1. I feel this may one of the end-of-times cats-and-dogs-living-together questions. But… I thankfully found the latest Target retro series. And, when I was opening and an adjusting the pose of my Han Stormtrooper, I thought man it would be nice if he had an elbow joint. Then it dawned on me, a whole line of Retro+ figures with elbow and knee joints… Nothing fancy. Just enough to help pose that gun or lightsaber. I liken it to what Atari has done with their “+” line. Old ideas brought up with modern tech. What are your thoughts?
-- Dan

Mattel liked your idea so much, they invented time travel and did it as the superb Masters of the Universe Origins back in 2020. Most of the figures are there with added elbow, knee, wrist, and ankle articulation. You can swap limbs, they have mini-comics, and are currently around $20. The line has also been doing very well. There were a couple of dud waves, and the secondary market prices are presently low in spots, but for remakes of original vehicles and playsets at fair prices? It's hard to beat. Parents (and grandparents) can buy them for their kids, too. I really like this line, and always like to make sure people know about it because it seems like a great format for proven success.

It will not surprise you that this line has been brought up to Hasbro in the context in which you ask.

I love this idea because Mattel proved you can bring back slightly altered vehicles at a low price and they sell. I love how there are very few stickers... and with few exceptions, the deco is as good as the originals. (The Snake Mountain stickers, not so good.) The only downside is that a new format means starting over, and starting over means years of slots taken up by things you might have. If Hasbro does a hard-stop on Retro tomorrow and shifts to (let's call it) Origins, mixing in existing stuff alongside new stuff? That might be fun. But my feeling is that any hope for a more articulated Kenner-style line would demand support from the non-collector, which might be possible. Hasbro's launch of Retro in 2019 was never inviting (I treated the first two years as "these are so hard to find, if I can get them, great, if not, I don't need another line to collect.")

If Hasbro is looking at 2027 - the 50th anniversary - right now, I hope they're considering something like this, but I assume the bean counters will point to Epic Hero Series/Epic World of Action - a good, but distressingly small line - as a reason to not go for it. I honestly think merging the "kid line" and "retro collector line" might actually boost the bottom line, but I also assume some people are going to be super angry if they get a new Amanaman and he has knee joints.

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2. I was watching the Hasbro reveal of [The Vintage Collection] Darth Vader's Tie Advanced. Being a ship collector, my wallet gladly opened. But, what really caught my hear was; how they talked about this being very close to the design of the original movie prop. It oddly almost felt like a hint that maybe going forward there will be more prop inspired designs. Educated wish? Fitful dreaming?
--DM

If Hasbro wants to keep selling you $100-$150 vehicles (and they do), you're probably going to get more high-end paint washes and fancy painted buttons in all your ships. (Also, I wrote that before the Gunship reveal.) There may not be 100,000 fans buying each ship, but Hasbro's ability to scale production means they can sell something sub-prop replica (but very good) for prices that, for toys, are expensive - but are dirt cheap for high-end collectibles. Look at their Proton Packs!

Hasbro's been doing this for a lot of their The Vintage Collection vehicles since the Skiff and the Barge. They may not be perfect, but if you look at the paint job on the Rogue One Antoc Merrick X-Wing or the Razor Crest, they're all pretty amazing. The proportions are generally very good, the sculpting is great, and if you put these things next to higher-end prop replicas Hasbro does a really excellent job. Considering what you're paying, Hasbro is knocking it out of the park with its vehicles and especially the prop replica helmets. Obviously we all have price points that are too far and from where I sit, it depends on what it is. Vader's TIE was pushing it - but I've wanted a new one for a while. On the other hand, I hold up the Gunship as being a great example of an A+ toy (and if they just rereleased it with fancy paint, I'd probably have bought an eighth edition.)

I think you're going to be generally happy with the quality of The Vintage Collection vehicles going forward. The E-Wing is probably the most blandly painted in years and is still pretty cool. This year we're getting an amazing Landspeeder, that Darth Vader's TIE Fighter, a reissue of the 2019 reissue of Luke's X-Wing Fighter, the E-Wing, and next year we've got (maybe) a Republic Gunship via HasLab. While this year's $60 Landspeeder is expensive, it's got a $20 figure in it, plus some inflation, and a lot more paint and moving parts. It's a rotten product for kids or casual fans, but for hardcore collectors I'd almost advise skipping Hasbro's action figure line completely and just glomming onto the vehicles. They're great, and it's going to be hard to do any better.

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FIN

Before we get into Gunship gabbing, there will be a new Q&A (well, a new A, and old Q) posted every day in August. August 1 marks 30 years of me writing about Star Wars toys on the internet and I've been digging into my archives to find old, short questions I could comment on that seemed worth revisiting. This is all thanks to you, and your support on Patreon. If you want to kick in $1 a month, I'd appreciate it to go toward recent camera, domain, hosting, and other expenses if you wouldn't miss it. And if you need the dollar, please keep the dollar.

On to the show.

For the time being, I'm planning on passing on this particular crowdfund. I have the very good older versions of figures that the Gunship comes with already, I have several Gunships, and I never felt the ones I had were deficient. Hasbro did a great job in 2002, and they should be proud. I still feel the Gunship is one of Hasbro's best toys, especially at the pricing for the first few releases. It's big and fun - what more could you have wanted?

There's a joke that's been going around for years that we wouldn't be Star Wars fans if we weren't angry, which is probably a fair claim. I love new space ship toys, and it would be great to get some. The latest HasLab item being another Republic Gunship as the halo to next year's "Return to Geonosis" just sounds like a drag of a year. If the big special item is an eighth release of that particular vehicle, I don't have high hopes for the rest of the line won't be new versions of things I already own. Maybe some 2002 kids are out there - but I'm not sure if the prequel kid is a big customer in The Vintage Collection. I guess we'll find out. We had roughly a decade of Gunship releases and I always felt it was a pretty good toy at (especially at first) a shockingly good price. They were $39.99 in 2002, and the "Command Gunship" in 2003 was a jaw-dropping $29.99 new. (Yes, $10 cheaper.) $450 is a lot for me to swallow on "more of the same" without something enticing.

For example, if Hasbro also included The Retro Collection figures of its The Vintage Collection pack-ins, yeah, I'd have pledged already. I've got "good enough" Agen Kolar, but I certainly don't have "1982" Agen Kolar.

I don't blame all the toy companies for chasing the adult marketplace. If someone wants a $1,000 LEGO set, why not meet the market need? Similarly, HasLab allows Hasbro to invest in some prototyping and then let the market decide if it's a good idea or not. That's smart in this age of high inflation and tariffs (they're still here, just mostly being eaten on lower-end goods.) But, also, August 1 is the 30th anniversary of when I wrote my first online Star Wars Newsletter way back in 1995. It's kind of funny to look at this week's releases and go "...so none of these new things are actually toys I can play with anymore?"

I always want new stuff, but it took a while for us to get new stuff. In 1995, only two figures were technically never-before-made - Han Solo in Stormtrooper Disguise, and X-Wing Luke was Snowspeeder Luke. We'd get some actual new figures in 1996 with Shadows of the Empire and Dagobah Luke, but it took a while before we started getting all-new movie characters in 1997. There were over a decade of VHS kids (and no eBay) so a lot of fans were supremely excited to get anything, which is not where we are today. If you want a figure, it can be had - the price may be too high. I've heard people arguing the Gunship should be made because the $200-$700 secondary market price is too high, and if you think it's too high, then let let me tell you about Vlix.. The Gunship is not genuinely rare and plenty of versions of it exist for under $300, so if you want one, there are cheaper (and immediate) options to the HasLab.

The SDCC showing was adequate. Were there any dream products? Not really. Did anything really poop the bed? Also, no. "Return to Tatooine" concluded by adding no new 2025 Cantina alien debuts or new characters of any kind (beyond the Cantina pack-ins from last year.) We now know next year has a Geonosis theme, and I would expect the same level of freshness. I don't assume it's going to allow Attack of the Clones completists to have new characters, but it should be good if you want to toss out your old ones and upgrade.

There's always been a conflict between "make new versions of the things fans like" and "make new things" that has got to be hard to manage if you're Hasbro. I always felt things were usually best between prequels, where the line often got waves out that were roughly 50% "new" to 50% "refreshed." Since The Vintage Collection caters to collectors, innovation outside of articulation or deco is low - we're no longer seeing interesting mechanisms like in 2002 or giant accessories like 2007. So now that the character selection for "classic" is routinely remakes, I assume we're going to continue seeing more and more Generation X fans quietly age out of the hobby.

Having said that, if there was a 3- or 4-foot Rebel Transport for $450, yeah, I'd be buying that.

--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.

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