1. From a license & marketing standpoint, IF the 2026 Mando & Grogu movie is not a huge success, could you see Hasbro not continuing the Star Wars toy license and moving it along to someone else? Could it become a "Fan Channel" ONLY through Hasbro Online Store?
--Jeremiah

Let's start with that last one - could it ever be "fan channel" only (which is "stores that aren't Target, Amazon, and Walmart") or "Hasbro Online Store" only? My guess is no. It could happen. I just don't think Hasbro can make enough money off the brand to make it worth their while. At some point the dollars coming in to warrant whatever the license costs needs the mass-market support of Amazon, Walmart, and Target, as they can take many thousands of units and also serve as a marketing platform for the toys and the greater movie brand. If people don't see Star Wars, they might not think about Star Wars as much. I can't imagine diminishing a brand to the barest of minimums would work unless it was exclusively in a series of high-dollar HasLab crowdfund bundles. But even that would have its limits, as eventually fans would be pretty resentful of having multiple $200-$500 paid-in-full pre-orders.

If the new The Mandalorian & Grogu movie flops, would Hasbro give up its prop, collector action figure, kid toy, roleplay, and related license? We have had some pretty soft years for Star Wars, and I assume the only way Hasbro would give it up is if executive management opted to really steer hard into the gaming space and started to give up on action toys. (We saw Mattel focus on things like Hot Wheels, Barbie, Street Sharks, and Extreme Dinosaurs for most of the 1990s.) I assume Disney wants Hasbro to make a big statement at retail, and if they can't do that, they may find other partners who will.

The Hasbro team knows they've got a valuable license - even if the product doesn't always excite all potential customers. Hasbro might not want to give up 48 years of legacy product designs to another company. If Spin Master got Star Wars, I assure you that we'd be seeing Kenner X-Wings, Landspeeders and Retro Figures in Target within 18 months. (They're doing Batman Forever retro-alikes now and it seems to be working pretty well.)

I should also say I can only assume Hasbro has the license through The Mandalorian & Grogu in 2026. To my knowledge, nobody else has whispered about a new figure license. Hasbro has also not mentioned how long their current agreement with Lucasfilm runs, so it could be another couple of years, or five years, or maybe even a decade. I would assume we'd hear news of a renewal soon, as it has been a while since anybody tooted that horn and the end of this year would be a great time to do it.

Ad: Get New Star Wars Items IN STOCK NOW at Entertainment Earth! Get Free USA Shipping on Orders $79+

 

2. One of the modern gripes about new vehicles, besides being over $100, is that they lack electronics. But exactly how much extra would it cost to add some wires, a lightbulb and/or small motor to an X-wing to make us feel like we're getting our money's worth with the larger price tag? When I see videos and how-tos of folks adding basic electronics to a Razor Crest for a few dollars, it makes me wonder.
--Chris

In 1995, an X-Wing had lights and sounds and was $30. In 2004, the same toy got reissued with no sounds or lights, and was $20. I'm having a hard time explaining this - the TIE Fighter stayed $20 from 1995 through 2010 (except big wing versions.) Without the Vintage Package Tax, Star Wars figures ranged from $5-$8 from 1995-2011. I cut a graph about Hasbro prices basically being flat - with better toys - for the bulk of 1995-2010, and that's not even factoring inflation into account. It seemed like when Hasbro was focused on one (or maybe a second) format of toys, they sold more units per SKU and prices were kept down. And you could do a lot more electronics, pack-in goodies, heck - we got electronics in $4.99 R2-D2 figures from 2002-2004! That's a whole dang figure, with bugs and/or display stands, and lights and sounds, for less than the price difference on those X-Wings.

I asked question of cost to a few now-defunct toy companies a long time ago, and the rule of thumb I was given was that every $1 of cost adds about $4 to the final retail price of an item. (You have to pay factory workers, freight companies, licensors, etc. The store also has to make a few bucks on the item.) The only real direct comparison I can think of - which makes less sense given how pricing works these days - is that the 1995 X-Wing had electronics and was $30. The reissue in 2004 was $20 with no electronics. (This tells me there's probably some nonsense going on with price increases if Hot Wheels and LEGO pricing is flat, but that's not my department.) Some companies still make cheap toys for kids and fans - Spin Master has a Batman Forever collection at Target. $8.99 gets you a Kenner-style figure (cheap) and $19.99 gets you a Kenner-style Batmobile... with a pack-in figure.

With most lines, I assume things have to do with money - and in Hasbro's case, hypothetical global sales. They may not see electronics as necessarily worth it for non-US markets, or perhaps those countries charge a different import tax on "electronic" versus "non-electronic" toys. Maybe testing costs aren't worth retail sales. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they did the math of asking collectors if they open toys or not, or use play features or not, because all fun play features have largely been weeded out of The Vintage Collection and Epic Hero Series is very focused on keeping costs down.

Off the top of my head I'm struggling to name an action toy brand with lights and sounds in 2025. If Hasbro were to bring such features back, I assume a motor or tiny record player would be replaced by a PCB and prerecorded sounds on a microchip. Adding an LED should be pretty cheap and easy, given they can be in Happy Meal toys.

Back in the era of Toys R Us I remember "try me" packaging making explosion noises and talking. There were weird G.I. Joe figures that would talk or shout depending on how you pushed a button - you would hear these things while walking around, effectively advertising the toy to you, and you were aware of it when it came time to buy a gift. They could probably benefit from bringing this sort of thing back. It's of no value to dotcom business, but hey, Walmart and Target can generate a lot of awareness

As a me, the only place I really want to see old-school electronics are in 1:1 replicas of old-school Kenner toys. But if Hasbro can find a way to make ForceLink work - a chip in a toy triggers on-board lights with the batteries and sounds/speakers outsourced to a shared device, be it a phone or a bracelet - I think that's still a brilliant idea worth revisiting. Just thinking about the reduction in wasted batteries, the shared speakers/wires/electronics, and most importantly massive cost reductions by replacing batteries and battery boxes with an RFID chip? I can't understand why there's not a bigger push for it. It's cheaper, it's greener... and sure, it would require some sort of rolling downloadable updates, but nobody's perfect.

The only reason I can assume you don't put electronics in a HasLab - especially since you can charge fans for it, or make it a stretch goal - is there may be some production hold-up with electronics, or because there's a business reason.  Maybe it's import fees, maybe it's royalties, maybe it's al iicensor thing now.   When is the last time we got a new 3 3/4-inch vehicle with batteries from an all-new mold?  2018?  I sure as heck can't remember much after the Millennium Falcon from Solo, save for the reissue of the Millennium Falcon.

Become a Patron!

Special thanks to our generous Patreon patrons, especially: JT, Jared, Bobb, Christopher, Daniel, Dan, Tim, Jayson, Matthew, Michael, Robert, Stephen, Todd DrReiCow, Eddie, Jeremy, Mario, and Todd! Thanks for helping us keep the servers on!

FIN

What's new this week? Not much. Nobody seems to know what's happening with the whole tariff thing, we didn't get any new Star Wars show or toy news, and I can't imagine there's going to be too much more revealed before Toy Fair. Some stuff... but not a lot. Hasbro showed off some new Transformers at a Florida convention over the weekend - good stuff! - but that's not necessarily your stuff. HasLab Liokaiser was shown and is probably the biggest news from the weekend - $350 gets you six (or maybe seven) roughly Deluxe-sized robots, with animal buddies, and maybe a display stand and nunchucks. In terms of size, it's not an amazing deal - it's maybe $200 worth of retail robots with extra gear. But it's not like they put transforming animal sidekicks with regular retail figures. (I'm probably going to buy one.)

A few weeks ago Star Trek: Section 31 debuted, a made-for-streaming movie that reportedly took a season's worth of episodes and crammed it into a shorter project. It's been criticized as being the worst Star Trek movie (and/or anything) to date, but I'll say one thing: it was short. They probably saved money by making it this way, it probably looks a smidgen nicer because of the change in budgeting, and nobody had to sit through 8-12 weeklong intermissions where large swaths of fans would hate on it. It came, it went, it will be remembered for what it is without too much time ruminating.

I'm all for a break between stories, but if we're destined to have season-long stories... perhaps telefilms would be better. Or drop the whole season in one day (plus or minus the finale.) Not every show is going to appeal to everybody, so getting to avoid an entire legion of fans and the fan press telling you how much they hate something before it's over sounds really refreshing. And I admit I'm part of the problem here - Skeleton Crew felt like it meandered a bit, but I can't imagine I'd have a lot of those complaints were the entire thing viewed in a week instead of a couple of months. I might even better learn the names!

Since things are slow, I'm re-rewatching Droids again. I still love it - I just finished "A Race to the Finish" last night, which is the one with Boba Fett. The Disney+ master is a little rough, but it's fascinating that each episode ends like an actual ending, despite being part of an ongoing four-week storyline. If you missed the next episode, each week still feels like our heroes had a victory and if it ended there, you'd be fine. Also they have to awkwardly drop exposition at the top of an episode, but mostly do a really good job. Maybe I should watch it again. (I want to see more of the Fromm Gang, is what I'm saying. Evil Tech Mogul with Droids and his dad, the space gangster. That's good TV.)

--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.

Social media? Sure. Bluesky | Threads | Twitter | X | Fediverse | Mastodon | Tumblr | Instagram

I'm on Instagram! All Pictures from a GameBoy Camera.