1. Considering how much grumbling/hatred is directed from some parties toward TLJ and TROS, are you surprised how much those TVC action figures go for on the secondary market? Especially TROS Rey! There were so few figures produced for TVC TROS, but I was amazed recently looking at eBay prices on Rey, Poe, Zori, Knights of Ren, etc. Do you think we'll ever see Hasbro produce any more TROS TVC figures? I'd love to see 3.75 versions of Dark Rey, General Leia, Poe, Finn, Lando, Zombie Palpatine, Jannah, Lt Connix, and a battle damaged Kylo. Heck, I'd even love to see force ghost versions of Luke and Leia from the TROS finale! Think there's a chance that might ever happen?

--Guy

Kind of! It follows the general rule of "anything you ignored goes up." Hasbro greatly underserved the second and third movies, so all kids (and adult fans) that watched them are going to compete for the same small pool of figures. We have seen this happen before with some oddball Expanded Universe figures and The Clone Wars cartoon stuff, so it stands to reason that the few figures Hasbro makes from a popular program will result in battle. (Star Wars Resistance was never popular, so I assume it'll take longer for people to care.)

I have heard very little fan demand for Disney-era movie figures outside of Rogue One. General Leia (The Force Awakens Vest) is one of my frequent requests, and I'd love to see more Knight of Ren someday. But seeing how the greater line is going - fighting for slots, no one movie deploying satisfactory offerings - it's my hunch we might need to see the young people come up and demand sequel toys. That's unlikely. Hasbro and Disney turned away from The Rise of Skywalker faster than Hasbro did a deliberate shift away from Episode I and toward Power of the Jedi in 2000. Thor Ragnarok had more, and better, stuff than Thor Love and Thunder. When I see a toy line for a big film and it looks like they're a little thin, I assume the movie isn't going to be very good or that nobody's sure what to make of it. Iron Man and Guardians of the Galaxy were late bloomers. I assume The Rise of Skywalker is a movie that's going to take a long time to blossom. I would be interested in toys of the Knights of Ren, sure. But if you said "you can have one never-before-made new Cantina alien or human, or 20 The Rise of Skywalker figures" I'd go with the Cantina.

I think there's always a chance someone at Disney will some day nudge Hasbro and say "you're doing this," as it would make sense as a lead-up to the movie Star Wars Starfighter. (This is not going to happen.) I don't know that fan reaction, or movie script, or general vibes for The Rise of Skywalker are something anyone wants to revisit. The last one left such a bad taste in my mouth I haven't rewatched it, and the messaging leading up to it felt in poor taste. I don't know that there's enough money in it - yet - to make it worth doing a lot of figures, especially since the 10th anniversary for The Force Awakens is in three months and nobody has bothered to do a 3 3/4-inch Action Vest Leia yet.

Fans can demand figures. If the business is there, I don't see it yet. It felt like there was a push away from Star Wars (the movie) and toward the new cast that was so abruptly abandoned that I can only assume it was an intentional across-the-board corporate choice, save for two things I can't explain. One, the announcement of (and quiet removing of) a Rey movie to the slate. Two, the Starfighter movie. I'm not sure if there's real interest, if Disney's just throwing out ideas and seeing what sticks, or if we're going to see time and new stories rehabilitate the sequels much like Dave Filoni recontextualized the prequels with his cartoons.

Even with that image makeover, prequel stuff still doesn't sell as well to 3 3/4-inch fans and the HasLab is... well, you've seen it. I'd say fans have to show up for what they want. Demand it, buy it, make a stink and maybe you'll get it.

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2. Adam, I went down a rabbit hole in Gemini discussing how a millionaire could go about being the backer to a team of artists using a host of 3D printers to make a Star Destroyer about the size of a billiard table.

I'm all your years in the industry, have you ever met someone who has the passion for 3.75" scale toys, love of Star Wars, and the financial resources on a scale that could lead you to believe they might undertake such a project?
--Derek

Why, are you looking to hire somebody? I assume if you had "screw you"-money, you'd start investing in Hasbro stock and throwing your weight around until your demands are met."

3D printable Star Destroyer playsets exist and if you don't like them, I guarantee you there are thirsty 3D sculptors out there begging for work. I don't believe they're capable of delivering the goods easily, as making a really big thing out of parts off consumer-level printers has a lot of rough edges. You don't need to be mega-rich to hire someone, but I don't know if you can make a quasi-professional amateur project that is satisfactory. (Prove me wrong, world.)

There are stories of a few very rich, very famous names with massive action figure collections. Usually they want prototypes, complete carded sets of their favorite things, and that sort of stuff. I have heard of a few people who drop big bucks on custom figures - generally it's novel, arty, designer spins on commercially available product. I don't believe a lot of people are in the market to hire bespoke toymakers to build a thing that's basically an unlicensed collectible prototype that they would have to handle with great care. There are a number of Star Destroyer dioramas you can 3D print right now that would probably get the job done for a fan with space to fill and time to kill.

I've seen some great fan-made set-ups but have not hobnobbed with the bespoke diorama fanatic community. It's an interesting thought. Would someone accept a LEGO set they made themselves, or still pine for a store-bought pre-boxed professional model? It's not quite the same thing, but I assume a lot of people with a couple mil would probably buy a house in a major city only to find out storage space is insufficient for toy collecting. There are some nice 3D printable Cantinas out there, based on Hasbro's designs, and if I had unreasonable money? I might do that. But I'd still prefer an official one made with kid safety standards, as that's what I like to collect.

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FIN

The Hasbro HasLab Republic Gunship is almost over. If you're planning to buy, there have been reported problems placing orders. Don't want until the end. (I was denied Ecto-Glow Ghostbusters several times before my order went through a few weeks ago.) Or, you can not buy it. That's not up to me.

Right now I'm going through my stash and pulling out the Cantina aliens. They're all still really good! Most of them held up very well over the past 30ish years, and even low-articulation figures from the 1990s like Lak Sivrak still can sit on a table at the cardboard bar. Poor Ketwol can't, but he's still a pretty solid figure that I pick up and he makes me happy. It's a weird alien, and his pants come off. That's incredible.

Some aliens like Greedo, Momaw Nadon, and the alien(s) formerly known as Snaggletooth have received multiple costume tweaks over a few figures, some of which are functionally better than others. Hasbro realized what fans needed out of a Greedo in 1999, and gave us a bending-knee version that can sit on a chair before we had real plastic chairs. That's some foresight. The bulk of the figures that came after were designed with a future bar (or then-current bartstools) in mind, leading us to have dozens of aliens that are actually good enough. We don't need to upgrade everybody. Which is helpful, because we can't.

I picked up my 2007 repaint of the 1999 Labria, and it looks almost modern from the neck up. I don't know if I'll be happy with seating him in the final Cantina, but the face is good, the colors are nice, and he's good enough. As we get older, Disney and Hasbro have been less inclined to remake these rubbery-faced freaks that more or less form the basis of my being interested in collecting in the first place. If all we could get were troopers, heroes, and the bad guy, I'd have quit years ago.

I'm not saying upgrades wouldn't be welcome. A new Dannik Jerriko with fewer head holes would be nice, but the old one is also pretty good. I've got no problems with my old Myo. Kitik Keed'kak has few joints... but what am I going to do with more joints? She's just going to stand around anyway, and it seems unlikely Hasbro would make something significantly better - maybe greener - than what we got before. (Again, prove me wrong.)

With two movies and a number of toys on deck, it's a pretty good time to be a fan of this stuff. Admittedly the sense of adventure and surprise is diminished with each re-remake, but at least we've still got a few new guys here and there. But if it continues being kind of a slow slog between new characters, at least I can wallow in all the good stuff I have at home.

--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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