Hasbro Fan Fest 2021 Q&A

4/13/2021 Hasbro Pulse Fan Fest Hasbro Pulse

JediBusiness.com participated in a Zoom meeting this morning with the Hasbro Star Wars Brand Team about the Hasbro Pulse Fan Fest 2021 reveals from last Friday. The following is a loose transcript of the Q&A, you can listen to the full audio on the new episode of Jedi Business Talk, or watch the zoom meeting with other fan sites participating on the JediBusiness.com YouTube channel. 

Some of the announced action figures during Fan Fest were made available to Premium Members on HasbroPulse.com before they were made available elsewhere, why was Star Wars excluded?

A similar situation happened with New York Toy Fair last year, we can't speak to what other brands choose to do, but it's about finding a balance for us. We care a lot about Pulse but we also know that a lot of fans don't have access to Pulse, especially outside of the U.S., Canada and the UK. We wanted to give fair preference to fans around the world and our retail partners.

You mentioned during the live stream that the Vintage Collection specialty waves are going to get their own skus? What does that that mean for us fans? Does that mean we'll find future waves at other retailers besides Target and the Fan Channel? Or does that mean that future character choices will be geared towards the collectors instead of the casual or newer fans?

It means that they'll live on their own peg at retail other than the main line waves. The specialty waves are geared towards the new collector and so there was concern that if they show up at retail that they will peg warm and block future waves for existing fans. The specialty waves are still geard for the online channel but regular retail can order them if they want.  Like we announced on the livestream, the next wave of specialty wave figures (Luke Hoth, Han Endor, Ackbar, Emperor's Royal Guard) will come in small numbers to brick and mortar stores because they need to bridge the gap to the mainline waves because demand for The Vintage Collection is increasing. The plan however is that they are still geared towards the newer fans. Main characters can bring new fans into the line and we've seen success with that and we'll continue to reserve one or two slots in the main line waves for existing fans, which can include re-issue/updated figures or super articulated figures which make it into the line for the first time.

When you revealed the Vintage Collection Luke Skywalker Hoth figure Eric held up the figure to the camera, and that figure had the collar around the neck like the original release, but the press images didn't show it as being included. Without this piece around the neck of the figure it looks rather naked, will it be included?

It is going to be included.

Could you share more details about the Vintage Collection Purge Trooper? It looks as if the pauldron is a newly sculpted part, what is new on this figure or how was it kit-bashed?

The Purge Trooper comes with a new helmet which is not removable. The belt and the cross-straps are new and the shock staff is new too. The other parts on the figure are pulled from previously released figures.

What was the reasoning behind putting the Black Series Aurra Sing in Clone Wars packaging, and not in her debut Phantom Menace packaging?

We discussed this internally, while The Phantom Menace was the first appearance, it was a blink and you miss it cameo. She had a bigger presence in the Clone Wars. We did use the Phantom Menace reference when we sculpted the figure, because The Black Series features realistic interpretations of the characters, but we decided on the Clone Wars packaging because she appeared far more in the Clone Wars than the brief cameo in the The Phantom Menace.

Thank you to Hasbro for inviting JediBusiness.com to this Q&A.