As Captain Beefheart once said to hecklers, "I'm going to do what I want to do!"

I don't much like coding or social media or anything like that - but I love writing about toys.  Back in the 1990s I ran a Star Wars email newsletter called ASWN, Adam's Star Wars Newsletter, as a dial-up text email blasted out to people.  I may set up a new email server, but I brought it back as a 1995-chic web page with all the new info from today's Hasbro Pulse announcements, and some updates on upcoming comics, streaming shows, and conventions that you may have missed.

Click here to return to 1995 with a brand new issue of Adam's Star Wars newsletter.  It's all text.  That's how I want to do it.   If you don't like it, there are lots of other web pages not written by cranky middle-aged fans who started writing about toys as cranky teenage fans.

Via the Star Wars Galactic Hunter Figure of the Day Blog: Din Djarin (The Black Series 6-Inch). He's got a removable helmet with a nose bump, a little green sidekick, some slabs of metal, and a floating baby stroller - plus some other stuff. It's not cheap, but you get a lot in the box if you can find one. Read on.

Today in Figure of the Day: Captain Cardinal (The Black Series 6-Inch). It's a First Order Stormtrooper, but red, and with a cape - and you got charged $5 more for it. It's a book character that I don't believe is a costumed character at Galaxy's Edge, but I may be wrong about that. It was part of Target's exclusive program and that's 100% appropriate. When do I get my Target exclusive Red Bumblebee? Is that happening? And if not why not? Anyway, we're going to try three figures a week for a while and see how that goes. Read on!

Target.com put up a page for what appears to be a new run of the Star Wars The Black Series Carbonized Collection The Mandalorian Toy Figure due early in 2021.  It's a very good figure - click here to read our review from earlier this year.  It's $5 more expensive than the previous release, but it also is cheaper than purchasing one on the secondary market. This is not the full Beskar mold, but rather the late 2019 version with a very shiny finish. 

If you missed pre-orders a few days ago (or wanted to save on shipping) today is your lucky day!  Target.com added in-store pick-up Star Wars: The Black Series Commander Pyre and R5-P8 action figures from its Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge collection.  Click here for availability, they're currently $24.99 a piece.

If memory serves the big Millennium Falcon debuted for about $180 in 2008, about 12 years ago, as part of Star Wars: The Legacy Collection.  At the time, we thought it was the final "midnight madness," and possibly the beginning of the end - it wasn't. The ship had ups and downs, and got reissued in Toys R Us-exclusive a few years later was $250 thanks to increases in labor and materials costs.

Click here to check availability at Target.com.  As of right now it is expected to be online only due to cost and size.  Will it go on sale later?  Well, given its high price, we don't have a precedent for knowing the edition size.

A bunch of Galaxys Edge Trading Outpost items are hitting Target stores (and Target.com) today - but a complete list was not made available.   Repacks of the theme park exclusive Commander Pyre, Hondo Ohnaka, and DJ R-3X are joined by all-new Captain Cardinal 6-inch figures.  The big Millennium Falcon is, so far, an online only reissue. There are new roleplay blasters, plushies, and Funko Pop!s too - but what I found the most interesting are these Hasbro Droid Depot figures.  There are 6 of them for $9.99 each under DPCI 087-16-1746.

Coming soon to Target, Galaxy's Edge The Black Series 6-inch Captain Cardinal Action Figure.  Or "Who?"

The world is changing, and Star Wars fandom has quietly changed from the 1990s original-trilogy focused marketing to kids of the 1970s - which arguably peaked with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - to an attempt to try to make it a franchise for all people.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  The young-skewing Resistance series just sort of got swept under the rug - and it feels like The Rise of Skywalker is joining it.   To promote the era of the First Order, there are lots of comics, lots of books, and a giant theme park experience that a lot of people just plain can't go see right now.  Captain Cardinal is part of that.  It's a new generation of fan, and one that the olds probably didn't have the time to read up on before being shown this shiny new figure.

Basically a red Stormtrooper in a cape, the figure has two blasters and even though I have not and probably will not read the novel from which he came, I can say it's a cool figure.  I'll buy a red Stormtrooper.  Heck, that's something I pushed hard to do a few years ago.  But I digress - Hasbro says:

You might recognize this one from a gift set last year.   Star Wars Galaxy's Edge The Black Series DJ R-3X seems identical to the gift set version [FOTD #2,618] except packaging and the other figures that are now missing from the box.  It's a nice droid - lots of deco, lots of moving parts, and it's colorful too!  I'd get it if you can.  It's $24.99.  Hasbro wrote:

Also coming to Target - red, appropriately - is the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge Hyperdrive BB Unit.  Did you like the RC BB-8 a few years ago?  It's kind of like that.  Price is expected to be $99.99.  Hasbro writes:

Let's get this out of the way: it's $399.99.   The revised The Legacy Collection Millennium Falcon is now the Galaxy's Edge Millennium Falcon Smuggler's Run Vehicle.   It's just different enough to make you mad, with unique deco and two radar dishes.  The original 1977-style pizza dish is there, as is the rectangular sequel trilogy model.  Dirt deco is unique, and it has different figures.  Chewbacca, Hondo Ohnaka, and Porgs are included.  Is it worth more than a 2x price increase over 13 years?  Probably. 

If you missed it - like I did - Hasbro did another run of the Star Wars The Black Series Carbonized Collection The Mandalorian Toy Figure (Target Exclusive) for US Target stores.   It's $24.99, and I would go as far as to say it looks good enough to  be worth the five bucks.   I saw a few out and about today, so check your local stores - and don't trust the in-store inventory checkers online, go look.  My store said they had none online, and sure enough, there it was.  Good hunting!

It's basically Han Solo with the mask glued on.  This Stormtrooper (Mimban) is in that 6 figure boxed set at Target, and it's a good collection for fans of the side stories and the Empire.   Even though you skipped the movie, I suspect you'll like the various troopers at the price.  (And it's on sale this week.)   Is it worth it?  Read on!

In 2019, Target will get a new version of Luke Skywalker in Stormtrooper Disguise - note the slicked-back hair.   Slickback emeritus come complete with helmet, communicator, blaster, and what may well be some sort of sewage deco.  Delicious.

Joining him is GameStop's Rocket Trooper, which you probably also don't recognize.  The classic Stormtrooper body got a new helmet and a few other modifications for its release next year.

While they showed up last week, fans who found it were denied at check-out.  The embargo on the Solo: A Star Wars Story Force Link 2.0 Vandor-1 Heist was lifted early on Sunday, so now if you want one you can get it for $44.99.   For your handy-dandy toy locating, mark down DPCI 087-16-0136 when hunting to verify if one is near you.