Why Hasbro Star Wars Should Call it Quits!

[misterdroid]

I am biting my tongue so hard in an attempt not to say anything that blood is actually pouring out my mouth. But I have to ask, I don't wanna ask, but I feel strongly compelled to ask and I'm gonna hate myself for doing so:

What figure in any of those Battle Packs (that aren't exclusive to the Battle Pack itself) could you not find at retail?

I don't know where you live, but where I am at very, very few star wars figs hang on the pegs long. Generally we get maybe 3 to 5 out of every series hanging around. (right now it seems to be plain white clones, death star troopers and biker scouts) Yes the wookie set is crap. As have been a few. He mostly likes to pick up the sets with different deco troopers which vanish as if by magic (as singles) in my area. ( he recently bought a set of the clones in the battle back featuring the shark mouth dropship... I don't recall it's name because I just don't care that much) Maybe you are lucky to live in an area where people pass on this stuff. And no, we don't wait at the store at 8 am to get them. We go after he gets out of school like regular folk. Hell, he's been trying to collect the mcquarrie figs since they launched and has found exactly 2 at retail (not that that has anything to do with the battlepacks) I feel the sw stuff at this point is for kids... and don't get me wrong, even for a 10 year old he's got complaints (example, clones with the super poseable upper body but with the crappy one piece legs) about the battle packs. My point was this- for a kid, without an unlimited collecting budget, the battle packs are not so bad. It is an easy way to bulk out your army. IF YOU, AS A COLLECTOR, HATE THEM DO NOT BUY THEM. If the merchandise is weighted to far in favor of collectors, eventually this will make a difference. If it is steered towards kids, expect to see the "Scuba Han Solo vs the Yak face gang" in your store soon.
I am not disagreeing with any of your points, so relax already. I could care less about whether or not hasbro ever makes another SW fig. My kid would be bummed and then move on to something else. (and frankly, he likes the SW lego better) I have seen plenty of favorite toy lines go down in his short time on earth (and in toy aisles) And any property with a rabid fanbase is going to face criticism. I only wanted to point out the feeling of an everyday, average consumer of a specific product, not the opinion of a collector, dealer or any other specialty market crap. I am just a guy who occasionally tries to help his kid find what he is looking for in the toy dept of a major retailer, is that so tongue bitingly bad?. The fact that this crap is eight pages deep points out what an absolute farce collecting modern toys is. The manufucturers use the retailers, the retailers use the dealers, the dealers use the the collectors and in the end you have a box of crap you will be lucky to get retail for in 5 years. As long as people keep the product moving, the product keep being produce. So... again... vote with your wallet.

[huedell]

"Scuba Han Solo vs the Yak Face Gang" Battle Pack

Awesome.

[Captain]

I'm sure Hasbro is making a nice buck on all this Star Wars stuff, but there is another probable reason they are pushing out all this new stuff...canon or not...popular or not. Territory---Shelf space. Having prescence in a retail environment is difficult enough....losing it and trying to regain it later even more so. With the live action and clone wars stuff coming up, Hasbro knows interest in Star Wars will go up (beyond the regular fanboy contingent). They already have a fair size footprint in most toy departments with their existing stuff, and to keep it, they will put out anything...Star Wars Depends undergarments even, if necessary. Current sales arent key in respect to what the marketing department thinks they will be with media support (the new stuff coming up). This is a tactical decision as much as a moneymaking one. Some of these items can stink up the place all they want....they are just placeholders. (Although, most of this stuff seems to sell just fine in my neck of the woods anyways....and what doesnt hits clear out when the new stuff hits the pegs.)

Hasbro is probably the King when it comes to this strategy. Granted you must be a big time manufacturer to even have the clout and ability to do this! They have pulled it with GI Joe for years. When one incarnation starts to crumble (like the current 8" figures are starting to do) they talk the buyers into buying a ton of the stuff at reduced prices and flood the shelves, holding space for the next big thing in Joe world. Case in point: Wal-Mart Canada bought up a ton of the 8" figures at Christmas time, and had endcaps and regular shelves full of them at a $9.00 clearout price (they retail regularily at almost twice that up here). Sure enough, once the 8" sell down, we get tons of the Greatest American Hero 25th anniversary stuff to refill those spaces......a line which is in a way also a placeholder for the movie toys that are next in the cue.

In fact, I once heard a story that Hasbro had one of their factory affiliates in Hong Kong "knockoff" the GI Joe extreme line as a way of conquering more space. Those knockoffs were done by Chap mei, and grew into a popular enough generic line themselves. If true it shows how crafty some of these companies really are!

[grayhank]

Was not trying to start yet another debate, Misterdroid. I made the tongue comment because I knew no matter what I said, it once again was going to open up yet more dispute. The comment itself was directed at myself, not towards you. It's my fault for not including the smiley face thingy. But I was in fact genuinely curious because in my mind, going through all those Battle Packs in my head, I could not think of anything that was remotely hard to find or rare in it's prior release that scalpers would have snatched up and sold on Ebay. If I made the comment without the "tongue intro" I would have gotten "WHADDYA MEAN THERE"S BEEN LOTS OF THEM, YOU STUPID JERK! Because just saying I can't remember any of them... equates to me saying there aren't any for some reason with other posters here. With me, every sentence has an ulterior motive and hidden meaning rather than me directly saying something and people taking it for how it was intended.


And once again, I never said I hated Battle Packs. Not once. In fact, I bought them all so far (apparently because I'm some kind of sick freak who "must" have everything, snatches the figures from children's hands, hides out in toy stores and pounces on everything the second it's released... and quite possibly sells it on Ebay because I'm 44 year old man.) Did I leave anything out guys? Oh yeah that I have no will power whatsover to NOT buy the things I don't like. And I just can't get enough of the expression "DON'T BUY IT IF YOU DON'T WANT IT" because I get off on wasting money buying items I don't want so I can take them home and yell at them and curse George Lucas and Hasbro like I had no say in the matter.

I did stress from the very beginning that I was growing tired of the constant reissues and lack of interesting product on Hasbro's part. I was even very supportive of some Battle Packs and some reissues way back in Post #49. The Battle Pack picture I posted just touched a nerve with me that that's how this entire thread came about. I'm not telling anybody NOT to buy it. I'm not telling anyone to quit collecting. I'm not telling anyone to continue reading this thread. Alot of what I have said here (from the title of the thread) to Barry Gibb has been sarcasm. The posts that weren't sarcasm have been quite thoughtful, logical and respectful of others posting here (at least I think so).

With that said I also feel that a lot of posts here truly seem to be coming down quite hard on me because I had an opinion about two upcoming products in the Hasbro SW Line. When my words get misinterpreted, taken out of context, assumptions are made, or words put in my mouth that I have never said, yes I will continue to discuss it in a rational manner to clarify what I have said. Obviously I am not alone in my frustrations because so many people have responded and this thread has gone on for eight pages (which seems to have some significant meaning for some reason) Some have made some very exellent points, others just seem to want to make a post just to try to instigate a fight ...with me (but nobody wants me to respond). We're gonna keep at him until we get him to shut up once and for all - is very much how I am taking alot of this.

Forums are meant to be places for conversations with those you have a common interest in. In order to do that it is essential to have a topic to talk about but I can see that conversation is not what's important here. Let's continue to have posts that list our top 5 movies day after day. Not really much of an invigorating conversation there, but I like those too. But sometimes maybe you want to hear what others think about something that you yourself are passionate about. But instead I seem to be getting a lot of what others think about me...not the topic itself.

There actually has been very little talk about the actual pictures I posted. Apparently I'm the only one that has an opinion about them...whether good or bad, at least it's an opinion or a thought or something to discuss.

If I had originally said "Wow, those are the greatest things that Hasbro has put out ever!" "George Lucas is GOD". I still would have had a lot of you coming down on me for liking them. It's truly a no-win situation. Like Politics and Religion...Star Wars should never be discussed.

So this tells me that conversation is not possible in a forum setting. We should all just stick to our Top 10 lists because anything more than that is just asking for confrontation and we really don't want threads where people have to think about something.

I ask any of you Administrators out there who have the ability to lock up this thread, PLEASE DO SO. It is quite apparent that people want it to stop because it's 8 pages long and nobody should have to suffer through that. "WHAT?!? someone has an opinion on a forum...let's get him before he starts talking all serious and intellectually! oops almost forgot the smiley face because you can't get away with saying anything without one:

[huedell]

Forums are meant to be places for conversations with those you have a
common interest in. In order to do that it is essential to have a topic to talk about but I
can see that conversation is not what's important here.

Its the reason that draws ME here in the first place.

I know of which you speak.

I mean I love the "Hi. How ya doin'" part of the boards too---but to me ---
the "debates" are the only tantalizing thing that keeps me coming back
on a regular basis.

Hang in there grayhank!

[cobaltkatdrone]

Hi all

Interesting read.

Well IMO we can officially say that Hasbro has run out of Star Wars stuff to sell when they make a Star Wars Christmas Special Battle Pack and a Star Wars Transformer of Darth Vader that turns into a scorpion from this Japanese NES Star Wars Game.

Later and good luck to every one on there collecting.

CKD

"I have more toys than I need, but not as many as I want."

[Seeker]

Hi all

Interesting read.

Well IMO we can officially say that Hasbro has run out of Star Wars stuff to sell when they make a Star Wars Christmas Special Battle Pack and a Star Wars Transformer of Darth Vader that turns into a scorpion from this Japanese NES Star Wars Game.

Later and good luck to every one on there collecting.

CKD

"I have more toys than I need, but not as many as I want."

[jds1911a1]

I am biting my tongue so hard in an attempt not to say anything that blood is actually pouring out my mouth. But I have to ask, I don't wanna ask, but I feel strongly compelled to ask and I'm gonna hate myself for doing so:

What figure in any of those Battle Packs (that aren't exclusive to the Battle Pack itself) could you not find at retail?

I'm with greyhank here (Shocking I know if you read the rest of the string you's think we would be on opposite sides of any issue)
Hasbro's battle packs have had very few reissue/repacks that were rare by any stretch of the imagination. (i'll give a Mulligan on hoth pack GeN veers since he only came with the POTF2 at-at but he was an AWFUL figure compared to the carded one that was released the next year in TSC). They have a use for Kids IF the characters aren't in the general release line that season and the kid missed it originally 3-5 years earlier (like if you get the battle of geonosis for your kid after they saw EP 2 for the first time now they have jango and the Jedi to play with).
I am a huge fan of the battlepack/multipacks with 3 or more new figs/paint decos and a couple troop builders (but I prefer 5 new figs/paint decos). I really like the "diorama like boxes" But I am also exhausted with having to get more of commonly redone characters (luke, obi wan, jango etc) for 1 item in a battle pack that is unique

Of course as long as package variations are bought then the lesson hasbro learned in the with GIJOE is reinforced WHY spend money on developing new stuff if they buy the same stuff with a new paint job/different box. The lesson is so well learned other toy companies did the same thing. before Kenner was bought out they made like 50 batmen all with the same body mold for the keaton movies. I lost count of batmen for the animated line. Even today Mattel and JLU not only recycles body molds (they just have simple bodies with paint) but also reuse the same character incessantly occasionally changing accessories an putting 2 repeats with the 1 new one.

[ctc]

>I for one am getting tired of every line I say be subject to constant scrutiny and taken out of context from what was intended or actually said on my part.

What are you saying?!?! Are you calling me stupid?!?!?

Seriously though; one of the problems with the internet is that it's a very limited form of communication and a lot of subtleties (like inflection) get lost. So folks will fill in their own (usually subconscious) perceptions... whcih often leads to odd and perhaps incorrect replies.

....but you'd better not be callin' me stupid.... (HEY! There's no emoticon givin' the squinty eye of disapproval! Imagine one here I guess....)

>Just don't read the thread if you don't wanna read about what we are discussing.

Okay. THIS is pretty common on the net; and I can't explain it either.

But getting back to the figure point: yeah; Hasbro is REALLY milking the Star Wars thing. Which I can see doing, 'cos it probably cost them a WHOLE lot and it's one of their main lines. I still look at it like I did when I was a kid: adding new characters is always cool, but you only need so many Vaders and Lukes. (Now with a NEW HAT!) At this point they've probably done every character that ever appeared anywhere in any of the movies. (Except E.T....)

Don C.