1. As I'm populating my new cantina playset by digging through my collection, I'm loving how many cantina critters that Hasbro gave us over the years. Now that we finally have the Tonnika sisters, are there any important cantina creatures that we are missing? We have multiple Greedos, Wuhers and Nadons, as well as the more elusive characters like Muftak, Kabe and Hem Dazon, but I'm hard pressed to think there's anyone MAJOR that fans still need?
--Guy

The good news is that there's really nobody major left to do. If Galoob didn't do a Tonnika in Action Fleet in the 1990s, I probably wouldn't have made a fuss over it. As a kid, Dr. Evazan wasn't something I felt I needed but was nice to have, and the Cantina band sure made things exciting. As did Muftak, Kabe, and so many others. Feltipern Trevagg, Myo, even the goofy Lessub Sirln? We really made out like bandits. Star Trek doesn't get the weird alien love that we do. Well, maybe Riker and Kirk do, or possibly Harry Kim. (His parents must be very proud.)

As a kid the band was the only thing I felt a pang of missed opportunity over - and Garindan, but he's not in the Cantina. We've had so many other great figures that I think any fan that actually has everything is in a position like you. We've got so much great stuff, we have to ask if we're really missing out on anything. If you don't miss it, you're not missing it.

I've been watching a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff to get a glimpse of what you're not yet enjoying. Kenner and Hasbro have really done a lot of great stuff, but I wouldn't mind seeing Solomahal and/or Atheloe, Tzizvvt, Arleil Schous, Joanie loves Chachi De Maal, the tan shirt Lirin Car'n. I could name others I'd just be naming everybody at this point. Honestly the other wolf, the fly, and any Lutrillia would probably scratch the itch where I would say literally anything else is gravy.

I feel it's important to do new things to engage old fans. Going several years without a token new human or alien from the bar is kind of sad, even if they're increasingly obscure. I'd assume we'd have gotten Tzizvvt before Djas Puhr or Lessub Sirln but time has proven me wrong. You can go to a page like this handy Who's Who in Mos Eisley Cantina and find that, honestly, Hasbro did most of the very best stuff. There are still some gems in there but the big question is how much they want to leave dangling for how long. As I keep mentioning, the kids of 1977 are in their 50s or 60s. If Hasbro is holding back on purpose, I think it's time to just make everything before we're too old to enjoy it.

I wouldn't mind getting Cantina humans. I also wouldn't miss not having Cantina humans. If likeness is an issue I'd be just as happy getting Cantina humans with designer or fan faces rather than the actors. It's not that I don't respect background actors, but let's be honest - without a photo to compare them against, I wouldn't know the difference. There were some neat costumes, and the likes of Danz Borin, Swilla Corey, and the sub-legendary Jenny would be fun new additions.  And if they just happen to look like current Hasbro employees, that's OK.

In all honesty I'd probably be more interested from Cantina characters from the appearances in The Mandalorian like EV-9D9, Frog Lady, Doctor Mandible, Peli Moto, or even Toro Calican.

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2. Adam, I imagine that at its peak, the Tunghori operation was doing a lot of sales, and making good money. Nowadays, it is a shell of its former self, rarely (if ever) getting new stock.

I imagine Hasbro finally cut off the supply of product for them to sell, since most discussion on Tunghori seemed to be of the common belief that it was a person or a group that was pocketing figures that didn't pass quality control or were never officially counted as having gone through the manufacturing process.

My questions are:

1) If Hasbro shut Tunghori down, why did it take so long?
2) If it wasn't a case of a shutdown by the company, why do you think Tunghori has all but ceased working on getting new product?
3) Why isn't someone else stepping in to meet the demand?
--Derek

Tunghori or people selling (most likely) cast-offs or unauthorized production are sadly not my area of expertise. As Tunghori is still selling newish production, it does not appear they're out of business yet.

I can't say I know how they're getting their wares. I would speculate these are cast-offs, or someone made off with the tools when someone at Hasbro ordered them destroyed. Disney entering the fray probably resulted in better security and it would make an operation of (again, I assume, allegedly) grey or black market product harder to pull off.

I would assume the reason people aren't stepping up is that this seems to be a business of opportunity - someone with the right connection had access to product or production tools. I don't know which. If Hasbro asked for 30,000 of a figure and the factory made some extra cash by running 40,000 to cover QC (and where the rest went, well, who knows)? Who's to say? I don't assume many of the current Disney-authorized factories (yes, Disney does approve and audit factories making licensed goods nowadays) would be super happy to have that authorization revoked.

Presumably every manufacturer makes a few extras of all consumer products for replacements, testing, licensor requirements (send us some for our archives), contests, or other reasons. When there's a HasLab, Hasbro makes more than the exact number of orders. How many more? No idea. But they're ready if someone's gets crushed en route and needs a replacement, and it would stand to reason the factories may keep doing something similar.

It is my hope Hasbro sees things like this and asks questions like yours. Why not make more? Why not do a new "Saga Legends" assortment rerunning classic figures in low-ish quantities to meet demand and squash any sort of gray market? I can speculate, but it would not be appropriate to do so here.

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FIN

TRON! Has been fascinating to watch. As movies go, TRON: Ares is getting the reception I expected for TRON: Legacy in that you've got this movie that people like but don't talk about much. To paraphrase smarter people than me, as time goes on these franchises become less about the original idea and more about how cool the movie was. If you were around in the early 2000s, reissues of old toys and similar licensed product weren't impossible to find on clearance. It was kind of a surprise to me that the second movie hit big, but it's also surprising that Disney and friends didn't cash in on the older movies one more time with this new third one beyond the HasLab. Which honestly does seem like a not-terrible item given the quality and what you get and what it costs in this era of presumptive additional price increases (thank your elected officials.)

Given the many reasons TRON may not be performing - one of which may also impact Masters of the Universe next year, which I'm assuming people aren't going to show up for either - we're also looking at old stuff for old people who may not have kids who care. Thinking back to the 1980s, some of the "old" properties coming back at the box office were relatively young. Star Trek was from 1966. Batman, depending on where you start measuring, probably owed as much to the 1966 TV show as it did the much older comic books. Even the Batman comics weren't too old in 1980 - only about 41 years. By 1989 when we got that big movie, it was 50 years. TRON is a bit over 40 and Masters of the Universe will be about 45 when its movie hits next year. It doesn't mean it can't win big, but these things may not have been quite the pop culture juggernauts as the Caped Crusader.

Star Wars is similarly long in the tooth. It also has a new movie next year, roughly two weeks before He-Man hits the big screen. I assume this means neither studio thinks either property is much to worry about, and Star Wars also has a lot to prove. Recent Transformers and Superman movies seemed to peter our pretty fast, and Fantastic Four seems to be barely holding on thanks to a quasi-sequel next year and a much delayed kiddo toy line keeping it somewhat afloat through what feels like a bit of apathy. The target audience for all of these movies is arguably "everybody," but the 1970s and 1980s kids are probably more than a little ready to hang it up and wait for streaming (and clearance) before engaging in any way.

With any luck The Mandalorian and Grogu will make a big statement in a lot of stores with a lot of cool stuff and engage people. But it's just as likely to rely heavily on the title characters, which people can watch on Disney+ or buy older toys on Amazon or eBay (or just enjoy what they have at home) without having to buy into the hype or spend much of anything. Getting people really excited about this stuff is tough, as we've seen with multiple Star Trek launches and several Star Wars series and for some reason a Jurassic World in which the merchandise has better staying power than the films. It makes sense - everybody wants cheap dinosaur toys.

But hey! Look on the bright side, there's a good chance you might score a Bom Vindim or Bib Fortuna at Target if you still need one this week. The Gamorrean Guards seem largely gone in my neck of the woods but it's online. So if you haven't checked those exclusive reruns lately, and you're in need, you might want to go do that. Surprisingly, Target seems to be unencumbered with glow-in-the-dark Royal Guards.

--Adam Pawlus

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