1. Hypothetical situation (though one that hopefully happens):

The United States tariffs on toys goes back to 0%. Do retail prices drop? Does value increase? Neither? Personally, I expect prices to remain the same but I can see Hasbro adding pack-ins (e.g., alternate portraits and hands) to add value and retain end consumers. What's your (hypothetical) take?
--MisterPL

Over the past 30 years we've seen Hasbro frequently add deco, features, or extra gear with a price increase, and it usually slowly gets rolled back over time as costs catch up. It wouldn't surprise me if this $20 retail price for a 3 3/4-inch collector-level premium figure just insulates us against what would have been a more naturally occurring price increase a few years down the road.

I don't think a rollback in tariff-inspired prices is likely to happen. I assume the next person in charge will want to keep the tariffs and if people haven't already revolted, I am annoyed that nobody is complaining that their stuff costs more. The Supreme Court is figuring that out now, and depending on how it shakes out it's going to be up to the consumers to let companies know they'll be taking their price cuts now, please.

In the unlikely chance that it does, it would probably be quite some time before any impact is felt unless there's a new product line. For example, if The Vintage Collection or The Black Series got a new assortment SKU (or a replacement) I could see a price changing at that time. Otherwise, it might be months - or years - until something is reconsidered. You can't really add accessories or other value-adds overnight, either.

If I were in Hasbro's position during a situation as you describe, I'd probably try to eke out a year or two of The Power of the Force, Ewoks, and Droids figures with coins to take advantage of any pricing cushion there may be. Is it possible? I have no idea - but I don't generally feel we need more "stuff" in most of our figures. And if they were looking to save money, coin card reissues would probably get a few customers. I appreciate the improved craftsmanship in recent figures, but I don't need alternate hands in my Anakins. It doesn't make me happier with my purchase - it gives me more parts to worry about misplacing.

I don't love having extra gear with a figure, I preferred how it was 20 years ago where we may have gotten a character in a different pose, or with different features, for a different situation. Things are just moving so far away from "this is a toy" to "this is an adult collectible for photographers" that it feels we're getting away from the whole figure/vehicle/playset/kid thing that brought a couple generations of fans here in the first place. At least LEGO can't break too far away from what they do.

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2. See something. Say something. What makes the VC366 Imperial Armored Commando a deluxe figure? An accessory? I saw this one on the pegs at a local Target and was baffled on what warranted the higher price point and oversized cardback. Normal sized figure with not very deluxe accessories. For 28 bucks!
--Patrick

If we don't buy it, it might stop. But so far, they tend to sell. I haven't seen deluxe Momaw Nadon in stores, and as far as I can tell Hasbro seems to be sold out. For the right character, fans show up for a deluxe figure. It just has to be the right thing.

I haven't noticed it for $28 yet - but $25 felt a little high for a couple of extra pieces. $25 is about as high as I think it should go, personally, and hopefully Hasbro tweaks its formula to give us more for $20 or just kick $28 to the curb because that would be too expensive for most customers. At this point there may well be figures that have enough heft to warrant that price, but I am hard-pressed to name one I'd feel has the mass to do it. Ephant Mon and Hermi Odle already exist, but somebody that huge could potentially be worth a bit of a mark-up.

I have asked some questions about other deluxe product and I don't know if it aligned with the actual final products we've received. My hunch is it more likely has to do with the figure's popularity and expected performance. If a figure's hot, it's probably in Hasbro's best interest to make it fancier and ask a few extra dollars for it. With Boba Fett or Jango Fett, from a purely mercenary perspective, it's likely to get snapped up and put on eBay or Amazon for $25. I think it makes sense why they're doing this but it also probably alienates a lot of newbies. Granted, I think most of how The Vintage Collection does its thing these days doesn't really welcome a first-time customer and that will probably continue to cause the line-up to get a bit smaller, with probably more reused molds, and more price increases with time.

What makes this guy deluxe? Probably same as Hammerhead - some extra gear, and in this case, painted gear. Paint isn't free, and I assume those extra parts are part of why it's more expensive. Personally, I'd rather Hasbro skip the deluxe troopers and put out a Trooper A with some gear and a variant Trooper B with the other gear later. I'd buy both, and it would probably be a better value for them (heck, and me, I won't say no to two trooper figures.) I don't need two fully loaded $25-$28 troopers, though. I like what they did with the Dark Trooper - in theory - by letting fans get a regular version for army building. (I'd rather the slot go to something else but you know me, I'm never happy, they're doing their best.)

The switch to carded figures from boxes probably hurt these guys a bit - they don't look quite as special. I'm not sure collectors like the non-standard sized package, and I assume regular consumers have no idea why some are pricier than others when they find them at the store. Maybe there's a better way to handle it, but if it's selling I don't imagine Hasbro will seek to change course.

All in all, having something on a deluxe figure going above and beyond - like Momaw's belt and cloth bits - helps. I can't say the Imperial Armored Commando has an obvious above-and-beyond asset, but we saw Boba have some (poorly painted) bonus helmets, Krrsantan had a lot of extra weapons, and Zeb came up short. But Zeb was new to the format, big, and cool - so I'm not complaining too much here.

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FIN

The slow rollout of the future is here! A co-worker sent along shots of a big in-theatre cardboard display for The Mandalorian and Grogu, which is a good start. With no sneak preview figures and surprisingly modest hype, plus the original generation of fans aging out and not necessarily loving the streaming stuff, it could probably benefit from it. As it is, the biggest challenge Disney has is to convince people to go see the streaming series with an incredibly slow output in theaters. Waiting three years for one installment of what should probably be a weekly series is a lot to ask, so now we get to find out if this sort of thing will work out. (Prediction: it's going to be very popular when it hits streaming, but probably won't do much better than Solo: A Star Wars Story for ticket sales.)

Now that the holidays are upon us, the pre-order-o-rama has been a little light. I don't expect a lot more reveals as we ramp up to the new movie, which is kind of unfortunate. In the prequel eras we had a bumper crop of newness from the older movies, with some genuinely surprising releases before each movie. Aunt Beru! BoShek! Myo! We didn't really have much of that during the last era of theatrical movies, nor would I expect it. After seeing the Tonnikas (and wolf man) held back for a HasLab, I would assume these are being held back for expensive bundles at this point. Hopefully I'm wrong, but most of the past 10 years makes me think I'm right.

At least we've got a Retro pack coming up. Garindan and CZ-3 are all we know for sure so far, but that's a pretty solid start if you ask me.

--Adam Pawlus

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