Answered Questions - April 27, 2007

[Darth Zirock]

1.) From joenubb: With the continuing success of the Vintage Collection series, what are the chances we'll see a Vintage Power of the Force series, and more importantly, a super-articulated resculpt of Yakface (Saelt-Marae)?

ANSWER: If Vintage continues, doing some POTF series does make sense so the chances are good at some point. Yak-Face would be very low on our list of ones to do, simply because there are a lot more important iconic characters ahead of him.

2.) From DarthZirock: Collectors seem quite up in arms over the McQuarrie Signature Series R2-D2 & C-3PO Concept figures being released as exclusives for Celebration IV in Los Angeles and Celebration Europe in London. While the figures will have event-specific coins and cardbacks, will they eventually be released to the general public in nonexclusive form?

ANSWER: There are no plans to make the droids available other than at Celebration IV, right now at least (the same goes for the Europe version). Gencon (the group organizing Celebration) is the actual retailer for this product, not Hasbro, so they are setting the strategy for their own exclusive. However, the McQuarrie Luke is a HasbroToyShop.com exclusive, so we have more control over that. If we do make it available online through HasbroToyShop.com, it won't be for some months after the Convention unless there is leftover Convention inventory.

3.) From jason: Conspicuous by her absence in the McQuarrie Signature Concept series is Princess Leia. Is there just not enough perceived interest in her, or is she in the works, too?

ANSWER: A McQuarrie Princess Leia is not in the works.

[Darth Zirock]

Looks like Hasbro lobbed us a curveball in this Q&A!

3.) From jason: Conspicuous by her absence in the McQuarrie Signature Concept series is Princess Leia. Is there just not enough perceived interest in her, or is she in the works, too?

ANSWER: A McQuarrie Princess Leia is not in the works.

And yet, over at the May 11th Q&A for Rebelscum, we read this:

Rebelscum: In our last session, you stated that there was never a McQuarrie Luke planned for wave 5, that Luke will be the C4/CE exclusive. Yet many retailer lists still show him as coming in that wave. Then in another Q&A (over at our friends SWcollector.com), you stated that there is no McQuarrie Leia in the works at all. So that got us thinking ... if you notice this photo of the McQuarrie artwork featuring the 5 main characters, there is a female character in that painting who technically isn't Luke or Leia...is this the "Luke Skywalker" figure that's coming in wave 5? If yes, then just what are you calling this character?

Hasbro: Well Dan, that's some pretty good detective work and you nailed it. Rather than be coy, I will confirm but it does requires some explanation. First, the figure is indeed the female Jedi seen in the iconic "Fantastic Five" poster by Ralph McQuarrie. While this character became the inspiration for both Luke and Leia, originally, the character was called neither. We are going with the name "Starkiller Hero" for the package to describe the original inspiration behind the figure rather than the specific character(s) that were subsequently fleshed out. Early line plans (which are always subject to change and are worth the electrons they are printed with) showed Luke as the name but this changed as we got further into it.

Either way, good to know that "Leia" wasn't getting ignored in the McQuarrie series! :D