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1. You mentioned in your 8/2 edition "...it's possible Hasbro could keep making figures beyond the time it's profitable, just to keep the brand out of competitor hands." Let's assume they did throw in the towel, and another company bought the license. Who, in your opinion, would best do the brand justice, and make figures and ships that would make us excited again?
--Chris
My feeling is Hasbro will lock up this license until another company buys them. Lucasfilm/Disney and Hasbro have a good relationship and a good product line that has put toys on shelves for roughly 40 of the past 49 years. And I would have said the same thing about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Playmates, but that contract is about to expire after nearly 40 years - so anything is possible. I don't think any big company would put out as much stuff at as many varied levels of price, size, and obscurity as we've had from the Kenner x Hasbro line that has run longer than some of us have been on this planet. I expect it to last.
But we're imagining a scenario where Hasbro no longer wants to make Star Wars, perhaps because the money isn't there or the license's pop culture cachet has expired. It could happen. So let's explore that.
The caveat: I do not know what you personally want, or at what size or price point. Mattel has been delivering kid/collector experiences for decades. Spin Master makes some very competitive kid lines. Boss Fight, Mezco, and Super7 make some incredibly good collector product. And odds are you couldn't get six Star Wars collectors to agree on a specific direction.
30 years ago I would say "anybody but Mattel." Today I'd say Mattel is actually kind of great. Their chase product can be a pain, but if you take a big step back most of their lines are actually great. Hot Wheels is mostly one uniform scale with lots of price points and "collector levels," so you can buy a car for $1.25 or for $60, and they all fit on the same orange track playsets. Also, there are playsets, and Mattel is very sensitive to prices and the diversity of the audience's needs. You can't look at a Hot Wheels product offering over a year and find nothing that's interesting - there's likely a product that will intrigue even readers of this column. A similar mentality permeates Barbie, Monster High, WWE, and Jurassic World. These are generally also a uniform scale, with some collector items, but also a good and robust kid offering at an impulse price point. We're about to see what Mattel does with DC and TMNT, and we know that Mattel likes vehicles so much that they'll make up new ones for Jurassic World and will cram some in the generally not-a-vehicle-brand that is WWE. The quality of those vehicles is also very good for a kid item, so I think that today's Mattel would be a good home for any figures-and-vehicles action figure brand.
Would Mattel make as many figures as Hasbro? Probably not. And vehicles? I doubt it. They make a ton of stuff but also Mattel action figure lines (specifically action figure lines) seem to not be as big or as extensive as Hasbro much of the time.
I wouldn't be opposed to seeing the action figure license pie sliced up if Hasbro decided they didn't want to do more, but there's no perfect choice there. Super7 would absolutely treat the brand with great care for collector and retro-themed product, but their vehicle offerings (while good) are few and expensive. On the other hand, so are Hasbro's, so it'd probably be decent. Boss Fight Studio is made of ex-Hasbro (and other) people who know what collectors like and do a superb job, even with unusually shaped licensed characters like the Garfield brand, or Fraggles, or Hellboy. Mezco isn't famous for vehicles but I don't think they've disappointed with their figure offerings and they have spectacular packaging game and taste. Have you seen their Batman: The Animated Series 5 points stuff? Swappable arms, man. That's exactly the kind of thing I'd love to see more of. If I could buy Sandtroopers with optional arms, I'd buy a lot more Sandtroopers. So many specialized companies make great action figures these days that anyone that could meet the Mouse's quote might actually make something spectacular. There are some companies out there that make stuff that sells great but is not my cup of tea, and I'm fairly confident they'd do good business too.
We're all over 40 and probably can't get excited by anything short of a brand new expression of the brand. It's fascinating to think about a fresh start, but at my age I don't want fresh starts. I want more of what I already like, and failing that I'd probably enjoy the break and handing off the brand to a generation that does not involve guys my age who are me. As long as Hasbro can build and expand on its offerings since 1995, I'm happy to keep going (or gracefully exit.)
If anyone needs a prompt for a question, here's one from me to you: just what would you guys imagine a new era look like? Some people want more toy-ish things and others feel like The Vintage Collection isn't "premium" enough. I'd suggest looking around at this year's offering from other toymakers and see if there's anything you can point to that makes you say "I want it that way!" Which might be a song, who knows, I don't have time to look it up.
2. I had to comment on your “some just want a reason to quit” from [September 28's - editor] Q&A: As prices continue to rise, I’m not looking for a reason to quit, but I am looking for ways to cut back. I stopped being a completist long ago by skipping re-releases and re-paints. But this is my first year where I’m not buying new remakes and new molds. I skipped the entire VC Geonosis wave as I have “good enough” versions of these figures. I also started canceling “Game Greats” Black Series figures. I collect using rules, but lately I have been looking for new rules to cut back. While price impacts what I buy but lack of space and lack of interest impacts me more.
--Darth Ray
Tomato, tomato? I think this is increasingly how it's going to feel, especially in light of some things coming up everybody will probably love, and some things people are not going to enjoy. "Collect them all!" has left the building. But that's going to vary from person to person.
I've cited a few reasons how The Black Series went (for me personally) from a great new exciting line to something that wasn't meeting my expectations. (It only just occurred to me that there are more Christmas figures than Cantina figures.) Which is weird to say - the quality of the figures is incredible, and improving every year. Variable sizing Stormtroopers? Amazing. Great idea. But I am weird, I look at toy collecting as a toy collection, and there sometimes comes a tipping point where you go "...I might be done here."
Pricing... well, let's see how everybody feels in a few months. I feel there are some items where I'd pay more for a better product. 2026 The Vintage Collection Commander Cody lacks the 2010 version's accessories and vibrant colors, and also battle damage. It's different. Parts of it are better. Maybe it needs to be $25 to be succeed to what we used to get for $10, even though the new one has better joints it isn't a replacement or an upgrade which has to be frustrating.
This is one reason I'm pro-"toy." Collectibles seem to be running on constant improvement and they're not always better. The joints might be better. The paint might be sharper. There may also be fewer accessories, a higher price, or a few paint details that are missing or don't feel as "right" as a previous edition. But hey, we're adults, with adult jobs, and now toy companies are aiming for someone that makes $80,000 a year buying their products rather than someone that gets $2 per week allowance. But we're not all able to afford storage units, or second homes, or first homes... so there are limits.
We're seeing more prequel kids come in to buy the 6-inch guys, and that's good. It'll keep the lights on a bit longer. We're going to see what happens next year when the original 1977 movie comes back - and I don't know if it'll be people going "oh, this looks worse than I remember" or "oh, this is what I wanted all along, and now I'm not buying anything from after 1983."
I'm really happy that we got our Cantina and Jabba's Palace, more or less. We're still waiting to see if the ships and playsets we've been hoarding troopers for ever come out. I still honestly can't believe we're getting real fake Kenner figures, that's just great. But I assume Hasbro's amortization of tooling over dozens of gaming releases, or multiple clones or Jedi using the same molds, all of that is a lot less fun than when we got a new Cantina guy with 6 or 7 joints. And sadly we can't have it all, so some of us just plain don't want it all. Goodness knows that's OK for anyone out there who hasn't yet been reminded that, as an internal memo once warned, "Star Wars is forever."
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FIN
Well, NYCC has come and let's say by the time this goes up, gone. We didn't see any new Retro stuff, the $80 The Vintage Collection Rebels set did not exactly light the world on fire, but The Black Series fans have some newness and The Mandalorian set with Trapper Wolf, Carson Teva, and Frog Lady will probably enjoy a reception directly proportional to its pricing. It's a weird time to be a Star Wars fan... but that can be good, too. Meet Biddy Blas, a new Star Wars: Galactic Racer antagonist that is probably the most interesting new weirdo we've seen this decade. Despite being from a game, the model has just enough wobble and rubbery physics that it's appealing and oh so weird.
The last time I saw the internet light up at a character would probably have been 2019 with the one-two punch of Grogu and/or Babu Frik. Biddy Blas is somehow both new and the kind of thing we expect - he's short, he sounds weird, and he seems to have a small role. I don't even know if my Mac can play Galactic Racer, but this preposterous performance makes me want to try it. It's on the newest Xbox and Playstation 5, but I don't make that kind of money.
If it ever makes it out to Switch, or some physical format with a toy, I'm into it. I was rewatching Ahsoka for the first time since it came out and the performances seem stiffer than I remember. And now I see this guy, swinging for the fences, emphasizing the wrong words, and it's probably the most exciting thing Star Wars has done for a while. This isn't to be said things haven't been fun, or interesting, but a large part of the appeal of the movies and everything is that it's a little nuts. Bizarre hair, riding lizards in the desert, a bar packed with aliens from across the galaxy, monsters in asteroids, alien bands, Jabba. Each of those movies had something you'd never think to have seen before, even if it traded on existing pop culture in some way it was fresh, remixed, and something you'd run out to tell your friends about.
Like this guy.
I know of absolutely zero plans to do any merchandise for this game yet. Maybe Jazwares will jump on it and make a little ship. Maybe Hasbro or LEGO will have a set out a year from now once the blip is over. I'm actually kind of curious if we're going to see this guy or his cousin crammed into Starfighter now. I doubt we've seen the last of him, and I hope Disney and Lucasfilm take note that we want crazy subtitled aliens in our future. This is a big part of what keeps me buying these goofy toys, and if Hasbro put out a figure of this guy I'd probably buy it. (I say "probably" because I'd want it to be the right-for-me scale.)
Did anything come out of NYCC? Well, one guy cornered some Hasbro people and now forum users are analyzing body language and eye-aversions to try to determine what's going on in The Retro Collection. So that's fun. Walmart revealed their The Black Series Dewback (old mold) with Sandtrooper (updated mold) exclusive for $75. Hopefully we'll get some weirder surprises soon, I needs me some aliens and droids because I'm still happy with my old 6-inch scale Dewback. (But I'd buy a new 3 3/4-inch one.)
--Adam Pawlus
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