Question #10: from September 17, 2007:

Let's just pretend that Hasbro is closing down production on Star Wars forever. There is no new cartoon, no live action series, George Lucas has gone all J. D. Salinger and shut himself away in his castle, swearing off "that space movie" and shunning his adoring fans. The Powers That Be have chosen you, Adam Pawlus, as Spokesman for the Collecting Community because, well, your articles rock and it's your Q&A column. Now, here's the task: You pick the Final 12 Figures to be released. Any characters. Any source material. Any accessories, as long as they fit on a standard figure card. (Of course, they've done some snazzy things for standard figures this year, so your field is open. There. Not really a question, but I thought it might be fun for you. (I foresee some classic Marvel characters...) Rock on!
--Naboo81

My answer from 2007 With commentary from 2025 - back in 2007 Ewoks came in two-packs, which is why I doubled up on a few lines.:

Personally, I'd just kill the line and let it be done. A final wave selected by fans (even employee fans at Hasbro) would result in unsold product, which makes the retailers angry, which could hurt Hasbro's future bottom line. But since we're in fantasy land here and I do love compliments...

1. Vlix. The henchman from Droids, the TV show, was an amusing staple of my Saturday routine every few weeks in 1985 and 1986. I want the toy. Now. Given that 2025 if the 40th anniversary of the Droids cartoon, my hunch is that this is never actually going to happen.
2. Blue Stars. (Yes, like the blue Snowtrooper Uzay bootleg.) It's an easy repaint, and a trooper-- plus it's wacky. Low costs means more profits and blue figures mean happy me. While Hasbro has given us wacky colored figures, most of them are either faux prototypes or metallic releases in The Black Series. They really ought to consider bootleg deco or other weirdness for blind boxes!
3. Sim Aloo. (The vintage Imperial Dignitary.) Gotta remake those old vintage figures. At this point, I have to assume this is being held back for a HasLab because there's no reason not to have done it. The last version of this Imperial Dignitary shipped in 1985, a whopping 40 years ago.
4. Warok & Paploo set. While Hasbro has phased out two-packs, we did get Warok in 2009 and Paploo a few times, most recently in 2021.
5. "Vintage" Lumat & Wicket set. You can probably share some tooling between the sets, or from previous sets. I was never pleased with the modern Wicket, so I'd want a new one before we call it quits. We have multiple Wicket figures, most of which are based on a 2010 design and a perfectly nice Lumat from 2012.
6. Human B-Wing Pilot. A pattern emerges... Hasbro got the job done in 2008 with Keyan Farlander.
7. Lumiya. I'm a fan of the idea of the character, and she has a few things going for her: it's a chick, she's a Sith of sorts, she's a cyborg, and she can have swappable parts for in-packaging configuration variants. You know, like OTC Luke Dagobah, who was packaged doing a headstand or standing normally. Hasbro gave us Lymiya in 2009. Fun aside, I had her in a request for an exclusive at one point, but it was rejected due to this figure being in development.
8. Klaatu, aka Wooof. Gotta finish that vintage line. Hasbro gave us Wooof in 2010 and a reissue in 2023.
9. Silver Death Star Droid. It's a potential repaint, plus it's a vintage holdout. Make us all really happy by packaging it with a redeco Power Droid that looks like the vintage one. Hasbro has made a few, the first of which was 2008's MB-RA-7.
10. Sharad Hett. We got A'Sharad. Now I want Sharad. Even if it's the 2006 Tusken Raider with new arms and new deco (plus a new lightsaber and soft goods), I'd be a happy camper. Hasbro put Sharad Hett in a comic pack in 2009.
11. Kiro. They made it seemed like he died quite a bit, and he had a cool set of armor. He was in the post-Return of the Jedi comics from Marvel, and looks like he'd make a fun toy. Bonus points for any water-based gizmo for his helmet. Hasbro has yet to really tackle a lot of the classic Marvel characters - we still haven't even got a 3 3/4-inch Jaxxon.
12. Mantellian Savrip (Kalharr). It's the big Chess/Dejarik monster with the long neck that picks up other monsters in the original Star Wars and it's a real crime these guys haven't been done up as figures yet. Also, you fought one in the cantina if you played through Super Star Wars. Other than clear gummy miniatures, we haven't received any Dejarik monsters from Hasbro.

But honestly, the line has had a great run. I'm happy with it as it stands today-- the fact we keep getting items like animated debut Boba Fett, Nelvaan Anakin Skywalker, and a new 2-1B just continues to astound me. Due to the deluge of figures in recent years (and by recent years, I mean the 2007 line being 250 figures or so), I'd personally rather see some more new vehicles. But that's just my being unreasonable.

18 years later I'd say the sentiment sticks. Of my 12 selections, Hasbro has made 7 - that's not bad! Admittedly I assumed they would have done all of them by now, but that may no longer be of interest given new shows and games and things. Back in 2007 I thought we'd be seeing the line wind down and end in 2008 or 2009, but instead we got a new TV show and things just kept rolling.

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I agree with my 2007 self's taste. And I bet a lot of you agree that I had some pretty good choices!

--Adam Pawlus

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