Auch wir hatten unser 10 Minuten Interview mit Hasbro auf der SDCC 2014. Leider sind ein paar Fragen untergegangen, versuche noch Antworten zu bekommen, hier aber erstmal das 10 Minuten one on one mit Hasbro und unserem Cousin Mark:
SDCC 2014 interview with Star Wars Toy Designer Bill Rawley and Jeff Labovitz from Marketing.
Mark: Most of these questions have do with articulation and paint apps. How do you feel about the direction Hasbro is taking with less articulation, going from the Vintage line and now the five points of articulation?
Bill : I mean we are excited about it, the 3 ¾ inch figures are a great scale and having the limited articulation allows us to keep the cost consumable as well as have the kids and fans be able to pick up stuff. We are still having great sculpts, we are trying to get as much paint on there as possible…but they are still great toys, you can play with them, a kid can put a figure in a vehicle play with it around their bedroom. And be excited about the brand and embrace it as a whole.
Jeff : We were inspired by the toys we grew up with. Which were pretty simple articulated toys. And a few years ago, three or four actually as the prices kept creeping up, and figures became seven, eight, then nine dollars we looked at our line and said we got to get more figures in the kids hands. And Star Wars is such a deep universe with a wide galaxy of characters. So we developed Saga Legends Mission Series with five points of articulation as a nod to the past a very similar feel to the original. It’s a great way to get the figures and vehicles out there but at the same time a bit smaller and inexpensive. For the diehard fans and the fans of the larger vehicles and articulation we are keeping that going through the Black Series. So I think we found a nice place to satisfy the kids and the people hat don’t want to spend a lot of money but want a large amount of figures and the fans who want real articulation and quality.
Mark : We as fans kind of got greedy or use to the multi jointed figures do you feel the digression to the five points of articulation have hurt sales?
Jeff :No we think it’s an efficient and reasonable way for kids and new fans to embrace the TV show Rebels or the Mission Series. We think it’s the best of both worlds. We have the Black series for some types of fans, and the Saga Legends and Mission Series for others.
Mark : There are rumors on the net about Hasbro’s licensing for Star Wars running out. Will you be producing the line for the next foreseeable future?
Jeff : We can’t talk about that today. There are a lot of rumors on the internet, but I never heard about that one.
Bill : Yeah I never heard that one either.
Jeff : No we had a fantastic relationship with Lucas Film and now Disney for many many years and we have that licensing forever.
Mark : I fell in love with the Vintage style format with the figure and movie photo. Any chance you will go back to that style? Maybe for the new movie?
Bill : Not right now, we are working in other formats, but we did it for a year and moved on. But you can never rule it out. It could always be on the table as something to come back to.
Jeff :That’s the great thing about Star Wars it’s going to be around forever. Just like Lucas Film says Star Wars is forever. So even if it’s not in our immediate plans, it doesn’t mean we are not thinking of something in the context of five to six years down the road. So who knows…
Mark : The next question is about distribution: Jeff That is one of Bill’s favorite topics (ha ha).
There wasn’t a lot of product out there this past year?
Jeff : You know, we do our best…We have district managers report from their areas, we have strong partners in retail, we hear from these stores, we read the blogs as well. So we know when problems creep up and like a swat team we do our best to fix things the best we can. Unfortunately the amount of product is so great if we want to make a change to a case pack, if we change something, we might make the change immediately but it may take several months before the figure hits the shelves. We do react quickly but some times it could take months for a problem to resolve.
Mark : How about where a figure disappears from the stores too quickly and now has a higher resale value on the secondary market does any of that concern you? Would you ever consider re – issuing a hard to find figure later?
Jeff: Yeah we look at that and it conforms to our discussion later on to get more figures out there.
Bill : We are not concerned with the secondary market or internet stores. We always want to make the fans on a whole as happy as possible. So if we find that there is a figure we can get into a line later on where there is a whole, we will through that figure in there.
Mark : Lets switch gears to the 6” line. What are your limitations with the 6” line? Size of figures, and how long do you feel this line will last?
Bill : I feel this line will last a long time. I mean it’s really blown out of the water in this last year. The fans have embraced it and we are excited about it. Our limitations right now would be the packaging sizes. The regular figures are limited to their packaging size of depth so we won’t be able to do larger figures like a Gamorean Guard because he is a little too wide. But the deluxe size opens up huge opportunities for us. We can do bigger characters, more characters, creatures, we can do small vehicles, the sky is the limit.
Mark : How about a third packaging size in between to fit something like a Gamorean Guard or an Emperor with throne?
Bill : Well like I said we have the deluxe size we could fit a Gamorean in there, I’m not saying a Gamorean Guard is coming I’m just using him as an example. We are however doing an Emperor with cloth robe, but no chair.
Jeff : With the new entertainment coming we could certainly do larger packs. We don’t have any concrete product plans yet for 2015. We are not going to be constrained to that particular box size (as he points to the regular size figures and then the deluxe) or that particular box size. We will absolutely be doing bigger and better things.
Mark : How about midsized vehicles for the 6” line? Any plans?
Jeff : It’s possible we haven’t had any concrete plans on a piece of paper yet, but there have certainly been talks about it.
Bill : It’s not currently in our plans but there is always talks about vehicles, it comes up many times.
Jeff : No millennium Falcon, (ha ha) No Death Star (ha ha)
Mark : The Prototype Boba Fett sold out in one day I was really surprised. Are there any plans to replenish supply?
Jeff : Just the pre-sale sold out. He will be available to purchase from your local Walgreens. And there will be no differences to packaging such as a SDCC sticker, they will be all the same.
Mark : That concludes out interview. I want to thank you both for your time.
SDCC Q&A with Hasbro
Posted - 08/01/2014 : 3:59:41 PM
