1. I'm from the Original Trilogy generation, but I really prefer toys that are made concurrently with the movies and shows they are based on. They can make a really nice Darth Vader in 2026, but the one from 1978 just feels more authentic. So my OT needs were met by Kenner, and right now, I really just want Hasbro to make a few more characters from Andor. It seems like Hasbro is a little better (still not great) at making characters from the Disney+ shows in Black Series. My question is... why? Mandate from Disney? Business decision by Hasbro? Market research that suggests 3.75" collectors will buy Sol and Yord, but not Jecki?
--James

Short answer: I have no answer. I don't think anyone at any of the involved companies have made a statement as to who gets made where, and why.

Hasbro is at the mercy of assets from their partners - so if Disney says "here's what we've got," that's what they're going to make. A lot of factors may be at work, like what slots are open in a line plan, and how quickly they feel a need to cash in. The entire range has always struck me as odd, because we've consistently seen missed opportunity on what seem to be surefire sellers pre-release with The Book of Boba Fett and post-debut The Mandalorian. Supposedly a lot of items are held back for spoilers, but I feel spoilers in the stories we're getting are increasingly not in any way something divulged by figures except, maybe, Grogu. Heck, fans might have accepted The Emperor returning more if they had a product coming before they saw the movie.

While Andor was a well-received show, the product is generally cheap. I don't know if the reason is Hasbro made a reasonably sized run and fans didn't show up for it, or thought it would be massively popular and doubled the run beyond reasonable expectations. These are things nobody tends to share. Once items start getting dumped at Ross for under $10, it feels less and less likely that the series will be revisited. It's not like fans are buying these guys at full price, and the loudest collectors seem to be demanding original trilogy stuff only. It doesn't matter what the question is, or if it's even what really makes sense - that's what the demands from the loud people are.

Your question also highlights a strange problem - we fans are no longer a monoculture. In the 1990s, most fans wanted movie figures. Some wanted comic figures. Some wanted more figures from the novels. And some just really hated Return of the Jedi specifically and were cranky whenever Hasbro made more figures from that movie. Once you got to 1996, we had Shadows of the Empire and Return of the Jedi. In 1997, Special Edition toys were a thing.

You can see where this is going. Basically, any time Hasbro can ask fans what they want, the fanbase is split. Disney seems interested in focusing more attention on its new shows in the 6-inch line. From where I sit, that seems to get the most attention in the media for its shows and streaming platforms, plus more money for pre-orders if they're launched during the show. Why it took four years to do de-armored Cobb Vanth in The Vintage Collection I don't know. It's too short to be nostalgic and too long to be timely.

With The Acolyte, I heard zero buzz as to why anything was done. There were kid roleplay lightsabers for a show described as more adult with a "horror" tone. There were no vehicles and no kid figures. Each figure line had exclusive characters in it. Things have been kind of a mess since The Rise of Skywalker, and I am not sure what to expect from The Mandalorian and Grogu. 

What we're seeing does seem consistent with Hasbro's treatment of Marvel, in which some figures exist in Scale A but not Scale B. Marvel Legends 6-inch is clearly the Line of Record, but we see faces in the kid line that stay in the kid line... and the kid line changes sizes every couple of movies. Maybe it's an effort to keep things fresh, or to create demand for things, but I feel like it's a good reason for a lot of fans to feel no reason to collect. If your movie gets 5 figures in one size, four in another size, and neither has everybody? You have no reason to collect.

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2. Hasbro has previously done several re-releases of the vintage vehicle line, like the X-wing and TIE fighters, using the original molds.

If they did this again for the 50th anniversary next year, how much do you think they would cost? Let's assume they were unpainted and we get to apply the decals just like the vintage line. And if they decided to add the same simple red light bulb and buzzing battle sound, how much extra would that add to the base price?
--T

Great question. I have no idea. (Also, there has been some chatter that those 1990s vehicles may or may not have used original molds, as some stories of collectors loaning ships to Hasbro have been floating around - but the Imperial Shuttle is most likely the old mold.)

Coming in 2026, there's a glow-in-the-dark version of the original Kenner Ecto-1 for $60. The original was about $20 in 1985, which is equal to $60 today. It's a very fair price given inflation and everything, so Hasbro is absolutely capable of reproducing an old Kenner vehicle, with all the old features, at a price that doesn't have to be cuckoo bananas. 1980s toys were all very simple, with minimal paint and assembly. The Vintage Collection ships are cheap basically prop replicas at fancy toy prices. For what you get, it's good, but fans don't tend to want to compare what a cheap toy they had as a kid with the higher-end collectible Hasbro makes today.

For a much longer, specific answer:

Looking at the inflation calculator, $1 in 1995 is $2.11 today. 2004's $1 is $1.70 today. I bring this up, because it's not helpful - a 1995 TIE Fighter was $19.99, and that's what the reissue cost in 2004. 1995 X-Wings were $29.99, but $19.99 in 2004 with the electronics removed. I can only speculate that at some point someone said "hey, the tooling is super paid off, let's make some money here by offering these at a very fair price."

The reason I bring that up is that it makes it hard to guesstimate a current price. $20 in 1995 would be $42.24, and a $20 TIE from 2004 would be $34.09 today. Further, we don't know what Disney's licensing fees might do to such a product. Would they make a "collector tax" or would they just charge a fair price for a fairly simple toy, aiming for mass nostalgia appeal instead of collector wallets? I have no idea.

But what I do know is that a Kenner figure was about $2 in 1978, which is $9.88 in today dollars, and The Retro Collection figure usually orbits $10-$12. With that in mind, you could take the 1978 price, multiply it by 5, and have a guesstimate. It looks like Sears was asking about $11.44 for an X-Wing or TIE Fighter in 1978, so $50 would probably be a pretty safe guess for a similar toy in 2026. Or is it? Spin Master made some Kenner-style Batmobiles for closer to $20 last year.

If (big if) Hasbro reproduces the old Kenner ships, it would be unlikely that we would get a 1:1 replica. Why? Electronics are a big part of it - Mattel dropped battery-related mechanisms from Masters of the Universe Origins playsets and vehicles. I assume Hasbro would alter or remove the 2x "AA" battery-powered alert sounds, and the Millennium Falcon had 2x "C" batteries to power its stuff. It seems unlikely we'd keep those, too. I honestly don't know if they would (or should) keep features like the Millennium Falcon's cardboard room divider when they could mold in something new. In the 1990s we saw TIE Fighters upgraded with sculpted wings, which replaced giant stickers. If they just painted the decal deco on the X-Wing, I wouldn't complain - but I'd be pretty angry if we didn't get the pop-off TIE Fighter wings, or the X-Wing s-foil switch in the form of R2-D2.

Every fan is going to have different expectations, and I really do think it's worth looking at some quality-of-life improvements when it comes to the electronics. 1:1 remakes would get few complaints but there's no way the internals wouldn't be tweaked.

We're at a stage of our lives where Kenner Star Wars reproductions could be something parents - or grandparents - buy for the little ones. And of course, some of us just want fresh versions of the toys we may or may not have owned as children. Given what we've got in Retro so far - 35 of the 96-116 figures of the 1970s and 1980s - I am not holding my breath for a full-line relaunch. Whatever Hasbro deems worthy to get us to buy, I can't imagine it will be part of a multi-year line-up. So enjoy it while it lasts.

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FIN

We are out of questions for next week. Send 'em if you got 'em!

Toy Fair is less than two weeks away! I'm making plans for work meetings and places to get food. If you've got any fun suggestions for things to do in New York, send 'em in. I'm hoping for reveals of new Retro figures galore, but my Hasbro appointment is before the big collector press event so I likely won't be able to see them up close.

I'm expecting some The Mandalorian and Grogu reveals. I'm really curious if Ahsoka season two will have anything. I don't just mean at Toy Fair, I mean at all. And Darth Maul: Shadow Lord should hopefully have something, my hopes remain low after seeing how The Bad Batch turned out.

It's hard to get excited given how so much of any toy line seems built around delayed gratification. I'm increasingly impatient, because waiting four or five years to build out a team is sort of inexcusable. One or two years? OK, sure, fine. But hopefully we can see more complete programs pop up and give fans something worthy of their attention spans. If you look at Kenner's offerings from 1995-1999, we got a significant portion of the 1978-1985 line remade, and a bunch of new guys too. I'm sure I sound greedy, but we're seeing Transformers combiners spread over years and slow-drip The Black Series offerings that take years to build out. I'd really rather go back to focusing on one big thing, with a few guest stars, which I will keep writing here until morale improves.

--Adam Pawlus

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