1. Was wondering what your predictions would be for Hasbro's 3 3/4" line for next year's Mando and Grogu movie. Seems like the last even quasi-decent rollout with a healthy figure and vehicle assortment was Rogue One back in 2016, and it's been limited assortments of mostly figures of not even all main characters with very few vehicles ever since for both movies and TV shows. I'm hoping for a return to the old days but am certainly not holding my breath. That being said, do you believe there's a chance that given Mando's popularity on TV that Disney/Hasbro would even attempt releasing a more robust toy line for its crown gem?
--Joel

Don't get your hopes up, Cheese.

Hasbro hasn't talked about a lot of stuff yet so I can't either. I can say that you've seen the rather anemic marketing push for the actual movie, which has me kind of worried about that. Even a fan-demanded movie with a lot of hype behind it fades in a weekend, and if you aren't ready with pre-release toys it's very likely that your audience won't care by the time it hits streaming. And I do believe a spin-off of a streaming show will result in a lot of fans waiting for streaming, because $15 or whatever for a month of Disney+ is a lot cheaper than two (or four) tickets to the multiplex.

The only toy line that could ever command a whole aisle at retail was Star Wars back in 1999. I genuinely don't believe we will ever see that again. Those levels of hype require absence and demand. The low level of hype for this movie makes it seem unlikely such a massive toy party could exist again. No movie or TV show gets that kind of support - although it looks like Stranger Things may be getting a Return of the Jedi-style exit this year. I'm seeing some in-store displays that look pretty awesome.  But as toys go?  Not much.

Also to nitpick, while the Solo-specific guys were a bit late? Hasbro's Solo: A Star Wars Story line was largely very good with some excellent vehicles and figures. Just ignore the Kessel Run Millennium Falcon, it just came up so short it's not worth it. But the TIE Fighter, Han's Speeder, Enfys Nest's bike, the Imperial AT-DT, these were all good. The cardboard playsets were nice. The figures we got were surprisingly nice. We didn't get any of that for The Rise of Skywalker.

We've seen what Hasbro has done with weekly Star Wars streaming series: not much. The big takeaway from The Mandalorian show was a lot of toys in a lot of sizes of Grogu and the title character, with a little bit of other stuff mixed in here and there. The Vintage Collection has been a very slow or at least, spread out in a way that makes it feel slow. I would love it if they just shifted the entire line - over 90% would be great - to the new thing. But you have to remember, it's a different era. In the 1990s, the 3 3/4-inch figures were king. Now there are going to probably be several other scales, and roleplay toys, and new experimental toy formats that won't last more than a year or two. The 3 3/4-inch launch party is probably over.

Look at recent movie-based Hasbro lines - we're not seeing anything making a huge brand statement. Fantastic Four got a wave of Marvel Legends with the movie and we've seen a slow trickle of kid stuff this fall. That's a lot better than most Marvel movies got, minus the collector-centric ongoing Deadpool stuff (finally.) But all of that stuff together is probably about on par with a 1980s line - good stuff, but not a lot of stuff. I expect that you will have a lot of chances to give Hasbro money next year, but just look at any recent launch. How excited were you to buy what they had? That's probably what you can expect.

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2. Seeing the 3.75 articulated Tron and Ghostbusters figures, do you not feel the same degree of disappointment that these figures came about 35 years too late?
--Derek

Better late than never.

Fans who wanted 3 3/4-inch TRON had access to Tomy's original line, NECA's reissues, or Super7's theme park exclusive ReAction Figures. Since photo-realistic, actor-likeness figures at this size weren't remotely realistic until recently I don't know that we're really denied some great lost thing. If you're a fan of the property, there are plenty of great figures you can buy from the US and Japan over the past few decades.

Of course, this may be rendered moot if the HasLab TRON project doesn't get made and at this rate, it doesn't look good.

The O-Ring Ghostbusters line, I assume, exists primarily to prevent someone else from taking the license and running with it. Maybe I'm crazy, but I assume Sony saw an area in the market someone else wanted to pursue and Hasbro said "we're using it" so it's great that someone gave us something. Would I like to see more? Of course. Will there be more? I sure as heck have no idea, but it's kind of awesome to have G.I. Joe-esque figures.

We got a Kenner-style Tarkin in 2019, I sure wasn't complaining. TRON and The Real Ghostbusters had toys in the 1980s, so I'm more impressed by the toys we're getting today than disappointed we didn't have more back t hen. If Hasbro wants to make toys for any other cult movies I'm not going to complain.

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FIN

While this is not a Star Wars fan thing, I forgot to mention that the great Dr. Demento Show - a staple of a certain kind of kid's auditory diet - went off the streaming air a few weeks ago. Barry Hansen retired, and the last show is online for three bucks. I grabbed it and listened to it, but I have to admit I stopped checking in regularly around 1998 due to lack of knowing where to find it where I was living. The last show is basically a "greatest hits" so if you've never heard it, it's good. It also had two Star Trek bits, and no Star Wars bits, but that makes sense given the show's era and everything.

But let's get back on (off) topic with HasLab! The TRON 375 project looks cool - but the fish aren't biting. I kind of get why they're trying this, because for the right license a "complete" collection in a box could be pretty exciting. If in 1995 Hasbro offered a $300 box of figure and ships for Star Wars or in 2009, Indiana Jones, I bet people would be lining up to shell out money for it. One of the challenges today is that most properties have been thoroughly merchandised, so while I would love a Star Trek original series bridge with as many figures as the budget might allow or the ALIEN ship with the entire cast, those aren't exactly fresh ideas either. (I did, however, buy all of Super7's excellent Planet of the Apes ReAction Figures and playset. And I'd probably consider a similar set from Hasbro. But these are all for old people.)

So what would be fresh? I'd hand over a blank check for a Deep Space Nine set with Ops and Quark's/the Promenade, but would anyone else? No idea. I'd throw down nearly any amount of money for a complete (and you know what I mean by complete) Droids cartoon collection with a ship or three. But it's increasingly difficult to name a series that lacks a big presence in toys. I love The Fifth Element but there's no one scene I very much want represented... but maybe Corbin's cab with some figures could be fun. Would it sell 10,000? Probably not. How about Blade Runner? I feel it'd do a little better than TRON. Power Rangers could be interesting in a super-articulated 3 3/4-inch format with a base and everything, but that got licensed out (and, again, may be oversaturated just like Voltron.) I'd love to see Predator as the human cast is underrepresented, but the license? There's a lot to enjoy.

It says a lot about the discourse in collecting that the toy industry is still very stuck on movies and television (and comic books), when video games have been a dominant force in pop culture for my entire lifetime. Pong isn't going to sell any toys, but I've certainly got a lot of Street Fighter stuff.

If we can get beyond last-gen thinking, Generation X or older. Maybe it's time to go after a real Millennial audience with video games. We got a taste of Marvel vs. Capcom from Hasbro with Black Widow vs. Ryu and Iron Man vs. Mega Man, and those weren't half bad. I'd love to see this line built out with dioramas from Capcom games and a lot more characters. You want to sell me a Ken figure and a car for him to punch? OK. Let's talk. Maybe Strider Hiryu from Marvel vs. Capcom 2? Cool. I'm in.

While Mega Man (the first game) has a lot of product, Mega Man 2 and Mega Man 3 sure don't. I'd love to buy robot critters and Robot Masters from those games.

Nintendo's hand is likely spoken-for, but wouldn't you throw down some cash for SR-388 from Metroid, or a labyrinth construction set from The Legend of Zelda, or a figure display kit for Donkey Kong? I sure would.

Konami has a lot of star properties. What would you pay for Castlevania NES toys and playsets, or a Symphony of the Night collection, or maybe Richter Belmont, a carriage, and Death from Dracula X: Rondo of Blood? Whatever hasbro asked. Similarly, a 3 3/4-inch scale Vic Viper is the kind of thing I'd buy now and worry about payment later.

And there's Sonic the Hedgehog, and I'm not a fan, there are a lot of more recent properties that might click with people under 40. So instead let's talk about a collection based on the Pokemon anime or a really fancy Neon Genesis Evangelion set where you can put a 3 3/4-inch figure in a giant Eva in a display designed to fit in a DETOLF. While I certainly would prefer to stay in the sci-fi paradigm, there may be limits to what you can do from cult properties from the Reagan administration. Maybe it makes sense to do a band in a stage diorama, or some sort of partially animated video game diorama, or some sort of TV where you can swap out the "show" in the form of action figures. People still want to buy stuff, and it's probably time to reconsider how much longer the loud, vocal people demanding more expensive versions of things they already own are worth listening to (myself included.)

Are you still here? If so, I think The Hunt for Ben Solo thing seems like a lot of clickbaitey hype for a movie that doesn't exist and I'm going to guess nobody actually cares about. Fans gonna fan, the surest way to get nerds to demand something is to tell them that they can't have it. Fans were pretty mixed about various returns of Boba Fett from 1983 until, well, still.

It's funny to see headlines saying that "fans are unified behind this" because honestly, I could not give a damn about revisiting that particular cast. Era? Maybe. I can't say anything I've heard about the 2017 Starfighter movie makes me care about that, either. I'd love something that feels different (specifically: new characters, no magic children.) A lot of modern Star Wars just takes the longest possible way to sorta, kinda conclude a story without a lot of epic fun in the middle or at the end. So maybe move on? Get over it? Try a new story on a new planet? It might be fun to put together a tale where the fans can't nitpick you because you've already made something new. The toy powers that be didn't finish the meal of toys that was the Sequel Trilogy, so I can't say I'm that interested to circle around a dead character

I've got no problem catering to nostalgists, but at the very least cater to the money. It's not in Rey and Kylo. I know I won't always get what I want but it seems that people seem really interested in Vader and the Empire and the Rebels and all of that. Maybe there's something to it.

--Adam Pawlus

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