Sounds like Hasbro wants to get back into the SW 12' Game!!!

8/2/08

Uuuuuhhhhhmmmm!!!!!

Looks like someone tattled on Sideshow. Must've been sour grapes from someone who didn't get the Ex. Vader or Stormtrooper on Friday. In all seriousness, this is an exact, word for word interveiw copied from www.sirstevesguide.com. You'll probably see this posted in other boards with the "ask Hasbro Q&A's". The person answering is Darrell DePriest, the Brand Manager from Hasbro.



SSG: Although we know that you've handed the baton off to Sideshow for the 12" line, in a recent Q&A you answered that you were thinking of making a return to the scale but had made no decisions. You've got 12" Indiana Jones figures simultaneously as Sideshow's, and The Clone Wars seems to have more kid factor which means a need for a lower pricepoint, which isn't Sideshow's thing, showing both precedent and motive for Hasbro restarting a 12" Star Wars line. If you were going back to 12" with new Clone Wars, how about re-releasing some of the better 12" figures of the past, like Vintage-style Boba Fett, R2-D2 with tools, the Jawa, C-3PO - stuff like that which Sideshow isn't really focusing on right now - to test the waters?

Hasbro: Our take on Sideshow, on 12-inch, is Sideshow's still our partner for the high-end, and with Indy we wanted to test the water with 12-inch to see what the kid-enthusiasm really was. And it is kid-targeted, there's some collector figures in there. It's possible we could look at a return to 12-inch, but it's not high on our priority list right now.

SSG: When we go to Sideshow and ask them "where is X, Y, or Z - where is Boba Fett, R2?" they say "well, we depend on what Hasbro's done before. We don't want to step on that too much. We want you collectors to be able to use that." So it seems like there's a need for the product, and it's just not being met anymore.

Hasbro: I wasn't aware of that actually, that stance from Sideshow.

SSG: Yeah, they told us very specifically that, and we collectors were all surprised because we didn't realize that they were going to lean so heavily on what came before.


Hasbro: Ok, that's interesting... Hmm, you know what? We'll take that into advisement. That's actually an interesting take on it. But, 12-inch just is kinda a wait and see on Indy, and right now we're still not certain how the year is really going to end up.

SSG: Well, keep in mind, you guys have tooling that's just not getting used. You know, the R2-D2, the C-3PO, that doesn't go on a GI Joe body, and Sideshow's not making it right now. If you make it, you're not really losing anything since the budget's already done for those when they were first made.

Hasbro: I wasn't happy with the bodies that we did have.

SSG: The GI Joes?

Hasbro: Yea... Oh, no no. The [current] GI Joe body we like, it's the previous bodies we had for Star Wars that we weren't so happy with.

SSG: Oh, I see what you're saying! The older ones from the 90s, big muscles and tapered more?

Hasbro: Yeah, we never want to do those. So it is kinda a wait and see, but it's not high on our priority list right now. Instead we've been letting Sideshow run with it, but knowing Sideshow isn't going in this area, maybe we should look at it.



Just so you know, I'm all for Hasbro and thier 3 & 3/4 line (I recently dropped 7 Bills at the recent Midnight Madness), but I don't believe the 12" line is within thier "price-point". Not after what we've come to expect from Sideshow. Just curious if fellow freaks are ready to go back to Hasbro 12" figures. I especially love the comment at the end on how Mr. DePriest is happy with the new Hasbro Gi-Joe body!?!?

Have any of you seen these??? Makes me not worry about the Buck so much!!!

I think whoever did that interview was full out lying to DePriest, if that even was a real interview they did. I'm not aware of SS ever saying "We won't be pursuing the Fetts or the Droids." And even if Hasbro did take it back, Im sure SS could persuade LFL to divide the license and make it kid range and collector range like Indy.

"And even if Hasbro did take it back, Im sure SS could persuade LFL to divide the license and make it kid range and collector range like Indy."

If they did, I'd be fine with that, but I'm with you and I think that whatever "tool" was interviewing DePriest was flat-out, F.O.S.!!!!

There's that fine line between getting everything you want and taking the time to do it right! I just feel that Sideshow was seriously misrepresented here.

adambadadam said:

"And even if Hasbro did take it back, Im sure SS could persuade LFL to divide the license and make it kid range and collector range like Indy."

If they did, I'd be fine with that, but I'm with you and I think that whatever "tool" was interviewing DePriest was flat-out, F.O.S.!!!!

There's that fine line between getting everything you want and taking the time to do it right! I just feel that Sideshow was seriously misrepresented here.

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Well certain sites have made it obvious in past QnA's with Hasbro that they are not pleased with SS's take on the line while I think the vast majority of people actually are. Hasbro gets a cut either way so I don't think they really care but if they try and put out things like the VOTC Fett, old 3PO and R2 and try to market it to collectors.. they will likely get laughed out of the game. Market them cheap and to kids, fine, but I have no doubts that a collector aimed line from Hasbro would fail miserably.

That interviewer is an agitator.

I thinks it's kinda funny that DePriest thinks the new Gi-Joe body would work well for 3-PO, R2, Jawa, ect, ect. How many times have we heard Hasbro won't try something because of the price-point vs' the tooling/manufacturing costs. Sounds really hypocritical to me!

Bottom line, I think collectors have a better chance of seeing Sideshow try something different/original aimed at the fans, than Hasbro, who are just too big to see past the market profit margins of a large Corporation.

For example, a 12" Greivous would get produced but it would take time to get it right and not forced out in sub-par quality manner.

You know there were alot of chicken littles who thought Vader and the Stormtroopers were never going to be released. Everyone has short memory spans if they can't remember. More importantly, they were done by Hasbro countless times over and that still didn't stop Sideshow. The difference being they didn't give into the impatience of fans and took the time to do it BETTER than what came before!!!

The only thing that Sideshow said is that in regards to R2-D2 is that the Hasbro is available right now and looks good so its not a top priority basically. I dont remember the exact words but that was the summary of what they said.

Judging by all the Indy figures sitting on the shelves at Walmart, Target and TRU, I'm not worried.

That interview came from Sirstevesguide.com and the interviewer is one of the mods there - I am not sure where the original quote came from regarding SS's position, but he may have talked to them from the show

That interview was posted BEFORE the PPOs yesterday, btw - so this is not some disgruntled fan situation.

I thought it was a darn fine interview. And, if it motivates Hasbro, SS, Hot Toys to actually release droids and the like, then what is the problem?

AmanaMatt said:

That interview came from Sirstevesguide.com and the interviewer is one of the mods there - I am not sure where the original quote came from regarding SS's position, but he may have talked to them from the show

That interview was posted BEFORE the PPOs yesterday, btw - so this is not some disgruntled fan situation.

I thought it was a darn fine interview. And, if it motivates SS to actually release droids and the like, then what is the problem?

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Because it's completely misrepresenting SS's stance? They didn't say they were never going to make things they just want to release products when they feel they're ready and not when people demand they release them.

Memnoch21 said:

I think whoever did that interview was full out lying to DePriest, if that even was a real interview they did. I'm not aware of SS ever saying "We won't be pursuing the Fetts or the Droids." And even if Hasbro did take it back, Im sure SS could persuade LFL to divide the license and make it kid range and collector range like Indy.

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To acuse the interviewer of lieing is, in itslef, a lie. We do not know what information that person is working with. It may just so happen that the interviewer WAS told by Sideshow that Sideshow is not looking to do the Droids or Boba Fett right now. Who are we to say. And, as has been mentioned in a previous post, Sideshow HAS at least mentioned publicly that this is true with R2-D2. And although it was last year, they DID say that they were not ready to do armored figures yet, including Boba Fett. And just because they are doing armored figures now, does not mean that Boba Fett will be done soon. Let's not judge these guys too harshly.

adambadadam said:

I thinks it's kinda funny that DePriest thinks the new Gi-Joe body would work well for 3-PO, R2, Jawa, ect, ect. How many times have we heard Hasbro won't try something because of the price-point vs' the tooling/manufacturing costs. Sounds really hypocritical to me!

Bottom line, I think collectors have a better chance of seeing Sideshow try something different/original aimed at the fans, than Hasbro, who are just too big to see past the market profit margins of a large Corporation.

For example, a 12" Greivous would get produced but it would take time to get it right and not forced out in sub-par quality manner.

You know there were alot of chicken littles who thought Vader and the Stormtroopers were never going to be released. Everyone has short memory spans if they can't remember. More importantly, they were done by Hasbro countless times over and that still didn't stop Sideshow. The difference being they didn't give into the impatience of fans and took the time to do it BETTER than what came before!!!

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The term "hypocritical" is really thrown around incorrectly on this type of forum a lot. The comments are somewhat contradictory, but hardly hypocritical.

mfoga said:

The only thing that Sideshow said is that in regards to R2-D2 is that the Hasbro is available right now and looks good so its not a top priority basically. I dont remember the exact words but that was the summary of what they said.

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And I am hoping to find that quote and bring it over. Anyone who beats me to it would be doing me a solid!

And at the end of the day. I saw nothing in this outtake from the interview that says that Hasbro wants to take the license back. All I read is the standard "we'll consider what you said" that they give to everybody they grant information to.

I'm not worried about what Hasbro does with their figures... their 12" stuff is crap. Good for kids, but not collectors. They had a few so-so figures, but nothing that every made me want to go deep into the series.

Sideshow, IMO, is doing a great job and have made a lot of improvements as time has gone on. I'm not worried in the lease about them loosing the license.

Im not worried about them losing it, Im more worried about Hasbro saying "Yeah, you had a good run but we're taking back over."

I don't think they will... not like there's a lot of kid interest in 12" figures and honestly SW is (even with CW) is most likely fading back when it comes to toy interest. I could be wrong, but just doesn't seem like something Hasbro would be wanting.

It doesn't sound like Hasbro is interested, it sounds like a fan is impatient with Sideshow's pace and is trying to get Hasbro interested.

hasbro needs to stick with the 3 3/4" market..............it's their bread and butter. no need for them to jump back into the 12" line. i will give them props with their come uppance with the release of the BMF & AT....TE, TZ, TP, TM, PM, ZH, watever..... that thing is . but stay outta the 12" market. sure they had a few 12" that were worth owning but SSC's worst was better than hasbro's best............strictly IMHO.

Okay kids back off from the automatic bashing. (oh wait this is the SW forum). Both the interviewer and the Hasbro guy had some good points.

It's unfortunate that Boba Fett got lumped in there with R2 and the Jawas and saying SSC isn't interested in doing Fett(s) isn't really accurate. What has been said by SSC is that the Hasbro droids are pretty good and thus aren't high on SSC's list of 1/6th to do. I think it's just a miscommunication and SSC will straighten it out. And obviously Hasbro has a list of figures SSC will be doing for the foreseeable future, and they approved that list.

Also it was encouraging that the Hasbro guy recognized that the body they used to do SW figures on wasn't very good. But it's not encouraging that he considers some of the 12" Indiana Jones as "collector" quality.

Soo Dave.. are you saying that Hasbro gets to OK what SS is making? Or is it simply a courtesy SS extends to Hasbro as the main licensee?

i think the moral of the story is...SW fans whine too much. case closed.

The Craw said:

i think the moral of the story is...SW fans whine too much. case closed.

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But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!!!