1. Target exclusive Range Trooper: $25. Target exclusive Jedha Trooper: $36. How do you think they arrived at THAT, since both were released on the same day? Is the Jedha Trooper subsisdizing the Range Trooper?

"How much would you pay?" is definitely going to be an interesting question. I don’t want to get political, but price increases are 100% political now, so my outlook about paying extra is different. I think there are only maybe three announced/rumored Star Wars figures coming up that still I want enough to pay ANY extra for.

At least Target's exclusives always end up on clearance.
--James

Some stores near me have $24.99 Jedha Stormtrooper tags, but the web site had $35.99. Why? Only Target and/or Hasbro know for sure. Sometimes human error happens. A few weeks ago, Amazon posted all its new pre-orders at $24.99 despite that only being the right price for about 2/3 of them. Last year, Walmart had an Epic Hero Series Darth Maul figure at $19.86 and it was supposed to be $12.86. I am not letting tariffs off the hook. I'm just saying, in this case, it is most likely not tariffs. $35.99 is higher than the prices going around for post-tariff The Black Series, anyway.

My money would be bet on this being an error somewhere, and not a tariff-specific price increase. If more items were similarly increased, I might point to tariffs. But they weren't.

Price increases happen for a variety of reasons, some of which are not things I am at liberty to fully discuss. I hear a lot of neat conversations and some things make me go "...what?" Common knowledge in fan circles isn't always correct, even if it seems logical. Businesses aren't always logical - there are reasons why they do things, but those reasons do not always align with what makes sense based on observations. 30 years ago, we had fans insisting C-3PO and a Speeder Bike were hard to get because of lead paint used by Kenner. This wasn't true, but it was repeated a lot. There was never lead paint. There was no product recall. Yet the narrative persisted. It makes sense why someone who had no information would assume that, but it - in that case - was not true.

Companies have been paying tariffs on goods that have left China since February. Some companies have absorbed some of those fees... and some companies have had layoffs. Stores and companies have every reason to want to make up the difference on their cost of goods, but so far, we haven't seen a ton of that.

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2. Thoughts on the Hasbro extending the license with Disney/Lucasfilm through 2035? Good or bad decision?
--Jeremiah

Most likely, the only decision. I'm glad it got renewed. (Also, I do not believe I saw anything official specifying an end date to the license. 10 years is not unusual, but I can't confirm it.)

It's easy to armchair quarterback everything - I mean, I do it, you do it, we all do it. But you also have to see that very few companies keep one license in production for 30 straight years. Even if there are things I don't love about how Hasbro does its product line, it is still being made. Galoob no longer exists, Applause is gone, and so many other licensed brands have been barely a blip on the radar while Hasbro churns out new stuff. Even if every quarter isn't a winner, even if a lot of products aren't for my specific tastes, it's not like you can go to Walmart and see Star Trek toys in 2025.

Because of Hasbro's Kenner's history of the brand, I assume Hasbro never ever wants to let it go. This is a company that knows it has Lord God King action figure brands but doesn't exploit them in ways that I think other companies would. We get a ton of stuff, but I'm surprised they haven't really pushed the Retro button harder over the last three decades of the brand's revival. It is surprising to me that Jazwares and Mattel have AT-ATs in rotation, but Hasbro not so much.

The question I would lob at you would be "Who else would do it this well?" I'd say Hasbro is going to be the best bet for mid-tier collector stuff. I would be interested in seeing what a toy company with a focus on kids - Playmates, Spin Master - would do with a kid line. Hasbro doesn't seem too interested in building out that segment with the kind of statement you're seeing compared to the Mattel Jurassic World line. Hasbro doing six to ten basic figures per year seems to tick a box on a license agreement, and maybe it's all the market wants, but it feels idle. The Hasbro 2025 offering for Epic Hero vehicles and mechs has improved a bunch. I see they're trying with wacky powered-up bikes and some new mechs, which is a lot more impressive than the figure offering... but I see anything under 12 basic figure a year as a dalliance. I think the Epic Yoda showing up in Target stores this week for $8 is an excellent product, and I would love to see more things like that. I can't wait to see if it hangs on pegs or everybody wants to have one at that price. (You should get one.)

For mass-market big-brand toy licenses, McFarlane was doing a good job with DC/Batman on the whole - but Mattel took it back from them and Spin Master. Mattel has a good track record overall, but some items are super-rare or get zero US distribution with no real answer as to why. Collecting Jurassic World toys is a painful experience unless your goal is just to get the coolest thing you can find on pegs in stores... in which case, it's the best licensed action toy line there is.

25 years ago, I felt toys were there to advertise the movie as much as the movies were there to advertise the toys. You'd see shelves of stuff before the movie comes out that directs you to watch the new film. You'd probably buy a bunch in anticipation of the new movie. We don't get that today with Hasbro, or really, Disney-owned properties on the whole. I think that's a mistake, but that might be more Disney's marketing direction which makes very little sense to me. I would think they sell more by having it on-shelf day and date with the movies. (Worked for Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, the prequels, Lord of the Rings, etc.)

Just looking around, it's not like LEGO or Jazwares brought out a lot of toys for most recent shows like Skeleton Crew. The issue with the product selection might not be Hasbro's creative direction. It may be someone higher in the chain of consumer products doing things this way, which is closer to how Disney has historically done things (more emphasis on main characters only) than how Lucasfilm used to do it (utterly crazy obscure stuff, just the way you like it.) If you draw a line before and after Disney took over the license, you'll notice far fewer weird cool things after. (Arguably, there are some good exceptions in The Force Awakens and Rogue One lines. I can't deny the ForceLink Solo figure line may have been one of the better showings for ships, aliens, and droids since the end of The Clone Wars toys.)

If Hasbro is making money, I'm hesitant to poo-poo most of what they're doing. It's not what I personally want to buy (which is more vehicles, aliens, and droids) but I don't see a lot of new releases sitting around this year yet. It's hard to know what kids want, and the one thing the line used to have going for it - a perception of the brand being this rare special thing - has been more or less gone since the end of the 1990s. No company would have the bravado to put it to rest for a year or two in order to let demand fester and become a big deal again.

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FIN

Super7 experienced massive layoffs on Monday and some awesome talent is now seeking new employment. While the American tariffs on Chinese goods went down to 30% from 145%, manufacturers have been on the hook for ever-changing tariffs since February 4. That's a lot of uncertainty where we've had a rocky quarter and a lot of customers also losing jobs. Funko, Hasbro, Mattel, and others have also cut jobs in the past few months. I've seen a lot of people from various companies I've worked with over the years looking for work, so if you're hiring people in sales, design, marketing, writing, and other positions, I'm sure I and anyone else in the biz have recommendations of lovely and talented people whom I hope with which to work again.

Who wants to talk about not-serious things? Toys are usually where I go to be happy, except when it's online, mostly because people aren't having fun with their stuff. There's a lot of anxiety to be had, if you do it right.

Mine has been coming from Target's Star Wars Retro Collection Star Wars: A New Hope Figure Multipack. Like many, I pre-ordered and my order got canceled about 10 days ago. Overnight on May 14, it was back again but would not let me check out with two sets - only one, and it shipped the next day. Will the order get delivered? I've seen some in-hand shots and a lot of people are reacting negatively to it, and it's funny that my first reaction (like back in the 1990s) was "great, if so many people hate it, it should be easier for the rest of us to get this." Hopefully I'll have mine in the next couple of days.

Entertainment Earth started shipping The Vintage Collection Momaw Nadon, which is also excellent. Mine arrived on Tuesday. It comes with a 2006-style staff, a 1996-style double rifle (which is smaller than the POTF2 release), and a 1979-inspired Stormtrooper E-11 blaster. Also he has an alternate hand. And a glass. The only thing it's missing is blue plastic for the E-11 and the little table from 2006. He's not huge - about as tall as the Retro Chewbacca I had on my desk - but I can see a lot of little pieces and deco hits that probably cost Hasbro some serious money. It's a stretch to say he's a $25 figure, but I'd be lying if I said he wasn't way cooler than any $16.99 figure in the line. This is easily my favorite "deluxe" figure so far. It helps to lean on nostalgia - and heck, my original Kenner Hammerhead is such a favorite he may have visited Hasbro with me at some point. Hasbro's new figures rarely disappoint, and assuming you want to spend the $25 you're really going to love this.

Andor ended its run. As promised, it ends where Rogue One starts. I liked season 2 a lot more than the first season, and when I rewatched season 1 a few weeks ago I liked it a lot more without the week between the episodes. Some shows work really well with the week between each installment... this isn't one of them. With a lot of great stories and even more impressive characters, it also shows us environs rarely glimpsed in the saga like apartments, bodegas, hospitals, and so on. It also gave us just a little bit more of some things and had hooks at the end for future stories, but there's something to be said about letting some stories end too. If it were 30 years ago I'd bet money on various characters coming back for revenge. Now... I'm not so sure. I will keep mentioning I would like to see Retro figures as this seems like a show for adults who would want toys to match an older style.

Creator Tony Gilroy has been actively doing a lot of interviews which make me assume he has no plans to do another tale in a galaxy far, far away. I don't think anyone has been more open about creative challenges, ideas that got away, or the shows he decided not to make. Disney wanted to do a Cassian/K-2SO adventure show and obviously, this was not that. Like the original 1977 film it's loaded with jumping-off points and numerous characters whose lives will undoubtedly continue in our imaginations and licensed short story collections for years to come. It's always weird when we get a new movie or show and coming to terms with how I felt about it. I liked this one in the end. If you're dragging your feet finishing it, I'd nudge you to do so before someone spoils it for you.

I also need to remind you that in addition to 12 episodes of Andor, Disney+ has added six episodes of Tales of the Underworld and three episodes of Light and Magic. I don't know that we've ever gotten this much Star Wars material in a month before. It's worth checking out.

--Adam Pawlus

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