1. Don't read this if you haven't seen the latest episode of Mando (chapter 14)!

Seriously!

Last warning...

Ready?

Ok, in chapter 14 of Mando ("The Tragedy") the Razor Crest is destroyed.

Is this a plot point Hasbro would have (or should have) known about before offering the ship as a HasLab project?

Say, someone at Disney said "That's a good idea for a ship, but we're gonna blow it up in season 2."

It could work out anyway, if Mando finds another Razor Crest-class ship just like his destroyed one, or he gets another neat ship, which Hasbro will conveniently offer as a new HasLab, which we will also back.
--Chris

I don't see a problem here - if you look back at the saga, this kind of thing happens a lot. Sometimes you get a figure who gets mostly cut out of the movie, like Episode I's Ric Olie. Sometimes you spoil a major plot point via figure before the movie is released, like the Jango Fett with severed head from Attack of the Clones. And there are times you make a figure of someone who gets killed during the movie, like Revenge of the Sith's Cat Miin and Passel Argente.

In the vintage days, this kind of thing happened all the time. The Death Star Space Station playset from Kenner came out long after the movie - as did the entire toy line. Obi-Wan Kenobi figures sold, and here we are 43 years later still demanding a bigger, better Death Star. People bought all kinds of things like Jabba the Hutt, or the Emperor, and we still get demand for dead and blowed-up stuff. It's possible someone at Disney said "don't" but based on the conversations I've been hearing, it sounds a lot more like the whole organization was trying as hard as possible to keep as much of the show under wraps as they could. I assume few people knew - but I was joking to a lot of my friends that they would blow the ship up before the campaign ended. I was close.

At this point we have no idea how things will shake out in the future - maybe Mando gets a new ride every two seasons. (I'm writing this before the finale.) The show seems tailor-made for an excellent Batman-style toy line, and yet we are not getting one. That's life for you.

 

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2. With the Super7 ReAction figures showing up on Hasbropulse, seeming like a tipping of the hat by Hasbro saying these are legit, do you think the retro lime may go to Super7?
--Patrick

No.

Hasbro is doing its own line for The Mandalorian and classic Star Wars - they are very very very anti-farming-out their core figure scales. It's possible you might see more things out of other vendors, but remember the reason the Funko Pop!s are bobble heads and not vinyl figures is because Hasbro doesn't have the rights to bobbles in that size.

3. We're getting a repop of the TVC Slave 1, no doubt due to the success of The Mandalorian.

So why, oh why, can we not get it in a Mandalorian box? Or is it possible Hasbro will give us just that?
--Tarantarok

When it comes to the Slave I getting a rerun, or indeed any product, you may have noticed that every single one was intended to be the same product. No changes. Not "some changes," or "minor changes." Literally no changes. There will, of course, be a new date stamp punched in on the back of the box, and probably a correct production 5-digit stamp on the toy - but they don't update the copyrights, they don't fix errors (unless they were fixed prior to the run being ordered, like Rey-with-lightsaber in 2015/2016), because a change usually means it's a new SKU - a new product. Even just the logo on the box requires the toy to go through approvals, so when you get a rerun like this it's just like TV - a rerun. They're not going to make the stand black, they're not going to alter the deco, it has to be the same exact piece with no changes (unless it gets a new item number or there was a previous running change in the pipeline.)

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FIN

Be sure you send in your questions for next year.

That's 2020 folks! And what a year it was - two and a half months of fun, followed by nine and a half months of stuff for the history books. Between the pandemic, the return of Boba Fett, the seismic shift in streaming, the loss of friends and loved ones, and Hasbro's decision to make more new retro figures, I think we can all safely say that this is not the world we expected to see. If you want a cheap thrill, go back and look at the late 2019 predictions made for 2020 at CNN. Punditry sure is a thing, isn't it?

Looking ahead to 2021, there's a lot we can't talk about yet. (But there are lots of Vintage and Black Series waves on the way.) As far as we know, new streaming entertainments include The Book of Boba Fett, The Bad Batch, and Star Wars: Visions if you have Disney+, which should also be throwing The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, WandaVision, Loki, and seemingly nothing Muppety at us in the new year. (I'd settle for the Jim Henson Hour cut of "Dog City.")

Later in the year we can expect the HasLab Razor Crest to ship, but there's no hubbub yet on any other new big playsets or ships on my radar.

While there's no one big thing on the way, there's a fairly large plan for 6-inch and 3 3/4-inch figures, plus more roleplay items, fancy helmets, FX Lightsabers, and that sort of thing. If you're looking at non-Star Wars things and thinking of starting a new collection, allow me to humbly request that you reconsider. There's a lot on deck without a movie - remember the good old days after the prequels? - and it's probably worth your while to sock away some cash for the stuff you know about, and especially the stuff you haven't heard about just yet.

So while we all hold our breath about the Olympics, fan conventions, and the holdovers of 2020, hopefully there's a lot of fun stuff to look forward to. And hopefully things go back to nice, normal, and boring because I'd certainly like to eat out somewhere for lunch again. See you in the new year!

--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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