Answered Questions: April 10, 2009

[Darth Zirock]

1.) From pod: How about some squadron-themed Clone Wars battlepacks? You could do Blue Squadron with Ahsoka, R7-A7, Axe, and Kickback, or Shadow Squadron with Matchstick, Broadside, Anakin, and their Orange R2 unit. They would all basically be repaints, and would make a great complement to the vehicle line.

ANSWER: We do have plans for a lot of these guys, although not as Battle Packs per se. Stay tuned…

2.) From Darth_Zirock: The upcoming Concept Art Anakin figure was shown at Hasbro's Toy Fair event with a red-bladed Darth Vader lightsaber. Recent online photos of the loose and carded figure show him with his Episode II: Attack of the Clones blue-bladed saber (as well as his AOTC saber hilt on his belt). Since the concept art was for Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, shouldn't he have his ROTS-style lightsaber and hilt?

ANSWER: We originally proposed a red saber for this figure since he has Sith eyes in the concept art, but in further discussions with Lucasfilm we decided that we would do the costume, but not make him Sith. So we went with the blue saber to match. We all missed the black control sleeve on this one...but since it's a concept figure screen accuracy wasn't the paramount concern, but getting the costume right was our primary focus.

3.) From aj1562: What is the approximate height of the upcoming holographic Darth Sidious figure that comes with the Mechno-Chair, and does the figure itself have any articulation?

ANSWER: The figure does not have any articulation, and is approx. 2-1/2" tall.

[pod]

Well, I'd like to say that I'm encouraged by their answer about the squadron battlepacks, but since they said in answer to someone else's question that they have no plans for more CW astrodroids right now, I think the "plans" are only for a carded Broadside figure which they mentioned in a Q&A a few months back.

I think the real problem is that they see too many things like droids as not appealing to the younger CW fan, when I'd argue that unlike most single-episode characters, astrodroids are recognizable and attractive to any SW fan as a nice figure to have and fit in a play concept for almost any scenario. Especially when they are putting out so many fighters with droid slots.

I think the only answer is to keep pestering them about making more CW droids the way we had to in the 90's about making more astrodroids. Eventually they learned their lesson then, and hopefully they'll do the same again.