1. Remember StikFas? Xevoz? I just stumbled upon a box of these guys at my local flea market and am totally hooked. Hasbro had a really great concept here! I think one of the reasons they failed is lack of IP. How come they never tested the water with Star Wars figures? I would have loved a minimalistic Xevoz Vader. How about a whole army of Stickfas Stormtroopers?

--Austin

Heck, I bought the whole Xevoz line - at work we bought a bunch of the last wave when nobody had them, too. (I even bought clearance extras of a bunch.) It was one of Hasbro's greatest goofiest lines, and is something that probably would've done a lot better today than 17-20 years ago.

If you, dear reader, never had any, I am sorry. The figure line was basically a figure kit where you could assemble and customize super-articulated creatures, robots, monsters, people, and whatever else the designers could imagine - there weren't many released over just four waves, and a few unreleased figures are known to have been prototyped. Here's an old review I wrote of Razorclaw.

Whatever was going on with Stikfas/Saizon/Hasbro/Xevoz, the whole endeavor seemed to collapse shortly after Cuboyds came out about 15ish years ago. While some of us spent a great deal of energy cajoling Hasbro to do Star Wars in this format, it never happened - maybe because LEGO would say it's a construction figure, or maybe because Hasbro didn't want to make royalty payments to the Stikfas people as well as Lucasfilm.

Generally speaking Star Wars figures aren't quite as zany as what we saw in Xevoz (and to a lesser extent, Stikfas) as alternate heads generally aren't quite a huge selling point. (Although for the likes of Jango Fett or Darth Vader, sure, yeah.) It remains a fantastic action figure system and something that was pretty cheap at the time - and I imagine could be pretty cheap today given figure assembly is outsourced to the end user. But I doubt anyone will ever want to go that route again.

Hasbro may have had that line in mind when it made Hero Mashers for Jurassic World, Marvel, Transformers, Star Wars, and a non-branded monster line. The chunky, stylized, mix-and-match figures struck no chord with collectors and coasted along fairly well for kids. I wouldn't be shocked if Hasbro (or someone) tried another customizable figure brand down the road, but if you take a glimpse at most Hasbro figure brands this kind of whimsy is rare. I'd love to see another line of Xevoz figures - even reissues or recolors. I assume the only way it would happen was if the trademark expired, someone else snagged it, and slapped it on an unrelated toy brand.

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2. I have a question about the upcoming Black Series Emperor Palpatine Archive figure. It appears that it's a re-release of the one that came with the throne and the extra heads and the Force lightning hands, so I am ASSUMING that if I buy a couple of the Archive figures, I could replace their heads with the extra heads and the lightning hands, were I so inclined (and I AM so inclined).

--Greg

I don't see a question there, but sure, yeah, you could do that. I can't vouch for which changes will or won't be made until I have the final in-hand - Hasbro's factories sometimes don't make requested changes or un-make ones on rereleases. Since the figures were made 2-3 years apart, there's a chance the skin tones may not be a perfect match - but we won't know for sure until more in-hand samples pop up.

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FIN

It's almost time for Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim! We have no idea if there will be any exclusive action figures yet. Regal Robot should be revealing at least one this week. Heck, San Diego Comic-Con stuff has been quiet too - this is going to be a year of surprises and/or disappointments, but what's new there?

Disney Parks and/or Shop Disney should have two figures in the near future. BB-PROUD is this year's Pride Month exclusive, and I never had a fair crack at last year's R2-RNBW. Which I hope they rerun for this year, because that's crazy. The other figure is expected to go live today, R2-W50 and it looks pretty sharp - it's to celebrate the 50th birthday of IKEA Walt Disney World.

With the convention at the end of the month - along with the debut of the cross-your-fingers Obi-Wan Kenobi show - there should be a lot of new reveals. I guess the era of timing things to be on-shelf has long since passed, with a lacking showcase for the last (arguably two) movies and almost nothing to be bought for any of the streaming series. If the show reaction is middling, the gambit to do them only as pre-orders may not pay off as attention spans are short and people may move on before some of these things even hit shelves. It's funny to think that multiple Star Wars series will come and go before some of their figures will hit shelves, virtual or otherwise.

--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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