Question #1: from May 7, 2012:

News on the on-again-off-again live action TV series picked up a little last year and has died down once again. If it ever makes it to series one would think there would be a merchandise line to support it. Is this something you think fans would embrace? Being prime time, rumored to not have Jedi, and not a cartoon I don't know how much appeal it would have for kids to support so it seems it would fall on the collector or the kid who grew up on Clone Wars to carry.
--TJ

My answer from 2012 With commentary from 2025:

The decline of The Clone Wars can probably be attributed to a severe ratings decline, which can be attributed to a variable quality of the show's production and/or Cartoon Network's scheduling, or whatever else you want to pick. All that matters right now is Hasbro has re-embraced "classic" for the time being, which makes some fans happy and others... not.

A new TV show as a toy property will probably succeed or fail based on where and how it's distributed. If it's on pay cable (HBO) or deep cable (the Hub), I wouldn't anticipate a massive toy relaunch after the first year. Hasbro would probably be best served sticking in a few in the normal waves.

Of course, having said all this, look at LEGO. Kids love those sets, the Clone Wars ones continue to sell, and there are some pretty ballsy choices of vehicles and figures in those sets. While I personally think Hasbro's mercurial nature going with the latest big media blockbuster might have a little something to do with the success (and sweep-under-the-ruggening) of their lines, it's also possible we could be entering the post-action figure age, and just don't realize it yet. It's entirely possible that action figures were a trend item with a long tail, and as toy makers engineer out action features and kid-friendly low price points, much like trading cards and comic books, they might morph into a more specialized product line. And if the new TV show is marketed to adults anyway, well, I couldn't think of a better tie-in than action figures.

With hindsight, there's been a pattern with small-screen Star Wars toys. Hasbro tends to support the line with product for the first (roughly) half of the show's broadcast, and after that it drops off severely. While we still get The Clone Wars and Rebels figures, they are few - and both had decent line support for 3 and 2 years, more or less, respectively. Resistance got about one wave. I would argue the live-action shows' lines are almost entirely afterthoughts - there was never a big presence for The Mandalorian, the first live-action show from 2019. Numerous odds and ends were scattered through the line, with almost nothing being on-shelf in time with the TV shows.

Hasbro did a great job making a massive brand statement with the first four Disney-era movies, and that's been about it. The Rise of Skywalker was very thin and largely not interested in selling to kids. The scheduling for the TV shows (and Disney's secrecy) has resulted in far fewer toys for any subsequent seasons. Why they haven't kept a "TV" line going that cycles in new and missed characters, I don't know. I'm a little surprised Hasbro didn't make a big splash with Season 1 toys in the weeks leading up to season 2 of The Mandalorian. Andor season 2 got a few toys last year and this year... and they're slowly going to Ross. We're seeing the same with Skeleton Crew, which oddly made only collector stuff for the launch of a kid show. I'm not sure if it's just Disney marketing not knowing what to push, or secrecy, or what, because I can tell you it's not like there was a toy line that was presented to stores where they said "we don't want this."

Kid support today seems to mostly exist in LEGO, and even LEGO doesn't get a lot of new stuff to time with the new shows and movies anymore. Everything tends to be late and that's not unique to Star Wars - the kid Fantastic Four movie stuff hasn't shipped yet.

Star Wars movies and TV benefit from the marketing and literal buy-in you only get from merchandise. I assume if I saw The Phantom Menace in 1999, but didn't get toys until 2000 or 2001, I'd be pretty down on it. But instead I got dozens of toys before the movie - I was interested. I spent money. I'd love to keep doing that, but for some reason the House of Mouse just doesn't seem to want to enable that kind of behavior. Fans want to throw money at product from movies and TV without seeing it - so why not take it before anyone has a chance to change their mind?

Ad: Get New Star Wars and Collectibles at Entertainment Earth! Get Free USA Shipping on Orders $79+

 

Become a Patron!

Special thanks to our generous Patreon patrons, especially: JT, Jared, Bobb, Christopher, Daniel, Dan, Tim, Jayson, Matthew, Michael, Robert, Stephen, Todd DrReiCow, Eddie, Jeremy, Mario, and Todd! Thanks for helping us keep the servers on!

FIN

Hey out there! Got a dollar? Want to do me a huge favor? Go to the Galactic Hunter Patreon and kick in $1 a month. Hopefully you won't miss it, and it helps pay for hosting, replacement hardware, domain names, and whatever expenses come up in making this site. And if you can't, don't worry! I'm glad you're out there reading.

With The Mandalorian and Grogu next year, and the 50th anniversary and (allegedly) Starfighter in 2027, I've been asked "will we see another Force Friday or Midnight Madness?" Which means I've been asking that same question of people, and so far nobody seems ready to share that plan. What's kind of amazing is that if you put this in historical context, we saw full line leaks of Episode I in September of 1998 before the movie in May of 1999. As of right now we haven't seen a movie trailer, and it sure doesn't feel like we're only nine months away from the next big thing in Star Wars.

We've also got a Darth Maul cartoon next year. In the past 10 years, it seems the less hype we see results in less faith on a property. (And if there are no toys, there's a lot less hope.)

--Adam Pawlus

Got questions? Email me with Q&A in the subject line now! I'll answer your questions as soon as time (or facts) permit.

Social media? Sure. Bluesky | Fediverse | Mastodon | Tumblr | Instagram

I'm on Instagram! All Pictures from a GameBoy Camera.