Question #3: from September 1, 2003:

What's the scoop on the new Target exclusive 12" Leia Speederbike and the 3 3/4" scale green A-Wing? Are these Web only exclusives or will we see these in stores? Most of the Targets around here have re-set their toy departments and I don't see room for these items or price labels indicating that they are on the way. I would have thought that this item would have been available for back to school shopping if it were to be in the stores. Let me know if I need to order these online or if you have any idea when these are supposed to be at retail.

--Dave

My answer from 2003 With commentary from 2025:

Right now, Target's Web site says they are Web exclusives. As such, I believe them, because I do believe everything I read when it comes to someone selling me an exclusive. While there are no sign of them being on the way in stores now, also keep in mind that the Target reset, while a major thing, isn't permanent. Some Targets have tons and tons of Hulk movie toy space set aside, and little to no room for Lord of the Rings. Obviously, something is amiss.

Target's track record with exclusives has been hit and miss. Except for the Skiff, Y-Wing, and a few of the accessory packs, I can't recall one that didn't eventually hit clearance. Even the B-Wing sat in piles until that first wave of markdowns in many, many parts of the country, and don't get me started on the 12" Luke with Speederbike.

A good rule of thumb: unless you really like hunting and do it 3-4 times a week minimum (like myself or other crazy people), you should ALWAYS order exclusives online if the price is right, if it's in stock, and if you open your toys. If you prefer things mint in box, well, obviously things can get tricky in transit. If a store claims something is a Web exclusive and you haven't seen reason to believe otherwise, it might be a good time to place an order.

First, a refresher! For those who don't remember, this is the green A-Wing Fighter that Target had as an exclusive and this is the Leia Speederbike.

It turns out they did make it to actual stores. I found the A-Wing a few times, and today they're around $75 boxed. For a 22-year-old sealed box vehicle that few fans hoarded, that seems fair. If memory serves, I found the A-Wing around November of 2023 in Phoenix.

I got the Leia Speeder Bike for 75% off - $12.44. That's dirt cheap for a $49.99 exclusive. Today sealed box ones are around $40 - less than the $50 retail price - but are expensive to ship. 12-inch Hasbro product has not grabbed fans as 1:6 collecting went off into a much higher-end direction after Hasbro stopped playing with it.

We hunted, we drove around, we freaked out online, and now odds are we don't even remember the trials we went through for a toy that is probably in the back of a closet. What's important to us changes, and the sheer volume of product is so immense that odds are you're missing a few things and forgot that you never got them. Or, you forgot that you have them. It happens.

If you have a long memory, eBay has so many unwanted toys that many of them are quite affordable. You can't own everything... but if you want to spend $40-$100 a month, you can get a lot of really cool things. Older collectors are probably also pretty happy to consider selling you their old stuff.

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FIN

And that's where we are today. 30 years ago, Star Wars figures and vehicles from Kenner were still trickling back into stores. We would slowly see Luke, Han, Vader, Chewbacca, and R2-D2 start to sit around a bit. Leia and C-3PO would quickly follow as the new hotness, leading people to shrug away most of the first wave (except Stormtroopers, which we bought for that big Death Star playset that's still not here) and chase down the never-ending flow of new action figures.

I'd love to say things are better than they've ever been, or that I've never been more excited. But it's been 30 years, and I can count the number of all-new characters in this figure line each year on my fingers and maybe toes. I've had to back off of LEGO and The Black Series due to space, cost, and antipathy with scarcity on some items. On the other hand, Hasbro brought back Kenner-style Retro figures and I would have probably been a much happier person if we just had that back in the 1990s. The Vintage Collection gives us the best 3 3/4-inch action figures on the market, and it's usually a split between incomplete lines based on new TV shows and remakes of figures we own alongside incredibly detailed vehicles and the occasional playset. Everything in 2025 is amazing - but the portions feel wrong.

Way back in 1995, my hopes and dreams were to get 3 3/4-inch figures like Vlix or Jaxxon alongside Tarkin, Slave Leia, Wedge, and Biggs. But we got those last four! I was also expecting we would have seen remakes of the entire Kenner 1978-1985 line before Kenner started work on the new movies, but 30 years later this still hasn't happened. I'm hoping they're planning to do something with that in 2027 or 2028 for the fiftieth anniversaries of the movie or the toy line. More realistically, I would predict that Hasbro Star Wars toys in 2030 will be a lot like it is today - expensive, scattered, with a few items that seem spitefully absent after three solid decades of toys.

Here's to 30 more, and so help me if I am writing about them at that point in the future.

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