BB-8 2-in-1 Mega Playset

[GNT]

Yakface have posted a list of SKU and DPCI numbers, one of which is below:

E8 Flagship Set (BB8/Mega Star Destroyer Playset with Snoke and Elite Guard, Force Link Gauntlet)
DPCI: 087-06-8337
SKU: 55589139
UPC: 630509606207
MSRP: $199.99

For $200 this better be amazing, any thoughts on this? Could we be getting one large playset for our figures?

 

[DarkArtist]

Yakface have posted a list of SKU and DPCI numbers, one of which is below:

E8 Flagship Set (BB8/Mega Star Destroyer Playset with Snoke and Elite Guard, Force Link Gauntlet)
DPCI: 087-06-8337
SKU: 55589139
UPC: 630509606207
MSRP: $199.99

For $200 this better be amazing, any thoughts on this? Could we be getting one large playset for our figures?

I was originally thinking that this was going to be similar to the old R2-D2 carrying case from TPM but with a $200 price tag now I'm curious

 

[Neal]

If it's anything like the AT-ACT, it'll be on clearance the moment it hits the shelves.

 

[DarkManX]

not sure if the price is good or bad yet but the Forcelink starter set is 30 bucks so that's part of the price plus you have 2 figures. I'm half suspecting something a little bigger than the TFA falcon. But until we see it we shouldn't speculate too much in either direction. Hopefully it's good because I think this might be the last chance for big vehicles for awhile after the failures of the TFA Falcon and the AT-ACT. So somebody hurry up and leak the pics already so I can decide if I want to save money for it or not.

 

[DarthPete]

It'll be interesting to see what $199.99 will buy us from hasbro these days.

What really gives me pause for concern is it's BB8 exterior. I mean I figure something other than a Star Destroyer for the exterior makes sense as it would be kind of a silly looking super deformed thing. But the spherical nature of BB8 makes me immediately picture that MicroMachines Death Star/tatooine playset. Which was fine for Micro Machines, but I'm concerned this is going to kind of flop open basically flat and be more of a super nice figure stand rather than a walled playset environment.

I just hope it's over all not lackluster. It's the damnest thing with Hasbro, they made shoddy (SW) playsets from 99 to 05, then blamed consumers for not having interest in them so they stopped making them. *shakes head*

 

[Coreworld]

Yeah, the jury's out on this one, after the massive fall in price of other big ticket items over the last couple of years, I'm going to be holding fire for a bit. Would've much preferred it to be a First Order Dropship/ Destroyer playset as we have touched on in the past, but as said will wait and see.

 

[DarkArtist]

maybe instead of a star destroyer per say it opens up to reveal Starkiller Base from TFA ? and maybe Snoke is a Hologram ?

 

[Deak_Starkiller]

I'm expecting a transforming playset a la Micromachines, but hopefully something that is not disproportionate like the Star Destroyer and Falcon MM sets of the past (The Rebel Transport is spot on and therefore my favorite). Also, I doubt it will have any of the negative space like on the real model.

 

[coeli]

The bad thing about this is if it is a dud (by Hasbro's standards) we won't see other playsets. They will use the excuse of, 'Hey, we gave you guys a playset and it didn't sell well'.

 

[Masterfett]

Agreed. ^
Just one more >it's our fault< for not buying it scenario. So part of me wants it to succeed so that we can continue to get needed playsets. However, if it's lacking and engineered towards a different play pattern. We'll just end up with more of the same nonsense.

Based on the price, I'm sure it's going to be underwhelming. And undersized. Just look at the price of the "electronic" AT-ACT. Electronics add costs to any vehicle. Now imagine a "playset", with interactive features via Force Gauntlet and 2 figures. It's asking to be small and cheap. Having not seen the Mega Star Destroyer they're speaking of, I cannot judge the size or contents. But it sounds bigger than previous SD's. There must be some room where a confrontation takes place, or some pivotal scene? Otherwise why make it? If we had seen what it consists of, we'd have abetter idea what to expect. Though maybe it's best we don't then we don't get any built up expectations based on the Movie. I wait and see how it plays out.

 

[CHEWIE]

My guess is it will suck due to a ridiculous design by trying to make it transform into BB-8.

Thank goodness for GTP Toys.

 

[Trooper31]

The bad thing about this is if it is a dud (by Hasbro's standards) we won't see other playsets. They will use the excuse of, 'Hey, we gave you guys a playset and it didn't sell well'.

Exactly. I'm going to hold off until I see it, but that was one of my first thoughts when I heard about a playset.

 

[Deak_Starkiller]

Colossal ships made by Hasbro are pretty much a cyclic thing....Queen's starship, Falcon, MTT, AC-ACT and so on. But I don't think there a marketing director at Hasbro that doesn't know that they won't take another sales hit on ships of these scales. They will, but I'll leave it up to them to crank out the sales profit numbers since to me it would be more or less independent of the marketing potential because somebody out there will eventually bite at it.

 

[Nerfherder]

Keep this in mind. Once you see a toy in stores, Hasbro has already made their money.

 

[TK_842]

Keep this in mind. Once you see a toy in stores, Hasbro has already made their money.

Technically, that's not entirely true. Retail chains aren't taking the beating alone when an item doesn't sell. So, Hasbro do want those to sell well or they'll have to issue rebate coupons for said retail chains on their next orders.

 

[darth_sidious]

The bad thing about this is if it is a dud (by Hasbro's standards) we won't see other playsets. They will use the excuse of, 'Hey, we gave you guys a playset and it didn't sell well'.

That's likely to be what happens. People ask for something, and then don't support it in some cases. Hasbro has to make it interesting for kids above all else, hence the transforming feature. Hasbro isn't going to sell scale diorama playsets like we saw for the 6 inch figures at SDCC, its just not viable. Most of the collectors that want playsets are probably better off buying those custom space walls and making their own. If this fails though, the playset crowd is off Hasbro's radar for good, so I hope for their sake it does well.

 

[Nicklab]

The one bit of significant information that I take from this listing? That the $200 price threshold seems to mean something. Remember last year when people were complaining about the AT-ACT having an MSRP of $299? I think that Hasbro was paying close attention there. And a significant portion of the forum conversations that I saw about the AT-ACT were either about PRICE (sales, discounts, etc) or complaining about the Nerf features and/or pack-in figures. The $200 price point may be the ceiling for what Hasbro can do in the 3.75" figure system without seeing a tremendous falloff in sales.

I'm sure there may be complaints about these pack-in figures, too. Especially if it's the only avenue to get either Snoke or this particular Praetorian Guard. As for the BB-8 aspect? I see that as pure play value, and it increases the potential marketability for a broader (non-collector) audience.

 

[Masterfett]

I didn't catch that BB-8 part the first time. Now my expectation have lowered dramatically, as I do not care for that Droid. And likely won't like the "play" feature it entails. Sounds like too much of a mix & match concept. Similar to SW/Transformers or something. I don't see how a SD and BB-8 have anything in common. I'm interested to see what it looks like, but cannot say that it's buy worthy.

That's likely to be what happens. People ask for something, and then don't support it in some cases.

But I didn't ask for this, so if it does fail it isn't "my" fault. If they want to blame me for the Barge not meeting expectations, fine. I will have already bought it by then! lol
Plus there aren't anymore BIG vehicles that i want.

I have yet to campaign for something, then not bought it.

 

[DarkArtist]

perhaps Snoke's Star Destroyer does not look like the typical First Order Star Destroyer? or better yet perhaps the playset is not a Star Destroyer at all but Starkiller base?

 

[DarkArtist]

plus lets not forget when Hasbro gave us the R2-D2 carrying case that folded out to a trade federation battleship. R2 looked nothing like a ship either but at the time it somewhat worked

 

[Nicklab]

plus lets not forget when Hasbro gave us the R2-D2 carrying case that folded out to a trade federation battleship. R2 looked nothing like a ship either but at the time it somewhat worked

That might be an apples/oranges situation. That R2-D2 case retailed for $24.99. I suspect that this flagship set might be a bit more involved.

 

[indysolo007]

If there had only been a round droid in the OT we'd finally get that damned Death Star playset!

 

[Deak_Starkiller]

Moreover the Artoo/figure case set was simpler and looked more proper, even though it was a scene specific playset. I fear that this set with all its transformation engineering is going to possess unusual hinges and gearing that will make it look more like a MM transforming playset. While I don't expect it to be on par with either the Death Star playset or Death Star Micro World sets as far as presentation, the transforming aspect of this set will be far more than noticeable involving linear to curvilinear translation.

 

[Coreworld]

Don't know why they didn't do it as the BB9-E transforming into the First Order Destroyer, at least then they would have been the same affiliation.

 

[Morgan4242]

After SDCC Hasbro seems to be listening to collectors, maybe this will be better than it sounds.

 

[Lance_Quazar]

perhaps Snoke's Star Destroyer does not look like the typical First Order Star Destroyer? or better yet perhaps the playset is not a Star Destroyer at all but Starkiller base?

Maybe...just maybe....Snoke's been inside BB-8 the entire time!

 

[Masterfett]

I'm not interested in Starkiller Base. And if Snoke's SSD looks like BB-8, it might as well be a Deathstar or base similar to SK base.
A round SSD? :| I'd rather they just make Kylo's SD.

After SDCC Hasbro seems to be listening to collectors, maybe this will be better than it sounds.

Except that this would have been in production long before SDCC, having happened just a couple weeks back.

 

[DarthPete]

Maybe...just maybe....Snoke's been inside BB-8 the entire time!

What if BB8 IS Snoke!! O_O

Regarding Snoke being available in this set, I'm sure it'll be similar to BB8's original release. If you reeeeally want him you've got to buy the expensive set (TFA Falcon), but he'll come along in a two pack or some other set soon enough.

 

[Deak_Starkiller]

Don't know why they didn't do it as the BB9-E transforming into the First Order Destroyer, at least then they would have been the same affiliation.

I suppose someone on the Hasbro design team thought collectors needed more a lifesize BB-8, maybe a tad bigger than the Jakks version. We'll have to see the final size however, but I bet someone on the design team is also thinking, "Maybe they'll stop thinking of those Target BB-8 displays for a change."

 

[DarkManX]

Don't know why they didn't do it as the BB9-E transforming into the First Order Destroyer, at least then they would have been the same affiliation.

BB8 is a central character and it remains to be seen how much BB9 will factor into the movie.

 

[Coreworld]

BB8 is a central character and it remains to be seen how much BB9 will factor into the movie.

True enough, I just thought it would look a bit cooler with the black exterior paint scheme than ol' BB's orange and white. Yakface is reporting this has a throne, garrison corridor and trash compactor, so at least it will have a place for Phasma, lol!

 

[DarkManX]

True enough, I just thought it would look a bit cooler with the black exterior paint scheme than ol' BB's orange and white. Yakface is reporting this has a throne, garrison corridor and trash compactor, so at least it will have a place for Phasma, lol!

Oh I agree it would be cooler with the bad ball instead

 

[Deak_Starkiller]

Trash compactor, hmmm....looks like FO broke with standard Imperial procedure about dumping garbage before going lightspeed.

Anyway, please no garbage droids that look like WALL-E or WALL-R.

 

[DarkManX]

Trash compactor, hmmm....looks like FO broke with standard Imperial procedure about dumping garbage before going lightspeed.

Anyway, please no garbage droids that look like WALL-E or WALL-R.

Padme's nurse maid droids got demoted

 

[Masterfett]

A trash compactor? Are we going to see a scene repeat from ANH? IMO, that seems out of place unless a key scene about it is in TLJ. Seems to me that there could be better environments to focus on. Like a Hangar deck, control room/bridge, etc. Maybe the "force link gauntlet" controls mini BB-8 that travels through the vents like a maze, in an attempt to find something or shut something off. We still haven't seen how that works right? I am a little curious to see what it does.

 

[Deak_Starkiller]

I just think it's more of Disney's comedy scene shenanigans all over again so that movies like these can qualify to get nominated into Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards.....again.

 

[Darth_Broem]

Can't be any worse than George's fart jokes!

 

[DarthPete]

I'm surprised we've seen pics leak of just about everything except​ this.

 

[TK_842]

Might not have been processed from warehouses to actual stores backrooms. Another three weeks to go until FF though.

 

[DarthPete]

Good point.