HASCON 2017: Hasbro Star Wars Q&A

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We asked the Hasbro Star Wars team about their plans for the Vintage Collection, innovations in the Black Series, updating the original 92, and more.

We spoke with two members of the Hasbro Star Wars team: Joe Ninivaggi, director of marketing, and Steve Evans, design director.

The first wave of the relaunched Vintage Collection.

TFG: Thanks for taking the time with me. Of course, as a collector, the return of the 3 3/4” Vintage Collection is very exciting. What made now the right time to bring it back, and to mass retail?

JN: I think you made it now, to be perfectly honest. I think the fans—the passion and the screaming for it for as long as it’s happened. We were just saying, Steve and I worked really hard to bring this back and we’re fans of it as well and we’re just thrilled. I think it’s the combination of the demand and the desire for it, and also this new generation makes it really interesting, like, to see new movies on vintage cards—Force Awakens, and Rogue One, and Last Jedi. It’s an exciting time to go be able to do that. We have enough of those kind of characters to do, and then, of course, continue the classics that we still have to get out there and that fans are asking for.

TFG: For sure. And it will be continuing along and supplementing the 5POA line, right?

JN: Yes. It’s not replacing that.

SE: Yeah, we should clear that up, because I’m reading some things in the forums where people are saying, “Why are there still five point of articulation? I thought we were going to super articulation.” No, they’re independent of each other.

TFG: Okay. And in terms of number of releases, is it going to be kind of similar to the Walmart Black Series line, like just a few a year?

JN: No, it will be more than that, yeah.

SE: It’s not gonna be like 60 or anything like that, but we’re aiming for more than we had in the Black Series super articulated Walmart [3 3/4” line]. And it relies on people like you to get them and build the collection from 116. And the more momentum we get behind it, the more we can do with it.

Rey (Jakku) – The Vintage Collection

TFG: Okay, great. And for some of the collectors who open them or already have the figures, is there any chance that some of them might be updated? Like Rey without her gloves, maybe, or Kylo with an alternate unmasked head?

SE: I can answer. So, it’s probably not the answer everyone wants, but when we do what we call a pack refresh, the way that we work the process, the item has to stay essentially the same. So, if I even change gloves, that means I would give up doing a new figure. So we’ll keep those as they are.

TFG: I’ll keep the gloves. I know people have asked, but this would be a good opportunity to update the unmade vintage figures, like Imperial Dignitary or Power Droid, maybe? Maybe?

SE: That 92. The 92.

TFG: Yeah, right? There’s just a few left, like the Bespin Guards with the mustache, that sort of thing.

SE: All I’ll say is I’m very aware of what’s to do, and I’m very eager to do them.

TFG: Okay, great news. In addition to the great Rogue One tank, will we be seeing any more repacked or repainted existing vehicles similar to the AT-ST that was just released in Black Series?

JN: Yeah, we’re talking about doing that, definitely.

TFG: Okay. Blue Rogue One X-wings—if that’s not on your to-do list, please! Please!

[laughter]

JN: Yeah!

SE: I like that one. We’ll have to do that guy. What’s the guy’s name? I forget, Blue Leader.

TFG: Blue Leader? General Merrick.

JN: There you go.

SE: Thank you. He’s cool. I like that guy.

TFG: He’s awesome. And the body already exists, just put it in blue now.

SE: There you go.

Captain Rex – The Black Series

TFG: So for the Black Series 6”, a lot of the prequel characters and Clone Wars characters have been great additions, like Qui-Gon and Captain Rex. Will we be seeing more of those prequel and Clone Wars characters going forward?

SE: Yeah. 2019 is 20 years of The Phantom Menace. We’ve been talking about it a lot, actually, at this convention. The love for the prequels has kind of gone through this sort of—hate has kind of gone into, like, love again. There’s a lot of memes out there, and Hayden Christensen had a good response when he made an appearance, I think it was at Celebration. We’re seeing a little bit of love coming back for the prequels, so we’ll share some love on that, I’m sure, going forward.

TFG: Awesome. Speaking of those, Qui-Gon has those separately sculpted eyes, which we’ve also seen on a few Marvel Legends figures. What was the thought process behind that, and might we see more of that going forward?

SE: You might see more of it. It’s not like our standard way of doing things. The story behind that one is that Qui-Gon, Liam Neeson, has a very heavy kind of brow and a good, pronounced nose, and the area for printing on the eyes is actually quite small. So our regular attempt at printing, there was a risk of too many mis-registrations. So we said, “How do we solve that?” And one way was to take the face plate off, print the eyes, and then put the face plate back on. And it’s been used in other areas in other companies. We did it just for that one, and it’ll be case-by-case on our end. We may use it again if we need to.

TFG: Another technique that’s new is that new facial paint technique that we’re seeing with Rex. We know that’s gonna be on figures going forward. Might we see some, like, re-released Han Solo or Luke figures—older, refreshed figures with that [technique] to give them some newness?

JN: We’re certainly not planning to do that, but it’s an interesting idea. I mean, that’s something we could do in the future.

SE: I would have to look in the rulebook about repacks and things like that, but I’m very excited about that going forward. It allows us to better control the registration. For one, it helps us control authenticity, because it looks like—it is them. It helps with registration, which—I really want fans to be able to order online, when they don’t see what they’re choosing. It annoys me when someone gets something from an online retailer, gets it home, and it’s slightly mis-registered, they’re not quite happy. Having this, it kind of maintains that consistency. So I want to get rid of that uncertainty, now that we live in a world where you buy a lot of things online.

TFG: Yeah. I’ve seen a few Reys where her eye’s a little bit down on her cheek and it’s like, use the Force, Rey, come on, pick it up. Originally, The Last Jedi, the film, was supposed to come out in May this year when they announced it, and it got pushed to December, similar to what happened with Force Awakens. Did that make you rethink the approach to anything for this year, or did you get enough lead time that it didn’t really matter?

SE: There was enough lead time.

JN: Yeah.

SE: We didn’t have to pivot or anything like that. That was pretty fluid for us.

TFG: Okay. We’ve been seeing more and more 3 3/4” items being made in Vietnam now as opposed to China. Is that due to the rising costs in China? Is that something we might see more?

JN: It’s just for us, it’s sort of diversification. We’re always looking for different vendors in different regions to diversify how we do our work. There’s nothing to read into with that, it’s just us diversifying our portfolio of vendors and partners.

TFG: Cool. So, Titanium Series is continuing with those die-cast figures from the 40th Anniversary and Force Awakens, but there’s no new titanium vehicles or helmets this round. Are those lines done for now?

JN: They are, yeah. We’re gonna rest those for a bit. We got a lot of vehicles out, and helmets. It felt like we’re at a point where—the demand and the response has been good, hasn’t been amazing. I think we’ve gotten out what we really wanted to, and now we’re gonna rest it and do some other new things. It may come back in the future. We’ll see.

TFG: Same with Micro Machines, I would suppose?

JN: Yeah.

Hera Syndulla – The Black Series

TFG: The other line we haven’t seen much of is Rebels. We got Thrawn and Hera in the Black Series, but there’s no new animated figures this go-round. Are those also done for now, now that the series is reaching its end?

JN: I don’t think we have any new Rebels, yeah.

SE: I don’t think so, no. We can pick and choose, things like that, so. Again, it also depends on what kids are playing with and watching and reacting to. The retailers help us with that in terms of what’s popular. They resonate nicely with collectors as the years go by. I’m really excited about season four, and finding out how it links into Rogue One. Very interested in that from a collector point of view as well, because as things get older, they get more classic. People say, “Oh, Rebels, if it finishes, we’re never gonna see any Rebels characters!” No, that’s not the case at all. It might be a year, two, maybe three years, but it just gets further ingrained in collectors. As you know, collectors don’t give up on the characters. If they like the character, it get deeper and deeper.

TFG: Yeah. Still waiting for some of those Clone Wars characters like Darth Maul with the robot legs.

SE: Right, exactly. There’s thousands of characters, so never say never.

JN: And we’re still looking at potential ways to get that Fenn Rau figure out with better distribution, because we know he was pretty short in the beginning of the year.

TFG: I see he’s coming through Entertainment Earth, which is great. I’ve got my pre-order in.

JN: Yeah, that’s right. Fantastic. Bistan, him too.

TFG: Another new exciting thing is Doctor Aphra coming in the Vintage Collection. Marvel has so many great characters in their new comic series. Would there be a chance we might see more comic packs return?

SE: There’s no plans for comic packs per se right now that we’re looking to announce. Again, it’s sort of a stock answer, like never say never, but I want to focus on the Vintage Collection for a while and get that up and running, get that good and healthy, before we get into comic packs.

JN: But comic book characters will definitely always continue. You may see something coming soon on that.

SE: When someone like Aphra comes through—I know she’s a fan vote, which actually proves that she bubbles up amongst everyone else there. We won’t ignore that just because of the publishing format. We look at everything.

BB-8 2-in-1 Mega Playset

TFG: Okay, great. I want to ask about the playset. I’m very happy to have a new playset this year, the BB-8 [2-in-1 Mega Playset]. So what was the thought process behind turning it into a BB-8 as opposed to a Star Destroyer or Starkiller Base or whatever?

SE: So, playsets are an interesting topic. They’re usually big, with a lot of plastic in it. They usually take up lots of space at retail. And it shouldn’t always be about plastic, it should be about play. So we did some research with kids and parents, which the five points of articulation is tied into that. This whole idea of, “I want my kid to tidy it away when he or she’s not playing with it.” So we thought, well, what if we had a little BB-8 room pal that could make noises down there, but when the kid wants to play they can open it up. As long as we remove BB-8’s shape or personality when it’s openend up into a playset, we feel like, yeah, it’s cool, that’s fun. So it helps with the messaging, it helps with saying what it is. If that’s a way to get playsets back into the world, I’m happy to do that. I’ve said it before, I’m a big proponent for playsets. I think the world is as important as the characters and the ships, and this is a great way of getting that back in there. So keep buying it! I want to make more playsets!

TFG: For sure. It’s also great to see some of the creatures like the rathtar and the wampa come back into the line, because it builds out the whole universe.

SE: Yeah, absolutely. That goes to prove, never say never, like the rathtar. I think someone said, “Oh, you took two years to do that.” And I’m like, “What if we never did it?”

TFG: It took 20 years to get Tarkin back in the day. With the rathtar and the Rogue One tank, there are these things in the movies that it’s great to get out.

SE: Exactly.

TFG: So, I want to ask, for the 40th Anniversary line, most of those [6” vintage carded] characters also came out in the box, but some of them didn’t, like the Jawa, Star Destroyer Commander, R5-D4. Do we know if those are coming back out in the box?

SE: Any of the new figures in the main line, they will be released in the black and red box. R5-D4 will not, and nor will Luke—the shiny exclusive [from Celebration Anaheim] will not come out. But Vader, Jawa, Tusken Raider, and the Death Squad Commander will hit in the black and red box.

TFG: Okay, cool. You haven’t included anything this year in terms of Nerf darts in the vehicles, which I thought was fun, but I know sacrificed some of the accuracy of the aesthetics. How did you guys kind of balance including that playability with the aesthetics?

JN: For our five point articulated range, they are very much kid-targeted. We want to make sure they’re something a collector would want and display, especially when it’s a new vehicle that hasn’t been available. But it’s a great, toyetic property. To be able to fire a dart—a lot of the projectiles you see, they fire a couple feet and then they fall. Those Nerf darts fire clear across the room. So it’s really cool for kids and a great experience. Totally heard the collector community loud and clear. We’re not including it this year. It was something that we did for a bit. We loved the results. We’re happy we did it. But now we’re really on to Force Link as our main sort of innovation for 3 3/4”.

SE: Let me add to that. Rogue One was a war movie, and it’s about firepower. It literally is about firepower, so we thought it was a good story vein to go down. Last Jedi, it’s a different type of movie. It’s a tapestry of backstory and backgrounds and understanding who the characters are. Nerf wouldn’t work for that, whereas Force Link does work for that. You can tell stories with that.

TFG: There’s not a scene in the movie where Rey deflects Nerf guns with her lightsaber?

SE: Not that I know of.

JN: Cutting room floor on that one.

TFG: Wait till December, I guess.

SE: We try and make it appropriate to the movie.

—————

Thanks to Steve Evans and Joe Ninivaggi at Hasbro for taking the time to answer our questions, thanks to Alyssa Hackmann at Litzky Public Relations for arranging the interview, and thanks to the Hascon team for providing tickets!

Be sure to visit our Photo Gallery from the event.

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  1. With TVC, there’s not that many accessories, just include the extra forearms that replace the gloves, the extra head to make a more rounded Kylo Ren, there’s no reason for incompleteness at these prices, those things are crucial for a collector-focused line.

    Oh man, 20 years since The Phantom Menace. I can’t wait to not buy 6″ Jar Jar and Little Ani. Can this brand support a $20 figure on a meme? Because I don’t like pegwarmers, they’re coarse, and rough, and they stay everywhere.

    Might as well repaint some of the older 6″ figures with this new system, it’ll lead to better QC and Hasbro’s already dropped face paint for nude plastic anyway on existing retreads like Luke X-wing.

    Hasbro’s Transformers brand led the charge at moving production to Vietnam, now nearly every product in that line comes from those factories and not China.

    Sorry to hear Titanium Series vehicles are done, that line was a ton of fun, just kinda tapered off and limped in with Rogue One.

    5POA has consistently misdiagnosed demand for Rebels figures, and now it’s dead despite a whole season left to go. Bad call. Strike when the iron’s hot, don’t wait years, your kid audience is not going to wait that long.

    Aw man come ON with this R5-D4 nonsense, your exclusivity should end at 40thAC, not ruin it for the rest of us who didn’t find one.

    No JabbaJohn, don’t go back to the dumb nerf dart vehicles, noooooooo!

    1. I should have asked about accessories in addition to or instead of changes, but I suspect the answer would be the same. I guess that’s why repacks typically tend to come with the same accessories, so they can still count as the same item.

      I wonder if Rebels would have performed better or worse as its own line, instead of packed with 5POA movie characters from the start. Cutting the line as the show is not only ending, but getting better and more interesting with more varied designs, is also exactly what happened with The Clone Wars. Hopefully they at least make the main characters in their season three/four outfits.

      I certainly don’t want NERF to return either, but that A-wing did pack some serious punch…even if it looked goofy. Good to know they listened to the overall reaction on that one.

  2. Thanks for posting, some good stuff there. Sad to hear the micro machines line is on hiatus but glad to hear we're gonna see a lot more TVC figures that in the past few years. Hopefully, they won't ALL be repacks.

  3. I'm curious if moving production from China to Vietnam or elsewhere translates into reduced prices for the consumer. I haven't detected anything but price increases the past few years.

  4. Maradona

    I'm curious if moving production from China to Vietnam or elsewhere translates into reduced prices for the consumer. I haven't detected anything but price increases the past few years.

    At best, I think you can say that they've offset their even worse increases by savings in Vietnam. That seems to be the case on Transformers, anyway – their costs go up so they scrimp everywhere as they struggle to stick to their current pricepoints, even going as far on Voyager-class figures to use stickers instead of paint for decos. But the truth is that consumers are not going to care about that sort of thing at all, because little tiny Star Wars figures with 5 points of articulation are $8 a piece now, super articulated ones are $13. I guess it beats cutting overhead.

    Mr. JabbaJohnL

    I should have asked about accessories in addition to or instead of changes, but I suspect the answer would be the same. I guess that's why repacks typically tend to come with the same accessories, so they can still count as the same item.

    That seems to be their MO, they're gonna drag their feet at the idea of making a "complete" figure because of costs, collectors will see that as intentional set-up for a double-dip, Hasbro eventually is pressured to actually make that double-dip a thing, then collectors feel ripped off, all because Hasbro didn't want to make a "complete" figure in the first place. They are the architects of their own pain – and ours – but it's probably not even intentional.

    Mr. JabbaJohnL

    I wonder if Rebels would have performed better or worse as its own line, instead of packed with 5POA movie characters from the start. Cutting the line as the show is not only ending, but getting better and more interesting with more varied designs, is also exactly what happened with The Clone Wars. Hopefully they at least make the main characters in their season three/four outfits.

    Sadly we'll never know. The good thing about not being its own line was that they didn't feel pressured to release wave after wave of Malibu Stacy in New Hats though, we didn't have Zeb with vest and Zeb with bow tie and Zeb with gun you don't see on the show; down side is we didn't have Zeb in a single carded release. That said, by not releasing whole waves of just Rebels in the main line, they didn't let their Rebels consumers know where and when to look for product, creating significant market confusion in the hope that the brand's cachet would carry that interest – it didn't work out. Maybe Disney Parks can release their own line of the main characters from Rebels instead and save us from the Hasbro menace – they did so great with Chopper.

    Mr. JabbaJohnL

    I certainly don't want NERF to return either, but that A-wing did pack some serious punch…even if it looked goofy. Good to know they listened to the overall reaction on that one.

    "It's Nerf or Nothin'" – nothing it is, then. I wanted Hera's A-wing so much, then we saw that dumb junk forced to the underside of that ship at $30, and it was easy to NOPE that sucker, even at clearance. For the AT-ACT it may make sense, but they slaughtered a lot of TIE Striker and U-wing sales with Nerf, they wasted budget that could have gone to better things and created a lack of screen-accuracy.

  5. I suppose we have to wait until Toy Fair 2018 to get any info on the Han Solo film's toy line, but if Hasbro is going with a three month lead time to films in the release of their corresponding toy lines, the film's line will be released right around Toy Fair. That would mean mean once the TLJ line gets clearanced out in January, it will be quickly replaced with the Solo film line in February to give it comparable time on the shelves to the previous lines before the releases TFA, RO, and TLJ. Or do you think Hasbro will do something different?

  6. Oh that's right, that movie is coming out on the 41st anniversary of The Star Wars! I'm used to all these productions coming out on the Holidays like The Star Wars was supposed to do in 1976. That's only 8 months away!!! This is crazy.

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