My pal Seth over at Orbitdyne makes a very cool Deluxe Space Bar - Custom 3 3/4" Action Figure Playset to go with 3 3/4-inch action figures. He keeps tweaking them - this one has electronic lights in the bar and bandstand, plus glow-in-the-dark elements. I have an older revision and it's really one of the best things I've got, packed with a mix of old Kenner figures, Super7 ReAction figures, and other odds and ends. Take a look!
He's got a video showing off the features too, and I'd recommend a look. I'd say "makes a great gift" but we all know the back half of that sentence should be "for yourself." Hasbro has yet to announce any vehicles, creatures, or playsets for your The Retro Collection figures to ride or enjoy. There are a lot of great ones being made by fans.
This week in Star Wars Q&A - The Peaks of 3 3/4-inch action figures - are the best days behind us?
Also, we're out of questions for next week. So I went on a tear about what I'd like to see in 2025. You should send in new questions.
The answers are very long this week but that's OK. In the USA, it's Thanksgiving Week and you should be shopping online or goofing off anyway.
Read on!
I'm on Bluesky. It got really popular in the last couple of weeks, so I am posting a few fun things there - like this! And yes there's a typo in it, Bluesky does not yet have an edit function.
What you're looking at is The Vintage Collection The Armorer’s Forge Playset populated by some 2022 and 2023 The Retro Collection figures from The Mandalorian. The playset got some criticism for being unpainted and old-looking - which my brain immediately read and thought "Oh so like a Kenner playset?" It even has a little cabinet that opens with sticker detail inside. The actual toy does not light up.
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Just revealed - the Moff Gideon's Imperial Light Cruiser hallway playset with Mandalorian Privateer from The Vintage Collection. Also revealed, season 3 figures o The Mandalorian and Bo-Katan Kryze. All of the fun was showcased on a YouTube stream.
Despite a shortened funding period compared to other HasLab projects, the STAR WARS The Vintage Collection Mos Eisley Cantina received enough buyers to get 14,737 playsets produced with two of three stretch goals. Wuher, Brenna Tonnika, and Senni Tonnika will be joined by Greedo and Nabrun Leids - so 3/5 of the figures are characters you may already have in your collection. Barring a surprise reveal from Hasbro, Arleil Schous the wolf man will not be produced at this time with this set.
And with 12 minutes to go, one last update: Nabrun Leids made it! Color me surprised, that's great news.
Another evening update: With an 1:07 to go, the Cantina needs to sell 600 units in order to hit the Nabrun Leids goal - not impossible if it keeps going at the current rate and a few more large orders are there.
Evening update: With 1:45 and 952 playsets to go to hit Nabrun Leids, it seems unlikely but not impossible to hit the next stretch goal. If you're waiting, now is the time - they need to sell about 9 per minute to make it.
Hasbro's Cantina HasLab project just hit the first stretch goal with 11 hours remaining, unless they decide to extend the funding period. (There would be no shame in doing this.) This is the first all-new Greedo in this size in over a decade, but long-haul collectors no doubt have several different incarnations at this point including up to three that were perfectly designed to sit at a table.
With 11 hours to go, it's worth noting that the Cantina seems to not sell much faster than 1 unit per minute. With 660 minutes to go, it is unlikely it will hit another milestone today without massive dealer support, but even then if they sell 5 units per minute it will only get us to Nabrun Leids. Nabrun Leids was previously sold at the end of the POTF2 era and recolored in silver in 2007 as a Walmart exclusive - so at least you've got the ability to buy one. Arleil Schous has never been made as a figure and, presumably, never will be if this doesn't go through today.
Sunday update:
9,684 9,934 10,024 and going up by a couple every time I hit reload. When I post on social it looks like some people weren't aware this project was happening yet - so you might want to post about it if you have the ability to do so and want those stretch goal figures. It seems to be selling at a rate of slightly over one per minute as I write this, which is insufficient to hit all the goals without more orders.
Saturday update: 9,246 and counting. Tell your friends.
They said it could be done - and it was! Hasbro's STAR WARS The Vintage Collection Mos Eisley Cantina hit its first funding milestone early Friday morning, and ends Monday evening. That means if you want Greedo (which you probably have), Nabrun Leids (of which you can get either POTF2 or The Saga Collection versions today), or the all-new Arleil Schous, it needs to sell a bunch more units. Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? Only if you and several thousand others (and/or dealers) were waiting to put in an order. You can click here to order one for the next few days, if you are so inclined.
Mostly I'm just surprised the Tonnika sisters are actually getting figures after fans started asking for them regularly in the late 1990s. That's a long wait!
Over on eBay, sellers are already using HasLab Cantina as a term to sell the related figures - so if you're looking to fill out the bar with the figures you missed, that might help.
As of right now, the STAR WARS The Vintage Collection Mos Eisley Cantina stands at 7,673 backers. It needs to hit 8,000 to happen, and complete stretch goal werewolf power is at 17,000 units sold.
I don't think it's impossible to hit either goal if people back today or early tomorrow.
If this thing hits its goal today or early on Friday, there's a chance of people spreading the word and the dealers, flippers, fans, and collectors of the world will jump on in a hurry because FOMO becomes real once the playset is guaranteed to be made - and people will want those extra figures for the fence-sitters. Not everybody has $400 or $500 right now, but they might have $800 or $1000 in a year.
Hasbro Pulse put up a new video today showing some behind-the-scenes painting of its Cantina Playset on HasLab. And here it is!
The video does not include some key information, like the fact that this is a crowdfunded playset, you can see it on the Hasbro Pulse HasLab page, and as of now you have under one week to sign up for one. It's over 6,800, so - plus or minus the long weekend - I'm confident it should glide past the 8,000 unit funding mark. I have no idea if dealers and flippers will swoop in at the end to buy units to carve up for individual sale later, and am generally unsure fans are going to remember to back it before they leave for burgers and barbecues and whatever kind of "bang" they're going for this weekend.
As such, you may want to go ahead and back it right now before you forget. It's less than a week, it needs the support, and everybody is going to want those extra figures. Well, everybody who pledges will want the extra figures, everybody else has other things to worry about like getting potato salad together or whatever it is you're doing right now.
...in a handy alcove of the Star Wars: The Vintage Collection Cantina Playset, now open for crowdfunding! Apparently you can fit all seven Modal Nodes members - if you had the foresight to buy them, like any other good hoarder - in one of the many alcoves included in the set. It's a little smaller than what we saw on screen through the magic of movie editing, but it looks like they fit. It also looks like the set displays quite nicely in chunks, possibly giving you a better display option than having it all set up like you might build a movie set. Check it out.
I kid with the headline, but we've been asking Hasbro for Brea and Senni Tonnika since Galoob made one in Action Fleet in 1997. Or I have, at any rate. They're two of the includes (along with Wuher) in Hasbro's STAR WARS The Vintage Collection Mos Eisley Cantina. The base option is $399.99, the deluxe option adds another chunk of booths for another $100 at $499.99, and there are three stretch goals - a Greedo (read below for more on him), Nabrun Leids, and a real shocker, the missing wolfman Arleil Schous.
Is it all worth it? Will this be in a question and answer format? When should you backfill your missing alien stash? Buckle up, this one gets long. Read on!
The rumors are true - maybe! Walmart posted a listing for a Imaginext STAR WARS Darth Vader Bot 2 Ft Toy Lights Sounds Stormtrooper Diecast Character Key, meaning that two of my favorite things are coming together - Star Wars and Imaginext from Fisher-Price/Mattel. (Could Playmobil be next? I can dream.) A second set is making the rounds on some image servers, and that's a giant R2-D2 with a die-cast metal C-3PO figure. Now if you're paying attention, you'll note a pattern is emerging.
(Oh, and that's an affiliate link, so go ahead and buy something after clicking it and we might get a tiny kickback from the sale(s) to support the site. Please and thank you.)
So far, the leaks have resulted in a giant R2-D2 (with a non-specific playset environment that you could squint and see as a Death Star or Blockade Runner) and a giant Darth Vader (with no obvious playset landmarks) at very high price points. As I write this I haven't heard anything about these through official channels, so I'm just speculating here - but this could be the result of licensing demands, so as not to step on Hasbro's feet. Historically Imaginext has had single figures, blind-bag figures, 2-packs, small vehicles, medium playsets, and sometimes gargantuan toys as big as a coffee table. It's the real deal, and you'll probably find some of them at your local Goodwill on the cheap.
Imaginext toys have been around for over 20 years, and have slowly exited most toy aisles - there used to be a big section at Kohl's, Toy R Us had a massive aisle. Right now the line has what's left of Lightyear (on clearance somewhere near you, but good toys), Batman/DC, and Jurassic World. Some non-licensed items also may be out there still, but again, distribution in American stores has been lousy for the last year. I have no idea what exactly we'll see from this line, but so far, we know two things: it's expensive, and it's proof that someone out there believes in playsets and action features in toys, made for kids, again.
I was talking with a friend over email and it came up that nobody was talking about the Star Wars The Vintage Collection Boba Fett’s Throne Room, which came out last September and Hasbro Pulse has in stock right now for $229.99. I took some pictures of it for our Tumblr as well, outfitting it with various aliens from Return of the Jedi over the last 46 years of toys.
It's a pretty good piece. I haven't opened up all of the accessories still, mostly because I was less interested in setting up The Book of Boba Fett gear. Why? Not enough figures. Hasbro delivered a really excellent multi-purpose playset that can be used with either that show or Return of the Jedi, but as they didn't deliver many of the lesser members of Boba Fett's entourage... why would you want a $230 playset to sit empty?
Friend of the site and of the guy who makes the set Seth Longmore makes a lot of really cool things - you can see them on his Etsy store. Two items of interest to you, and I think he just has one left of each right now, are a Deluxe Space Bar - Custom 3 3/4" Action Figure Playset (revised, with interior lighting, glow-in-the-dark parts, and a bandstand) as well as the nicely painted Sci Fi Adobe Hut A - Custom 3 3/4" Action Figure Playset Printable Scenery with opening lid and room for figures inside. I'd say "makes a great gift," but let's be honest, you'll want to keep these. I have one of his early Space Bar prototypes and love it.
He even takes some requests. (Well, I'm saying he does, let's see if he does.) Click here to see his playsets and some customized figures.