1. I have been reading your stuff since the beginning, thanks for years of entertainment! I recently bought the Walmart Exclusive Black Series ROTS figures online and most of them came with bent cards since Walmart employees can't seem to figure out that the box needs to be bigger than the item packed in it! My question is can I gently iron the cardboard backs if I put a cloth over them to straighten the cards back out? As anyone ever tried this? I miss the days that I could find these items in the store to pick and choose through the stock to get a good one.

--EJ

I've been seeing guys do various tricks to improve the look of carded figures since the 1990s, and there are a lot of articles on YouTube and elsewhere showcasing such techniques today. I'd say give them a look, but most of what I've seen looks like it has been repaired. Generally speaking you can see signs of the original wear, and while things look better they're still not perfect.

I would recommend checking out some of those restoration articles and videos first, and obviously don't try it on anything you're not OK potentially damaging. I've been seeing some Revenge of the Sith guys on-shelf myself, so you might want to keep your eyes open and drop another $25 (and return the old one.) But if you want to return the damaged one, I would recommend you don't attempt to customize it first.

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2. I understand why Hasbro launched the kid friendly Epic Force line of toys, but why did they decide to make the figures in 4 inch scale instead of 3.75? Why not simply launch Epic Force as another branch of the 3.75 Star Wars universe since collectors would understand the new branch is aimed at kids and would therefore have less details, less bells and whistles but would remain compatible with the rest of the 3.75 universe? This just seems odd to me.
--Guy

I was never able to get an answer out of anybody. I noticed the same scale/branding was used for Spider-Man, Marvel, Avengers, and that whole segment, which I assume a) came first and b) Disney/Hasbro just decided to stick with. But so far nobody has been able to definitively answer why we're getting a scale that's (say it with me) just different enough to make you mad. I've picked up some of the Marvel stuff, and it's nicely done. The basic figures might be a little anemic to modern kid tastes - in the 1990s we were getting spring-loaded weapons and fancy helmets and water skis. These guys have a web blast or a hammer, maybe a glove or a glider. It lacks the magic of 1980s-1990s action figure play.

Usually in these situations the answers are usually either "money" or "because the licensor wanted it that way," so I would recommend assuming either/both until someone finally answers otherwise. I hope Hasbro will some day look at what Mattel did for WWE - that is, all their figures are pretty much the same size and you can swap them in and out, just like Matchbox and Hot Wheels - because those lines have some real power and longevity. Mixing things up doesn't seem to help.

I wouldn't be surprised if Hasbro is trying hard to keep the scales separate, trying to prevent overlap in collector/kid purchases due to price points. The Epic X-Wing and other Speeder Bikes are roughly the same size to work with 3 3/4-inch figures, only minimally bigger. Also if you want Brutus or some of those Season 3 Mandalorians, there are no other options in Vintage. I wouldn't be entirely shocked if this were by design, because to a lot of fans - not everybody - a $10 figure is just as good as a 3 3/4-inch one. The only "3 3/4-inch" SM-33 we have (and for all I know will ever get) is the 4-inch kid line, and that's better than nothing.

Mattel, on the other hand, has been pretty great about keeping scales honest. WWE figures have a $10-$12 6-inch kid line, and then several levels of collector figures that just happen to be the same size with more articulation. You get pretty much everybody in a nicely-articulated kid line, and the bigger stars get fancy deluxe versions too. As far as I can tell, wrestling fans will pick up kid stuff if that's all there is, but don't shy away from collector price points. The same is true in Hot Wheels - there's a $1 Optimus Prime, and there's also an $80 fancier one that transforms. They're the same size, they work on the same tracks, but the rift between low-end and high-end prices is vast. I think Hasbro should consider this. If we could somehow get a $40 3 3/4-inch die-cast metal C-3PO with light-up eyes, I'd pay for it.

Looking at other toy lines like LEGO, Playmobil, Calico Critters, Smurfs, and (mostly) Barbie and Monster High, you see similar scale through the years and compatibility across time. I think losing compatibility hurts a bit, and it certainly gives parents a reason to not necessarily stick with something. There's no reason to not keep buying LEGO - they're always going to fit together. Hasbro Star Wars has had Celebrate the Saga 3 3/4-inch 5 POA figures (a greatest hits line with new deco), The Vintage Collection, The Retro Collection, Mission Fleet, and now Epic Hero Series/Epic World of Action all sharing a similar orbit. Not all lines are compatible, and history shows that lines changing scale usually leads to friction unless a new format becomes some sort of unimpeachable standard. (G.I. Joe 12-inch vs. 3 3/4-inch, for example. Other Joe scales failed to connect until 6-inch Classified Series.)

On one hand, maybe I'm a relic. On the other, Mattel sure seems to be reaping massive rewards from consistency.

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My Cantina HasLab came this week! I haven't put it together yet - I need to find a place to put it - but I did build the add-on portion and popped open the Senni Tonnika figure. I'm impressed. I think it's great Hasbro did this as one big box, but I think it would also be neat to see another environment built piece-by-piece over time.

While I did much moaning about the floor being absent, I can see why they made that decision as displaying a big building is going to be tough. Being able to split it apart is necessary for people, and the floor might get in the way. I'd also be fine if it were developed for specific IKEA cabinet compatibility, but I don't think Hasbro is there yet. Build things around a BILLY and I assume you can't go wrong, but I digress.

I've been peeking around forums and have been delighted at the sheer joy you can get from these long-haul fans. The Cantina isn't just another piece to glut up your storage unit - it's a real centerpiece, it is the apex of what many of us have been aspiring to have for years. If you bought Cantina aliens for decades, today is your day - they all have a place to be. And yeah, you're going to want more. I'm seeing fans do all sorts of fun things to add lights, and to combat light bleed. (Aluminum foil? Brilliant.) With any luck Hasbro will see these and consider making the next playset with combating light bleed in mind, being able to slide foil in a plastic sandwich could help a lot. It's a little janky to put foil on the roof of the Cantina but I don't deny that it looks good in photos from the right angles.

While we have had Cantina sets before, each had shortcomings. In 1979 and 1997, it was cardboard without a fully-realized environment. From 2002-2007, we had build-a-bar segments which were useful as display pieces but didn't have the vibe right. Or the stools. They're still neat though, and serve a purpose to those who have even more figures to display. This new one is just preposterously better, to the point where you might look at other purchases and ask yourself why you even bothered. I felt similarly about Boba Fett's Throne Room, which immediately became Jabba's Throne Room in my house. I don't dislike Boba Fett but a) you can't fight decades of fan anticipation of a playset, and b) there aren't enough BOBF figures to fill it out anyway.

Hasbro's new Cantina has removable walls, and lids on the booths you can remove for more light and access. They fit on nicely and come off easily so you won't knock over figures or drag a booth across a shelf. It's light on deco, but not unpainted - the distressed stripes look excellent. I think the abundance of glassware is overkill, but a set like this isn't too out of line with other accessory-intensive figure playsets like the bigger Playmobil toys. You're being charged for elements you may never use, but it's supposed to be the best. I imagine it will be incredibly difficult to top this with another environment, but I am keen to see Hasbro try.

I know we're all waiting for a big Death Star, and it's an exciting thing to contemplate. You get most of the major characters from the first film in a single environment, along with any troopers and a few droids you have laying around in one big gray building. I can imagine a lot of ways for it to be cool, but I still think the Cantina is cooler thanks to the massive variety in aliens and assorted weirdness. Not that I don't like Darth Vader and Stormtroopers, and goodness knows I have tons of pasty old guys in gray uniforms, but it might succeed or fail on how big it is and how everything connects. I love the idea of a big hangar (unrealistic), a Detention Block that you can jump from to the trash (necessary), some sort of tractor beam control (obligatory), a chasm (might be tough to execute), a conference room (easy), and the more I think about it the more I could see this being really expensive. The Cantina is basically one big room with breakfast nooks and a bunch of furniture, and it was $400-$500. I assume a Detention Block (with a few cells) and a Trash Compactor alone would probably be pushing $600. Thankfully, this is not my problem to solve. (And this is the thing people will quote when I somehow King Ralph my way into toy development.)

The important thing is, right now, things are pretty good. You got a big bar you never thought you'd get. You got a Gunship that you didn't ask for. There's a fairly decent modernized remake of the Sears Cantina Adventure Set for a price that is honestly much lower than I would have guessed, and somehow, we have Pallaeon and Joruus C'Boath figures. If you were a goofy toy fanatic in 1995 dreaming about the future, a lot of what you wanted has materialized this year. We're certainly hitting the limits of what's worth re-remaking, and there's precious little unmade that is exciting from the original Star Wars movie, but there are still things that may make your hands grabby. A Willard might be nice. I'd go for an improved, corrected dome R3-M3/R3-01. More orange pilots, more gray geezers, who I assume are probably closer to my age than I care to admit. Even the Cantina has a few choice selections left, but the key word is "few." I hope we'll still get new and interesting stuff, because as great as it is to get the new Disney+ guys I'm still pretty rabid when it comes to collecting Star Wars stuff from, well, Star Wars.

--Adam Pawlus

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