Part 8: Star Wars

Report by Philip N. Zeman, Editor-in-Chief and Daniel Lipkowitz, Assistant Editor
3.19.2003

The last presenter of the day was Jeff Popper for the Star Wars line. As you might have heard, the new focus of Star Wars, both in toys and media, is The Clone Wars, highlighted by a series of 20 3-minute short cartoons that start airing on Cartoon Network on November 7. These cartoons, which will air in primetime through March of 2004, will feature lots of action and little dialogue as they bridge the story gap between Episode 2 and Episode 3. In addition to the cartoons, the Clone Wars will be told through the Lucasarts Clone Wars, video game, Dark Horse comics, books by Scholastic and Del Ray, fiction in the fan club magazines... and, of course, action figures by Hasbro.

In the 3 3/4" figure line is Durge, a new Mandalorian bounty hunter. He is a is a "replacement" for Jango Fett in the Clone Wars story and is quite imposing in apearance. Jeff also highlighted a new General Yoda figure and the ARC Trooper from the Dark Horse comics. There will again be multi-packs of 3 3/4" figures, as well. The Clone Wars will produce the 3-pack Clone Trooper Army; a Droid Army 3-pack; a 3-pack featuring human, Rodian and Twi'lek Jedi Knights; and other figures and speeder bikes.

The Clone Wars will feature several different vehicles, including the Hailfire Droid, the Geonosian Fighter, the Jedi Starfighter, Anakin's Starfighter (which is a modified Jedi Starfighter), and a new, large Republic Commando Gunship.

To go along with these figures, Hasbro has created new packaging. It portrays the grimness of war with a dark, dirty look, and the words "Clone Wars" are prominently displayed along the left side of the card.

For those wanting characters we've seen in the previous 5 films, fear not; the Saga line will continue with new 3 3/4" figures that sport detail, authenticity, and articulation. To mirror the Clone Wars packaging, the Saga line packaging has also been changed. The starfield is against a very dark blue, and the title of the movie the character is from is on the left of the card, much like "Clone Wars" is. This was done so that the name of the movie would be shown more clearly, according to Jeff.

Scene packs will continue with at least 2 figures per scene that haven't been released before. The two mentioned were the Jedi Council and the Genosian War Room. New Action Fleet vehicles are on the way as well.

For larger figures, there are new Star Wars Unleashed (including a new Boba Fett Unleashed coming Fall 2003) and 10 new 12" figures this year.

In the role playing department, a new Yoda lightsaber will be released. Jeff showed a commercial for this new lightsaber, which is smaller than the other lightsabers that have been released.

Jeff then went on to discuss the controversy over the color of Han Solo's coat in "Empire Strikes Back". There is evidence that it is blue in some scenes and brown in others. So rather than arbitrarily choose one color, Hasbro will release two versions, one in blue and one in brown. To help bring along "world peace", a rather clever ad was shown that explains how neither version is wrong.

Finally, Jeff brought in two special guests. Colin Skowronski and Andrew Shterant were winners in Hasbro's "America's Best Star Wars Collectors" contest, Colin in the age 15+ category, Andrew in the age 14 and under. In addition to other prizes, each received a plaque and had their heads scanned to make custom Star Wars figures; each will receive their head on a body type of their choosing.

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: G.I. Joe | Part 3: Transformers | Part 4: Hasbro Publishing | Part 5: Zoids
Part 6: Micro Machines | Part 7: Stikfas | Part 8: Star Wars | Part 9: Hasbro Tour and Conclusion |
Hasbro Collector's Event Index