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Hasbro's INDIANA JONES Q&A: The Answers!
Posted by Curto on May 23, 2008 at 05:00 PM CST:
It's finally here! Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hit theaters this week, and it's a fun-filled thrill-ride adventure of a movie! But the fun doesn't stop there!
As part of Hasbro's bi-weekly Star Wars Q&A session over at Rebelscum, we've been allowed to pass on 3 of your burning Indiana Jones questions! So check out the latest scoop we've got for you this session.
Cool Toy Review: I would very much like to know what unique challenges (if any) were presented when developing the Indiana Jones line as opposed to Star Wars.
Your sculpting and tooling techniques have evolved considerably since 1995 and you've managed to come up with some innovative ways to incorporate incredible articulation and action features while keeping the figure or vehicle as aesthetically pleasing as possible.
Has moving from a fantasy-based line like Star Wars, with all of it's fantastic aliens, creatures and technology to a more earth-bound line like Indiana Jones been an easier or more difficult transition for your team?
Hasbro: Actually there were three big challenges on the Indiana Jones line: the timing, the need to harness the essence of IJ quickly into a line that captured both kids and collectors, and the selection of a new factory to produce our 3-3/4" figures.
The first challenge was due to the sheer surprise and relative lateness of the announcement that George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Harrison Ford were teaming up again to produce IJ IV...and the fact it was on a fast track at that! We learned January of 2007 and met with Lucasfilm soon after. As soon as we had a deal we were off an running, but it left less than a year from start to finish for the
first waves, which caused many people a lot of late nights to get us there.
Second, IJ is not as easy on the surface to plan out, because the theme of adventure permeates everything and we needed to add special twists like the relics and "Ticket to Adventure", so it took us a while to really get the full lineup of figures, role play, and other signature items.
Finally, because we have kept our principal Star Wars figure factory pretty much in full production across the board, we elected to go with a new factory and there were some learning issues that we needed to work through, especially when it came time to hitting our exacting standards for detail in all areas of scultping and deco. They have really come on fast though and we love what we are seeing...and hope you do too!
Cool Toy Review: Some of the concepts in the Indy line are great! The Deluxe line with mini playsets or double packs and the dios in the vehicle packaging are cool, and well worth the wait to see a return. Will we see some more concepts in between IJ and SW, such as Deluxe Packs and Comic Packs (Indy and Sasquatch from Star Wars Tales, anyone?) in the Indiana Jones line or Deluxe Packs in the Star Wars line?
Hasbro: We like that Star Wars Tales story ourselves..it would certainly be an interesting one to do. We are looking at IJ comic packs, since there are some great stories that have been produced by Dark Horse and some interesting recurring characters in the Marvel issues that are worth a look.
However, we are not certain when we will get those in. As far as deluxe assortments in Star Wars - you won't see an exact analog at that price point, but there are some surprises in store for Deluxe-like
elements here and there in the Battle Packs.
Cool Toy Review: While the new toys are great, and it's awesome to finally get modern versions of Indy toys, some of the figures' paint apps are poor in quality (mostly on figures' faces). Can we hope to see these paint apps corrected for the currently released (and upcoming) figures? It would be greatly appreciated! And speaking of paint apps, will the horse be corrected with a mostly-white paint app?
Hasbro: We have been working with our principal Star Wars factories for years now and the process is well-honed; for IJ, it was a fast development cycle and a new factory, and overall we are pleased with the results and are fine-tuning the process as we go along.
We have had some issues with consistency of paint deco on some figures, but we hope that we have worked through those issues and what you'll be seeing meets your standards. As for the horse, that is the color that we have been directed to hit so we don't see that changing.
Got any burning Indiana Jones questions you need answered straight from the source? If so, post your questions in this thread in our forums, and with any luck, you'll get your answers next time! |
  
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