1. Hi there, you briefly touched upon this in a recent Q&A wrap-up, but let's get into it a bit more, shall we? Retro Collection Skeleton Crew. You mentioned your hope that we'll be seeing these in action figure form, but do you actually think that we will? (I was hoping they would be the final 'Gift the Galaxy' announcement)

There are those who believe we haven't gotten an announcement for figures (and never will) because, to them, Hasbro shot themselves in the foot by rolling out Retro figures for the Acolyte too soon and both the show & the figures performed poorly (I don't dislike the show as much as the masses. My major issue with it was the weak ship designs - how come nobody is talking about that?)

Others mention a recent quote from Steve Evans about the Retro Collection focusing on OT figures going forward. Which was then, seemingly, backed up by the announcement of a new wave of Episode 4 figures. What are your thoughts on these two camps?

And one last(ish) question. If we were to get a Skeleton Crew RC wave, who would you like to see? Assuming it was a 6-figure wave we would get the kids and probably Jod. Who would you give that last slot to? SM-33, Capt. Brutus, Vane, etc.?
--Sean

Sean wrote this question on 12/19. As such, if cooler characters were revealed on the show, remember that this question was written by a past person. And as you've seen, no new Skeleton Crew toys have been revealed yet.

At this time, I don't think I've heard rumblings of a Skeleton Crew set of The Retro Collection figures. My hunch is that the math of six packs work with original trilogy characters, but sales for non-old-school stuff just isn't as good. It sure seems as if The Phantom Menace set sold through - I barely saw it - but the Episode 2 & 3 set and The Acolyte set remain available. Single-carded Original Trilogy guys all flew through stores if/when Hasbro shipped them, or at least, that's what I seemed to see. Or not see.

Based on the show so far, a 6-pack for Skeleton Crew seems about the perfect sized wave. I'd love a Benjar Pranic - it's an in-joke to fans of Star Trek who are a little bit embarrassed about being fans of Star Trek and I just plain want a Tibrin figure for Kenner - along with the four kids and the obligatory Jod Na Browncoat. SM-33 would probably get the nod from corporate, though.

At this point I'd be more interested in Jude Law and random aliens than the kids. Maybe that'll change as the show goes on, but other than a couple of solid gags I don't know if I'd have much use for them. I'm not getting enough cool vibes from the Onyx Cinder to expect we'll get a big vehicle for HasLab or otherwise. If we were, I'd start nudging Hasbro to consider packing Retro figures with Vintage HasLab ships. Hey, they (usually) fit and you'll always get my business. I love ships!

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2. A few weeks back, you listed out all the Hasbro Star War figure types and the channels used for distribution. I was kind of shocked at all the variation. This seems to me that they are cannibalizing sales for each line just for the sake of more overall volume. Thoughts?

And, bonus question... Do kids just not want the same style as their father's figures?
--Dan

Kids probably want LEGO figures. They're standardized and can be given vehicles or playsets. Action figures in and of themselves aren't fun unless you absolutely love the characters - they need, as Mark Boaudreaux put it with Batman, "wonderful toys." Articulation is nice but if all you're going to do is pose a figure, kids aren't going to want all that many of them - they need a fun accessory of some sort.

It's good that there's a cheap $10 9-inch assortment for Walgreens, because that's all the Star Wars they carry. But seeing a $6 6-inch figure assortment as well seems like overkill - pick a scale, we're at war. Kenner found the competition unhelpful and eventually killed off its 12-inch format, and then tried Micro and killed that off as well. At one point (according to Steve Sansweet's Star Wars: From Concept to Screen to Collectible) there was a plan "for every boy a Luke and for every girl a Leia," and that didn't work out. I'd be pretty OK with my scale(s) of choice dying if it meant another could flourish. (I'll be a whiny baby if Retro ever dies off, though.)

I feel - but don't know for a fact - that Hasbro would sell more units of fewer items if everybody carried (mostly) the same stuff. Epic Hero Series seems like a perfect fit for grocery stores, drug stores, and places collectors don't go - yet most of them don't carry these figures. Maybe there's something to be said about the same guys over and over in different sizes - different costumes worked, as did different accessory packs with Batman back in the day - but it seems a lot of people forgot all about that. The overall business seems more interested in the idea of figures as a statue, or a thing that you pose, rather than as a thing you play with. But hey, there's hope - check out the new Speeder Bikes at Target.

I think Mattel has proven familiar sizes work best - Monster High, Barbie, Matchbox, Hot Wheels, and most of the time Masters of the Universe characters (and vehicles) tend to be compatible with their related accessories and playsets throughout the years. LEGO and Playmobil tend to keep compatibility as a priority. I can't imagine parents buying toys for their children feel good about buying a Luke this year and then finding out next year, Darth Vader is a 2.5-inch figure with a $25 space ship or a 9-inch figure at Walgreens. Eventually you just shrug and move along to the smart phone or PS5.

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FIN

It's almost a new year! There are a lot of things we know about on the horizon, but don't forget that a lot of stuff out now you can get cheaply. Be sure to check your favorite big box stores, clearance outlets, and other dens of deep discounts in case there are any cheap The Black Series or The Vintage Collection toys you may have missed. I've seen quite a few lately, and I bet there are a few more coming. There are The Retro Collection and Epic Hero Series stuff too, but the discounts haven't exactly been grand. $6.99 isn't exactly a "oh boy now I can afford this" price when we were previously at $8-$10, but hey, I am not immune to the charms of more Tusken Warriors. And I did buy a second 4-LOM/Zuckuss set for $6.99 a few hours before posting this. Hey, if you don't want 'em, buy 'em and send 'em to me.

What do I want more than anything else? New stuff. (For the sake of argument, anything Hasbro hasn't made under the Hasbro banner - so pre-1999 stuff - would probably count as new by now.) I'm going to be sitting out The Black Series for a while - I somehow shifted from "maybe on clearance" to "I don't want to mess with it" - but there's a lot of repetition in The Vintage Collection. Bo-Katan Kryze with beskar shoulder pad is a pretty low-level of effort "new figure," and I don't think it's unrealistic for fans to expect things like revised haircuts in a $16.99 figure that's being touted as "new." But I'd rather have new characters, which seem to come in drips and tend to favor new content months (or years) after it was arguably exciting. The Acolyte is getting more new 6-inch figures... I don't necessarily think that's good for the future of Star Wars and I'd love to know the current expiration date on Hasbro's contract. I doubt they'd ever give it up - they would never want to cede the original Kenner designs, because I guarantee you a smaller company would not squander an opportunity in remaking ships, carry cases, playsets, droid deco variants, and so on - but it really does feel like a lot of the effort in 2024 was on the lower end of what needs to be done to have fans not shrug and do something else.

I've been playing around with my cheapo 3D printer, and I made a mini-rig based on the Blockade Runner using someone else's design. It's really neat, but simple - I would love to see Kenner do something like this. LEGO has its Microfighters, and this is kind of similar - if any of you out there are designing things like this, please let me know. I'm still figuring out how to get the most out of the printer - so far flat stuff without much detail works best - but it's still fun to fuss with it.

We've got at least two shows to watch (well, finish watching) in the new year with Skeleton Crew and a new season of Andor. And Visions, which I can't say I'm the slightest bit excited about yet. It's not that the first seasons were bad, it's just that I find myself not really caring during - let alone after - the episode, but thankfully there are lots of other things to watch out there.

--Adam Pawlus

Got questions? Email me with Q&A in the subject line now! I'll answer your questions as soon as time (or facts) permit.

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