Hasbro Toy Fair 2020 Follow Up Q&A

We would like to thank Hasbro and Litzky PR for inviting Bantha Skull to participate in this interview opportunity. As always, it was great getting to interact Patrick Schneider (Senior Manager, Global Brand Development & Marketing, Star Wars) and Sam Smith (Star Wars Team Design Manager) and I would like to thank both for taking time out of their day to chat with us. We were honored to join James from Jedi News and Volker from Star Wars Figuren during this Google Hangout Q&A. Both outlets also asked Vintage Collection related questions that you're going to want to read. Check those sites for additional answers.

If they are both reading, I would like to apologize to both James and Volker for taking up so much time with my 2nd question. In playing the audio back, I realized I took a disproportionate amount of time.

Disclaimer: The following answers are paraphrased and condensed for clarity. Any inaccuracies in these answers are the result of unintentional errors on the part of Bantha Skull during this process, and do not reflect upon Hasbro.

And without further ado, on with the questions:

Bantha Skull: Our 3.75”-focused readers really want you to know that they want to see The Mandalorian and Jedi: Fallen Order represented well in TVC. Additionally, they strongly support a General Antoc Merrick (Blue Leader) X-Wing vehicle and pilot figure. To turn this statement into a question, can you do your best to help turn these dreams into reality, and can you confirm that I have effectively communicated to you that people are passionate for this product so I don’t get savaged in the comments?

Patrick:. To answer your questions in reverse order, definitely you can reassure your readers that you are doing everything you should to communicate their desires, and we definitely value you and all of you as very effective champions for your particular areas of the community. Definitely Madalorian, Fallen Order, and Anton Merrick's X-Wing would all be great to add to the Vintage Collection. Not mentioned in there is completing the Rogue One crew and Clone Wars obviously just came back. Clone Wars would be great to get more out as well. And there’s the background aliens from the Original Trilogy, and the original 96, getting more of those out there. Even within just the Vintage Community there’s a lot of different things fans want to see, so that’s the juggling act within the number of slots we have available picking whether it’s from Mandalorian or from Clone Wars. Those are all great suggestions and I can guarantee you it’s all stuff we talked about. Mandalorian, and, I won’t say Fallen Order specifically, but video games are two areas where we could definitely see some more representation in the Vintage line moving forward. And we are well aware of the [General Antoc Merrick X-Wing] petition, and thank you for Volker for starting that, thank you for the community for supporting it. It’s a great idea and it’s something we’re definitely talking about, and could happen.

Bantha Skull: Repacks have been a source of confusion between the TVC collecting community and Hasbro. I think we have finally reached clarity on the subject, but, in the aftermath of Toy Fair, there is some “shock” at the result. The waves are very spread out. Long periods between buying opportunities risk collector engagement. The flip side of the repack coin is that there is massive demand for certain previous figures going back at least as far as The Legacy Collection. It’s almost getting to the point of anger that the VC68 Echo Base Soldier hasn’t been repacked, as an example. If the community went through the effort of compiling a short list of must have “smart repacks,” could that be used to sustain TVC instead of having these long gaps between waves?

Sam: That’s an awesome way for the community to definitely help to further bolster the character selections and the waving, and ultimately where they can play an impact. A big part of VC45 coming back into the line was the demand from the Vintage community. The more of those that we can identify as great repacks either first time on the card back or existing TVC figures the community can’t get enough of. We’re all for hearing it and implementing it where we can.

Patrick: I think a couple of other thoughts there, at SDCC a year and a half ago that we announced we were moving to less waves throughout the year, and that’s because we heard a lot of feedback about the amount of repacks that were in there. We heard that and that was good feedback, so we moved to less waves with a [higher ratio] of new figures in those waves, which I think we’ve seen. It also helps retailers to get through them because there aren’t waves right on top of each other.

[Editor’s note: At this point, Patrick makes a clarification between the two types of “repacks”. There are carry-towards of new figures into subsequent cases, and there are the “smart pack refreshes”, which are either previous TVC figures or figures from other lines. This discussion resumes with regard to the latter, or “smart pack refreshes”.]


Patrick (continuing): We had some good [smart pack refreshes] in 2019, but we heard from the community that there were too many, and so we’ve been shooting for a ratio of the line being 25% of those smart repacks, and the other 75% being new characters to the line.

[Editor’s note: THE ABOVE RATIO DOES NOT INCLUDE THE FAN CHANNEL PHOTO REAL UPDATES TO MAIN CHARACTERS PREVIOUSLY RELEASED IN TVC. Those are “accessibility” re-releases that are meant for new collectors. They are not part of, nor do they impact, the main line. ]

Patrick (continuing): We would just want to make sure there was a consensus from you in the community that more repacks is a good thing since we heard such a negative reaction before.

Bantha Skull: We need more of the right repacks. Patrick, you made a great statement at Toy Fair that passion gets things done. But passion unheard can have the opposite effect. If it falls on deaf ears, it’s going to deflate the 3.75” community. Again they have been screaming for this figure [I held up VC68 - Rebel Soldier (Echo Base Battle Gear) figure to the camera] to get back out. If they don't see it soon, they’re just going to say “you’re not listening to us,” and we’re just going to lose more engagement. I personally don’t think the number of repacks was a problem, it was the repack selections. It’s the type of repacks. If you go back to ones that have more pent up demand, it helps.

Patrick (continuing): I think right now we have two different strategic uses for repacks in the line. We have our two waves of “specialty figures” that are all about getting main characters out there for the new fans. Those are in waves to try to keep them out of [brick and mortar] retailers. [Editor’s Note: And again, these do NOT count toward the 75/25 ratio mentioned above.]

[I interrupted, rudely, to champion for Hrchek Kal Fas with correctly painted black eyes]

Patrick (continuing): I think there’s two things. One, marshaling your readers to tell us what they want in terms of repacks. Figures that were already good figures, but there’s unmet demand. And the separate category, would be figures like the Shadow Stormtrooper, where it's not the same figure [audio interruption prevents the rest of the answer from being heard].

James from Jedi News UK offered input that Hasbro should advise us of any unavailable tooling, so we don’t request figures that can not be repacked.

Bantha Skull. Collectors seem to really enjoy the Rogue One stormtrooper, and want to see Hasbro add a holster to the figure to make an OT Stormtrooper. In your design options, does simply adding a holster to the VC140 Stormtrooper qualify as an “OT Storntrooper”?

Sam: I’ve had that question asked a number of times internally because it’s Imperial Stormtrooper to Imperial Stormtrooper and “why couldn’t we do that”. Ultimately, we could. I personally have deep feelings against doing that because it is well outside of [just] the holster itself. In fact, it’s 100% unique in terms of tooling between the two. During the time of the Original Trilogy that armor was intended to be molded for quick manufacture and across multiple pieces, and as they built that for Rogue One, it was about as making that as definitive of a Stormtrooper [costume] that would be comfortable to wear, they could run in it and shoot right handed. That was the big thing as we looked at the Han in Stormtrooper disguise. Initially there was a lot of discussion around putting a Han Solo head on the [VC140] Stormtrooper body. There’s a team of us that are pushing for these to be as authentic to the time that they are from, and acknowledge the very vast differences between the Original Trilogy and the “modern era” Stormtrooper. Both are phenomenal. Both have their place. I would say that if we were to revisit anything in delivering that level of newness it might result in an entirely new Original Trilogy Stormtrooper. That is if there’s demand. If you guys would just rather just have a a holster...[assumed implication that if we're willing to settle, they'll do that]

Bantha Skull: Is that another thing we should canvass the community about?

Sam: Yeah. As I’ve read the forums, there’s definitely been mixed things that I’ve heard. Some people say just add the holster and put it out the Star Wars cardback. And I’ll see a number of people from the fan community who will contradict that and champion the reasons why we shouldn’t be doing that: the ribbing of the under suit, the different peek of the abdomen, the chest plate, the details on the forearms as well as the details on the knee plates, I can keep going. Ultimately we love both designs. We see them as 100% having complete difference. If the fan community wants [a newly tooled Stormtrooper] and Hasbro has a place in the line for them, I would love to make that happen.

Bantha Skull: We haven’t seen the card for the VC167 Power Droid that was announced. Can you tell us if the image will correctly represent the figure, or will it match the vintage Kenner card.

Sam: We are waiting to reveal it. We only hinted at the magenta background. Personally for me, there’s only one TRUE blue Power Droid in the universe.

Patrick: But we will be revealing that figure in pack soon. Looks beautiful. [Editor’s Note: STOP TEASING ME!]

Bantha Skull: What is the meaning of the “0077” which can be seen engraved into the “face” of the power droid in the official images that have been distributed? It looks like a date stamp in some respects, but also a design element especially considering the coincidence with 1977. The sample on the floor of Toy Fair did not appear to have this “0077”.

Sam: It was something that I did a great job of removing from the images we shared at the presentation. Despite that, those image modifications did not make it out. [Edtior’s note: Sam is teasing Patrick]

Sam (continuing): It actually just happens to be that sample 77 was photographed for it. It was a beautiful little homage to [1977, but it’s a coincidence]. As much as we’d love for that to be kind of an Easter Egg that’s amongst some [other details] with deeper hidden meeting, it’s simply something that wasn’t removed for the press photography. Don’t expect that to be on the production figure.

Patrick: The short the answer is that we love that figure. We knew the community would love it. We wanted prioritize that figure for New York Toy Fair. It was announced that it would be out until the fall [Editor’s note: “fall” in this context means July or later. The figure is slated for August release at this time]. So if you think about the development cycles, it’s less far along than something like the 40th Anniversary figures that are going to be out in a couple months. If you know the development process, you know that this [is in early production]. It was a serial numbered sample. Honestly, if you look throughout the showroom, there are a number of figures that still have those numbers on them. It’s because we could put them out with the number or not put them out, and we know you guys want to see the product, and we want to see the look on your faces when you see the product.

Speed round bonus question:

6. Can you give us an update on the “bumped” VC150 Darth Revan?

Patrick: We heard that when we announced Revan fan’s didn’t want that version of Revan, so we replaced it with Princess Leia Yavin Ceremony. So now Revan’s in the category of any other figure we would have to create from scratch. So it might be something that we do, but it’s back to the embarrassment of riches. Do we do Revan, or do we do more characters from Mandalorian or The Clone Wars. You’ll have to keep tuning in to our events to see what we choose.

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