From: Eric Sansoni (eas179@psu.edu)
To:   Kenner/Hasbro (hasbro2@eos.net)

The rumors and issues about the future of Kenner POTF vehicles have been on 
my mind for a few weeks now, and I've been trying to keep a clear head and 
take everything into consideration.  My feeling is definitely that Kenner 
should do these vehicles, and that they will be popular enough to warrant 
production (or reproduction as the case may be).  It would be disappointing 
to end up with a greater variety of vehicles (or figures) in the old line 
than Kenner does in the new line.  But I understand that the question of the 
best way to market and price them is an important consideration.

First of all, I think the A-Wing and AT-AT are the best POTF2 vehicles 
produced so far.  As far as I can tell they appear to be very successful.  
That's due to their visual and playable quality, the expensive price on the 
market of the original counterparts, and the fact that pack-in figures 
premiered with them.  I'm confident that more releases along those basic 
lines will be equally successful.  I also think Kenner would have a big hit 
with a Death Star and Sarlacc playset and other new similar items, but 
that's a different, if related story.  There are more people buying who can 
afford the more expensive items now than there were in the old days.

Many of the vehicles yet remade for POTF2 are the ones so many people didn't 
get as kids, and couldn't afford to buy off the dealer's market.  Old 
X-Wings and TIE Fighters and AT-STs are common and cheap.  They were 
affordable in the old days, released when the movies and toys were most 
popular.  But the A-Wing is one of those cases where no one could afford 
the $200 and up for the rarely released old one, and were very happy with 
the rerelease.  The Skiff is an even more expensive example, followed by 
the Sandcrawler, Shuttle, B-Wing, TIE Interceptor, Y-Wing, (then Ewok Battle 
Wagon, not technically a movie vehicle).  The Rebel Transport, Cloud Car, 
and box-shaped Troop Transport (some say a non-movie item, but it's similar 
to vehicles in the Hoth Rebel Base), are not so expensive, but the Rebel 
Transport would make the best carrying case all over again in the new line, 
and the other ones are cheap enough to still be more affordable in POTF2.  
When everything is added up, it would be about $700 cheaper to buy the 
POTF2 rereleases than the originals of all the above.  The problem with 
marketing "core" vehicles is that we all had those as kids or bought them 
at common prices on the dealer's market this decade.  Now we want to buy 
the ones we didn't get as gifts then, and which are too rare and expensive 
now.  I can't think of a handful of items that would be as popular with 
collectors as a Skiff rerelease.  Many people would buy two, just because 
two showed up in the pivotal Sarlacc scene.

It doesn't matter if Kenner uses the old molds, or makes good new molds, 
the vehicles will still be good replacements.  But the other reason the 
core vehicles didn't perform as well as might be expected is because the 
tooling was too primitive.  Those were made in the earliest days of the 
line, and most don't pass as state-of-the-art design nowadays.  But the 
molds dramatically improved in realism and proportion in the Empire and 
Return of the Jedi era.  The Skiff, Shuttle, B-Wing, Cloud Car, maybe the 
Sandcrawler are all as good as the A-Wing and AT-AT.  (I think the TIE 
Interceptor needs a redo like the Vader's TIE got, and the Y-Wing needs 
more solid engines rather than the fragile snap-together ones, as well as 
a POTF2-size droid slot).  For the most part these molds are done, which 
of course should reduce Kenner's fixed costs of production.

I understand that larger items take up more retail shelf space, and may be 
hard to get stores to stock.  So look at the original Sandcrawler, which I 
believe was a Sears or JCPenney's catalog exclusive.  Items this large make 
sense to be stored in warehouses and shipped directly as catalog orders.  
The larger items could be marketed now as non-limited catalog exclusives.  
To one catalog or to multiple catalog outlets...  Or they could be set up 
as a pre-sell ticket at Toys 'R Us.  Any system where Kenner or retailers 
could simply receive the orders and produce the product to at least fill 
that strong initial demand.  If it's a choice between doing these as store 
or catalog exclusives versus not doing them at all, then collectors would 
be satisfied with an exclusive in its most available and convenient form, 
pre-order or mail-order.

I'm not sure how many units Kenner expects to sell, but if they were going 
to be happy with selling as many Collector Series Tauntauns as they did at 
$50 a piece, it's a definite that they can sell that many of these vehicles.  
I don't think prices should get extremely out of hand, but a Shuttle could 
easily go in the range of the AT-AT's price, a Sandcrawler maybe that or a 
bit less, and a B-Wing and Y-Wing for $40-50.  These are essentially the 
same prices at which collectors ate up the Collector Series exclusives.  A 
Skiff, Cloud Car, TIE Interceptor, Troop Transport, (and the new but 
obvious TIE Bomber) should easily fit into the Mid-Size Vehicle line.  
These don't have to be aimed at the mass market much more than the 12" 
dolls are, which also cost about $20 each.

Pack-in figures are not hard to come up with for these.  A Barada, Klaatu, 
or other guard for the Skiff, Jawas and their droids for Sandcrawler, 
Imperial Dignitaries for the Shuttle, particular pilots for a few of the 
others.  You could rerelease these pack-ins later, but they will still 
increase excitement if they debut with these vehicles.  People don't always 
want to wait to get the new figures, and it will simply lead them to spend 
money for the new vehicles more quickly than they might have otherwise.

I think Kenner should look across all the company's lines.  Would a Batman 
or Jurassic Park vehicle sell more units than any Star Wars vehicle at all?  
Are there any high-end action figure-related items Kenner could possibly do 
for any line that would have more built-in popularity than the Star Wars 
vehicles?  It seems to me this license is a blessing, with any original 
product, especially movie-inspired, demanding a strong guaranteed base of 
sales.  Kenner should think about the raw number of how many collectors are 
out there who will buy one of every original release.  It's not enough to 
say more people buy Star Wars figures than vehicles.  Few things in the 
world sell more units than $5 Star Wars figures!  But the Star Wars 
vehicles are still more popular than most other things Kenner could do.

The redos of "core" vehicles are just not that appealing to collectors, and 
the high price point is always going to be more of a turnoff to the mass 
market.  I expect the Power F/X X-Wing to be as weak a release as the 
Power F/X Collector Series Obi-Wan and Vader now on clearance.  Collectors 
already have these toys in a cheaper form.  It's not worth double the 
bucks just to get a souped-up version of what you already have.  Not to 
mention the F/X features are too often added at the expense of basic, 
standard, expected playability.  The non-removable R2 unit was one of the 
big disappointments with the old X-Wing mold.  Now that both him and Luke 
X-Wing Gear are non-removable, the toy is even more limited in play value.  
Interchangeability, and adjustability for diverse play and display choices 
are what drive the popularity of action figures.  Kids can't put Wedge or 
Biggs in this X-Wing, nor can they have it stolen by Imperial enemies.  And 
collectors can't display it on Dagobah empty and half-sunk in the mud, nor 
can they fill out a Rebel hanger with extras or get an X-Wing for Biggs.  
Also, the smaller scale is an advantage to keeping the prices affordable on 
vehicles.  This new X-Wing is out of scale to previous vehicles, and more 
vehicles on this scale would probably cost too much.  I'm afraid the Power 
F/X X-Wing is a poorly conceived choice, too expensive for the mass market, 
too boring and common a choice for fans, and lacking in the play value both 
these camps enjoy.  Sounds and lights are *great*, as in the AT-AT, but not 
at the expense of the normal versatility we expect in an action figure toy.  
This is a disappointing direction for POTF2 vehicles, especially given the 
not-yet-done original vehicles that Kenner might have delivered for $50.

There are a lot of companies licensing Star Wars products, and ultimately I 
hope Lucasfilm and Kenner will allow another company to pick up this slack 
if Kenner decides not to do these vehicles.  I would rather see Kenner do 
it, to make sure the scale and general tooling is consistent, and after 
seeing the A-Wing and AT-AT I think Kenner could do it best.  But it 
doesn't make sense to buy a license and then not use it.  Neither is it 
fair to other companies who were denied the license, or fair to the fans 
willing to buy the product if it's made.  If Kenner doesn't intend to do 
the vehicles I hope they will let a company like Galoob take on the 4" 
figure scaled vehicles and shoulder whatever risk Kenner feels they can't 
take.  Just like Paramount and Fox helped each other out to finance the 
Titanic movie (which ironically turned out to be a big success also), 
maybe all the managers will be happier about splitting the investment in 
this part of the line out to someone like Galoob.  Anyway thanks for 
listening, I hope you consider everything carefully.  Keep listening to 
the fans and keep our perspective in mind.  We made POTF2 a success in 
the beginning and we will stick around for years no matter how the general 
audience or kid interest fluctuates.  I hope there is some logic to 
releasing the vehicles here that appeals to the decision-makers at Kenner.