The Never Played Symphonies / The Public Image / Honey You Know Where To Find Me
Oh yes, three obscure Morrissey titles, so I’m a little bit fired up today.
Now, as I posted previously, my partner (of 12 years) had a motorcycle accident over the past weekend, and yesterday he underwent major surgery to repair damage that could have left our "family" in all sorts of peril. That’s life. That’s what all the people say. (Or so sang Mr. Sinatra.) This all relates to my release of the images of the BMF Millennium Falcon, and I’m just going to put it out there for you, the few, the reading public, to know about.
After the release of the pictures, our Editor-In-Chief, Michael Sullenger, was contacted by the publishers of The Star Wars Insider (Titan Magazines, based out of the United Kingdom) to inquire about where the photos came from. Being English and all, I know that the publishers may not be familiar with our quaint laws and provisions, so I issued a statement:
"Unfortunately, I am unable to provide any information regarding the source of the photos. The Constitution of the United States of America protects journalists and their sources from such disclosure. (This includes the entire staff of GalacticHunter.com.) Being a news-gathering organization, I’m sure that Titan Magazines can appreciate the significance of protecting the very foundation of the free press. Unfortunately, based on this very principle, I cannot comment any further."
Mr. Sullenger, our editor-in-chief, has been out of the loop for a bit due to a career advancement and a family tragedy. I am solely responsible for my own editorial decisions, just to clear that up.
I was later contacted by a third party (from another prominent Star Wars site) who asked if I would object to speaking to a representative from Lucasfilm Ltd. to clear up whether or not a specific person had sent the BMF photos to me. I agreed to do so, and I assured the LFL representative (who is as nice as pie, might I add) that I did not know, had never met, and did not receive the photos from the person-in-question. This was all apparently at the behest of Hasbro (and I’m not sure if this is the US or UK division).
Hasbro allegedly suspect this person, who has previously written for the previously mentioned prominent fan site, and they (again allegedly) insist that the photos came from him. I have made it 100% clear that the images did not come from this person to me, and I don’t believe they came from anyone remotely associated with him. I’ll even go so far as to say that (to the best of my knowledge) the images surfaced from a non-European source.
Apparently, while I was sidelined by the above-mentioned personal matter (i.e. the surgery), this all progressed in a negative manner. I received an e-mail this morning asking me to provide material means by which the photos may have been relayed. My response is the same as above. I cannot, I will not, reveal any source or materials, despite my menial, unpaid position as a blogger, I still stand by my protections as a citizen of the United States who provided information to the public in a press context.
As of this writing, I am throwing the ball into the court of Hasbro (US or UK). Contact me directly, or let this issue drop. The Millennium Falcon has appeared at a major international trade show, and it was photographed for the world to see. What is the problem? I’m here. I’m waiting, and I hope you’ll have some form of civil discourse with me about the whole issue. If anything, the "leak" of these photos has only piqued and raised interest in the piece, and even your own press release conceded that such a piece couldn’t stay under wraps forever.
Now to show off some stuff that was developed and totally unreleased, I present to you these cool 16" (and totally collectible) Queen Amidala dolls from the Episode I ‘Queen Amidala Collection‘ that never saw the light of day. (If anyone has them, I’ll pay top dollar, just contact me!) This is why people like me actually work to document and present these pieces as news, in the hopes that we can build public support for products that may be on shifting sand. We want these large, collector pieces. If a BMF was made, and no one ever saw it, would it make a sound if it was nixed? (Note to Diamond Direct — please resurrect these figures in your new 1/4 scale line!)
These, too, are big things that should never have stayed "under wraps", and due to their lack of publicity, they were never released. Do you see a connection at all?
So have a look, and I’ll post more and more unreleased stuff as I uncover it. (I’ve recently received a cache of cool unreleased goodies, and it’s coming right around the bend — hang in there.)
P.S. There’s one other key point I’d like to make in regard to this whole BMF issue, and I’ll try to be brief.
Because I’m working in a volunteer capacity for GalacticHunter.com, and I am shy with crowds, I drew up a written agreement with the GalacticHunter.com owners that excludes me from attending public appearances and social gatherings. As a result, I don’t mingle with the staff at various levels of LFL, Hasbro, or other related entities, and only attend full trade shows (e.g., Toy Fair) as a photographer and volunteer writer. Therefore the chances that I would have met the writer in question, or anyone close to him, are practically nonexistent. (Trade shows like Toy Fair are not exactly "social" mixers, and I’m happy to attend anything in the atmosphere of business.) I’m not good at glad-handing, and the site ownership respects that. I’m much better at documenting and tracking down information. I prefer to remain away from stories. Any personal aspects of my interaction with the site go here. I rarely even post in our own forums, except the Q&A section, since I submit the questions.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Hey Adam, sorry to hear about the personal tragedy, I hope everythign goes well….as far as Hasbro’s "tragedy", I find it ridiculous. You did them a favor by promoting it, they were dropping the promotional ball, IMHO, then they’d complain and say it wasn’t well recieved. In this day and age of $4 a gallon gas, and rising food prices, I heard many a collector say they were glad they heard about the Falcon early and could budget for it (and the new AT-whatever Clone Walker, to be released the same time.) I’m just glad I quit buying vehicles.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I hope it turns out ok. I just wanted to let you know that the Amidala in the first pic did come out. It was called Return to Naboo and i was able to get it stupid cheap when KB Toys marked their Episode I stuff down. I think the line would have done better if the price had been a little lower on them though.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
jal4u2c — none of the 16" figures came out, only the 12" versions. Believe me, as a Queen Amidala fan, I wish the 16" version had come out. I’d have done a cartwheel (which was probably impossible considering I weighed about 150lbs more at the time).
May 8th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Actually, you’re right jal4u2c — I’m sorry, the Return to Naboo Amidala is the 12" version, and she did, in fact, come out. See… even bloggers make mistakes. Crikey! So, I’ll go do that cartwheel now.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Frankly, I think Hasbro should be thanking you. BMF threads all over the internet have become the biggest gush-fests that I’ve ever seen for a sw product. A lot of what we saw at toyfair was disappointing to many, and a number of Hasbro’s early 2008 releases came up short (pun intended). After the pin head qui gonn, the tiny and inaccurate kashyyk trooper, the still miscolored gree (yes, look closely at your dvd!), and the fett evolutions disaster, a lot of collectors were feeling pretty low. Yarna and the ATTE were nice, but seeing that BMF really restored my confidence that the upward trajectory of the line will continue and that theres a lot to look forward to.
May 9th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Adam, I pray that your partner pulls through. Cloner, were a lot of collectors really "feeling low" because of the "disaster" of Jango Fett’s shirt being purplish? That’s kind of sad. Regarding the leak, I think it would have been a huge mistake to just "surprise" collectors by putting this on the shelf on the same day as all the other product that’s coming out. As exciting as it might have been to walk into the store and see it for the first time, not everybody can just pull out $150 on the spot when they’re already buying a metric buttload of toys. Like Schneider said, this gives us less affluent collectors time to save, buy both the AT-TE and the BMF on day 1, and stage epic time paradox battles between the two(electronics be damned, I’m making my own awesome laser noises for these babies).
May 9th, 2008 at 1:25 am
I very much suspect that some deal had been done to give a publication the exclusive news on this story. Given the parties mentioned above you might be abl;e to hazard a guess who it was between With the pictures appearing online the contract for this deal has been broken and there are legal implications between both parties, hence the desire to know who leaked the information.(Think it sounds silly ? A similar arrangement exists between 2 Entertain Limited and Doctor Who Magazine for Doctor Who DVD announcements)
May 10th, 2008 at 12:18 am
The purple jumpsuit wasnt the ‘disaster’ I was referring to at all. In fact, the purple that they used is a lot closer to what Jango ‘looked like’ in the film than the blue most people have in mind. Pause AOTC during the arena fight scene and see for yourself.
Rather, the ‘disaster’ was the marketing vs. production faux pas surrounding this set that began around Comic Con last year. They brought out the Fett Evo(complete with an immaculately painted Boba with a correctly scaled helmet) and made a big deal about it. Soon afterwards, there were promotional shots circulating that looked amazing. Seven months later, what we got was very different from what was originally shown.
The Boba they gave us has the worst detailing that the character has seen in years. The green used on the armor is a cheap looking tone that would have been more appropriate on a magic marker. It is nowhere near what it should be. The figure also ended up with a cheap wash instead of the usual mask-and-spray for the silver weathering, and they didn’t bother to include the insignia that even made it onto the POTF2 Boba. Beyond that, we got an undersized helmet that fits more like a mask and looks distorted when he puts it on. Releases such as the galactic marine and the new Gree demonstrate that Hasbro can make a correctly scaled removable helmet under the right conditions.
In the end, it wasn’t a ‘terrible’ figure but it was a far cry from what they showed us last July. People looking for ‘toys’ were undoubtedly satisfied. It left a lot to be desired, however, for those of us looking for aesthetically pleasing display pieces. And isn’t that supposed to be a big part of the target audience for ‘premium’ lines such as vintage and evolutions?
We were shown something that a lot of us wanted badly, and then the final product failed to live up to what was presented to us. If thats not a let down, I don’t know what is.
The interesting question is what led to all this. Was there poor communication between Hasbro planning and manufacturing? Did hasbro cheap out at the last minute and decide to cut a few corners? Did the people implementing production at the factory royally screw up? Did they fall behind in and have to rush these out? Only Hasbro knows…