1. How likely is Hasbro to revisit Solo and its shows like Book of Boba Fett and Kenobi in the 3.75 scale?

With Solo we never got the villain-Dryden Vos. And there are a slew of neat characters with interesting designs that didn’t get produced in either scale for the tv shows.
--David

With The Book of Boba Fett, we're getting a slow trickle now. Usually if we don't get toys at launch, they come out about 18 months later. So far, we've got some Tuskens, Krrsantan, a new Massiff, Boba, and some stuff from The Mandalorian in The Book of Boba Fett packaging along with an upcoming The Retro Collection wave that's 50% redeco/retool/new accessory figures. It's not nothing. I assume we may continue to get more if there's fan demand, but it was one of those hows that turned a lot of fans off, too. (I liked, I want more.)

The Disney-era movies have not been lucky to get figures retroactively. Very little for 3 3/4-inch has come back for Rogue One and The Vintage Collection has been dire for "let's go back and do new guys" in the last four or five years. I really do think you can make a case for Dryden Vos, but you're going to need to make a fuss for it. I haven't seen may requests over the last five years.

Anniversaries are usually a place Hasbro will go to do new stuff, and we just missed one for Solo. With any luck they may want to do a wave of Retro for everything eventually, and I'd personally love to see Solo, Rogue One, and even The Book of Boba Fett get some more figures. And The Mandalorian. Collecting is about world building - figures, playsets, vehicles - and just figures are only going to get you so far. Hopefully we'll get some more stuff.

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2. What do you think about The Book of Boba Fett finally expanding out it's toyline? It's starting to feel as though it has an actual... line. I think the releases we've been getting are (expensive) but really cool. Any thoughts why we didn't get any closer to the show's actual release? I don't know if I totally believe the rumors of "Disney limiting characters" because I doubt they'd keep 90% of them a secret when we still got fairly good size Force Friday launches beyond just one to two characters before the movies came out.
--B127_ANIMATES

A good thing to remember is that it usually takes Hasbro about 18 months to go from "concept" to "in your hand" for an action figure. All the stuff we're getting now they started to make after they saw the show - in a perfect world, Disney and Lucasfilm would give them more of a heads-up to have stuff on-shelf with the show, but I am assuming someone wants to try to get another Grogu moment that surprises the world. (Impossible at this point. Not worth trying.)

I don't know why, but both Marvel and Star Wars "lines" are sort of one-wave-wonders lately. Ahsoka got a handful of toys for launch (with more coming.) Obi-Wan Kenobi did a little better but spread them out over so much time people seem to have lost interest - just look at the clearance Obi-Wan Kenobi The Black Series Walmart exclusives. They're selling for peanuts on eBay.

A big part of what made Star Wars work was an occasional massive event where a lot of stuff showed up all at once. When it works, it works - right now they're content to do one or two new things mixed in with older stuff, which is a confusing statement to make at retail. "Oh is this from the new thing?" No. "Oh this is from last year's show, it must be old." Actually it just came out, and for some reason went straight to clearance. Hasbro and Disney and Lucasfilm need to get their line plans together and put out a cohesive brand statement when a new show (or movie) launches because since (and especially including) Solo and The Last Jedi, the offerings look like "Greatest Hits" with new guys that tend to look like older stuff. You can't count on Star Wars to sell itself - you actually need to put some effort into making a big showing that says "Yes, this is new, and it's time to get excited again." The last time that message was conveyed well was Rogue One.

Having said that, The Book of Boba Fett will remain a slow trickle unless it gets a second season. Given the reaction to the show and the writer's and actor's strikes, plus all the other movies that Disney and Lucasfilm are absolutely going to release in the next few years, I wouldn't bet on it happening without massive grassroots support.

...and I'd like to see Lortha Peel, Danny Trejo, the cyborg kids, various gangsters, Garsa Fwip, droids galore, and so much stuff from that show. It's a treasure trove of toy inspiration, yet nobody is exploiting it. At $17 per The Vintage Collection figure it might be a tough sell, but if they could do a kid's line or expand Retro into a kid-friendly line with vehicles and lower price points, it has a non-zero chance of actually making people interested enough to stick around, rather than spending the last ten years meandering like The Black Series.

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FIN

PulseCon is this week, which means new pre-orders and exclusives on Friday of this week. New York Toy Fair is the following weekend. And then it's New York Comic Con. On top of all that, there are numerous industry events coming up too - it's a surprisingly busy spooky season for the toy business right now. I'm hoping for some exciting surprises, because right now it seems we're mostly waiting on revealed pre-orders (and revealed to-be pre-ordered items) to come up.

Unlicensed figure slinger Stan Solo is doing the Tonnika Sisters which, honestly, just makes sense. Fans keep asking when Hasbro will do them, and the conversation I seem to hear is some level of "it's not worth the risk given the potential dollars given the circumstances" from people over the years. What's the current official status? I don't know. But I do know I got an Action Fleet micro figure around 1997, and it's 26 years later. At this point, Stan Solo is getting my business for these two. I'd buy a Hasbro product, but I don't think any fan should be asked to wait four or five decades for an action figure that may never come - and this is certainly better than nothing.

Hey, something happened on Ahsoka! We got to see some actual character moments, some marvelous creature work, and arguably some really bad "they're in front of a screen" shots. The pacing continues as it has been - and I have to say, a little more editing could really make a difference. Good editing makes things better - you don't want to linger too long on dead air or a dubious effect. Star Wars was famously saved by its editing. Don't give me time to think about what I'm watching - keep it going, and don't stop moving forward.

If you ever saw The Richard Pryor Show's Star Wars Show sketch you can see actual alien costumes from Lucasfilm used in a different context. They move differently in a longer shot. You can see they're just cheap wobbly rubber and latex masks, that they're not real-life breathing things. The illusion in the original Star Wars was maintained through genuinely disciplined editing - you just get to see them for a couple of seconds, and then never again. It left an impression that lasted decades. Only a couple of the creatures were really well-made for extended shots, with Greedo being given a bit more under the hood. Er, mask.

With Ahsoka some shots of the cast in front of the screens looks a bit wonky. If you were only seeing them for a quick cut, then switch to someone else, then another angle, you might not ever notice - but with the pauses in dialogue and folding arms, you're going to notice some of them.

Then again, maybe I'm just cranky and old - less is more, faster/more intense, etc. The show was still entertaining and Rosario Dawson got a little more meat to express her character this week, and also a new costume. (Spoiler? Sure. But everybody deserves more shirts.) Hopefully we'll continue to see the cast expanded, and maybe get some names or backstory for the Republic people that popped in this week. The show does some things remarkably well, giving us fantastic creature work, marvelous ships, and exquisite costumes. But I would love a few more edits. Just to move things along a bit more.

Variety is reporting the Donald Glover Lando TV show is now a movie, but the joke is that it's going to be next on the heap of unreleased Lucasfilm productions. I am starting to think that announcements of new movies are more for PR boosts or to juice stock earnings given that it has been several years with minimal progress and multiple strikes grinding the business to a halt. That could be good for the collector business, if Lucasfilm lets Hasbro run with the baton a bit and develop some collector-friendly waves of figures without any supposed synergy with a show that stopped airing a year ago. If accurate, that means there's at least four Star Wars movies in some degree of active development, plus a bunch of others that are probably in some sort of permanent limbo. Given the next Star Wars Celebration is in Japan in 2025, I would assume that's either going to coincide with the next theatrical release, or the next announcement of a new movie that is for real seriously going to happen, you guys.

Now, back to planning New York Toy Fair. It's less than two weeks away! Does anyone care? It doesn't seem like anyone cares.

--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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