Via CNN: 99 Cents Only Stores is winding down its business operations.

As a place to buy toys, it's been weird - but good. LEGO dumoed some LEGO Dimensions games packs here, you could buy Hot Wheels cars, you could find those weird cheap bagged Hasbro Marvel figures, and various sodas or other ramens and snacks. It's been a little lacking for toys lately, and I guess now we know why. With Dollar Tree also closing some stores, and Tuesday Morning closed, I can't say I'm feeling great about the future of retail stores with a few pegs devoted to toys.

One of the stores near me still has some 12-inch Hasbro Titan-size Star Wars figures that just sat forever, and I've seen those Jumbo Jakks figures there as well as a lot of 3 3/4-inch stufff from the Disney movie era.

With Dollar Tree/Family Dollar closing more stores, and Tuesday Morning ceasing operations, there has been a dramatic reduction in where you can find unusual, cheap stuff.

It's back! The Garden State Kaiju Mudbelly Wild Type Figure is back in stock for $35.00 after it launched and sold out quickly last month. I got mine on my desk - he's smaller than Kenner's original Dewback toy, but cute and the detail work on a soft-vinyl figure can be truly amazing stuff. The sculpting is also impressive, but the paint work looks like a real mass-produced Kenner toy. It's cute, and is only jointed at the neck.

UPDATE: Sold out!  But follow them on Instagram so you can find out whatever it is they plan to do next.

Reader Timothy pointed out this neat unlicensed/fan item Mudbelly "Wild Type" Soft Vinyl Figure from Garden State Kaiju. The 5-inch soft vinyl figure is $35.00 and looks a lot lke Kenner's original Patrol Dewback toy from the 1970s.

Ad: New from Funko and Mattel, The Child from The Mandalorian is coming in 2020! Plush and vinyl are up for pre-order today!

I will be hosting another panel at New York Comic Con!  Come see new toys, plush, action figures, blind box toys, concept art, prototypes, and other stuff from over a dozen toy lines on Saturday, October 5 at 6:30 PM. Come to room 1C03 and I'm told there will be a freebie from Funko there too, so get there early.

There will be some mentions of Star Wars but there will be lots of other items from a number of big action figure collector lines you may find exciting.  I'm not really supposed to share too much in case licensors pull something, but I would say it's a bigger variety of stuff compared to what we showed at San Diego.

Hasbro put out an inter esting press release today: Hasbro to Phase Out Plastic from New Toy and Game Packaging.  Before you freak out, the release says "it plans to begin phasing out plastic from new product packaging, including plastic elements like polybags, elastic bands, shrink wrap, window sheets and blister packs. The company’s ambition is to eliminate virtually all plastic in packaging for new products by the end of 2022."

I would take care to note the phrase "ambution is to eliminate virtually all" - so this doesn't mean that they're going to get rid of everything retro-related or that we're going to see 100% closed-box packages.  We might see some changes, though, and it's hard to predict where toy packages might go.  We've seen LEGO with its Bionicle cans around the turn of the century - a sturdy, reusable package you'd want to keep even if you open the toy - and blind bag/blind boxes on the other end.

After the mostly-plastic tubes of Galaxy of Adventure, it's certainly a change.

We've got options.   Keeping small accessories safe and seeing action figure faces are indeed big concerns for the collectoratti, and of course we'll keep an eye on this evolving story.

After a few years of constant movie releases with no real reset - or that reset to a line filled with collector-friendly and kidvid-handy classic characters every couple of years - sales really are down.  The Hollywood Reporter writes Star Wars 'Last Jedi' Toy Shipments Down Sharply From 'Force Awakens' - which, with fewer waves of figures and tons of leftover stuff from the last two years in circulation, makes a lot of sense.

Any aging fan can tell you that there are high points and low points - figures started to get blown out cheaply as the original trilogy wound up, becoming dusty and unsold as the 1980s wore on.  

Game importer and useful news source NCS has confirmed that an assortment of Beni Star Wars Pullback Droids are coming.  The set of 6 2.16-inch droids will set you back around $24, and includes R2-D2, R2-Q5, R2-B1, R2-X2, R2-M5, and R2-A6.

Last weekend Disney Stores rolled out new Star Wares for May 4th, but a couple weeks earlier a few of us were in California for a press event showcasing new toys including Disney Store Plush. These aren't the same as the items currently sold by Comic Images, some are larger, some are smaller, and they're all quite different - creatures, robots, and aliens are on deck from Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back.

There's more, read on!

Let's look at Ahsoka in her first and so far only "realistic" action figure. She has 4 lightsabers in all, with 2 lit and 2 hilts.  It's not a bad buy.  Did you pick her up yet? 

It's Clone Commander Neyo! Initially sold in an exclusive gift set, this unique trooper has a helmet you don't see many other places.  I like it.  Will you?  Probably.

While I keep hitting "refresh" waiting for the Todd Glass Show to update, why don't you read about the 2012 Vintage Collection Weequay figure?  The 1983 original was good, the 1997 remake was magnificent, so the 2012 version must be perfection right? 

While a highly-demanded action figure, Jocasta Nu has been created as a lavishly-packaged, high-quality, and high-price exclusive action figure.  Shipped in a spiffy thick box with a Vintage carded figure inside, Madame Nu includes a lightsaber, bust of Count Dooku, holocron, purse, and of course the figure.

Meet the Blue R7 Series Astromech Droid! It's not the same as the 2008 release, but it is different enough to warrant your attention.  It might not warrant the trip to  Orlando to get one at Disney Hollywood Studios... but well, it was for me!

Check out the Imperial Navy Commando, part of the last big boxed set we got based on the lesser-console exclusive levels of The Force Unleashed.  It's a good figure, despite being unrecognizable to fans of the game series who played it on the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3.