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Hasbro's INDIANA JONES Q&A: The Answers!
Posted by Curto on September 5, 2008 at 04:25 PM CST:
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: Hasbro, with this question, please, we need (desperately need!) a straightforward answer. Fears have come up that the line may be dead after the second Raiders wave. The overflow of pegwarmers, extremely hard to find Last Crusade figures (some made rarer by not appearing in Revision cases,) the lack of upcoming big pushes to buy Indy figures and what seems to be dying interest from kids are making fears even worse. How much longer do you see the line going? Obviously its not Star Wars, which has little to no dull looking characters, while some main characters like Brody are just men in suits, and Indy doesn't have as many characters to pull from as Star Wars, so none of us expect the line to go for more than two or three years.
Hasbro: While we were hopeful that the line would generate a substantial collector following, it appears that IJ is still relatively small compared to other collector brands and you have outlined the situation exactly as it stands. With retail performance expectations high for the boys aisle, it remains a challenge to keep IJ a competitive brand without sustained entertainment and a reason for kids to remain engaged. We need kids to really keep the brand healthy and we are hopeful that they will come back to the line for the DVD releases and stick with us through the holiday. Beyond that we will have to wait and see.
Cool Toy Review: Hasbro, will you please admit that the 2008 Mutt Williams action figure(s) situation = 1999's Jar Jar Binks Episode 1 situation?
I'm not a Mutt hater, but there is NO WAY that your estimates of how popular Mutt is with kids is correct. No way. He is everywhere, and last time I checked, the movie was about Indiana Jones, not Mutt Williams. A ton of Indys on the pegs, sure. Makes perfect sense. Mutt? Not so much. So, drop any and all Mutts from ALL FUTURE CASE ASSORTMENTS, and replace them with The Last Crusade and, when the time comes, Temple of Doom figures.
Hasbro: Mutt is the second-best selling figure next to Indy, right in line with our expectations. The version with jacket is a significantly better seller than the one without, though. We did that version based on the belief that Mutt had scenes without his jacket, which turned out to be incorrect.
Cool Toy Review: With all the speculation that the future of the Indiana Jones figure line is "uncertain" because of the glut of wave one and two figures currently on the shelf, and your response that it would take greater volume than an online retailer could provide to continue the line, I was wondering if this might be possible:
Much like Battlestar Galactica Titanium vehicles are mixed in with Star Wars assortments, would it be at all possible to include an Indiana Jones figure or two in with the Star Wars figure assortments?
This way, you could produce these Indy figures in the same volume you would any other Star Wars figure, it would generate excitement between the collectors of the two lines and it would give us Indy fans the figures we have been waiting for, for so long without killing off the line as a whole.
This line is simply too good just kill off completely because of a few unforeseen speed bumps out of the gate.
Hasbro: What you outline may be possible, but whether we release additional IJ figures will depend on how IJ does through the holiday period.
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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