The Star Wars toy line is getting a new addition - and this time, the fans made the choice.
Hasbro’s first ever online Fan’s Choice poll began with the innocence of a Tatooine farmboy. “We wanted to give our collectors the power and the opportunity to choose our next figure,” said Andy Espenshade, Hasbro’s Senior Brand Manager. “Fans have been participating in similar hypothetical polls for years, so we wanted to make one that would count for real.” Choices included Amanaman from Jabba’s Palace, Mos Eisley Cantina patrons Duros and Bom Vimdim, Jedi Council member Eeth Koth and podracer Teemto Pagalies. Amanaman’s fervent fans were the most enthusiastic voters, according to Hasbro, yet Duros ultimately triumphed. Was the Force merely strong with Duros, or had something more nefarious occurred?
Fan site Rebelscum.com was the first to suggest a possible hack, after Webmasters noticed the poll had logged some 30,000 new votes in one night. “[A source at Hasbro] did say the poll had been hacked a number of times,” said Rebelscum’s Philip Wise, “and the question was, ‘If they’re hacking in for Duros, why aren’t other people hacking in for Amanaman?’” But even after any tampering with the poll (Espenshade maintains that excessive multiple votes were disregarded), Duros remained the true Fan’s Choice. “After talking to many collectors, we learned that people were voting for Duros because they felt that this was their only chance to get him made into a figure,” said Espenshade. “They were fairly confident that Amanaman would eventually b released, and were willing to wait.” Wise concurred, saying fans are confident that “no matter what any poll says, Amanaman will get made.”
While there’s currently no telling how long fans will have to wait to add Amanaman to their collections, the new Duros figure will be packaged with Jedi Force Files, a replacement for the COMMTech chips. Duros will start shipping in June 2001, with regular updates about his production at starwars.hasbro.com.
