Smaller scaled vehicles, will you be collecting?

[Choi]

I think it's a lot easier to just bash Hasbro for this than to look at why they are taking this approach... and this is coming from someone who has been royally pissed at Hasbro for quite a while now.

I know right off the bat that a $20 vehicle is an easier purchase for a parent now... heck, parents are more likely to pick up TWO ships for $40 than just one for $35. It's a much better value as far as they're concerned. Looking specifically at Obi Wan's ship and the Repubilc Tank, if those two were all the same ones as before, with the Republic Tank and Obi Wan ship being $30-$35, each one of us here would pass because we already have them, right? Or am I wrong?

We all know that there has been a huge slow down in product moving in this line since the prices went up, and it's affected the mid size vehicle line. The vehicles just aren't moving in the $30 range. You can walk into any store and see product from January just collecting dust, and at TRU, they are sitting on a lot of 2011 product still. The economy sucks and Hasbro is trying something different.

However, Hasbro isn't a completely innocent victim of the economy - they need to realize that a lot of blame for the Star Wars slowdown is due to their own bad moves with case assortments (which is painfully obvious with the basic figure line too). Stupid, stupid podracers have to be part of the reason for this too... those pieces of crap sucked the life out of the vehicle line in 2012.

On any note, I think it's a decent decision by Hasbro to try this out - but I do hope they still work out a way to have some vehicles out still in the "proper" scale... maybe as exclusives. For example, if K-Mart can keep the AT-ST down to $35, I think we could see new vehicles and popular repacks still for $30 - $35 here and there. Hasbro probably needs to be selective anyway because a lot of the mid size vehicle repacks aren't that sought after.

We really don't know what's in store for this line after this first wave yet - they could surprise us with some repacks that are already smaller anyway for this new $20 line... like the Snowspeeder, Cloud Car, Geonosian Starfighter, just to name a few.

-The Genosian Starfighter would be great to see in this line. If it does come out, it will probably be the only Class 2 vehicle I'll be getting next year.

 

[Michael_Knight]

The geo fighter would have been a good one. The two prong like thingies have always been floppy on mine so an upgrade with stiffer plastic would have been nice.

And....cue dirty joke!

 

[rookie_pilot]

You are confusing the Class 1 vehicles (come with 2 figures) and new Class 2 vehicles (come alone), which have been explicitly described as downsized replacements to the current line.
And to confuse you even further, the sandtroopers interview says that they are both going to cost $20 now.

You're right, my bad. The way the video played I thought they were speaking about the Starfighter and Slave-1.

Has it been expressly stated that all future Class 2 vehicles will be down sized? Or is it just for the forseeable future (say the next year or 2)?

Look at the forum poll?

Will you be collecting the smaller scale vehicles?

Yes: 5.71%

No: 94.29%

Do the math!

Um, not sure why you directed this at me. We're all collectors here so of course we're not going to buy them. I don't need to look at the poll numbers; the comments are sufficient to gauge interest. My point is the casual fan or outsider who is shopping with their child for a birthday gift would think $20 is a good deal for a present. I have to believe Hasbro knew a majority of the fanboys will reject these. But as I said, no everything is made with us in mind. We're all passing on these ... probably more so than the Bespin and Naboo Kenner-articulated battle packs

 

[MajorGibroni]

I think a photo can speak a thousand words:

I will NEVER buy smaller CLASS 2 vehicles. I think the real problem with vehicle sales lately have more to do with poor selection than the higher $29.99 price point. Hasbro insists on re-releasing the same old garage sale selection of vehicles at a higher price than they were in years past. I was at Walmart today and noticed an abnormally large surplus of Class 2 vehicles stacked on an endcap. The selection consisted of OBI-Wans Jedi Starfighter, Sebulba's Pod Racer, Anakin's Pod Racer, Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator, Vulture Droid, and AT-AP. ALL of those vehicles are RE-RELEASES that most collectors and parents have already purchased in previous years. How many OBI WAN FREAKING KENOBI STARFIGHTERS do they think we are gonna buy!?! Smaller versions of the same old crap is still the same old crap just smaller.

 

[CHEWIE]

I will NEVER buy smaller CLASS 2 vehicles. I think the real problem with vehicle sales lately have more to do with poor selection than the higher $29.99 price point. Hasbro insists on re-releasing the same old garage sale selection of vehicles at a higher price than they were in years past. I was at Walmart today and noticed an abnormally large surplus of Class 2 vehicles stacked on an endcap. The selection consisted of OBI-Wans Jedi Starfighter, Sebulba's Pod Racer, Anakin's Pod Racer, Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator, Vulture Droid, and AT-AP. ALL of those vehicles are RE-RELEASES that most collectors and parents have already purchased in previous years. How many OBI WAN FREAKING KENOBI STARFIGHTERS do they think we are gonna buy!?! Smaller versions of the same old crap is still the same old crap just smaller.

I agree, the biggest issue has been that they keep using the exact same molds over and over... and over and over. Then the really cool NEW stuff has been at the tail end of lines... just a bad strategy.

This new lineup will do okay in this first round, I think - especially the Slave I and Tank. More collectors than I think want to admit actually will get some of this line to keep boxed, and $20 has to be more attractive of a price for parents. How could it not be?

In the end, Hasbro loses maybe a few thousand collectors who weren't buying vehicles much anyway, and potentially picks up hundreds of thousands of parents/kids.

 

[Droidworld]

If they did a smaller version of Luke's T-16 Skyhopper, I'd be fine with that perhaps.

Rebelscum.com: Photo Archive

A smaller scale would suit "flying" this one around.

 

[bigbarada]

I want this:

Pack it with two figures and it'd be worth $20 to me.

 

[LadyFerry]

It makes me sick to the stomach that Hasbro kept on going on about saving money and that tooling costs too much money for years, and then they release these new micro-vehicles which obviously cost a lot of Dollars to design and tool.

And the awful thing is that that majority of us don't want them! Why on earth is it that Hasbro never seem to give us what we want anymore? it's a crying shame that all those design & tooling Dollars didn't go elsewhere...

If these don't sell by the bucketload I fear for the Hasbro Star Wars line as a whole.

 

[bigbarada]

It makes me sick to the stomach that Hasbro kept on going on about saving money and that tooling costs too much money for years, and then they release these new micro-vehicles which obviously cost a lot of Dollars to design and tool.

And the awful thing is that that majority of us don't want them! Why on earth is it that Hasbro never seem to give us what we want anymore? it's a crying shame that all those design & tooling Dollars didn't go elsewhere...

If these don't sell by the bucketload I fear for the Hasbro Star Wars line as a whole.

I think you missed the part where they said that collectors are not the target market for these toys. This line is all about providing parents low cost options to purchase toys for their kids. That's it. Adult collectors don't even factor into the equation (although I'm sure a few adult collectors will buy them).

 

[rookie_pilot]

Collectors seem to have a very narrow very when new product is released. Hasbro serves more than one master and cannot survive on the support of collectors. It's the masses that pay the bills not the niche market.

Hasbro gives us new vehicles and they languish on the shelves while collectors wait for a clearance. TRU Y-Wing and K-mart B-wing comes to mind. I will agree that too many Jedi Starfighters, AAT, Tanks, etc have been released in the last couple years. But we can't complain endlessly about vehicles when we are not supporting them at something close to retail price.

 

[Trooper31]

I think these will do fine and even though the first three don't interest me, I think for space reasons, these will eventually appeal to collectors as well.

I think Hasbro saw that the Republic shuttle didn't do well because it was too pricey for a lot of people. They've said all along that the Class I vehicle line has been doing well, though. The mid-size vehicle line got too expensive and like Chewie said, a lot of parents will pick up two $20 vehicles rather than 1 $35 vehicle because they get more bang for their buck.

Hasbro has known for years that the $20 price range is gold for presents. BPs used to be in that range as well as mid-sized vehicles as well. Once they raised prices, sales went down, so they know it has less to do with how good the product is and more to do with that $20 price range.

 

[CHEWIE]

I completely agree, the $20 price range is where it's at for stuff of this nature.

It seems to me that what Hasbro will do moving forward when they want to squeeze in a vehicle that they can't justify in the $20 line, is to work out an exclusive deal with a retailer and get them in the $30-$40 range (new Skiff comes to mind) or find a way to get them into an Ultimate Battle Pack (Mandalorian Assault Ship comes to mind).

I really do hope they can supplement this line with a few repacks of smaller vehicles from the past like was discussed earlier though (Geonosian Fighter, Snowspeeder, etc.), and expect that to be in their plans when possible.

 

[movieman78]

I won't be getting these. Not impressed by what I saw as an adult collector but I see them for what they are: a good way for parents to get some recognizable ships for their kids at a sweet-spot price point. These aren't aimed at me and that's fine.

 

[Michael_Knight]

Poor four people that accidentally clicked "Yes"

 

[CHEWIE]

I checked yes because I plan on getting these for my son. I wonder how well Galactic Heroes would work with them.

 

[Revanfan1]

I wish there was a "Maybe some of them" button, because I would like to. I don't have a full room for my collection like some of you guys, so the smaller the item - as long as it can still fit a normal action figure - the better. I won't buy all of these, of course - I'll probably pass on Slave I unless I see a good deal on it - but I do like the fact that I can now buy vehicles without fearing that I may have to cram them into a storage box somewhere.

 

[LadyFerry]

Here is a photo of the size comparison to the 2004 Jango Fett Slave One and the recent Rise of Boba Fett Slave One, now my friend who went to Celebration VI said that the new smaller scale Slave One he saw and held was over half the size of the 2004 Slave One which makes it really small! you can tell how small it is in the photo next to the Speeder Bike, the Speeder Bike is about six and a half to seven inches long making the new Slave One about nine to ten inches long:

 

[Michael_Knight]

I checked yes because I plan on getting these for my son. I wonder how well Galactic Heroes would work with them.

Okay, that is actually a very good reason to get it.

 

[Revanfan1]

You're obsessed with posting that photo, aren't you?

 

[rookie_pilot]

Here is a photo of the size comparison to the 2004 Jango Fett Slave One and the recent Rise of Boba Fett Slave One, now my friend who went to Celebration VI said that the new smaller scale Slave One he saw and held was over half the size of the 2004 Slave One which makes it really small! you can tell how small it is in the photo next to the Speeder Bike, the Speeder Bike is about six and a half to seven inches long making the new Slave One about nine to ten inches long:

Yes, we know it's small. Anything else to add?

 

[Creeping_Fear]

I will not buy any of these.
If my son wants a ship...I will go on rebelscum.com/ebay and get one of the older/scale sized releases.

 

[Trooper31]

I agree with Chewie. If they can work in some of the other smaller vehicles they already have, then great. Also, I agree that larger ships will be excluisves. There was talk about the large X-Wing that should hit next year as an exclusive, so big ships aren't dead.

I think Hasbro is going to make a mint on these whether collectors warm to them or not. The first three that were shown don't really appeal to me, but if we start seeing some OT ships, then I'll be all over them.

 

[LadyFerry]

You're obsessed with posting that photo, aren't you?

I'm just in shock as to how small it is that's all! I have disbelief written across my face since seeing it!

 

[CHEWIE]

I totally agree, it's hard to believe how small that Slave One is... and I'd probably be pretty upset if they hadn't released the "BMF" style one. But, they did release that big one and it's a damn fine vehicle, and I expect the future OT one to be awesome as well (which I assume they'll also release a mini-version too).

 

[rookie_pilot]

I totally agree, it's hard to believe how small that Slave One is... and I'd probably be pretty upset if they hadn't released the "BMF" style one. But, they did release that big one and it's a damn fine vehicle, and I expect the future OT one to be awesome as well (which I assume they'll also release a mini-version too).

I assume so too. With AOTC and ROTS 3D being released a few weeks apart, LFL is rushing to get to the OT. Then for ESB (in 2015 perhaps?) we'll see a repainted small $20 Slave-1 for kids and a repaint of the CW battlepack version for collectors. How the larger version will be released remains to be seen but I would figure it will be a TRU exclusive since they released the battlepack.

 

[AaylaSecurasMan]

Here is a photo of the size comparison to the 2004 Jango Fett Slave One and the recent Rise of Boba Fett Slave One, now my friend who went to Celebration VI said that the new smaller scale Slave One he saw and held was over half the size of the 2004 Slave One which makes it really small! you can tell how small it is in the photo next to the Speeder Bike, the Speeder Bike is about six and a half to seven inches long making the new Slave One about nine to ten inches long:

Hey, they can later release a Slave I Evolutions set!

 

[Trooper31]

I totally agree, it's hard to believe how small that Slave One is... and I'd probably be pretty upset if they hadn't released the "BMF" style one. But, they did release that big one and it's a damn fine vehicle, and I expect the future OT one to be awesome as well (which I assume they'll also release a mini-version too).

And there's the beauty in all of this. They have a version for collectors and one for kids. If these ships help Hasbro make more money and I'm sure they'll be a hit, that's good for us as well.

 

[Michael_Knight]

And there's the beauty in all of this. They have a version for collectors and one for kids. If these ships help Hasbro make more money and I'm sure they'll be a hit, that's good for us as well.

Okay, that is actually a good way of looking at it.

 

[darthsatan]

It also inadvertently makes the point that, because the collectors already have their version, if they'd made something NEW then they could have sold twice as many by tapping BOTH markets!

 

[Trooper31]

It also inadvertently makes the point that, because the collectors already have their version, if they'd made something NEW then they could have sold twice as many by tapping BOTH markets!

Yes, but collectors have become so fickle and too many wait until something goes on clearance. Also, when they try to tap both markets, then tend to make things more kid-oriented as oppsed to collector oriented.

 

[ZX3]

I'm in the "one of everything" camp and have been since the beginning (in fact shopping the show floor at CVI made it sink in how few of these things I haven't picked up over the years- it kind of took the fun out of hunting the booths) but these new vehickes really give me pause.
On the one hand they're pretty terrible and I already own multiple better versions of each of them, but on the other hand they are Hasbro/Kenner 3 3/4" scale Star Wars toys. Technically at least.
What to do?

 

[darthsatan]

Free yourself! Pass on these and see how it doesn't matter! Then sell on your unnecessary duplicates.

 

[CHEWIE]

It also inadvertently makes the point that, because the collectors already have their version, if they'd made something NEW then they could have sold twice as many by tapping BOTH markets!

I think you have a good point there, but I think there's also some pressure on the Hasbro Star Wars team to look at a new way of bringing in dollars for the vehicles line. From all accounts, 2012 has been a disaster. It's obvious to us that the reason was an overproduction of TPM and repacked "TVC" vehicles that were not in demand, but to the higher ups at Hasbro, I'm sure they saw this as a drop in demand for the $30 or $35 range in vehicles, and their market research is trending toward there being more revenue from small vehicles. So, this is what we get for the mainline of smaller vehicles.

I'd assume they'll still find ways to get some of the vehicles we're used to seeing out in some other capacity (perhaps exclusives?), but I don't blame them for trying something new. It's how businesses have to operate, and taking risks is a big part of that. This is better than then repacking the same vehicles over and over and trying to get people to pay $35 for them, in my opinion. But again, I do hope they still find a way to get some of the vehicle sizes were used to seeing out in 2013/2014... Lars landspeeder, Skiff, etc.

 

[Droidworld]

Since these ships are not "super deformed" and are made to seat the 3 3/4" figures, they are harder to ignore, the way we would Jedi Force, or Galactic Heroes. Hopefully kids and parents won't ignore them the way the did those other smaller ships.

 

[jlw515]

I will, if they do some ships like these:

The second vehicle pictured has already been done! It was done back around 1996 (I think) along with the "Concept" Cloud Car & Speeder Bike. Now, I've got to agree with Justin (Chewie) that these $20 ships are geared for the kids, and kids won't have any idea what the vehicles pictured are. It's all about clones, jedi, and bounty hunters to them. Now, this suggestion I know will fall on deaf ears because let's face it, the entire 2013 line up has already been planned, and molds are being made from prototypes; but it would be a nice nod to the collector if for every three "Clone Wars" type $20 vehicle, Hasbro would throw in a $20 ship geared more toward collectors. For example, something similar to that old Sail Barge mini-rig someone mentioned, or a Lar's landspeeder would be nice to see produced even if at a $20 price range.

Jason

 

[AaylaSecurasMan]

The second vehicle pictured has already been done! It was done back around 1996 (I think) along with the "Concept" Cloud Car & Speeder Bike.Jason

yes, it is an airspeeder

 

[shazbazzar]

I can't believe they have the audacity to make the teeny Slave 1.
The Jedi Starfighter wouldn't be as bad, if they had the astromech head to scale.
But I actually like the mini-tank. It's more like a mini-rig to me.
If I see it in stores (unlikely, I know), I'll buy it.

I hope they do release some of the vehicles which are smaller already like the Geonosian fighter.

Then again, I'm going to be saving a lot of money next year!
Maybe this is how I get to go to Celebration Europe II!

 

[Lord_kain]

Yay! We can all save money now and with the poor selection of figs coming out wont be spending much on them either, looks like i'll be cashed up in 2013..

 

[Maynard]

Yeah, I was thinking of buying like 15 or 16 Jango Slave I's and customizing 1 real 3-3/4inch sized one.

 

[Tyranusspotting]

Seeing how the original SAGA Jedi Star Fighter and Jango's Slave 1 from exactly ten years ago are superior to these newly tooled vehicles, I fail to see Hasbro's gain from this move. I understand that they want to release ships that can be produced to sell for $20 and that the economy has rapidly changed over the past decade, but still, wouldn't it have been the smarter and less expensive move for them to just do straight re-releases of the existing molds, instead of investing in new tooling?
I asked myself the same thing when they first showed all those Movie Heroes figures at ToyFair, figures that basically had less articulation than their counterparts from 1999. Again, in that case I believe they should have just put out the best re-release they had and invested the tooling budget for SA figures in the TVC line instead.

But anyhow...


I doubt I'll pick up any of the three ships that were on display at CVI, although the Jedi Starfighter looks nice, but seeing how this is the second time they didn't sculpt the rear landing gear was the dealbreaker for me.

If they re-release that Slave 1 with a TESB deco, I might actually consider buying it. But before shouting out "blasphemy!" hear me out, the POTF II version is my only Boba Fett ship at the moment, and I don't think I have room for the upcoming larger repaint.

Now, I do actually see some potential in this line. There are a couple of ships I wish Hasbro would give another try in getting the scaling right. Here's a list:

Luke's / Wedges Snowspeeder - the recent resculpt looks nice but I can't help but feel it should have been further scaled down
A-Wing (ROTJ / Blue Ralph McQuarrie concept artwork) - like the Snowspeeder this ship feels very claustrophobic to the pilots in the movie and could therefore use a scale-down
Darth Vader's TIE Advanced X1 Fighter - I never got the POTF II version because there is room for improvement here
Gungan Bongo Submarine - I feel that releasing it as a one-manned submarine might be the only chance for this to ever get made at this point