1. I'm from the original Star Wars generation. How many collectors are still out there going strong from my generation? It's starting to feel a bit lonely.
--Daniel

There aren't many other entertainment brands that are still successful at 50. Star Trek is turning 60 this year, and it's sort of meandering along with some toys in various sizes. At 50, we got Star Trek Beyond and not much else. I don't think Planet of the Apes had much going for its 50th. Major Matt Mason, The Outer Space Men, and G.I. Joe didn't exactly have a massive splash for their half-centuries either and Micronauts has a little bit you can buy, if you're lucky. But Star Wars still has stuff to see out in the wild, which is impressive compared to its peers and disappointing compared to what we're used to seeing on-shelf.

It's hard to stick around when many of the figures figures aren't from the first 25 years of the brand, and that's what you came here to buy. Right now, there's not much worth buying if you've been at this forever and aren't a dyed-in-the-wool completist. Most of the older guys I knew are out. You're not wrong in feeling that it's gotten to feel like people are gone, and I'm in no rush to join them to where they have departed.

There's a lot of antipathy for "new Star Wars" among the older generation. The Prequels, Sequels, TV shows, and the like just don't appeal to them, but Disney wants to use the product to promote the new shows and films. I find the splintered focus - trying to please every demographic with a couple of characters - just makes nobody happy, so it makes sense that a lot of older fans are just focusing on the era they like or checking out entirely. Most fan streams are packed with new version of things we own, or decided we didn't want. It can be challenging to find a reason to celebrate movies with products you don't want, or find to be too expensive, or just have somehow mutated beyond what you came here for in the first place. I'm a toy collector, and the bulk of what Hasbro makes are barely toys. "Toy-shaped collectibles" that are increasingly close to (or above) secondary market prices for older toys can be hard to justify buying

Next year, if Hasbro can deliver a more compelling 50th than 40th, we'll see if they're still out there. The rumblings make it sound like there's a reason to come back for a specific kind of older fan, but nothing is cheap. If next year doesn't retain people, I would assume we're at the end of the line depending on how Starfighter works out. I have zero reason to believe The Empire Strikes Back 50th anniversary will be more successful unless they remake the Kenner AT-AT for the masses, but it might be too late.

There's not a lot of precedent for long-haul success in a movie franchise. The Wizard of Oz is a big deal, but it and Universal Monsters aren't exactly lighting the world on fire today or at their 50th anniversaries. On the other hand, Jurassic Park/World seems to be finding success mixing up movie stuff with wholly original designs, and as far as I can tell kids can't get enough dinosaurs.

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2. Are Hasbro done with the sequel trilogy? Nothing seemed to happen for the 10th anniversary of The Force Awakens, I'm assuming nothing will happen for The Last Jedi, especially as it comes the same year as the 50th. Will we ever get a Ben Solo figure? These movies are generational, so there has to be demand surely.
--Charlie

It remains to be seen but if anything is coming, I haven't heard about anything as of yet. Maybe Rey or BB-8 will show up in Starfighter?

Q&A has received very few requests from fans for more sequel trilogy figures or toys. Streaming series? Yes. Prequels, cartoons, comics? Oh yes. Classic movies? Absolutely. Most of the love comes from the characters, organizations, and situations from 1977-2014, but mostly the 20th century.

I don't think Disney wants to market the sequels right now because there aren't any marketing pushes for it between the new movies and TV efforts. I may sound like a broken record, but there's a lot we don't have from so many movies and shows - Ben Solo, there's one. But we never got a somehow returned Palpatine either, and Finn was completely left out of The Black Series and The Vintage Collection for The Rise of Skywalker. And so was Rose, and Poe's new outfit, and even Lando. If Hasbro were considering revisiting that trilogy I would hope it's in a cheaper format at a point where fan demand makes it worthwhile. Looking at the secondary market, sequel stuff is cheap. I don't know that there's a big market for it.

The upswing of prequel stuff - to some extent, I think quantities might be conservative on non-exclusive items - should be a good indicator of what the future may hold. Hasbro really went hard on the sequels for a hot minute, and then seemed to pull back after The Last Jedi. I have heard few complaints. Maybe we'll see the market shift as the older original trilogy fans age out of posting on boards or caring, but I think it's far more likely that the entire licensed figure world we've enjoyed for 50 years is something that doesn't have a future without a strong kid base. Maybe The Force Awakens kids will grow up and be the next collector class, but I don't think we'll have a read on that for at least another three or four years.

It remains to be seen if people are rewatching these movies on a loop like VHS kids did, or if the firehose of news stories and endless choices of new things to experience via streaming won't create quite the same kind of pop culture obsessive that we saw out of Star Trek or Planet of the Apes, or even the golden and silver ages of comic books when everybody had far fewer choices for entertainment. In short, there's a real good chance that you might just want to treasure what you got, because next year we have a new movie and a big anniversary and I don't assume The Last Jedi turning 10 will register as a blip on the anniversary marketing radar.

...if anyone at Disney, Lucasfilm, or Hasbro are reading? My interest in collecting goes up when there are vehicles and Retro figures. If it's just The Black Series or random Vintage guys, there's not much for me to play with, and I wouldn't care much. Ships and playsets can be toys that are fun and do things, and places to display or store my figures. Figures for the sake of figures hold little appeal, especially for (if I'm being honest) the lesser movies. But I'd buy Undead Emperor Kenner Retro or Kenner Old Man Lando all day long, name your price.

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FIN

As the clearance machine rages on, The Mandalorian and Grogu is currently the #10 movie (globally) of the year. As of Friday it's still showing on 90 screens in America. If you haven't yet seen it, maybe make it a point to check it out. It seems pretty unlikely to have cultivated the kind of following that will demand a theatrical rerelease down the road. Similarly, if you're looking for any ActionVerse stuff, keep an eye open - there are deals to be had. And presumably better deals to be had are coming to Ross in a few months.

The big toy aisle reset is happening right now in Target stores, and some Walmarts. I've found more new stuff in the past week than I've seen all year, but it's for other brands like G.I. Joe and Jurassic Park. I'm expecting to find The Retro Collection 6-pack of new Star Wars figures shortly, and I know new Transformers are due any minute now.

It doesn't look like Star Wars will have a particularly good holiday season. While we're starting to see things like Amazon, a sponsor of ours, getting a Mantellian Savrip (and boy howdy that's exciting) we're not seeing a big retail presence. Well, that's partially true - we're still seeing a lot of 3 3/4-inch and 6-inch figures from the past five years hanging around at Walamrts and a few Targets around here, which can't be good for business or morale. If you've got one Walmart in your neighborhood, and you can say "there's nothing new here," what reason do you have to keep coming back? There are still nearly a dozen 2021 Lando figures at a Walmart on my rounds, so what's a toy collector to do? Look elsewhere.

The two most interesting 3 3/4-inch lines running right now are still pumping out nifty things... at a slow pace. Mattel's Jurassic World has quietly taken over for G.I. Joe with wacky military vehicles and figures, packaging them with dinosaurs, and making them generally exclusive to Target or "fan channel" places. If you look at the line with that perspective, you can see where the business has shifted. Super7 continues its ReAction (and ReAction+) figures, and some new Target-exclusive Ninja Force Cobra Commander and Snake Eyes figures have hit just last week. Visionaries should be shipping shortly, too. As far as I can tell nobody has any real plans for 3 3/4-inch DC or Marvel figures in the near future, so I would recommend checking out some of the other lines. Micronauts look pretty good hanging out with Star Wars Kenner figures, I must say.

--Adam Pawlus

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