1. One of my favorite toys from childhood was the Micro Freeze Chamber. I especially loved the Han in Carbonite piece, even though it was painted like a tiny chocolate bar. I loved that it was pure metal and it had heft to it and felt cool to the touch.

My dream figure for quite some time has been a 100% die-cast metal Han in Carbonite, initially for the 4 inch figures, but now I'm primarily doing 6 inch figures.

I can't see Hasbro ever producing my dream figure. They rarely seem to use die-cast metal in anything any more.

But these are exciting times. People are making incredible things on their own with 3D printers and casting their own stuff.

Is making your own die-cast toys at home something that will ever be feasible? I don't know the process. I'm inclined to say it's cost-prohibitive and probably dangerous. But that's my unrealistic dream. What are the chances it could come true?

--Angelo

I think you're right on the money - doable? Sure. Expensive, dangerous? Quite possibly, but that doesn't mean it's out of reach. I think that you can make it happen right now if you're willing to pony up some money or accept some rougher features, as a one-off. As far as the legality of this stuff goes, we're kind of in the wild west - I haven't heard of anybody quashing fans selling scans or even reproductions of action figures, so I am operating under the assumption that any antics to make a figure for themselves or a buddy won't incur the wrath of the Mouse. So really, your only barrier theoretically technology.

If you have money or the right skills, anything is possible - Jay Leno famously has a machine to fabricate custom metal parts in his Burbank garage, but that's out of the price range of anyone without lottery money. There are a number of print-on-demand services for metal parts, but that's not quite the same thing as a die-cast metal (or pewter, or lead) figure. That doesn't mean "never," as Shapeways offered a plastic printing service for mortals before you could get a $200 FDM printer in your basement. I've yet to use a metal-based service so I can't recommend one from personal experience, but the equipment is out there for those with the right connections and/or money. There are metal-infused and wood-infused 3D printing filaments that may add some heft and be close enough to what you want, too.

If you want to go old-school? Cast-iron toys were available to kids in the 19th century. The detail isn't as crisp, but if they could do it, someone today can do it without a factory overseas and for all I know you might be able to make a good contact at a renaissance faire who knows a thing or two about the topic. I don't feel good about working with piping hot molten metal, but less clumsy people are making it work every day and many of them are super eager to find a new project or a paying gig. It might be expensive - but what is your dream worth? If Hasbro said to me "you can have a real production safety-tested Kenner-style Vlix figure that you can play around with, but you'd have to buy a big $800 HasLab to get it" I'd probably grumble and go get my credit card.

If a one-off metal Carbonite is going to make you happy, really budget it out. If someone makes a home 3D metal fabrication thing, it's probably going to be over $200, it's probably going to be over 10 years away, and it's very likely that inflation may make it even more expensive. A lot of metalworkers, rapid prototypers, or even jewelry workers - or people that sculpt custom pewter D&D minis - may be able to do what you need for a few hundred bucks. Having a dream realized may be worth the cost of admission, especially if it scratches an itch and reduces your collector spend by giving you what you want, rather than a quick fix that's not going to plug the hole in your emotional toy box.

I doubt you can get a consumer-level metal machine the size of a microwave for safe home use in the next 10 years. 22 years ago, Gentle Giant's scanning and 3D printing tech was sci-fi craziness that took hours to print a design... and last month my dentist made me a crown with cheaper, more advanced versions of the same thing in a couple of hours. Tech moves quickly, and is already there at an industrial level. Depending on who you know, or work with, or is sympathetic, you might find someone who can take a scan of a Carbonite block and make you something for your own personal use.

Or, maybe Hasbro or Jada or someone else who works in these areas might read your question and go "Hey, that's a great idea!" Or not, because you could really hurt somebody when a 6-inch slab of metal comes down, but "that's not my department" says Wernher von Braun. Good luck and please keep us all posted on your quest! I'll be sure to bring it up if I hear anyone doing die-cast metal Star Wars figures and hopefully all of you will as well. It's too bad we're too late for Hasbro to do Titanium Series again, as that format seems pretty dead as of 9 years ago.

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2. Why was Hunter the only member of the Clone Force 99 to get a TVC figure?
--Derek

I wish I knew why The Bad Batch got skipped as a 3 3/4-inch figure, but they did get a lot of stuff in Mission Fleet. My guess is that, given the era, Hasbro felt they had those characters covered with smaller figure packs and vehicles, in addition to the 6-inch toys, and didn't feel much of a rush to get to them in The Vintage Collection just yet. After all, if fans get the same guy in 2-3 scales at once? They complain. If they don't? They complain.

I was surprised, but I was more surprised that we haven't seen the tooling used to make other figures. Hasbro has been super keen on repainting and retooling every trooper or army-building droid of battle possible, even when the other characters from a show are left unmade. Not seeing Crosshair was a surprise, but Hunter's parts would also make the black Omega Squad or Republic Commando Delta Squad figures pretty easy to get to production.

But I digress.

As long as Star Wars continues to be burdened by - and I can't believe I'm saying this - too much Star Wars, this will keep happening. For the original trilogy, each movie got about 2-3 years in the spotlight. (Also, about six or seven years worth of revival fun before the prequels.) For the prequels, each movie got about a year - plus or minus some classic stuff mixed in, followed by more new guys for quite some time. Even The Clone Wars got three pretty solid years before things went sideways. With a new story two or three times a year - plus anniversaries and the leftovers from shows fans moved on from - it's going to be impossible to build out a story with toys for a while.

With the current output of 2-3 seasons of Star Wars-flavored entertainment product nearly every year, nobody's rewatching, nobody's obsessing. Certainly, nobody is going over every last guide book, trading card, poster, or Dixie cup to learn character names anymore either. (Print is dead.) People move on quickly, which (for good or for ill) may benefit the older movies since they've had a lot more time to enter the cultural landscape. I'm guilty of this - unless you watch and rewatch all the time, you're probably not thinking of the show from five years ago anymore.

We're probably going to see a trickle of one or two per year for a while, which is pretty unsatisfying. But The Bad Batch is just one group that's left alone in the 3 3/4-inch scale. Andor has very little. Obi-Wan Kenobi skipped over Leia, Kumail Nanjiani, Flea, and a number of character actors and even some of the Inquisitors. The Book of Boba Fett has Krrsantan, Boba Fett, and Cad Bane, with Fennec Shand being a The Mandalorian holdover and not many other new faces. As much as I hate to say it, incomplete main casts are increasingly the norm and short of a) dividing up the licenses to other companies or b) whittling it all down to one scale, there's not much chance of any of this changing.

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FIN

Coming this week, we've got the Skeleton Crew finale. Being in the middle of a story is always strange, because you probably know how it's going to end, and in some cases it's hard to tell if it's ultimately good or not. A lot of people seemed to not like The Empire Strikes Back when it was new, which I can kinda get (not too many different aliens) and totally not understand (many scenes with one of the best aliens.) It's really surprising to see how I feel about these shows as time goes on - I just finished a rewatch of The Mandalorian season 3 which made me say "I have no idea why people didn't like this minus the few scenes that looked like they were holding a rehearsal in a public park." But then again I haven't rewatched Ahsoka, Andor, or The Acolyte yet. I'm only just now rewatching Obi-Wan Kenobi, and it feels like it works a lot better as "watch it as you can" rather than "spread it out over a couple of months." Maybe the same will hold true for Skeleton Crew but it's not like any of these shows have escaped the gravity that is their overlong exposition.

After Skeleton Crew we're getting Andor season 2, supposedly April 22, which means (of course) they will try to get some juice from the non-holiday that is May 4th and also the anniversary of the original film over Memorial Day weekend. And then we've got Star Wars Visions getting its third season, and then 2026 should be a big deal with the things we know and probably some things we don't.

What may prove interesting is Star Wars Celebration Japan, also in April, which boasts a presence from Hasbro this year. With exclusives. Lately most international exclusives tend to be package or deco variants, and at this time Hasbro has not made any whispers about what these might be. But I don't remember a lot of people being excited over the Revenge of the Jedi poster-deco Darth Vader a few years ago. While not my cup of tea, that sort of thing is the perfect convention exclusive - it's not a unique character, but it is an interesting souvenir that if you missed it, at least you wouldn't have a hole in a diorama or in your cast of the movies. Here's hoping it's a redeco!

--Adam Pawlus

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