Hasbro Q&A: Answers for April

> 1. On a few occasions last year US Walmart Exclusives found their way
> North to some of the Canadian Walmarts long after their US debut and
> landed on our shelves at clearance prices. How does this happen or
> more specifically why does this happen? Are they left over product
> that Walmart US feels they can't sell? Is there anything we Canadian
> collectors can do to encourage it more often? I'd love to see the US
> Exclusive A-Wing hit our stores (even at full retail price) but as it
> stands it's pretty much a crap-shoot.

When this happens, it means that a) Wal-Mart Canada elected not to carry
the exclusive the first time, and b) the exclusive was closed out in the
US but Wal-Mart still had inventory and moved it to Canadian retail. It's
unlikely this will continue, as we are trying to encourage the opposite:
placement of all exclusives with Canadian retailers if possible, and
dialing in on the numbers so WM U.S. does not have overages on any
exclusives. The A-Wing is not planned to go north of the border,
unfortunately.

>
> 2. Will the Wal-Mart exclusive evolutions packs (Evolution of the
> Commandos, Imperial Pilots #2 and Rebel Pilots #3) be coming to Canada
> in September?

We have confirmation that the Evolution packs will now indeed be coming to
Wal-Mart Canada this Fall. Great news - as these are fantastic. Look for
them available at approximately the same time as the U.S. version hit
retail - approx 9/1.

>
> 3. Now that we almost have all of the droids from the ANH Purchase of
> the Droids scene, is there a chance that Hasbro would make a new
> bigger Sandcrawler vehicle? You could increase the appeal to kids by
> making it also open up to function as a Kenner-style "droid factory"
> and ship it with a ton of different BaD parts (or even a BaD R2, C3PO
> and bronze RA-7). The OTC Sandcrawler looked great, but if Hasbro
> can't make a new one to the proper scale (which admittedly would be
> super huge), if you just made one bigger than the vintage mold this
> would be a terrific improvement.

We have actually looked at this, but the costs would be staggering to
deliver this very passive vehicle in a larger scale and we do not feel it
would be successful at the larger size. We'd put this up there with the
likelihood of Jabba's Sail Barge - we would love to do it, but the
likelihood is very, very low.