Question #5: from November 7, 2011:

Adam, I'm sure you hear this ever so often but I'd like to put it out there again. What is your honest opinion on the fate of Hasbro and the renewal of the Star Wars license by the end of 2017? Many collectors are tired of Hasbro and the way the line has been handled the last few years. You know the problems the community has issues with. The countless repacks, crappy distribution and puzzling figure choices; and for God's sake all of the clones! Even with the all money that was thought to be lost during the Episode 1 release in 99, one would think that Hasbro would have,at least, broke even by now forcing carded collectors and even loose collectors to purchase and even repurchase items to keep their collections up to date.

I doubt that, at least, some of the collector community would mind "the end" of the line. That way, maybe some collectors can final say they have a complete collection. What do you think?
--Mark

My answer from 2011 With commentary from 2025:

Right now, it's fine and depending on what Lucas has planned for the next few years, it's entirely possible its best days are ahead of it. Collectors are a small part of the picture-- a big small part, the part that gives the brands millions of dollars of free marketing, but there is a lot of money in lightsabers, Star Wars Transformers, and the other stuff aimed at kids under 10. The line would still be fine without us, it might look more like The Clone Wars with less emphasis on new figures but hey-- at least they don't have cases with 3 new figures most of the time.

Due to the nature of collectors, well, who cares what we want? Hasbro is a financial eatbeast and they want to make money. Collectors are toy-collecting eatbeasts, the original line in the 1970s and 1980s was not made with people like us in mind. The relaunch in the 1990s was made with a very vague idea as to what a collector was and what they might want. If Hasbro stopped "vintage" tomorrow and switched entirely to "Movie Heroes," we'd switch. Because that's what there is, and as an audience, we want to buy this stuff. I know it may not be the answer you want, but you can print money with this license without ever addressing the desires of older fans. If the Four Horsemen and Mattel teamed up tomorrow to make "Star Wars Universe" 6-inch figures, they'd get a whole new audience, some of the old audience, and probably another 3-5 years with minimal effort.

With Return of the Jedi theoretically hitting 3D theaters in 2017, the line has at least that much meat on its bones-- odds are we'll still get one big vehicle a year, 30 or so new figures to coincide with each movie rerelease, and at least 20 new animated figures for as long as the cartoon continues. (And odds are next year many of them will be Darth Maul.) Right now, I'd say the most interesting that could happen to Star Wars is to jettison the collector mentality and focus squarely on kids-- fun figures with neat gear that will, I hope, be designed to sit inside vehicles. I'm far more interested in next year's electronic, spring-loaded, and otherwise funky "Movie Heroes" than I am in the continuation of the vintage line. We haven't had a completely new Jake Lloyd Anakin since 2000-- one with a goofy backpack should be fun.

If you look at The Clone Wars since 2010, one thing that's been sorely lacking is generic Clone Troopers. You can't buy a plain white clone by itself, or any generic trooper of any of the various squadrons without buying a $20+ set of toys. This, I find to be bizarre, the line has moved to mostly specific hero characters with a reduced emphasis on unnamed heroes. (There are, of course, a few.)

So if you're sick and tired of the line, I suggest either altering your focus or quitting. As long as there are toys, there will be toy collectors. Gormiti has adult fans, even if Hasbro changed course to be a completely kid-focused series we'd probably still buy a lot of it. (Although, admittedly, I have little interest in new, smaller-scale figure lines outside of Jedi Force.) If Hasbro plays their cards right, and they will, you will still have the opportunity to buy new and "new" stuff for at least six more years... hopefully with a decreasing package footprint.

The line did not end! And nobody is forcing anyone to buy anything, as Ross has shown us. As predicted, we did get a 6-inch line of figures, and Hasbro did indeed largely coast with them for a few years before collectors started to cool on them a bit. Today most of the product seems collector-oriented (and priced accordingly), with Hasbro largely ignoring a diminishing kid market. Are prices high because kids aren't buying, or did kids stop buying make prices high? It's hard to say - I think they had the price points more or less right for the first couple of Disney movies.

I don't think the line should end, but putting this question in context The Vintage Collection did go away for a while. In 2011, it was slowing down, and in 2012 it was gone until 2018. The break really helped demand pick up and now it's the only real expression in that size. The Black Series could have taken a break - if you ask me, it should have taken 2024 off before the movie The Mandalorian and Grogu. There's no new media to speak of right now and there's a lot of glut that needs to exit stores.

I think collectors of all ages probably feel boredom from lack of product, overwhelmed by the excess product, and cranky their specific segment is ignored (whatever that is.) If you like 6-inch, maybe you hate the little guys. If you like Kenner Retro toys, you're mad there are no vehicles. If you're Hasbro, you make a ton of money from lightsabers, and probably wish the figure people would get on board with helmets. There's no winning here.

Hasbro doesn't care - nor should they care - if your collection can be completed. They want more people to buy more stuff. I wouldn't mind seeing a more 1990s approach to assortments returning. For example, if a figure is really popular in wave 1, bring it back in wave 2 (or later,) slowly, over the course of months or even years. Dumping the entire run in a month leads to glut and the perception of non-rarity, plus there's little reason to keep searching the stores if you missed something. You just assume it's gone forever.

I still suggest quitting as a viable option if you want to be done. This line will never truly end - even if it goes away for a bit, odds are a segment will return in the future. I would also recommend specializing with specific movies or series. Star Wars is an edge Hasbro has in the plastic arms race and will likely never willingly cede it to the competition. As such, you can probably count on a few figures, in pretty much any format under their legal agreements, every 1-2 years. No other toy company would only make 6 Retro Kenner figures in a year - but Hasbro can say "we're still using the license" even if it's at a snail's pace. We get a couple of vehicles, we get a handful of figures from the movies, and I would assume we're going to be at the level we're at now for quite some time.

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FIN

One thing I haven't encountered much over the past decade is "will the line end?" I think we can thank Disney for that - at any given moment we know of one or two movies in the works, a couple of TV shows, and admittedly not all that many toys. I have seen a reduction in readers, and some other metrics, but that could just be that I'm no good at this anymore.

More and more collectors are specializing, quitting, or just plain not aware of what's coming out. Hasbro's live streams aren't necessarily a complete picture, and it's hard for any web site to just keep up on everything coming soon, or out now, or even defining what is definitively "new." It's one reason why I've been telling some people that if you're happy with what you have, that's OK, don't get the new one. I'm waiting to see the new Target-exclusive rerun of Bom Vindim in person before deciding if I need another one. Mine seems fine!

I'm in no rush to see the line end, but I am increasingly bored by big swaths of it. That's not Hasbro's fault. I can only be so excited about adding another Landspeeder or Republic Gunship to my collection, and the number of unmade vehicles in the modern era that might actually sell is pretty small. I'm seeing what other people are asking for, and they're never going to get some cartoon-only ship where no main character sets foot. Hasbro has to keep things going, lest they lose the license, so we're probably going to get a lot more reruns and remakes. The trick is to make something obviously better and greatly improved, which is going to be tougher and tougher to do.

This year's Landspeeder is great, but we got a good one in 2002 that was well-improved in 2010. This new one is better. But the old one was pretty satisfying. The same seems to be true with the Gunship, which isn't bad at all. But there was - and undoubtedly is - a lot of collectors just wanting a break at some point. I don't think that's coming. Since the 1995 relaunch we're still without official 3 3/4-inch Sim Aloo (Imperial Dignitary), The Client (Werner Herzog), General Leia Organa (The Force Awakens vest), Vlix, Jaxxon, Tzizvvt, half of the Bad Batch, or a single Hoojib.

That isn't to say modern Kenner and Hasbro blew it. Because they gave us Grand Admiral Thrawn, Ephant Mon, Hermi Odle, Wuher (three times), Brea and Senni Tonnika, Tanus Spijek, Gargan, Oola (twice), Slave Leia (multiple times), blue Snaggletooth (twice), Kren-Blista Vanee and Janus Greejatus, Lumiya, BL-17, Kneesaa (twice), Kaink, and even a rerelease of 1985 Yak Face. I could go on - it's been a great 30 years. It just gets exhausting when you see how many Clone and Stormtrooper variants we can get.

It has been a good, obscenely long run.

--Adam Pawlus

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