1. You mentioned in your last Q&A about non-classic packaging so I figured I'd see what you think/know about packaging and also about price..

I feel like the current TVC packaging limits what Hasbro can do so much. There is no room for any sort of accessory and I have to believe that unique cards add costs so we get less that costs more if that makes sense. I know carded collectors exist, but wouldn't it make sense to make a figure that has sensible articulation (necessary articulation) on throw-away packaging that more closely mimics the TVC stuff and isn't 5POA or Clunky like the ActionVerse / Epic stuff?

I feel like the shift to collectors has severely limited 3.75" Star Wars. What about a 30th Anniversary / Legacy Collection sort of figure 2007-2010ish marketed to kids instead of stuff that's slightly too big or completely unposable?
--Kevin

My hunch is that there are a lot of collectors that just want a cool new figure. They'll hold their nose and buy it on whatever packaging it comes on, and possibly throw away said packaging. They may even be willing to pay a higher price, but it has to be cool and new. It's hard to get people excited about the newest version of the Snowtrooper, especially when it reuses a lot of old parts. But, the loudest collectors seem to be people who feel the only appropriate packaging is Kenner packaging and the only appropriate figure is super-articulated at any price. I think we've got a lot of splinters in the community, because I could give a rip about the packaging if I already have the figure at home.

Over the years, Hasbro has shown us that they can sell premium-articulated figures in non-Vintage packaging. Obviously today's figures are much better, but go back to 2010-2012. We saw a $10 Qui-Gon figure on a Vintage cardback, and an $8 version of the same figure with a box of blasters, a stand, a trading card, and die, for $7.99. We've seen $10 Vintage figures like Greedo and the Snowtrooper from the mid-00s put on Saga Legends packaging for $8 with, again, a box of blasters and a trading card and a display stand. You absolutely did get more stuff in the box at a lower price, but you didn't get the "collector packaging" which seems to use less in the way of raw materials.

I assume that someone, somewhere, decided all Vintage figures are to carry a premium price. Look at R2-D2 - many of them are just the same basic $8 figure build-a-figure parts, but the price keeps going up to match the assortment's current pricing. Unless the factory is being difficult, odds are they're just taking a price increase to match the assortment. (I don't blame them, there's no lower-cost 3 3/4-inch assortment to put an R2-D2 right now.)

Because of all of this, fans assume there's a "collector tax." I don't have enough information to prove it, but the evidence makes me think that probably has some basis in reality. By changing up the packaging, there might be a price drop as well as an opportunity for different kinds of figures. We used to get 2 Jawas or 2 Ewoks for the price of 1 tall figure - but not since Vintage. And I don't know about you, but I don't find the level of articulation on Jawas or Ewoks to be extensive - I just need little guys to stand around.

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2. So a battle droid with a small shirt... What's next a nice hat? Has this hobby just collectively jumped the shark? While I get the market for many other things, just why?
--Dan

For those just joining us, Hasbro revealed three The Black Series figures for May the 4th. A Battle Droid (security detailing), a Biker Scout/Riot Trooper, and a Stormtrooper (battle damage) with a small T-shirt. These aren't items for us - they're items for people to give us, or for other fans to give as gifts. Theoretically. I honestly don't believe there's a big market for these unless they're manufactured in low numbers to goose collectibility.

Hasbro's aiming for a new audience, and usually whenever you see anything that makes no sense, that's why. Every time you see a new scale of figures, or some other odd expression of a character, they're not actually aiming at us most of the time. They're going after kids, or the kind of collector who only buys 4 or 5 figures a year. You know, the kind of collector you and I would call "probably not a big fan."

We have seen a number of items like this in the past six years, like Carbonized figures, Credit Collection figures, and Holocomm figures. But we've had similar goofiness in the 3 3/4-inch scale line, like silver figures around 2002-2005 and gold figures in 2019.

I think Hasbro made a good call by making the shirt optional, so army builders might actually buy these if they ever hit sales racks. By and large, Hasbro's "collectible" figures - that is, with special non-canon deco - tend to get marked down more often than not. I assume Hasbro has also more than made money of the tooling at this point, so I would assume they're going to be OK with how they sell no matter what.

As collectors, it's worth noting Hasbro has been making figures that exist purely as collectibles for adults or older fans, and don't fit in any scenes/dioramas/etc. for a while. At least with these guys, it's not something preposterous like a Stormtrooper painted in Easter Egg lavender or a seafoam green Darth Vader. That'd just be ridiculous. Here, you at least have the option of a perfectly normal figure without the shirt, but I think the era we're in means we're more likely to start skipping things we don't like. It got real easy for me to skip Christmas figures when I totaled up over $130 of new releases that I wouldn't have any actual desire to own as a collection. If it were one or two a year, sure. But five at once? No.

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FIN

We are out of questions for next week. Send 'em if you got 'em!

More stores are resetting, and things are getting somewhat interesting. If you're not yet into Blokees, as your attorney, I advise you to check some of them out. They're kit figures for generally low prices. (You're the one doing the factory work assembling them, after all.) They're like simpler versions of figures in the axis of Gundam/Xevoz/Stikfas. Walmart and Entertainment Earth are both stocking the Star Wars ones. They look pretty cool in person, and I saw a Stormtrooper at a Walmart last week. I haven't picked one up yet, but it's coming. I've been buying the Transformers ones here and there. They're doing a good job with the quality, for the price.

The Masters of the Universe movie trailer dropped last week, and it looks very fine. I was a fan of the cartoon as a kid, so watching goofy colorful people fight over a gem that can make you invisible or a creepy evil masks or whatever can be a lot of fun. I don't get the feeling this is going to veer into goofy places, but I can hope.

We have a very IP summer on the horizon. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie just came out, and we've got a new sequel or remake almost every week in May. Including, of course, The Mandalorian and Grogu. Mortal Kombat II, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Toy Story 5, Supergirl, another Jackass, a live-action Moana, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Evil Dead Burn, Resident Evil, and a bunch of others are all set before October. And there will be plenty of other sequels and remakes as the year goes on. Hopefully some of the new movies are a hit - as of my writing this we haven't got to Project Hail Mary yet. We could use some new stuff.

I suppose every generation has some version of this, but it sure does feel like Generation X and Millennials have the run of the box office and a lot of streaming stuff. (And, sometimes, we even show up.) I do feel a bit sad that I'm not seeing much in the way of new movies with new toy lines in stores. This year we had GOAT, which will probably end up being secondary market gold as people realize they missed toys after catching the movie on streaming. That's theoretically good for future generations, as Zoomers await the theoretical and oft-delayed Shrek 5.

It's been a lot harder to get to movies lately, mostly because I've been sucked into watching a lot more older stuff thanks to whatever is on Svengoolie or new stuff mentioned on The Dana Gould Hour. I did catch Jurassic World Rebirth last year and it sure does show the challenges of trying to keep long-running movie series fresh in the name of people staying home. I thought the design team did a great job, but I had a lot more fun actually finally seeing the first Friday the 13th movie a few weeks ago. (I didn't see this one growing up. It's a lot more like Alien than I expected.)

With any luck, The Mandalorian and Grogu will be a great time next month. My current metric for "is this good?" is "is this at least as good as an average Star Wars comic from the 1990s?" Hey, it put Solo in perspective. And if everything at the box office is disappointing, we can all be happy that House of Svengoolie just showed An American Werewolf in London and that my Blu-Ray of Ed Wood still works. And you never know what will suddenly be a darling among the youths. I'm still amazed that people latched on to Killer Klowns from Outer Space, a movie I never remember seeing advertised as coming out when I was growing up despite seeing it in Starlog.

--Adam Pawlus

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