1. As with many other hobbies that exploded during the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020-2022'ish, I feel like secondary market prices for Star Wars toys (ebay, etc) have begun to pull back from their highs of 2020/2021. I find that a lot of newer products, if you are patient, can be had for well below MSRP (Vintage & Black Series) . I see sales on EE, along with Gamestop and other websites. All that being said, if this "recession" they speak of comes along in 2023, would Hasbro/Disney pull back on the amount of items/qty being produced for 2023/2024? Do events like recessions drive what they do? I ask because we got some great stuff during the 2008/2009 recession from Hasbro. Would they scale back prices on vintage/black series newer products as a result?
--Jeremiah

Hasbro will be making some sort of figures for years to come. And as long as they don't intentionally produce the bare minimum of products to satisfy the terms of their agreement, we're probably going to keep having many years like 2022... with toys on-shelf long after interested in the new series (or movie) waned, with too-long pre-order lead times, and with prices that will continue to go up until, some day, you and even I may quit. We're at $17 for vintage figure reissues. And as far as I know, it's still a big seller.

There absolutely have been a number of new items not selling - I think that's more due to the "what" than the desire to buy stuff. With higher prices, more repaints, delays after delays, fans won't still want something after waiting a year and seeing another entire year's worth of product previewed. Something better will catch their eye, they'll cancel, and pre-order the next thing. Target slashed prices on so many exclusives this year, and other retailers' got marked down or showed up on other retail web sites as well. Hasbro could just make fewer units, but has not elected to do so. Without a little scarcity, the bad stuff is going to go on markdown fast and with Target's lack of patience, pre-ordering from them sometimes feels like you're being financially punished.

Recessions will hurt stores more than collector appetites. If you make good stuff, fans will bellow "shut up and take my money." Even the saturation and correction of the 1999-2000 line didn't kill it - it just gave us a 6-month gap for Hasbro to regroup, redirect to classic, and keep things going. If Hasbro makes an appealing item for a reasonable price, it will sell. But everything is very expensive compared to the 1990s and 2000s, especially when adjusted for inflation. And that's probably on Hasbro's shareholders plus China's rising middle class and factory worker wages. I assume Hasbro can make a cheaper product as we've seen decent kid $6 6-inch figures, but with $10 upcharges on recent repaint exclusives, they probably have no reason to pursue cheaper pastures. You don't have to sell 100% of a production run at full price to make back your money.

Secondary market prices will always ebb and flow. Before Sise Fromm cost your share of the monthly rent, he was $2. Interest waxes and wanes, and curiously it seems 1990s Power of the Force (POTF2) stuff is more expensive now than it was pre-pandemic. Fans also lose interest in some things with time and changes in awareness, oddly giving us a world where a cameo from a Dewback in The Mandalorian drove interest and prices up overnight while a few appearances by 8D8 on The Book of Boba Fett seemingly did very little for his two old figures which remain cheap.

I don't think Hasbro will stop making these toys as long as there's a viable contract. Even if collector sales drop there's a market for lightsabers and kid stuff, and we're going to see what happens with Young Jedi Adventures toys in 2023 too. Hasbro likes to keep trying new things to find a new hit - and this experimentation gave us all kinds of neat stuff. And took some things away. Titanium Series and Galactic Heroes (the original, squat ones) were two completely amazing toy lines that were low-cost and tons of fun - but not a lot of collectors kept up, and there indeed was a lot of repetition. But it was cheap, cool, and affordable if you kept up with the releases as they came.

If Hasbro makes things fans want - not "don't have yet," but want - they will pounce. 2022 exclusives were largely not exciting, or at least, the appeal may be narrowing. I'm over the moon for retro Kenner stuff - but a lot of you aren't. Some of you are delighted by the Christmas figures, which I see as a massive waste of money (as a $200 group - one or two? Cool.) We all have weird, ongoing relationships with these toys and each of us have things that make us ridiculously happy that may not appeal to our friends. I just got my Hasbro Pulse-exclusive "The Rescue Set" for The Vintage Collection and I gotta say, I don't feel that 3 figures with some accessories are worth $75. Hopefully Hasbro will dial back its ambitions and make stuff that should appeal to large swaths of fans at prices that don't make us squeamish. But I'm not hopeful.

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Nobody asked a 2. So since nobody asked a questions, what are you hoping to see for Retro in 2023?
--Me, stuffing the mailbag

The most fascinating Hasbro development in 2022 was a surprise announcement that they're going to try a vehicle for Marvel. I don't assume the line is doing amazing business, but the Ghost Rider Motorcycle at $24.99 is really exciting. A figure and a vehicle for $25, in an era of $10-$12 retro figures, hits the sweet spot as long as it isn't going to be flimsy. I would love to see Hasbro reissue the classic Kenner Speeder Bike (with Biker Scout) for $25, or whip up a new retro vehicle for Star Wars like Mando's bike from Tatooine, or - you know - a Blurrg would be welcome.

I'm assuming Star Wars: The Retro Collection will suffer a bit without a more recognizable/universally beloved thing on-shelf. The non-exclusive Return of the Jedi wave has potential for success, but also, it could backfire because you can get an original 1984 Kenner The Emperor right now for a couple of bucks above the price of the reissue. If you asked me "what one figure would you not reissue for Return of the Jedi?" I'd probably start with The Emperor and then also skip General Madine, the B-Wing Pilot or Rancor Keeper. I totally love the idea of reissuing everybody eventually... but I assume it would generate more sales to give fans a chance to army-build Emperor's Royal Guards, Gamorrean Guards, or even just throw Admiral Ackbar to the wolves due to his proto-internet meme status.

I am dying to know what will happen with Indiana Jones. So far we've seen literally one figure - and I'm going to guys "German Uniform Indy" will not be the second one. Will anyone take exclusives? Will they remake the entire original line? (Will we get a horse?) I assume it won't be a mass-market line for more than a year, but I'd love to see if they have the desire to see if they can make online-only figures for year two. But I assume you've only got one or two years before it fizzles, mostly because once you get Indy your interests are going to be, like, Marion, Sallah, Shorty, Henry Sr., and I assume things will taper off pretty quickly. I don't know if they'd make a retro Mola Ram in 2023, but I'd like to see a design either way.

So far we've seen three figures for Marvel 2023 - it's Spider-Woman (who had a 1970s cartoon), Luke Cage, and Doctor Doom - who is basically obligatory for any Bronze Age character collection. I hope it keeps going and even skips ahead to include Deadpool or Squirrel Girl, but I'd just as soon bet on them killing it. I'd be excited to see 1990s-style cartoon X-Men in this scale, but what are the odds?

As much as I would love to see Hasbro expand the retro figure format, I think we're going to be slow going until there's a big reason to really buy in any line. As in, a playset, a display/storage case, bigger vehicles, or literally anything that might inspire people who weren't there for the 1980s originals to "collect them all."

Plastic Meatball has some great licenses, like Time Bandits and Halloween, so they may do something surprising as well. It's one to watch.

Healey Made posted its unpainted "proto" Trooper last month which means painted versions are just around the corner. They're not cheap at $20 (unpainted) to $25 (painted), but they're low-run, strange figures that I heartily recommend to Kenner kids of all ages.

Super7 has announced a lot of good stuff - some of which has been de-announced - but there are new The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror ReActions coming, a swell Vincent Price, The Office, and a lot of other pretty recent stuff. I'm typically more over-the-moon about stuff from the 1970s and early 1980s in this format, but the very 1990s Beastie Boys Intergalactic 2-pack looks weirdly old-school enough.

But what would I like to see? I'm glad I asked.

More Movie Hosts. I want retro figures of Elvira, Vampira, Joel, Mike, the Bots, and Svengoolie please. I see Plastic Meatball already has a Joe Bob Briggs. And if you want to get meta, Count Floyd.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It'll never happen - but I'd buy BBC TV versions of Marvin, Zaphod, Arthur, Trillian, Slartibartfast, you name it. If someone knows who owns the rights to the costumes, and someone else has a checkbook, let's talk.

Doctor Who Redux. Dapol made a bunch in the 1980s and 1990s - I'd love to see new (old) ones. I need more cheap-looking aliens. I'm only somewhat familiar with the show and its many costumes and creatures - but many of them would fit in with Kenner's old Cantina aliens.

Fisher-Price Adventure People Redux. It will never happen, but I would love weird space guys and generic normal-looking people.

We got two waves for retro Star Wars shows in 2022, so I hope we get two or three in 2022. I'd love to see more The Mandalorian, and purely for toy reasons I'd love to see more The Book of Boba Fett Kennery figures. I'd also love to see prison escapee Cassian Andor or Kino Loy... but I'd much rather see Fennec Shand, Cad Bane, or Cobb Vanth. And throw in a Koska Reeves (from Bo-Katan) in there too. And a Dark Trooper.

I assume the retro thing is just a couple of years from being an indie-only proposition as Gen X fans age out of the business, and that means any of the big licenses' days are probably numbered. Hasbro gave us many of the heavy-hitters from Marvel, and are going so slowly with Star Wars that I doubt they'll remake the original 1970s and 1980s figures before giving up on the format. But I can hope. Buy 'em if you see 'em.

Obviously I have personal, old-ish-man reasons to want you to buy retro-style 3 3/4-inch figures because they're fun, relatively cheap, and tend to be lines small enough to not be overwhelming. I wish they were even cheaper ($20 is a bit high for some of them) but they do make me happy. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. I was beyond thrilled to get Grand Moff Tarkin, and The Mandalorian waves are just icing on the cake - it's almost like the 1980s line kept going. I hope they crank out more, but even if they don't, it's not every day they revisit your childhood toys in the same exact style. And I hope 1990s kids will get to enjoy their own retro revival sooner or later, because I've really enjoyed seeing just a few more 1980s toys get squeezed out.

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FIN

Slow question month! Time for a break. The mailbag is out of questions! But, send in your questions and I'll post answers in January (or sooner, if we get a bunch.) I used to shut down Q&A from Thanksgiving to New Year's, mostly because there wasn't a lot new to talk about - and indeed, there isn't right now.

It was a bad year for Star Wars HasLab projects, but a pretty good year for the others. What seems to be the final HasLab entry for 2022 ends Monday night (tonight), and it's Transformers Deathsaurus. According to the Transformers designers, they took a leader-class toy character and plussed it up. It's significantly bigger than a Leader-class toy, as those tend to be 6-8-inches high these days and are about $50. This adds a lot of accessories, paint, and bulk but I can't say if it's necessarily on par with the 20-inch high $200 Titan-class figures. One thing is for sure - Hasbro made the right move with the price point here.

"What's the HasLab mission statement?" gets asked a lot, and while things like the Barge and Unicron are clearly meant to be centerpieces of a collection, it's possible some other, smaller items succeed because they're not. Transformers went all-out with its Unicron HasLab first, and then dialed it back for two ambitious, but expensive, items under $200 each with Victory Saber (arriving/shipping now) and Deathsaurus. Given the weirdness with inflation - materials and labor went up, ocean freight prices have fallen through the floor - this guy could probably stand to be cheaper, but who knows what freight charges will look like next year when this thing ships?

Both Star Wars and Transformers kicked off their HasLab adventures with items over $500. That could be a once-in-a-lifetime collection purchase for a lot of fans. Razor Crest and the Rancor were each $349.99, but one packed a little more punch in the box than the other. If I were Hasbro I'd probably steer toward another 3 3/4-inch vehicle, and as I said before, I'd probably make it the Ghost from Star Wars Rebels. I assume there will be an appearance on the Ahsoka streaming show next year. And the ability to put in "realistic" versions of the crew as stretch goals... or even reissues of the old cartoon ones. They've been out of circulation for nearly eight years at this point, and were somewhat hard to find when they were new. (How many Sabine & Stormtrooper 2-packs did you ever see?)

Assuming Hasbro does a 3 3/4-inch scale ship campaign in 2023 for delivery in 2024, the Ghost could arrive in time for Star Wars Rebels' 10th anniversary - it debuted October 3, 2014. I'd also love to see something ridiculous, like a 40th anniversary carded set of retro Power of the Force figures with coins. (Not just the last wave. Repacks too, it could be a worthwhile $500+ item.) I guess 2024 would also be the 25th anniversary of The Phantom Menace and while I can name tons of creatures and vehicles I'd love to own as toys, I don't know that any of them would sell 10,000 units.

And with that, most likely, I'll see you all back here in 2023 for what will hopefully be a much less chaotic year for us all.

--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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