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1. With no big reveals at NYCC for Star Wars: The Retro Collection, just vague hints about next year's releases (some 6-packs, some individual carded), what are your hopes and expectations for the line in the coming year? Some announcements are expected in November, so my hope is for a focus on the OT, with lots of never-before-made Kenner figures leading the way, and maybe a small vehicle or two. Do you see 2027 as one last big hurrah for Retro, or does the line still have the potential to continue beyond the 50th anniversary with new (younger) collectors?
--Chris
"2027 looks pretty good" and "just be realistic, nobody ever loves a line 100%." I am not in a good position to speculate on 2027, for reasons. Hasbro has stated their goal is to stick to original trilogy due to fan demand. (I dislike this, I want them to stick to the 1970s and 1980s with whatever flights of fancy they deem appropriate - comics, RPGs, books, whatever. Heck, go to the 1990s, give us Mara and Thrawn and I won't whine.) So, I expect nothing but original trilogy for at least a couple of years. Also, Hasbro is telling people they are planning a 2028 line, so that's something I expect. For 2027, we were told to expect 28 figures and 3 larger items.
Due to how math works, all 28 figures can't be in 6-packs. Hasbro confirmed there will be more than one 6-pack. The public doesn't know for certain if the 28 figures include overlap with the big blobs, but I assume the 28 figures overlap with the 6-packs. I don't know for a fact if we will or won't get the rest of the original 21/22 figures next year, but I doubt it very much. If I were Hasbro, I'd tease it, bait the hook, and drag it out for a couple of years.
I hope we get to the original 21/22 by the end of 2029. I hope we get all the vehicles (and creature) brought back. Based on what we know for a fact, that seems unlikely as the original Kenner line-up had a TIE Fighter, Early Bird Kit, Land of the Jawas action playset, Droid Factory, X-Wing Fighter, Millennium Falcon, Action Stand, Death Star Space Station, Cantina Adventure Set, Creature Cantina, Imperial Troop Transport, Sandcrawler, Sonic Control Landspeeder, regular Landspeeder, vinyl carry case, Patrol Dewback, Darth Vader's TIE Fighter, and that's just off the top of my head. And not counting the Palitoy or other European variants. If we get 3 blobs per year, we'll never finish the vehicles. I personally would love to see a rerelease of the original Kenner Millennium Falcon with some modern enhancements, like a replacement for the cardboard divider and updated electronics. And a better-fitting lid to the back. Will this happen? I doubt it.
I doubt Hasbro has the guts to make a line that matched the fervor of 1978-1979. In a couple of years, we got - not counting duplicates or multipack math - 22 mostly uniquely molded figures, a few major accessory and/or deco variations (double-telescoping lightsabers, cloth cape Jawas, Han's heads, etc.), and a whopping 17 items. Can you even imagine 16 vehicles, playsets, or stands in 2027? That's crazy. You had to buy extra figures to fill all of Kenner's seats and playsets. The figure:blob (I decree vehicles/playsets/stands/cases be henceforth referred to as blobs) ratio was intense. Figures were accessories for bigger, more expensive toys - and Hasbro has steered away from that. Action figures in and of themselves are rather dull without vehicles or playsets.
Will 2027 be the last hurrah? No. How about 28? ...probably not. I think that Hasbro will make 6 or 12 figures per year every year until they end their relationship with Lucasfilm, because I doubt they ever want to let the brand go. Would you? I wouldn't.
Will new collectors care? Fans have had chances to buy stuff and it seems they generally show up to buy things if they can find them. The Retro Collection has delivered 108 figures over 8 product years. Collectors of all ages have had at least four opportunities to pick up Han/Luke/Chewie/Leia/Vader/Stormtrooper figures, and those runs have sold through, and secondary market prices have mostly stayed above $9.99. To me, that says there's a casual audience that wants to buy these.
Target's 6-packs are awesome - for lifer collectors. The closed-box packaging is unattractive to newbies and impulse buyers. It isn't obvious what you're buying. Seeing a plastic face through a plastic bubble on a card hanging on a peg in a store is a big part of the experience, and that has been obfuscated. And it's up to Hasbro to decide if they want to push the nostalgia buttons in a way fans aren't going to be able to resist, or not.
It's also worth noting that there's one thing Retro can do that other lines can't - and that's to meet a set of expectations. We know what the style is. We know Hasbro has been very good about minimizing "just different enough to make you mad" releases. (By my count, we have four not counting cardback/proto variants.) We have every reason to believe there will be 28 figures next year and nobody has said anything if they would be new or not. I don't expect everything next year to be all-new all the time, because previous anniversaries have a lot of returning champions alongside new ones.
2. Do you think Hasbro will do any more figure carry cases?
--Phil R.
Probably not. The last Hasbro Star Wars carry case was a Kylo Ren MicroMachines head case in 2015, and before that we got a Star Wars Angry Birds case. And before that was a reissue of the reissue of a Darth Vader carry case. You can still find the old carry cases pretty cheaply if you stumble on them in comic or second-hand collector shops.
As a product, it may no longer have a purpose in that it isn't very efficient, and it's not exactly robust. If you're a carded collector, it is not needed. If you're an opener, you probably have shelves or 1,000 figures to store. If you were to want a case like this, you'd probably want it to serve as a collectible more than as a useful means of figural conveyance.
I believe the last time we got a Hasbro figure case was the Revenge of the Sith Darth Vader case from 2005 and I think it was a store exclusive. (Kmart?) I skipped it because it was the 2004 Walmart Original Trilogy Collection case with repacks of two figures many fans already owned. Used cases are pretty cheap on eBay and I don't know that it felt like a great deal back in the day, either.
I'd like to see a gold (preferably vac metal) Darth Vader case for the 50th anniversary of the figure line. Hasbro could pack in a surprise random figure or two, or sweeten the pot by putting in a holy grail figure of some sort given that the gold Vader case is itself something of a famous prototype. I'd be surprised if Hasbro would release a case at a market price that wouldn't make fans wince, if only because of inflation.
Failing that, go to the tackle aisle at Walmart and pick up some boxes for lures. The Plano 3700 has been my go-to for years.
Great real and by no means fake question, filler! I mean, Phil R.!
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FIN
I got Rotta the Hutt from The Vintage Collection last week. He was $46.99 and smaller than all of my Jabba toys. Hasbro did a nice job - extra shoulder motion, rubbery tail and head, no jointed neck, alternate hands - but if you compare it to the toys on the other pegs, Mattel's Jurassic World kid or collector segments offer more for the money. Or more for less money. You don't get the insanely great level of paint as you'll see on Rotta's arms or back, but sometimes it might be good for a toy to be a toy and not a collector's item.
I don't personally collect high-end collectibles. Lines like Epic Hero Series and The Retro Collection appeal to me because they capture the spirit, proportions, values, and adjusted-for-inflation prices of the old days. Hasbro has used the latest tech to make things that meet the most vocal online collector's needs, and they're too happy to pass the non-savings along to you. Depending on your level of need, $30 is too much for a 6-inch figure. Or maybe it's just right, if you missed Anakin and want the very best version of him. When I look at Rotta the Hutt, I see an incredible figure with amazing paint and a lot of articulation for a Hutt. Also $46.99 is more than I might spend at an antique or collectible show haul for old carded stuff at points in my life. I'm not saying that isn't a fair cost for the item, but I am saying the item may be exceeding the mandate of the market. People will buy it (me) but people might have been just as happy with a simpler toy that was the best Hasbro could do for $25 or $30. I don't think Hasbro shorted us with this one's quality, but money is a real concern these days.
In the last two weeks we saw a pre-order for a $80 3-pack of The Vintage Collection figures which took figures we previously got as $6 cartoon toys, but with more paint and joints. Is it worth $27 per figure to get new versions of characters that Hasbro has made several times over - frequently, more cheaply or with more gear in some cases? We're going to find out. We also saw basic 6-inch figures go up to $30, with a special edition gift set of six for $200. It's my hunch that fans will buy whatever is cheapest, but it's also a chance for stores and Hasbro to get an answer to the age-old question, "how many packaging completists are out there?" I've been of the perspective that you don't do packaging variants for exclusives, unless the item itself is so hot that you need more product in-market. While this isn't an exclusive, it does sport premium pricing.
It might be time for Hasbro to revisit the cost structure and evaluate if fans really do need every last joint and paint application. I assume fans are not buying things because of higher prices squeezing them out. Given how many figures stay in their boxes or stand in a line on a shelf, would we miss an ankle joint or a few other moving parts if it got costs down? I'd be curious to find out. Obviously the YouTube contingent thrives on saying "it's never good enough," but there are probably still hundreds of thousands of people who want figures but have reasons that they no longer participate in the hobby. Maybe the figures aren't fancy and expensive enough. But I feel differently, I've just always liked cheap toys.
--Adam Pawlus
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