September 2009 - Every couple of weeks, Hasbro will answer three questions per web site about their Star Wars products. Here are the questions and answers for the latest round:
1. When you release a new line of Star Wars action figures and come up with a new design for the backer cards, do you have to make sure that they will fit into the "Star Wars Official Action Figure Protective Cases" or are you allowed more leeway as far as size or shape?
Answer: Up until this year, we have been faithful to the 6"x9" card design and ensured that all figures fit the official protective case. This year, however, Hasbro embarked on a new initiative designed to conform to the standard Wal-Mart planogram peg sizes and reduce, even if it was slight, the amount of packaging required to produce a basic Star wars figure. As a result, the new card size is smaller (5.5"x8.25"). We did a lot of research with collectors before heading down this route, to make sure that we were not making a mistake. The vast of majority of collectors we spoke with thought this was a good idea (or they did not care) and we moved forward with it. Because of this reduced card size, it will no longer fit snigly into the backer-card trap area of the collector cases, and they have not become obsolete for the modern collection. We do not have plans to produce bulk packs of a new official case for the new smaller card size. The one caveat, and it's an important one, will be Vintage. If Vintage does return, it will strictly be in the 6"x9" format and will fit in the current official cases.
2. Will any of the build-a-droid figures see re-release?
Answer: It's possible that additional figures using the parts could be produced, but the characters themselves in the buildable format are confined to the Legacy/Droid Factory series and none of them will ever be re-released. The possible exception being HK-47, since he was the buildable droid in a very low-production wave. If we do re-release him, we would probably re-release the whole wave of figures he came with in a new package format.
3. Given the relatively low production numbers on the HK-47 droid wave, will we ever see HK-47 released again? Perhaps in an online exclusive with Darth Revan, Malak, and some other KOTOR characters?
Answer: Right now there are no plans to release HK-47 again, but we are keeping our eye on this one. The one bright spot in this wave being the fact that there are up to twice as many HK-47s that can be built as any of the other characters released for the wave (the carry-forward figures in this wave also coming with "duplicate" HK-47 parts). The secondary market will come in handy in completing HK-47, as people open up the additional carry-forward figures to increase the available part pool.
