Saturday was a jam-packed day. After the Return of the Jedi panel it was quick sprint over to the Twin Suns Stage where we planned on attending the Hasbro panel. We were lucky enough to meet up with our dear friend James who was attending for the Saturday only and he had stayed in the seats after the publishing panel. While the brand team made final preparations at the back of the room, the warm-up MC hosted a toy-related quiz from all eras of collecting and I was lucky enough to win a ‘show before the show’ sticker by answering the following question; ‘What toy line followed The Phantom Menace?’ – the answer of course…Power of the Jedi.
It was time for the panel and there was a certain energy to the room. Everyone could feel it. The team ran down and handed out 12 Black Series lightsabers to fans. What a start! As a serious collector, I was interested to see what would be announced, but before we got into any meat and potatoes…the team announced they would be giving away two, yes two, Haslab Jabba’s Sail Barge’s and the audience was instructed to look under their seats for a ‘Willy Wonka’ style golden ticket. Unbelievable!
This panel was the strongest one for Hasbro in ten years. No question. Some wonderful announcements regarding The Vintage Collection and The Black Series as well as a special 40th Anniversary edition of Monopoly to celebrate Return of the Jedi. There was a new passion to the Hasbro team this time round. It’s no secret they haven’t gotten everything right over the past few years but we seem to be rolling into a new golden era of toys.
After side-stepping onto Indiana Jones for 10 minutes it was time to reveal the ace up their sleeve. Launching later in the year will be a new Vintage Collection HASLAB. There are rumours in the collecting community about what this is but I won’t be writing those here!
On the Sunday I ran into Vicky from the Hasbro team and spoke with her about how strong this panel was. She asked about any notes and I said that The Black Series constantly gets new media product first and TVC seem to be lacking behind. For example; a loud cheer from the crowd came when it was revealed that there will be a new figure based on Qui-Gon’s Force Ghost from Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Black Series. We need more like this and I asked if she could report back that there are many in TVC world who want Obi-Wan and an Epoie two-pack to come into the line. (as a little secret, she told me that the team had been invigorated by their time here and they’d had more fun in London than in any of the US Celebrations. The energy was just there. ‘Well, we are British,’ I replied. ‘We’re always up for a cup of tea and a natter.’)
Moving onto The Clone Wars panel, I decided not to risk my luck heading to the Galaxy Stage and keep my seat to watch it be live-streamed to the Twin Suns where I had front row.
This panel was really special and fun. Dave Filoni was on fine form and his ever endearing self. The highlight for me was when he became emotional towards the end of the panel and spoke of how all the wonderful things that are happening to him now in the live-action realm wouldn’t be possible without what had happened all those years ago during The Clone Wars. It’s clear that this show means more to him than most and the love and respect he has for the cast is paramount. He talked lovingly of George and how hands-on George constantly was. George taught Dave to direct as if he was making a live-action show and of course years later this has paid off with The Mandalorian and more. He also said that George still phones him to give him notes!
A fun anecdote came from Matthew Wood, sound designer and voice of all the Battle Droids and General Grievous. Way back in 2005 as work on Revenge of the Sith was winding down George called Matthew into his office where Wood reminisced on how relaxed and happy George seemed that his work was finally complete on his beloved saga. George said that he was a developing an animated series about The Clone Wars and would he like to be involved? George, he said, stressed that all of our involvement would be ‘6 – 8 episodes…that’s it. 6 – 8. We’ll get it started it then others will carry it on. Again…6 – 8 episodes…no more.’ Well, flash-forward 133 episodes later and Wood joked that it was never going to be just 6 -8. It was too much fun and glorious to work on The Clone Wars.
The cast, James Arnold-Taylor, Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein and Dee Bradley-Baker, had an absolute blast talking about their characters and their development and it was obvious how close they all still are. A few stand-out moments came from us learning that Dave Filoni would constantly tease Ashley about Ahsoka’s death because fans at the time were adamant that Ahsoka would have to die before the events of Revenge of the Sith. Of course, it didn’t take long for the fandom to embrace Ahsoka into their hearts and talk of that quickly died down. Dave said that at one time he was teasing Ashley that Ahsoka would die at the hands of Vader himself.
Filoni also drew a big laugh from stating that he has constantly put the case forward to George himself that Plo Koon survived Order 66 and ‘you didn’t actually see his body!’. Filoni said, however, George shot the idea down each time. ‘Nope, he’s dead. Sorry.’
As the panel drew to a close there was the brilliant announcement that Tales of the Jedi will be getting a second season and that Dave initially conceived the idea just so he could see his Clone Wars friends again and catch up and spent time with them. ‘I’ll always find a way to write you guys in,’ he said. ‘I just want to see how you guys are doing.’
- Hardcover Book
- Johnston, E.K. (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 368 Pages - 10/10/2023 (Publication Date) - Random House/Star Wars (Publisher)