fun when people came over to play.

If I ever said "this is the last version of something ever" (as in my opinion, not what someone may have relayed to me) that was absolutely an error on my part. As long as Hasbro as the license, we've seen they will tweak molds and try again repeatedly. It may be the best version we get - but we could also still be here in 20 years, and a new one could be made, and we'd all be sad old men. And woman, presumably.

When it comes to the world of merchandise, sometimes you have to make changes to get something produced. LEGO had a $500 Millennium Falcon scaled to its figures, but it was the most expensive set of all time and could make use of much of their existing tooling. It also touches on something I brought up a few weeks ago, in the sense that it's no longer the 1970s where 1 toy by 1 company is the go-to product for people to buy. We're older now - we have different hopes and dreams, but the needs of toy companies are pretty much the same. They want to offer a great toy that sells, but some things trump other things. Hasbro could easily make a properly proportioned Millennium Falcon or AT-AT, but is it worth sacrificing figure compatibility? (Let's assume the Falcon seats can hold the figures easily... which they can't, thanks for nothing holsters and bandoliers.) Making a vehicle that can't seat its two owners is a cardinal sin, and Kenner (and Hasbro) made this mistake with the 1995 and 2004 versions. From where I sit, figure compatibility is king - if I can't put action figures in a vehicle, it's a bad vehicle.

The AT-AT's head is a little different because they built a control room in there which I quite liked. I admit it's a larger head, but I don't know if I'd have been satisfied with a smaller head that could only seat 1 or 2 figures. I also don't think I'd be happy with a $250 AT-AT with larger legs and bodies just to keep the proportions going - toys have different needs from other collectibles, which is why Kenner also had die-cast vehicles, or other companies made model kits and thousand dollar prop replicas.

Trying to guess what collectors want - as in, what they say they want, versus what they buy - is a tough thing to really call. I know what I like. I know what my readers tell me they want and like. And sometimes I see sales reports which do not in any way correspond with this data. The idea of a $45 X-Wing with no figure compatibility and a $60 Falcon designed similarly is a bit of a head-scratcher - I get it, but (like you, I assume) I see these as wonderful display pieces and awfully uninteresting toys. Since my 2008 Falcon sees little use since figures can't fit in it well, I don't really need another saucer-shaped dust-collector in my home. I don't think most adult toy collectors are customizers - they're out there, and they're vocal, but they're a minority. Buying a $60 toy to customize is certainly not the intended purpose, and I assume that the packaging should illustrate what this toy will be - but we'll see. After all, all we get from where we sit is anecdotal evidence. I doubt even Hasbro has a strong line on the complaints because it's not like the Walmarts are going to be tallying reasons for returns to give them a report. It's a big toy... and while expectations for boxed, $50+ toys call for figure compatibility this is going to be new and different.

Walmart's impatience with exclusives is the stuff of legend, so the history books would have me think it's a foregone conclusion that they will be in a hurry to get rid of this item even if it's a big hit. But that's just a guess - the price point is high, but maybe the margins are so good Walmart will give it a lot of love. Few toy lines make vehicles of any kind, and I can't name many that achieved success with "model" vehicles without figure compatibility.

From where we sit right now, the real question is this: in a year with Spider-Man, Captain America, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, and many other properties, will parents, gift-givers, and kids care about Star Wars? Is Rebels DOA? Will kids ask for this stuff? We really had better hope so - because they didn't ask for G.I. Joe and look at that now.

 

4. What's your opinion of the [new Rebels] Imperial Troop Transport? It seems to be playing the nostalgia note, but seems kind of small and it doesn't seem like the troopers will stay in it for long, given the short slots for them. And NO WHEELS on the bottom? That's a shame. I want to like the AT-DP, but the screw holes on one side kind of ruin it for me, and I'm not a fan of the firing cannon on the "chin." I also don't care for the design of the pilot figure, so I'll likely be skipping this one.
--Greg

With rising prices on virtually all toys and the Fighter Tank redesign also not having wheels, I can't say I'm surprised. The Imperial Troop Transport remake of the Kenner original seems like a good idea to me - but anything Kenner they want to update, I'd probably buy. As a toy, it looks fun - lots of seating, weapon storage, and other things that I love in my ships. As a kid I dealt more with carpets than tables, so wheels were of little real value to me - and Star Wars wheels in-universe are pretty scarce. I can't speak to the figure slots yet myself, but that's a real concern - and for all I know, a reason they left off the wheels in the first place.

I'm still more or less OK with what I've seen for vehicles - I won't have a real problem unless the AT-DP can't stay standing (like Kmart's AT-ST), or the pilot can't stay seated inside. Hasbro very rarely lets me down in vehicles, so I have no reason to not give them the benefit of the doubt on this new grouping so far. Screw holes or no, well, that's life. I'll live.

 

5. First, in response to your Q&A column from last week, I disagree with you on your prediction that figure interactivity is a "fad", but I guess time will tell. I think interactivity will evolve and continue to become more important. My kids love Skylanders and don't care one iota about SW figures. In fact, they think that existence in the 1970s is a strike against anything that exists today. For example, Weird Al's recent "8 videos in 8 days" release. When I told them that my younger brother had the first Weird Al album on lp, they said, "You had Weird Al, when you were kids?" They subsequently lost interest in the "Tacky" video, a spoof on a pop song that they knew through the "Despicable Me" movies.
--DK

Here's the thing about interactivity: time has told. CommTech? Dead. Talking Simpsons? Dead - NECA's semi-revival of it dropped the feature, too. MOTU 2002's interactive features are largely forgotten and were removed from later releases of that Castle Grayskull. Captain Power and WebDiver and Hasbro's Millennium Falcon PC game from 1998? Nope! Dead.

It doesn't mean you won't see more of them, but history says this is a short-lived thing. Success can be defined on a sliding scale, as The Simpsons did indeed last several years and many figures with this technology intact - however, most toy lines do not have an inexhaustible supply of fan goodwill. I have sat in on a lot of toy presentations and meetings, and this is the kind of thing toy companies keep trying - it's possible Nintendo, Activision, and/or Disney Interactive will nail it for the long-term but generally speaking these things are going to be short-lived. I'm sure if we had the same conversation about POGs in the 1990s or trading cards as the then-standard action figure pack-in we would both have problems imagining a future without them, yet here we are. The only thing permanent about an action figure is the figure itself.

The ubiquity of iOS and Android technology could lead to some sort of permanent interactivity, but Hot Wheels had QR codes you could scan and play as the car on a game. Did anyone care? Not really. They're going to keep trying this stuff until something really works - but at one point Japan had something called Bar Code Battler where kids scanned bar codes to get in-game stats, and that was a big deal too. There will always be new and exciting innovations and at some point I'm sure we'll see more articulation in Skylanders, but also remember all kids are different. As a kid I was very interested in old things - music, video games (which weren't so old then, really), and that's normal. The very notion that our offspring should like what we like is unnatural and bizarre, as children of the 1980s were given a largely fresh slate of boy action toys with precious few (outside DC and Marvel) having been carried over from previous generations. After all, to many kids, nothing is less cool than your parents. I didn't know my dad met the guys from the MC5 when I was a kid, but I discovered them later and they were great. It was a huge surprise that he saw Iggy and the MC5 when he was younger, and odds are I wouldn't have been quite so in love with those bands if he said "hey, these are cool." (The again he did introduced me to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy so who knows.)

Having said that, kids do like Star Wars toys. They're called LEGO. They do very well with kids, and are not commonly widely collected MISB like our Hasbro offerings. If and when LEGO decides it's time to incorporate toy interactivity in its video game line, that will likely be the biggest deal ever. At least for a while. Hasbro is currently more focused on core toy, and we have no idea what's going on for Episode VII yet - I would be stunned if it launched sans gimmick. With Episode I we saw "talking" figures. With Episode II we got magnets and, for the first time, button-activated action features. With Episode III we got Super Powers-style leg-squeeze action features - not exactly a quantum leap forward. To really get the kids - and parents - the figures of 2015 2016 will need to do something, sure. But will it last? No. One, two years tops. Keep in mind that this sort of thing costs money, and usually requires an added hardware investment in the form of playsets or electronics. Unless it's built in to everybody's smartphone - and even if it is, people generally stop caring and companies stop supporting them quickly - the most important thing is that Hasbro find a way to get figures in to kid's hands again.

 

FIN

As much as I hate to be the bearer of good news, we're still doing well as fans. No, really! Look at other collectible toy-based franchises right now. Transformers is deservedly front and center in pop culture with big movies. The international box office draw brings us what America really wants: dinosaurs, and the host of "Doing Lines with Mark." Marvel has been teetering and tottering, with a (frankly) marvelous line for the first Thor movie being throttled back to a single wave, and the latest Spider-Man flick sorta kinda being totally boring as toys go.

Of course, look at other toy brands - G.I. Joe is basically dead. As a shared exclusive combined with very expensive low-run fan club figures, the average person probably has no idea it's still doing anything. The pretty swell Masters of the Universe Classics has an end date, and its unofficial fan convention Power-Con just announced that the New York-based show doesn't have enough tickets sold to warrant putting the show on - despite doing OK previously in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, we just got to see a peek at what's new in San Diego - as I write this, I haven't necessarily seen it yet - and we have seen stuff from the new movie. And it's good so far. We've got a new TV show due in a few months, and from what I've seen - looking at it purely as a merchandise engine - I think we're in for a treat. When you get right down to it, the toys for Episode I were kind of a drag - stiff figures, mostly dull vehicles (minus the Trade Federation stuff and the Naboo Fighter), and a launch wave of figures that was - let's be honest - a little weak. This time around we're getting mostly new figures plus a few popular carry-forwards, and it seems to be a rather conservative launch. I'm OK with that. I don't need repacks of repacks and gift sets and expensive $15 single troopers at a convention. Between Hera and Sabine, we've basically doubled the amount of female faces of reasonable screen time of the entire two trilogies in one fell swoop.

While Transformers fans have joked that the franchise could fall over in a stiff breeze, Star Wars has some decent roots thanks to the multi-generational interest and seeming unending goodwill. I was here in 1999 and let me tell you, the backlash made me think that the toy line could be cut back to movie year only - and that didn't happen. We are fortunate that there are enough people like you and me and the other fan sites whipping up interest and generally being interested in some of the newness, and it's entirely possible that Rebels will offer us the most newness at once, ever. We've never had a major launch since the prequels where the property was mostly new stuff - Episode I gave us Padme and Qui-Gon and Battle Droids and Maul, sure, but as of that May in 1999 we already had a Mace Windu and an older Obi-Wan. A real fresh start is exceedingly rare, and I doubt we'll even get one with Episode VII. If that movie doesn't kick off with new Han, C-3PO, Chewbacca, Luke, and Leia figures I will be stunned.

After a slow couple of years, it's an interesting time to be a fan. Love it or hate it, the size of the saga is poised to double in the next six years and it wouldn't stun me if things got a lot bigger than that. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, every movie series wanted to be a trilogy - now, we're seeing full-on megafranchises bloom. With a new movie every year and potentially multiple TV shows combined with yet another generation of kids likely rediscovering the previous films, it's certainly a good time to clean out those closets and really consider what's worth keeping around, and what's worth keeping in a secret love nest paid storage unit while its secondary market value continues to decline.

Also stunning: the Walmart nearest to my house still has dusty, worn wave 1 2012 Vintage Collection figures and little else Star Wars. We've seen this happen after the 2008 launch (figures hung around until 2010), the 2010 launch (again, they hung out well into 2012), and I assume it's likely to happen again this time. At some point in the last decade it seems retailers lost the balls to just axe a line and mark it down and call it a day - this is unfortunate as these items are simply never going to sell at full price and new items just aren't showing up. I don't know who is to blame - I assume the local stores not telling management "hey, this crap has been here since 2012, can we mark it down?" - but right now the thing I would absolutely love to see the most is all of that remaining stock flushed down the clearance hole so we can stop having to dwell on the lesser years of this generally entertaining hobby.

--Adam Pawlus

Got questions? Email me with Q&A in the subject line now! I'll answer your questions as soon as time (or facts) permit.