Tomart.com has reported that Pote Snitkin, Leia Hoth, AT-AT Driver, and 
Death Star Droid on regular cards will be exclusive to the Star Wars Insider 
this year, implying that they will not ship to normal retail outlets.

I applaud Kenner's efforts to get more classic movie figures out faster, but
there are better ways to do it than to give an overpriced outlet like the
Fan Club their own monopoly on some of the hottest Star Wars releases of the
year (which any of the single carded figures from the movies certainly
qualifies as).  It's disappointing to see well-known figures like Leia Hoth
not ship to stores, because only fans, not kids and casual buyers, will be
subscribers to the Fan Club magazine.  It would be wiser to ship the
Expanded Universe figures through the Fan Club instead, at least the non
Luke and Leia ones.  They do not have the mass appeal as much as anything
linked to a movie photo does.

If the problem is that stores are not ordering cases fast enough, and we 
know sadly this is a huge problem, Kenner needs to sell their new figs 
through new assortment numbers.  Anything with a new number will flood into 
the stores because their tracking systems know they are out-of-stock on that
item.  It's kind of ridiculous to see Toy Biz get every single Spider-Man
wave out in the stores immediately, when Star Wars figures sell so much
better, just because they introduce new waves with a new assortment number.  
These 4 figs could come in their own case with their own number, and so
could the next wave and so on.  They'd be on the shelves instantly in
quantity, and a back-up on any particular wave could be clearanced later,
independently of new shipments of new figs under new stock numbers.

Even if something like the Expanded Universe figures has to ship through a 
more limited outlet, it doesn't have to be as limited as the Fan Club.  
Anything should at least go through Diamond Distributors, another outlet 
very geared to fans.  Can't a 4-set of these new figures at least be offered 
to retailers?  There are some (like Boscov's) which jump on 
collector-oriented figs and toys that other stores ignore.  And of course if 
mail order has to be the way the best is to get it directly from the source, 
Kenner itself, and hopefully the price could be left at $6 each since Kenner 
would already have a greater profit margin selling directly to the consumer.

Overall I hope Kenner realizes it's the distribution of the figures that is 
in need of reform.  The demand is still as big as ever.  It just doesn't 
make sense that all the new figures are heavily desired by a huge group of 
fans but remain unavailable in stores for six months or more and counting.  
Offering these figures through a small outlet like the Fan Club is much 
better than cancelling or delaying them, but it is not a good long-term 
solution to the distribution of new figures in quantity in a timely manner.