Jazwares Answer Results

So that it will be pretty much permenent...
These are the 'quick answers' to that Jazwares Interview at the SegaBlogs. Who knows if they pull down their old content after a while, so this is just a fast run-down of everything they said. With some comments/speculation added in. All the ambiguous, question-dodge, unclear and already-known items have been skipped. The original should still be here: Sega Blogs vs Jazwares 2

1. ALL the AllStars Racers should be getting figures
2. They'll do a Blaze the Cat figure (Likely on the small line)
3. They'll do Super Silver (Small line, I bet)
4. Chaos emeralds confirmed to come with Super Sonic Super Shadow Pack
5. No more forced re-buying of Sonic
(Paying 13.99 for 1 small-line figure was getting old. Everyone's got like 4 Sonics now because they had to keep buying him to get stuff. It's a good thing they recognized this.)
6. Playsets are NOT in the cards (yet)
7. Charmy Bee, Big & Froggy, Eggman ARE coming to the small line
They don't have rights to non-Sega-JP chars, so Sonic R stuff is out. (IE no Tails Doll or Metal Knuckles which were exclusive to that game unless they somehow get the rights)
8. Fang- Who has the rights to this guy?
9. 10 Inch Sonic IS GOING to get made (same size as the big MS)
10. They don't consider bendies yet (I do wonder about them doing bendies. As the asker jabbed at them about breakage within the question...it was a rightfully done jab. They'd likely do a good job with bendies, but 'bendy' has a stigma of being 'low end junk' EVEN after Joyride produced the awesome Shadow who everyone wants. I hold nothing against well done bendies and have no predjudice)
11. They WILL BE making more 5 inch line figures
12. WHERE can you buy the figures?
Transworld, Amazon, Hot Topic, specialty shops and local Comic Book stores
13. There WILL be a Super Poser Tails (this was announced before, but it bears repeating)
14. Direct ordering from a 'Jazwares Store' is NOT in the cards now
15. They don't have an Archie license
16. There WILL BE Tails, Knuckles & Silver plushes in a 2nd plush line

Comment Zone:
More 5-inch is absolutely going to please the fans. Everyone LOVES these, and so do I. I don't care about paying more for the larger size, they do such a good job, they're great to have. I would 100% buy anybody they make at this size.

Lack of JW direct store is painful
JW can't control the X TREEEEME markup$ that online $tores are grubbing from de$perate fan$. It's totally unfair to tell little Billy or Suzy "No you can't have that Sonic figure because it's $39.99, when JW want it to retail at $4.99" but it happens all the time. These scalpers get away with it because there's no reliable source to just GO GET FIGURES AT SUGGESTED PRICE. (TRU isn't in the area, you live non-usa, TRU is out of them online/offline, your hot topic doesn't have them, there are no comic book stores at all within 25 miles, etc etc on and on)

Lack of Archie is awesome
Yes, I collect all the Archie Sonic books monthly, and read them. But do I think that their chars deserve figures? NO NO NO. Archie is a huge swamp that is sure to only anger the fans. Finish this sentance "I hate____" everyone will fill it in with a different archie-exclusive char then do nothing but scream about it and create bad news all over the web if it is produced as a figure. The other half who love ____ will then start a war.
Retail does not need more contraversy, and humpteen billion irrelevent characters regardless of their level of being derivitive, boring, ill-concieved, forgotten about, poorly written, plot-hole driven, killed-off, loose-ended, obscure, continuity-dumped, or sheer plot-device'd will not help. Screeching like a rabid monkey and punching out anyone who disagrees with eternal undying love of Archie Char X is commonplace. Please, keep this out of my figures and never get the license.

A Mystery:
Where is Rouge the Bat? Why is Blaze (A DS only char, pretty much) getting a figure first? Rouge is a fan fave appearing in multiple titles. Everything with her sells like hotcakes. Certainly more people like her than do Big the Cat...yet he is getting a figure first? What's up with that?

Mystery 2:
Gamma or Omega or Mecha Sonic. The 'good guy robots' have their fans too, and (S&K Mecha Sonic) does look cool. These should get on the roster at some point. But I can understand not feeling any need to front-line them. JW is not going to 'run out of' people to make figures of any time soon.

Plushes:
Here's where _I_ get contraversial. I hate their current line. The 'improvements' failed. I still think the dolls are ugly and over priced. I would never buy them. I don't see why they're adding more characters, I DO see these warming shelves in local stores. I'm not going to dump on the 2nd line because I have not seen it, but it had better be 50% or more better than the first.

"Go bigger or get out."

Plush is a VERY HARD thing to make, and harder still to get right. I know, I have tried. Working small (or huge) only makes it harder. But GE is easily trumping anything they've done, on a larger scale. Their 'big werehog' beats JW hands-down and is at least twice as big, retailing at 14.99. (JW are about 7 inches, and 9.99 each) The high price and bad look combine to make the first line look sad indeed. This is an opinion. If you love the first line that's fine, but you havn't seen the sold for 800 dollars Rouge the bat or the 725 dollar Shadow. THOSE are nice dolls.

Bottom line:
In all, it's good news. They sound like they're really connected to the fans, listening to who is in demand, then actually making them. With the way the figures fly off shelves, one can only agree that this stance is working like gold. The future also has great promise with more good choices and cool surprises. (Chaos emerald pack!) The fact that they keep doing interviews like this and directly answer fan questions is also wonderful. The more connected a company is to it's buyers, the better it tends to do. By far, Jazwares is the best company yet for Sonic figures, and it looks like they'll stay on top for good, with how great they are acting.
Also: I predict we get wisps.