Toy Fair 2016

[Jeff]

Just a little under two weeks to go so it's time for a thread, I guess.

Hasbro's "2016 Entertainment Brand Press Preview" is set to begin at 1:30pm ET on Saturday, February 13th.   The usual slide show (Transformers, My Little Pony, Star Wars, Marvel), then booth visit.  No word yet if any phones will be allowed, but if so I'm sure news will be flowing on Twitter and social media.

[McMetal]

I just want to see those pictures from the "Judgement At Nuremberg" Toy Fair going on right now. They've got 6" Rogue One figures on display! Schwing!

( I know photos are technically prohibited but it is 2016, come on millennials)

[JediJman]

Just a little under two weeks to go so it's time for a thread, I guess.

Hasbro's "2016 Entertainment Brand Press Preview" is set to begin at 1:30pm ET on Saturday, February 13th.   The usual slide show (Transformers, My Little Pony, Star Wars, Marvel), then booth visit.  No word yet if any phones will be allowed, but if so I'm sure news will be flowing on Twitter and social media.

Sweet, that came up fast!  Are you going?

[Jeff]

Are you going?

Nope.  Too much family stuff going on, couldn't justify the time away (or the cost).

[indysolo007]

Judgement at Nuerenberg sounds like a battlepack!

[Jesse James]

Toy Ark had some interesting things revealed on their forums...  3.75" figures, 6" figures, an AT-AT with a pop-up nerf feature ala the Falcon (smaller than the BFATAT), and a TIE Fighter that may or may not be akin to the ones previewed in Season 2 of Star Wars: Rebels...  Kinda bent wings.

Seems interesting.  Assuming we still won't get good 3.75" figures outside of an exclusive line, if at all, but overall sounds like a neat group of toys being shown.  I'm kind of surprised they have anything for this at TF at all.

I wasn't able to go to TF this year either due to some things that have come up for me too.  *shrugs*

Would like to get back to the show next year maybe...  hopefully.

Saw the comments on this on Disqust after Yakface.com posted it, and it's funny that all people could do was complain about stuff they can't even see, and bitch about TFA products they won't get.  Wow. 

[Rob]

If we don't see Luke and Leia action figures...

[Jesse James]

Meh, I'll live.  I want Luke, but Leia's take it or leave it to me.  Luke would be only thing I'm disappointed about, maybe.  But at the same time who knows what they have planned before then too.  Lotta time to September, assuming the release schedules stick for these new films.

[Brian]

It's a little disappointing to see the "small presence" comments regarding their Toy Fair showing this weekend. I realize the line has changed a lot over the years, but I remember so looking forward to this time each year, and seeing at least a couple waves or something exciting/surprising come out of Toy Fair (and Comic Con). We haven't had that for awhile one, but I thought with the huge success of Force Awakens we would maybe get back to those type of times again. It would be interesting to go back and look at coverage from like 2005-2010 times and see what was revealed then in comparison.

[Jesse James]

The small presence is for the sites... I'm sure in the important meetings, with retailers/buyers, things are different.  They always are.  But just as they go to USA Today when they really want publicity, they also know giving too much to the collector sites is sort of a hodgepodge of "publicity" (some good, and some [most] bad), and not worth their time to do it.

You'll get a lot of lips on ******** this time of year, but in a week it's back to the same ole same ole.  Why bother with the small audiences when you can just give it to USA Today, who are ecstatic to take it, and promote it to a vastly larger (and less biased) audience? 

The "small presence" thing is likely to continue for a long while I'd imagine.

[Nicklab]

We're going to see some Q1 and Q2 offerings, and that's probably going to be it.  We're simply dealing with a new model for the rollout of the Star Wars line than we've been accustomed to from 1999 - 2015. 

As for what we're probably going to see in the basic figure line?  Main characters like Leia and Luke, other versions of Rey, Finn and Poe.  Maz and Snoke are probable.  As for second and third tier characters?  That's tough to call at this point.  I think things will pick up for the REBELS line, which seemed to get shelved for the most part during the promotional push for TFA.  And I think that the OT and PT will get some token representation, but nothing substantial. 

I think one of the most telling things about what we're going to see in the future was a small news item that we saw a few months ago.  It may not have even registered with a number of people.  And that was the fact that Disney trademarked the term "FORCE FRIDAY" following the all out media blitz and merchandise offering that was the first Force Friday.  I think we're going to see another Force Friday for the rollout of the toy line supporting the ROGUE ONE movie this September, and we'll probably see another for Episode 8 in September of 2017.  I think we'll see a select few things at SDCC, but most things will get held back for Force Friday.

[Rob]

So the fine people posting at Rebelscum are saying that Hasbro didn't show a single 3 3/4" item. 

At this point I'm assuming that's accurate?

[Nicklab]

There are a scant few 3.75" Rebels figures.  Season 2 Sabine, Leia, Kanan in Stormtrooper armor and Darth Maul.  There's also a new image of the Seventh Sister Inquisitor that's making the rounds.

They also showed the Takodana Encounter multipack with Maz, Rey, Finn, BB-8 and the accessories.

[P-Siddy]

But 0 SA 3.75" if that's what you're wondering.

[Rob]

Looks like 0 TFA was what I meant - outside of that battlepack we already saw.

So despite a new movie and Super 7 promising tons of new Reaction stuff, the only things that came out of Toy Fair that fit my collecting focus were a few Rebels figures, a Reaction Aliens set, and a terribly conceived Hoth Lego set.

What a bust.