October 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. I've noticed that several new waves of Clone Wars figures seem to be hitting stores at the same time. Will the upcoming Legacy waves be released in a similar fashion to ensure they make it to stores by the end of the year? It seems like a pretty tight schedule to release five waves of figures in four months.
Answer: We don't know for certain how the Legacy/Droid Factory waves will flow out, only because sales have really been dropping on this line compared to Clone Wars, and we do not know when (we won't say *if*) all of the planned waves will be able to get to retail. We are doing our best to try and read the landscape and adjust to release quantities to get everything out. We are committed to manufacturing every wave we have shown, so even if distribution at retail is spotty, it should be available through online retailers.
2. In the 30-year history of Star Wars astromech droids, there have only been two released without official names. One is the red/blue astromech from the ARC-170 Elite Squad Battle Pack, whose only appearance in Star Wars multimedia is in the Clone Wars TV series. The other is the red/white astromech that is coming packed with Wedge's X-Wing. It is not the astromech Wedge has in the original trilogy, nor is it either of his astromech droids from the Rogue Squadron series (both are R5 units and not R2's). Can you finally solve the mystery for astromech droid fans by giving us the official names for these droids, and also clarify where the droid that comes packed with Wedge's X-Wing is from?
Answer: We based Wedge's droid off actual reference photos. Since we just had his head, we had to create a body to match. It may not line up with what has been published but we did start with source material. This will need to be explored more and we'll check on it with Lucasfilm; even though there is no name on the package we should be able to provide one for both this little guy and the ARC-170 pack droid. When we hear back from Lucasfilm we will let you know.
3. I was wondering if you had any plans to release battle packs of regular clones to outfit the great vehicles you've been making. By 'regular' I mean non-animated. I don't collect the animated line, but I've bought the Turbo Tank, the AT-TE, and the Republic Fighter tank. It would be great to get mixed battle packs of pilots, gunners etc. for these vehicles that are geared towards the collectors of the realistic line of Star Wars toys.
Answer: Thanks for the suggestion. We have been concentrating on getting Clone Wars packs out there for the kids (and collectors) who want to outfit those with Clone to match the Clone Wars. We assumed that collectors would have enough "regular" Clones to do the trick but it does seem like there is an opportunity to provide realistic clones as well. We'll take a look at this and see if there is not something that we can get to over the next couple of years (at this point, the 2010 line is put to bed and we're working on 2011) Thanks for the suggestion.
