1. Are you optimistic for more Retro figures for the PT, OT, ST, and Rogue One?
--Allen

My answer in July would have been "no," but now it's "maybe." Or "it's the only thing getting me out of bed in the morning."

That new Return of the Jedi set with Mon Mothma - admittedly, not anywhere near my top 10 guess list for a retro (new or old) Return of the Jedi figure - makes me think anything is indeed possible. With Wicket, a Gamorrean Guard, the Emperor's Royal Guard, Admiral Ackbar, and Yak Face, it strikes me as someone going "hey, let's put out something that should hopefully be really appealing" but also, the higher price point is probably going to hurt this format of figure. I pre-ordered the set. I don't know that a lot of people want to spend that for a box these days.

Since Hasbro is doing a set for The Phantom Menace I am hopeful that anniversaries will allow them to do more of these, and hopefully Retro sticks around long enough to hit a good number of figures. Having said that, I would not be at all surprised to see Hasbro pull the plug tomorrow after any one of these waves underperforms. Given the slow sales of Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Mandalorian (wave 2) I'm kind of stunned that, as of right now, we've got TPM and ROTJ boxed sets plus Ahsoka and The Book of Boba Fett waves expected in the coming months. That's roughly 27 new (and "new") figures - for a line that struck me as stuttering, that's incredible.

I'm kind of stunned we didn't get a Retro wave for Rogue One during the launch of Andor. While Disney and Lucasfilm seem to be keeping things very close to the vest, a set with Cassian Andor, K-2SO, Krennic, Jyn Erso, and a couple of others - maybe a Stormtrooper with a Pauldron, or Antoc Merrick, or even Dr. Evazan - could have sold well during the show's hype. There's a season two coming, so hopefully Hasbro has something like that in the works later. (I am not holding my breath.)

I hope they keep going, and I hope they have the guts to update the original 96ish figures, plus Ewoks and Droids cartoons... and a few more.

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2. Why is Dooku getting a TVC release when there was never reall all that bad a version of him to begin with , while fans have had ONE shot at a premium, ball jointed Anakin from ROTS and multiple swivel joint releases?
--Derek

If I remember correctly, Dooku ranked highly in a recent fan site poll asking what people wanted to see. A few years ago, we saw fan polls do the same for Maul, Luke Skywalker, and other figures "lifers" have in abundance. While older fans may find this annoying, it's worth noting there hasn't been a Count Dooku for 3 3/4-inch figure fans in stores for years either. Also many of them are expensive.

As to Anakin, I assume you're trolling me, as he actually got a ball-jointed release on a card (2010), plus another one in a boxed set with Vader and two more Anakin figures from the other prequels (2013 I believe), which was a slow seller. While it may not be the precise Anakin you want, other versions of the character have been in circulation over the past decade, whereas I think the last non-cartoon-based non-holographic Count Dooku figure may have been in stores around 2007. There's one of those figure 4-packs that came in the tins that everybody forgot existed, and another in the Battle of Geonosis Battle Pack, plus I think there was one in a Comic Pack from roughly the same time. That means if you were born after 2002, there's a good chance you never had a crack at a movie Count Dooku figure outside of the secondary market.

I assume Anakin from Revenge of the Sith be out again eventually - hopefully with an all-new sculpt using the excellent modern articulation (and alternate heads) we've seen in the last couple of years - but it's probably a good idea to nudge Hasbro to consider him for the 20th anniversary of that movie, which is just around the corner. But if you take a big step back and look at the line as a whole, it's not like most characters are in regular circulation in every costume from every movie any more. I don't think we've had a 3 3/4-inch Farmboy Luke (outside Retro, of course) in quite some time, either, and I'd say that one is similarly if not significantly more important than just about any character. Everybody has their favorites, and in a line with over 3,000 figures, not every character is going to be in constant circulation. Especially since fans kept bemoaning the prequels, and your request runs counter to a lot of fan complaints which seem to be diminishing now that the prequel kids are getting older and the original guard original trilogy fans are aging out of toy collecting.

It's also worth noting that what you want exists, and can be purchased, despite being somewhat expensive these days. That's one of those unfortunate truths in toy collecting - FOMO is real.

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FIN

Apparently New York Toy Fair is on the way out. I got super duper food poisoned on Friday and missed Saturday, but this year was (as some expected) slow in traffic and in news. If you were going to miss one, this is it - on Sunday a lot of booths seemed pretty empty and I saw a lot of bored people on their phones. (Er, but not your hard working employees, Mr. CEO Man.) The usual army of press and "press" was more subdued, and the crew of toy bloggers I know seemed to be in short supply, and given that the bulk of toy news happens at the whims of licensors and internet-driven "drops" the need for a trade show like this might be on its way to being mooted. 20 years ago, Javits Center was but one part - the small, unimportant part - of tours of multiple buildings around town with huge showrooms and coat checks and (no joke) meal service. Did you know you could get a hot dog on a roller in the Rubies showroom? Well, at one point, you could. (Hi Lenny if you're reading.)

While I did get some really awesome dirt a new Star Wars license, it's not 3 3/4-inch scale nor are they due any time soon. (Start saving money, I maybe.) If anything this felt like a midterm and there was a minimal amount of studying - lots of promises of better things to come, and I hope they all come through because it would be fantastic if it's true.

I've been coming here for most of the last 20 years of Toy Fairs, and I would go as far as to say this was probably the weirdest one. And I was here in 2020 when the only topic anybody really wanted to discuss was "so how boned are we?" Right now the big question seems to be "so is your business going up or down?" and it's been pretty all over the map. If you're a parent (or grandparent, I guess) it might be a good time to introduce your little one to the world of toy-based anxiety. There is still plenty of business to be had but we wouldn't be enjoying the lines we've had since the 1990s if it weren't for kids growing up and collecting stuff as an adult. It doesn't seem like a lot of toy formats are doing much to really grab future adult fans yet, but who knows? Maybe Titan Hero Series 12-inch figures and Imaginext will be the Mego and Kenner of the future. (LEGO will, of course, still be here.)

Anyway, I got Monday here in New York and then I guess I won't be coming back in a work capacity until 2025. Which is kind of upsetting, New York is a really awesome place to go for work trips if you figure out the subway and know where to get interesting food. (Everywhere, it's everywhere.) Right now I don't feel overly optimistic for the shape of the overall business - nothing's bad per se, it just seems like we're coasting a bit more - and maybe the move to NOLA might put different companies on the map and we'll see something new, or in a new light, because the toy world needs a massive shot in the arm. Nobody's doing a bad job with their products, it just feels like we're about due for some new epoch.

--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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