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1. If the Mando & Grogu movie proves to do better on Disney+ then in the theater, could this be a sign of more "direct to streaming" Star Wars movies?
--Dan
Would you believe Hasbro already announced a direct-to-streaming movie? It's true! I'm currently believing that we get regular announcements of new movies to keep the shareholders happy, because there are a lot that have never actually come out. A Droid Story was announced in 2020 as a new animated movie, and there have been no further comments on its development in 5 1/2 years. Will it ever come out? My guess is "no." But they were thinking about it.
I don't think it's in Disney's best interests to make a movie with the intention of it being direct-to-streaming, and I'm honestly kind of surprised they're still doing "TV shows" instead of just making a movie or three. These things are expensive, and a lot of families will probably be content to see whatever's streaming be it a feature or a miniseries. If I were in Disney's shoes, I'd probably look at The Mandalorian and Grogu as a template to follow going forward. If it keeps people signing up to Disney+ while selling popcorn buckets and The Black Series figures, it might be worth trying out for future stories. In their shoes, I can't really picture a reason to do a direct-to-streaming movie without some other financial marker.
Speaking of shareholders, I would assume The Mandalorian and Grogu was probably placed in theaters to please them. If The Mandalorian season 4 got tossed aside and rejiggered to make The Mandalorian and Grogu movie, you could see it as a way to bring in some extra revenue above and beyond a streaming series' capabilities. No matter what, either the movie or the TV show would eventually be on Disney+ for "free." Disney needs content for the streaming mill. By pivoting the character's next story to theatrical, Disney still got a streaming offering and also $345 million. While it's not a billion dollars, it's $345 million ahead of where they would be by just making it direct to streaming.
For the curious, Amazon is also doing a direct-to-streaming Voltron movie next year. Based on the scuttlebutt, that sounds like a good choice - but why you don't get $50 or $100 million from theaters first, I don't know.
2. What are your top picks of figures and/or vehicles and/or play sets from other toy lines that fit in well with Kenner's Star Wars stuff? Stuff that isn't legit Star Wars but it plays well with it (could be vintage stuff or new independent stuff or anything in between). For example, I think the figures and even some vehicle bits from the Robotix toy line work great with Kenner stuff (and with the figures' visors down you don't notice their unpainted eyes). I also love Q from Galoob's ST:TNG line as one of the Emperor's cronies (especially with the addition of a red cape). What are your favorites in this area?
--Jason
Well, there's no way this was going to be short or look like it wasn't written by a completely batty 7-year-old. And I'll also drop this link here which looks at a lot of lines you've seen, some that went unreleased, and more still that are international releases we'll never see.
Depending on your priorities/budget, there are a lot of fairly neat options. If you're the kind of a toy fan that loved Mini-Rigs, your world is particularly exciting because you can dip in to a lot of other brands with things like wheels or treads.
Playsets
Your best choice is probably The Cardboard Galaxy. While a fan-made maker, he does a lot of really cool stuff. This Death Star looks like it could have been a Toy Fair display 48 years ago. I picked up a couple of his items and I honestly should pick up a few more. Specifically, that Death Star.
My friend Seth makes this Space Bar, which is a great display piece and probably the best indie plastic playset you can guy. (Yes, I have one, it fits in the DETOLF and looks fantastic. Most of my Super7 guys live here.)
But what if you want something made in a factory overseas? Outside of Super7's many excellent ReAction Figure playsets (all of which except ALIEN share a base mold), I haven't found a lot good in the way of plastic playsets. I'm told the Tim Mee Star Attack Battle Station is the right size for 3 3/4-inch figures, but I haven't got $100 to blow to verify this. You can also go through old Animal Planet sets or other Chap Mei toys, some of which you might see at a Dollar General or the occasional drugstore.
Vehicles
There aren't a lot of indie vehicles. Sadly, vehicles are really expensive to make and people are less likely to buy them - even Stan Solo hasn't made a heck of a lot for his operation. Currently your best vehicle bets might be Jurassic World from Mattel, because they engineered their seats in most vehicles to fit with straight or bent legs. (The Gyropshere doesn't work particularly well with straight-legged figures.) From what I've tested in the Jurassic Park 93 Classic and Jurassic World Reimagined series, they're really good with sci-fi figures. Even Yak Face can fit in Target's exclusive T-Rex Tracker set (the one with the orange Rex.)
I really like the Off-Road Tracker Pack (Dinosaur Toy Blog link as I'm still working on my review), which gives you Samuel L. Jackson in ridiculous battle armor, and a T-Rex, and a not-Jeep tarted up to look like Kenner's old Bush Devil Tracker. This set is also somewhat inexpensive compared to the original retail price. It's great for straight-legged figures, and while it's not Star Wars-y it's very Kenner-esque.
A friend one mine tells me the 1983 Gay Toys Laser Force line is pretty good. They're sci-fi vehicles with a couple of figures, but fit in with other similarly scaled figures. Also, that is not a typo.
As a kid, the Fisher-Price Adventure People Alpha Star was my go-to stand-in for a Millennium Falcon as you could put Han and Chewie in it. Most vehicles in this line are pretty inexpensive, especially if you're willing to buy replacement stickers. The Firestar I is basically a Mini-Rig. I had the old Daredevil Sport Van as a kid, but it got absorbed by the "toys for little kids to play with" trunk and I think it's long gone. I really miss it, it was cool.
And of course, G.I. Joe exists but some items are more hostile to straight leg figures than others so your mileage may vary.
Figures
For Retro Kenner Star Wars fans specifically, your best-in-class choice is Healey Made. He does resin wrestlers (of which I own none) and repaints of his three Glyos-compatible 3 3/40inch figure molds, all sculpted by an ex-Kenner sculptor. They are not cheap, but runs are in the low hundreds - so you'll have something special.
Not yet released, Planetoid Raiders are up on Kickstarter from Wandering Planet Toys. These are inspired by vintage Tomland Starroid Raiders / Space Raiders / Space Fighter / Space People. I have not yet pledged but want to and might. (I've got 3 unfilled video game Kickstarters which are 2 or more years late for delivery.)
Fisher Price Adventure People fit in incredibly well with old Kenner figures and work as background aliens with modern stuff. They only have 5 joints each, and prices seem to go up and down as of late - they seem to be having a moment. Check out Opticon if you love droids, or X-Ray Man and X-Ray Woman. Or Clawtron. Sure, some of these guys are just space suits or off-the-shelf divers and motorcyclists in silly colors with claw hands, but that's what you did on a budget back then.
The Mattel era of Jurassic World and Jurassic Park have movie stars and generic troopers in the mix, if you need mercenaries. They're not great for Star Wars, but some are odd enough that you might like them for 1980s or 1990s style weirdness. The above four figures are all from Target's Jurassic Park 93 Classic line (aboev) which ran from 2023-2024 and are somewhat inexpensive on eBay. Target has two more Reimagined sets in stores now which include vehicles and human figures - if they're not sold out.
ReAction Figures have been around for over a decade, so there's a bunch. I'd suggest looking at Universal Monsters, Micronauts, Alien, The Fifth Element, and so forth. The Metaluna Mutant is great. The Worst, a line of original villains, also caters to the Star Wars-era of strange plays-with-this-too figures you might have seen.
There's also a very good Fifth Element series from Funko's time in the driver's seat.
Marvel fans have two pretty great modern choices. Steve Evans posted a Marvel Legends 375 Kenner Poster Checklist showing off the entire line. I picked most of these up at regular price or in small collections at about half price - this is my favorite "collection" of Marvel stuff. It's small at only 2 metallic special redeco figures, 1 vehicle with driver, 1 giant, and 42 normal carded figures (with an additional 9 package variants.) It's basically the cast of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and Streaming Shows) of its time, in Bronze Age style. I wish there was more of it, but also, I don't at all feel overwhelmed by it.
If you want something more retro than Retro, Hasbro had a line of super-cheap bagged 3 3/4-inch Marvel guys that are tantalizingly close to something you'd have bought from Gemco. This Black Panther review shows all six near the bottom. Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Hulk are all incredibly cheap with all the missing paint apps and weirdness you could want. Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man are close - but they also have ultra-modern printing on their chests for added detail. (This tells me Hasbro's photoreal face printing must be very cheap.)
While more or less dormant now, The Outer Space Men ran from 2010 up until a few years ago with sculpts by The Four Horsemen, output by the Glyos factory, and super low runs (and sadly, higher prices.) There were many recolors, and sadly the "Infinity Edition" fully-painted figures didn't keep getting rerun. I'm hoping they will, as secondary market prices kept going up. These figures' limbs are swappable with the aforementioned Healey Made guys, as well as a brief run of Power Lords. Knights of the Slice is also a very good part of this ecosystem, but it's light on stuff that seems to fit in with that era or aesthetic lately.
This could go on even longer. There are so many great things out there, but the interest in this size of product is small these days. Yes, you can get stuff and yes, there are new lines every year - but it's more expensive and scarce.
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FIN
I don't think anyone is going to be angry if I say that I asked some people who confirmed they're working on 2028 Hasbro Star Wars figure product. I think it's worth bringing up, mostly because we may live in an era where Star Wars toys may actually be forever. I'm only mentioning this again to remind you that if you're buying just one, or two, or a dozen figures to complete a set? Maybe you should just buy the ones you like the most. There's a chance that the lack of figures in 1986-1994 may be an aberration, and it's worth noting that anyone born after 1990 probably has no concept of a "dark time" where you couldn't get Star Wars toys of some sort in a store.
One thing I should probably do next year is track stats of new product. I'm a firm believer that Star Wars fans can never be happy, and as a bonus we're very bad at looking at a bigger picture. I think most fans would agree that the selection of characters is terrible, and such small portions, but also that there's good stuff and nobody probably has a firm grasp on how much is "new movie" or "late for previous Disney event" or "legacy stuff." I have my hunches for how next year will shake out, but it would be interesting to actually analyze what slices of the pie are 50th anniversary vs. Starfighter or Ahsoka or Maul shows. I did something like this with The Retro Collection but haven't yet really sliced it by "new characters for old movies."
For the Retro curious, Star Wars got 12 new guys from 2019-2026, The Empire Strikes Back has only one all-new figure from 2020, and Return of the Jedi also only has one new figure. So far The Retro Collection isn't yet at 50% original trilogy figures, unless you count the prototypes.
If you were buying this stuff in the 2000s, you probably remember how 2006-2010 were typically sorted as themed waves, and each movie usually got one wave a year (give or take.) In most years that meant maybe you got 2-3 new Cantina guys or possibly a pilot gift set, and some of those years didn't really have new media either. I have had a much harder time keeping track of stuff since they dropped the theme waves, but I can say it feels like a rare treat when any line gets a new character that didn't previously exist in that format. But even in a good year, like 2007, the main line was still about 2/3 new characters or new costumes for existing characters. And that was an era where most fans agreed things were pretty good. (I did get a lot of complaints about the articulation back then, but $6.99 figures with a coin and big accessories... those fans had unrealistic expectations.)
I know things are slow right now, and it's not just Star Wars. Jurassic World pegs seem pretty vacant, and the sub-$20 product seems sold out with empty shelves all over the place. Some stores on my rounds have little/no Marvel Legends to speak of, and it can be hard to find newer Transformers. This stuff is still pretty popular, and hopefully next year we'll see Star Wars in big quantities so we can just, you know. Go buy it. Right now it seems Transformers is probably having the best big box store experience, thanks to a pretty good (and seemingly varied) endcap at Target stores.
--Adam Pawlus
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