1. [In July] we learned Amazon will have an exclusive Retro Boba Fett and Bossk 2-pack.

We already got this Retro Fett 2 years ago, and earlier this year a Retro Dengar and IG-88 went up for preorder.

It looks like Hasbro is really trying to give us what we've been wanting a long time: an ESB Bounty Hunter set, albeit piecemeal.

Any idea when we can expect a 4-LOM and Zuckuss set to finish this up?

In the future, might we see the complete Retro Bounty Hunter set as an exclusive?

--Chris

I was a little surprised - I was expecting we might see a 6-pack of The Empire Strikes Back reruns, or at least a Yoda/Boba Fett bundle given the high demand on those two. A singular The Retro Collection Boba Fett figure has been selling for around $50 on Amazon, which is how you can tell the market need wasn't yet met. Also you can get the genuine vintage article for that - or even less - sans packaging.

A 4-LOM and Zuckuss set makes some sense but it's also likely to be a weak seller. Whatever Dengar/IG-88 does, a Zuckuss and 4-LOM set (which can be had for about $30 each in their 1982 releases) will be less than that. I can't imagine a 6-pack would make a lot of sense for a few years. I kind of wish Hasbro would stop pussyfooting around and just keep these guys in regular mass (or exclusive) rotation, mostly because coming on board with collection Star Wars now is pretty unsatisfying. You can't put together a group from your favorite movie unless you stick with it for months (or years,) but having some sort of "Collection 1" and "Collection 2" waves with rotating existing figures could make things a lot more fun for expanding the hobby to more people who don't pre-order everything a year in advance.

Based on Amazon's exclusive program for Transformers - themed sets spanning 4-5 SKUs of multipacks are not uncommon - I would assume that a 2-pack of 4-LOM and Zuckuss is in the cards for the not-too-distant future. A mock-up showed up recently, which I assume is fake given the inset "original" figures were 2010 Celebration Vintage Collection exclusives, but it's a sensible addition.

I think 6-packs are a neat idea, but 2-packs make a lot of sense - it lets you raise the price point per item, while getting more figures out in circulation. It's a win win.

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2. I understand the desire of Hasbro and Disney to pull from the new entertainment in the Retro line. But couldn't they do one wave of ANH figures that were never made before? Something along the lines of Rebel Fleet Trooper, Garindin, Uncle Owen, Sandtrooper, Figrin Dan and Pilot Biggs? I think such a wave would do very well. But what do I know?

--Luke

Based on the overall shape of the toy line - and I mean all of it - Hasbro seems to be burying lower price points. Almost nothing costs less than $10, be it a game or a baby toy. You can get some card games, Play-Doh, and Nerf entry-level things (and ammo) for under $10, but most boy's toys and collector stuff costs $12 or more these days. The Retro Collection is the lowest-priced collector toy line for Star Wars so I assume Hasbro will continue to want to put emphasis on higher dollar items. Hasbro if you're reading and I'm right on my assumption - packaging carded and/or bagged figures with retro vehicles would be most welcome too. Go ahead and make new 5-6 Kenner-style Skiff Guards with a Skiff reissue for $100. Oh, and make the fold-down legs in clear plastic, please and thank you.)

Since I've written this for years and years, we get lots of backdoor suggestions - there's one now! And based on the customs fans made and sold in comic and toy collector shops in the early 1990s, I absolutely agree that there's demand for Sandtroopers, Cantina Band, Rebel Fleet Troopers, and a few others. Basically every collector sees stuff and says "Why doesn't Hasbro do this?" while also saying "There's too much stuff! [That I do not personally want!]" Customizer/Toymaker Stan Solo has a prototype Rebel Fleet Trooper, and the Smith Lord Creations store has had some Sandtroopers. Heck, I bought the Stan Solo Garindan - itself a clever reworking of the 1997 Garindan figure - and it's pretty good.

Considering "customizers" like Stan Solo, The Next 17, Paleetoy, and The Fans Strike Back are cranking out figures, accessories, and mini-playsets, there's a lot of money Hasbro isn't getting. However, Hasbro also has kid lines and two other collector figure lines competing for internal company resources, and it's all part of a bigger pie with other brands competing for resources, too. Also there are so many collector dollars to go around. This actually makes for a decent argument for "slicensing," not because Company A can't do a good job, but Hasbro has so many concurrent Star Wars action figure programs that no one of them can get all the love. During the Kenner days (POTF2 and classic), 3 3/4-inch got almost all of the love at the expense of everything else - and because we liked it, we were happy.

Seeing the progress they're slowly making - the back half of the original 12 is a milestone I would've assumed they would have done sooner or later - the big question now is if they're going to tackle the class of "collect all 20" (since we already got Boba Fett.) I don't know if the market is as big for Greedo, X-Wing Luke, the Snaggletooths, Hammerhead, Death Star Droid and the rest - but I hope so. Especially if we got an official carded release of the tall blue Snaggletooth! With the 50th anniversary of Star Wars a mere five years away, they may want to do more retro figures at that time - they could do it before, but let's be honest. The pace isn't exactly snappy here.

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FIN

Be sure you send in your questions for next time. The mailbag is out of on-topic questions, so if you got some, send some in.

Did you see Prey? It came out last week, and is a great Predator movie. Worth checking out. Enjoy.

With Andor pushed back, the rest if the year is a bit of a question mark. The Bad Batch season 2 starts September 28 - supposedly - which would put it and Andor on at the same time. (Why, I ask.) As far as I know everything else is set for next year - Visions, The Mandalorian, etc. - and at this time I know of no plans for a massive roll-out for anything. I have to assume we'll be seeing more slow-drip weekly pre-orders that will test your patience as we wait up to a year for some of these things to come out. And hopefully, we'll still care. Thanks to the churn (and new seasons) of stuff, we'll probably be swinging back around to Andor stuff for season 2 if the season 1 stuff hits next year. I guess it works! Hopefully we'll get some more Mando stuff when the next season starts, too, as well as The Book of Boba Fett if that show gets another year of goodies.

If you haven't seen it, Disney+ has Light & Magic - a six part series where four episodes spend a lot of time on the early days of ILM, with a big emphasis on Star Wars. What surprised me is that it also focused on some unpleasantness, plus upended some creator myths. The story (in print, no less) for the origin of the Millennium Falcon design has been "a hamburger with an olive" or variations on that for years - and this is now upended by Joe Johnston saying it was inspired by a stack of dishes. Teach the controversy, I guess - but check out the show, it's a lot of fun to see guys from the old making-of specials talk about how things have gone, both good and bad, over the years.

--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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