AT-AT Demo Only
Full Star Wars Showroom
New York City is a cold place in February. Not just in the metaphoric sense, it's actually freezing. The long straight roads act as wind tunnels between the tall buildings, whipping the arctic air through your body as if you were wearing nothing at all.
Hasbro had their usual shindig at the times center in NYC. 2 hours of watching powerpoint presentations and then 1.5 hours to walk around a small hall with people from websites that you should know but don't. 7 years in, I see these guys each year, but it is full of cliques. Star Wars people stay with Star Wars people etc.. Us, we're outsiders. We stand in the corner and watch. We see a few friendly faces though, including the Phil Reed from Battlegrip, the kid who lost his camera, and the guy who got bit by a shark (true story!). Big Kev is cordial as ever.
Once the presentations are over, we all fight for position to take photos and videos of all the stuff on display. Some of it relevant, some not. Some things cooler than others.
We'll start with Star Wars.
The star of the show is the big-ass AT-AT. It will be out for $99.99 and come in two different boxes - one modern, one that will look like the original ESB box. The AT-AT will have opening cockpit with room for four, firing missiles, electronic sounds, opening side hatches, stowable speeder bike, grappling hook and bottom hatch, you name it. At over 2 feet tall this is one not to be missed.
Newly tooled Cloud Car and Snow Speeder - also announced cloud car pilots (with 2 different face sculpts) and Luke's gunner, Dak.
For figures, Clone Wars continue, along with the regular line and the vintage line. Vintage figures will look like old Kenner cards, this time with no clamshell. In a surprise move, if you collect proof of purchase from Star Wars figures you can mail away for a rocket-firing Boba Fett. And not a modern rendition - the classic Kenner 5 point of articulation version. the missile is modified to conform with modern safety standards, but still, how cool is that?
There's a cute kiddie at-at
And Boba Fett helmet and Blaster:
Comments
22 comments postedEditors note:
I'm too damn tired to write more coverage tonight. Lego starts at 7 am tomorrow and i need to go to bed...
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CollectionDX Admin
Bring some hot chocolate for you and the others on the long walks outside, Josh!
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CollectionDX Staff
Thanks Josh! The AT-AT of course is amazing for the price and size. The Galactic Heroes(?) AT-AT looks fun also.
Lego at 7AM?!! On a Sunday? GAHH! Sadistic crazy people! Haha. Guess they gotta all cram for you reporter's attentions.
OMG I so want that rocket firing Boba Fett! It will be the first one I've personally owned,but when I was a kid my friend's older brother's friend's cousin had one and it was so cool!
Seriously,though,I will probably send away for one. That's a really cool idea for a promotion.
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A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup
Well it finally happened, Hasbro came up with something that gets me back into buying SW figures again... I assume you need 5 proofs for the Fett right? sweet.
Hasbro has been doing awesome Star Wars stuff steady since 2007. But this year's offerings look great. That Boba Fett mail-in is great (actually all of the mail-ins last year were awesome too.) - I hope they do the mail-in like they did the 2009 ones, where any UPC from the last 2 years works.
I've got the huge Millennium Falcon, and I'm really tempted to further reduce my living space for a dog-sized AT-AT.
There is a lot of really cool stuff coming from the Clone Wars as well. It's great that they're not putting a lot of this stuff out until the fall, so I can save up.
It's been probably 5 years since I bought a Star Wars figure,but yeah,I agree with you Jerilock.
I have bought a couple of those little Galactic Heroes dudes,though. They're funny,and stand on a shelf a lot easier than an army of regular figures would. The humans are kind of stupid looking for the most part,but the aliens/droids have a cool design.
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A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup
Josh,
Great Coverage! Thanks for checking out the At-At, that thing is BEAUTIFUL!!!! And only for $100.00?! Fantastic price point.
I'm in heaven!
LF
Leonardo Flores
CollectionDX Staff Writer-West Coast Bureau
Way cool At-At.
Gotta get the new Fett. It's cool they're doing it the way they did back then, with the send-away. If only I could ask my parents to get it for me like I did then...
Not a complaint, but more Boba Fetts means that my previously-complete Fett collection will now have a gaping hole for a while. I'm happy there's a new one, it gives me something new to collect, but I'll have to find five other figures I want to get the 'new' Fett. Maybe I can get the proofs from some friends kids.
As always, the Star Wars ships are totally awesome. Still not into the figures, though.
The AT-AT looks like crap, hardly bigger than the old one, and about the same level of play value.
The cloud car finally gets a re-tool. For such a unique design it deserved a little more attention. That toy never got re-released, mainly because you could still pick up an old one for cheap, and it was still pretty much what you'd expect from it - it looked like a croissant and held two dudes.
That snowspeeder looks like the semi-retool from a few years back. It's about 80% original, with the mechanism removed and a laughably big harpoon added. It does have the air brakes though, which was something I always wanted on the old one - and used to remove the battery cover to simulate.
The classic packaging seems to be the go-to move now. Nothing sells better than nostalgia, even though it's getting a little tired when every toy company is now screaming "remember this!" with their products, instead of actually making innovations.
Of course I'll jump at the chance to get a missile Fett, even though Hasbro burned me for never sending my Doc figure after I bought $70 worth of crappy comic sets to send in for him.
I'll end up buying some SW figures after my long boycott. The only ones I got after a long spell were some MacQuarrie ones, but those were special exceptions.
I'm not tryin' to flame you or anything Duke, but I find it funny that you like vintage Jumbo Machinders with their funny proportions and toy-features over the modern Toynami jumbo vinyls, but hate the new AT-AT because it has toy features and isn't screen accurate. I mean, they're different kinds of subjects, to a degree, but it's just a funny attitude. I'm curious what your ideal AT-AT toy would be/look like... where is the line drawn between franchises you like 'toy' toys for, and those that you want something a little more accurate?
http://prometheusrising.wordpress.com
"The AT-AT looks like crap"
Come on,that's just silly. What more could you possibly ask for from a toy ATAT?
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A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup
Throw a wash on it for one thing, it's all one color like it just came off the the prototype machine. This is Toyfair, present the thing in the best possible light. Make it a full foot taller, these things are massive, it stepped on a speeder like nothing. If you're going to make a bigger version of the toy and add features, make it impressive and closer to 1/18 scale. The speeder is dumb and not canon, and the inside is barely different than the old one. The guns on the head are too big and dumb.
They are clearly aiming this at the adult collector, since parents aren't buying $100 toys for a kid these days. So why make it like a child's toy with such goofy features? It's like the Falcon from 2 years ago, it wasn't much bigger than the original, and had a dumb mini-ship that took up what could have been room for more accurate interior.
Just like I touched on earlier, the old toy isn't hard to find (it's been released and updated several times), so if you're going to try and sell me on a new one, it better be far more improved than the original.
Wow. I thought -I- was a curmudgeon! :)
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A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup
Yeah, not sure why you think it looks like crap. It's kinda funny, but if you'll notice above, there's not a single full shot of the toy! Every pic is an extreme closeup, so it's kinda hard to get solid impression of the whole thing. Of course...this IS Hasbro...and like the new Millenium Falcon, I'm sure it's dead on to what we saw in the movies. And that's fine.
Anyway, as cool as this is, I still prefer that fancy-schmancy motorized Lego AT-AT. Lego...Star Wars...two great tastes that go great together!
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Sanjeev
Take a look at the toy fair videos from Hasbro on some other sites before you judge, Duke. Take a quick search and you will see how much bigger and cooler the new AT-AT is.
Also Duke, Cloud Car wasn't re-released or remade for two reasons: 1- it was the "shelf warmer" vehicle in the vintage Kenner line, and could be found at retail as late at 1989 in some markets. 2- The molds were lost in the 90's at some point. It does look like a giant croissant.
The Snowspeeder is a completely new tool, it's a little bit bigger than the previous versions. The old one was cool but when you compare the two, you can see this one is quite a bit bigger.
Fans (and environmentally-conscious folks) have been asking for a return to the classic packaging for almost six- yes, six!- years. Nostalgia is big, but if you've been following the Q&A sessions every few weeks, fans have been pushing monthly for a return to this packaging under the environmentally friendly banner for almost 2 years steady now. Smaller size, less ink, less plastic, less toxic glue, less cost to ship to the store... Hasbro is considered one of the worst corporate polluters in the world, right behind Nintendo in the market, it's nice to see a smaller package finally happen.
"Nothing sells better than nostalgia, even though it's getting a little tired when every toy company is now screaming "remember this!" with their products, instead of actually making innovations."
Um... where have you been for the last 10 years, and why do you collect toys in the first place? for money, or nostalgia? That's usually *why people over 13 years old buy this stuff in the 1st place* dude, nostalgia... What do you think any/all modern toys are, besides nostalgia? And if you collect vintage, then you are already a sucker for nostalgia. Seriously, what new product has been released in the last five-ten years that is not a part of nostalgia or re-release of older product?
I'd love to hear what "innovations" you think would be acceptable for Star Wars, or actually, *any* property. It's pretty much all been done at this point.
Nostalgia is fine and good, but it's been taken too far when every single company has decided to just re-sell your childhood to you. If these companies can't think up anything new, then thy might as well close up shop and call it a day.
There are already millions of old toys out there to get, so making them again seems pointless. Maybe I'm over-estimating the amount of people that use ebay or visit antique shops for old toys.
You are completely over estimating. There aren't very many at all. I find far, far, far more people looking for a vintage record, or an antique jacket, than any of the toys we discuss on this site. The interest in modern toys far exceeds that of vintage. I had some Godaikin stuff on consignment for over a year at an area antique store at very reasonable prices (all $25-50 less than going ebay rates) before I took them back and sold them on ebay. But the Star Wars stuff I bring by goes within 2 weeks and for double the online rate.
The 3 3/4 inch star wars figure has become a classic kids toy, like the Hula Hoop, or the top, or the 12-inch GI Joe. Kids today love star wars just as much as you did as a kid. Why are "you" the only one allowed to have figures? Why is it so bad for a kid to be able to buy their favorite Star Wars characters at retail, and not have to pay a collector a premium for it?
And again I think you (and many Star Wars fans) live in this "collector's bubble" where you think toys are valuable and that collectors actually have serious buying power. Parents do buy these big vehicles for their kids. Not in the numbers they did in the 80's, but they still do, and they make up about 70%+ of the sales of SW products in North America and Europe.
Duke I just don't get how guys like you think. You don't want nostalgia sold to you, but you're happy to pay folks like me more money for that same nostalgia in a different form. No one is holding a gun to your head and saying "you must buy modern toys!" As someone who collects both, I think it's a little ridiculous to have such a hate, when it's more like apples and oranges- me, I like a fruit salad.
I'd love to hear how collecting vintage is any less "nostalgia" than a modern 2010 toy.
And again, I'd love to hear what "innovations" you think would be acceptable for Star Wars, or actually, *any* property. It's pretty much all been done at this point.
Still waiting for your answer!
"It looks like crap."
Well, c'mon, it IS all just flat gray colored, and stuff...
Hasbro mentioned in a Q&A in 2007 that they are doing some of their larger vehicles going forward in a "matte" type of plastic, that holds paint very well. Customizer guys have been asking for this for years.
So I would say, if you want a washed-out, dirty AT-AT, do it yourself. It'll look much better than anything Hasbro would do anyway.
"There are already millions of old toys out there to get, so making them again seems pointless. Maybe I'm over-estimating the amount of people that use ebay or visit antique shops for old toys."
I think a lot of Star Wars toy purchasers aren't looking on eBay or antigue shops because THEY'RE CHILDREN.
That's also one of the main reasons they remake some characters and vehicles they previously made into toys. Their main market isn't jaded fanboys who already own 12 Lukes,it's children who like the Star Wars movies and "shudder" want to buy some new toys at a store for retail price.
I don't understand why you think one of the biggest mainstream toylines in Walmart is entirely or even mostly aimed at adult collectors.
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A master of mind control who hides inside a Ford Pickup