1. After watching the new M&G trailer, the major toy question that came to mind; How are we not getting a 3.75” scale Dejarik game (arena style) with creature figures? If the movie plays out like the trailer suggests, this would be a natural for a Haslab.
--Daniel

I've been asking this question of Hasbro off and on for years. I'm always wondering why they never did it, because a Dejarik series of "life size" game pieces would probably be about 3 3/4-inch scale. Thrown in a board, and it's a fun little toy. Also I've been in manufacturer meetings where I find if you just name drop Kintan Striders and Mantellian Savrips, there are people that look at you like you're crazy. (It would make a nice HasLab set, wouldn't it?)

It's been something I've wanted since forever, especially since fighting a big Savrip in Super NES Super Star Wars in 1992. I hope they do it, but I don't think DisneyLucas has any interest in playing the long game with aliens based on the past few years. Wave 1 of The Mandalorian and Grogu figures in The Black Series are basically an X-Wing body with a new head, a new deluxe Mando that looks like the old Mando, and mix-and-match troopers nearly any fan could make out of parts they already own. And my guess is they're going to be doing some head-scratching if sales are less than exceptional, while you know and I know that the trailer is jam-packed full of things that we'd run out and buy. If toys existed. And they don't, as far as I know.

It might be age, it might be burnout, but I don't have high hopes for this sort of thing unless it's already on a list somewhere. I've been wanting it for a while, it's a great high-end item, and I probably even wrote about it in this very column 20ish years ago. (A quick search of my hard drive found a reference in March 2006. Close!)

I have little hope for the powers that be will really focus on the old stuff for very long. The movies are old, the new people want to push the new stuff (that doesn't seem to sell well), and it really is kind of hard to truly grasp what time is. Star Wars came out 49 years ago. In 1977, do you know what Universal Monsters movie was 49 years old? None of them, because Dracula and Frankenstein came out in 1931.

We have had an amazing run and based on the shockingly fast sell-through of HasLab's Mos Eisley Set (ten bucks says they open it for more orders between now and November) maybe there really is demand. In my heart of hearts, I feel the old guard probably is ignored and wants to buy stuff. There's just very little to buy. We'll see what happens next year, when Dejarik honestly probably would be a more sensible project than The Death Star to End All Death Stars, especially given the tariff situation. And that situation is "I don't think anyone has a really solid idea of what is happening here."

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2. What's going on with tariffs in the American market? Are we going to see price cuts or refunds?
--Phil R.

The big question has no answer. Nobody knows how this is going to shake out. It sounds like some governors are already calling for refunds, and my guess that such a thing would probably be years in the making. I don't care what your party is, I just don't believe government will ever be speedy giving me my money back unless it's going to be done as part of a tax refund or something. Also given that businesses paid the money, it seems unlikely they will be compelled to compile their sales records and send people money back because that will cost them a lot of money. (Prove me wrong, world.)

For the short term it sounds like they might be going down for China. That's potentially good as it gives room to reassess pricing. Will this happen? Probably not this month, or next.

There's no reason to expect anything in-market today will see any kind of change. The store paid inflated tariff-based costs for the goods. They will not lose money just because of a Supreme Court ruling. It's possible future product or future shipments of existing product might be brought in at a reduced total cost, but that remains to be seen. If the near-future goods fail to sell (and prices were set at Larger Tariffs), perhaps they'll mark something down. There are so many moving parts here that I would not expect things to improve before the fall.

If new/different tariffs are not enacted, it would probably take months for manufacturers and stores to get new product in their systems at new prices. It's also possible Big Banana might say "people have no problem paying 60 cents a pound, so let's keep the same high prices." There's no way to know, especially given there seem to be other mechanisms to play with tariffs and this first one lasted about a year. Now we've got a new one.

If you're expecting lower prices for The Mandalorian and Grogu toys? Stop it. You'll just be disappointed.

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FIN

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

A question I got over social media was asking of Hasbro's new ActionVerse figures were compatible with 3 3/4-inch stuff, or 4-inch Epic stuff. No. ActionVerse figures are much larger at 4 1/2-inches, so they can't fit in your existing vehicles or playsets. They are beefy. I dislike the change of scale immensely. If they made these exact figures, at the same price, with the sprues, at 3 3/4-inches? I'd love to see if they clicked. I'm just not capable of emotionally supporting a new scale given that they just get killed every 2-3 years. (I will absolutely buy one if the line has legs beyond two years, and/or a big weird markdown happens so I can see the build quality.)

A few people have made comments about their hope for The Mandalorian and Grogu, and as far as I can tell there's very little hope that any "new" project is going to have a strong second year. Or first year. Since 2015, we've seen Hasbro have to immediately pivot to the next movie, or streaming show, while also balancing "classic" and occasional "spoiler" products. Given The Vintage Collection may finally get a third member of The Bad Batch, I'm really hoping we see them start taking a more bullish tone on The New Thing.

The Disney era has been incredibly stingy since 2017. With few new faces for The Last Jedi toys, Han himself wasn't in the first three waves of basic Solo action figures (for shame), and The Rise of Skywalker... well, you can't win 'em all. But Hasbro delivered very good series of toys for The Force Awakens and Rogue One, and I hope they consider doing something like that again. Especially looking back on it, the overall package for The Force Awakens was good. (Shortcomings: no new Han, Leia, or Luke before the movie. No Luke until the sequel. But so many good aliens, droids, troopers, and the like across multiple surprisingly well-balanced scales.)

My hunch is that 2026 is going to be a year that won't be doing a lot of surprising and delighting. 2025 wasn't. 2024 wasn't really either. I hope Disney, Lucas, and/or Hasbro hire some sort of Chief Fun Officer who spearheads variety and fun in their collector or kid lines so nobody goes to the store, shrugs, and says "I've got that at home." (Unless it's a rerun, in which case good for them.) Give us wacky weird new stuff. Don't explain it. Do I care if New Alien Guy is a major character or not before I see the movie? No. If it looks cool, it's like buying a lottery ticket. Let me imagine some fun. Mace Windu shipped in 1998 and we probably had more fun imagining what Samuel L. Jedi would do before May of 1999 than we did after. Here's hoping there will be some amazing fun for Starfighter. My guess: there won't be, probably out of unfounded fear of spoilers and leaks. I think they were right to hold back on "Baby Yoda" in 2019 but nothing else warranted that level of hush-hush.

--Adam Pawlus

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