1. Mr. Pawlus, after seeing my local Walmart's new action figure modular, I have a few questions (and more than a little venting). Feel free to edit down to what you need, but I think this topic deserves discussion.

First, my local Walmart reset. Action figures are now down to a paltry 1/2 of one side of one aisle, the smallest I've ever seen for a Christmas modular. This store is the only real retail venue in my podunk little town next to an Air Force base, and the next Walmart is over 35 minutes away, and next non-Walmart store over an hour away. Basically, if you don't like Ninja Turltes, Transformers, or Titan Heroes...you're SOL. Star Was has two pegs for Command packs, maybe two for MIssion Series, one peg for lightsabers (which I've not seen stocked at this store since Christmas), and one shelf space for Titan Heroes. The Corps is getting more support than Star Wars here (and heaven help you if you want any Marvel beyond the Titan Heroes stuff).

So, here are my two questions to someone "in the business":
1. Do you see a disconnect between the corporate buyers, and the retail result? By that, I mean, I read the corporate cover letter for the new modular, and it talks about the big pushes: Ninja Turtles and Transformers, obviously. But it also mentions Amazing Spider-Man 2, yet this store isn't carrying ANY ASM2 merch at all (granted, still has a lot of "basic Spider-Man", mostly roleplay, bikes, Titans, and few basic figures). It also mentions the premiere of Rebels, and yet (barring a PDQ like Ninja Turtles and Guardians of the Galaxy got here), if a kid gets into Rebels, there is literally NOTHING to buy in support of that.

2. While I grant action figures aren't as popular/robust as Lego, or as they were a decade or more ago, I can't help but wonder if some of the issues we're seeing as a whole aren't part of another problem: At some point, it became an "established truth" that kids don't play with action figures. Just like girl figures don't sell, only good guys sell, and kids only want core characters. Do you think that sales are down because kids don't buy them, or are they down because (if my store and many online remarks are accurate) stores simply aren't carrying the inventory to begin with? My store just did a reset, and nearly half of it is empty because they just didn't get the stuff to stock it to begin with (much less the persistently empty lightsaber and cheap Spider-Man figure pegs my store has had since February).
--Steevy Maximus

To my knowledge I've never talked to a toy buyer that handles action figures for big box stores - I have talked to big box store corporate people, buyers for other stores you've heard of and shopped at, and of course that jerkface buyer at Entertainment Earth that writes this column.

Depending on your Walmart's size, the toy aisles have been changing a lot - on top of that some of the stores are getting partial remodels, so there are big changes. A few years ago - I want to say around 2007 - the chain really started to reduce the toy footprint. In their smaller, lower-traffic stores we saw this get even tinier as I'm sure some of you have noticed aisles with no Star Wars 3 3/4-inch figures more recent than January 2012 wave 1 Vintage (i.e., the Phantom Menace 3-D wave) to this very day. For our class of toy buyer, the chain has been a disappointment but this is probably by design. Toys are something of an impulse buy, parents are moving to other pastures, and kids grow out of toys much more quickly. Toys have poor margins, so putting a lot of emphasis on them may be imprudent. Hasbro reducing the rate of refreshing its waves combined with slowing orders from stores basically means everybody is involved in everything not working out.

Interestingly, Walgreens has made a big push in their toy aisles. It used to be a few pegs of onesies and twosies of Hasbro and Mattel, some Imperial or no-name cheaper toys, and maybe the odd LEGO set and cap gun. More recently I'm seeing Titan Series 12-inch figures, more collector figures, and the widely-discussed Marvel Legends Agent Venom and The Black Series Concept Boba Fett. Walgreens has many many more locations than most American retailers, so it's possible that there's a new buyer - or perhaps rep - that saw a new growth channel and went for it. Walmart is interested in high-volume items at the lowest possible prices, and Walgreens doesn't seem to have a real toy focus other than "distract children, provide presents for forgetful uncles after everything else is closed on the way to a birthday party."

Each retailer has a different focus on how they do things. A lot of people are "big picture" people, some people are "detail-oriented" people. (As Edith Bunker once said, "watch the pennies and the dollars will follow." That's how I view it - the end consumer is your boss, try to make them happy.) Hasbro's shift away from collectors and collecting means fewer items in circulation - and it's not just boy's action collector toys, either, some of their girl brands are going through similar pains to ours. The question is, will anything be done about it? Is it too late? Is the '90s toy-hoarding and toy-running over? Maybe. Back in the late 1990s, we had some waves that were just 1 new figure - this probably wasn't a bad idea.

Kids are the focus of toys and as I'm keen on saying, ignore this at your own peril. Sometimes collector interests, Hasbro's interests, and the needs of the marketplace align and sometimes they don't. When serving too many masters in an off-season, problems can happen. Lines that have been in the Star Wars brand portfolio over the past four years include Amp'd (unreleased), Transformers (RIP), Command (new), Fighter Pods (RIP), 3 3/4-inch Vintage/Black Series, 6-inch Black Series, Jedi Force Playskool figures (hibernating), roleplay, 3 3/4-inch vehicles, Mission Series/Saga Legends, The Clone Wars (RIP), Movie Heroes (RIP), Star Wars Angry Birds (unsure), and I have no doubt I left quite a few off. The point is this - if you look at 1998, the line was overblown and that resulted in the great clearance of the year 2000, treating us to our first really good examples of "last wave syndrome." In 2001, the line was conservative - a couple of 3 3/4-inch assortment SKUs and vehicles were largely exclusive to three big retailers. (But the line was arguably a dual-purpose kid/collector one.) 2002 was a new movie. In 2004, the line went down to basic figures, Ultra and vintage figures, 12-inch figures, and a few vehicles and lightsabers - pretty thin. 2005 was a movie, and a successful one. If anything, I think the line is going on a diet and it's not because the ideas were bad. The timing is, though - when we're in between movies, the line usually get pretty thin (except for after the Revenge of the Sith where it seems like they just kept going for it while they could.)

Are action figures dead? I don't think the category is, but the mindset surrounding them needs fresh meat. The character selection is terrible - between Hasbro's many lines of Star Wars the only new characters/outfits in 2014 are Sgt. Doallyn and Toryn Farr - the rest were 2013 and earlier. Mattel's DC comics lines imploded after trying to switch to a core character-based format, and probably ran its natural lifespan as a licensed line. Transformers reinvents itself often enough that kids don't get bored, and you can set your watch to new LEGO introductions. They keep it fresh. Hasbro has been content to let Transformers go months between new waves, and Star Wars had a roughly seven month drought between December and July. Kids are given limited options as well, and we buy them up first - so to them, it's the same junk for years except in the lines we ignore like the Turtles.

Star Wars desperately needs a clean sweep, and it's not going to get one. The same SKUs will carry forward for Fall, meaning many old items will continue to sit around. I'm not looking at those pegs, and kids aren't either. Stores aren't taking a loss or putting things out of their misery after 1-2 years, so we're seeing a sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy - we declare the category dead. We stop buying. Stores stop buying. Hasbro stops shipping it. We wonder why it's dead. Repeat.

I'd be curious to see what would happen if Hasbro adopted the LEGO roll-out model. New sets appear in December/January and July/August every year - with some other new ones salted out here and there per media tie-ins. But you know that, twice a year, there's going to be a lot of freshness. WIth Hasbro products, it's a little more random - so it gets me in stores to check, but it's also possible I could go a year without seeing something new (see: Transformers Generations Legends, Ultimate Spider-Man) and that may be doing the entire category a huge disservice. I remember when I was about 10, Lionel PlayWorld wasn't bringing in as many new LEGO sets - I remember asking my parents if they thought the store was going out of business. And they were. Kids probably get a whiff of it being stale and lose interest. A toy store that doesn't have new toys means kids don't ask to go to the toy aisle, and they grow up just that much faster. Would collectors be willing to trade random hunts for 2 times a year where 1-2 waves are available? Maybe. It's not Hasbro's traditional model, but maybe it could help things out if the current system of waves was axed and each assortment was a whole new SKU/DPCI rather than lasting for several years with new stuff salted in.

 

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2. So I stopped at Target yesterday to pick up Divergent on Blue Ray for my son and of course as always when I'm there I stop in the toy section to see if anything is new. They had a new Star Wars section, although it was mostly empty I did see the new "army men" Command sets, little to no figures in the 3-3/4 scale a couple of the 12" Anakin and Obi Wans and some of that silly Angry Bird Star Wars stuff. What caught my eye is that they had the new 20" Jakks Pacific figures of Darth Vader and Chewbacca. Vader is obviously a scaled down version of the 31" figure {which they didn't seem to have any longer} the Chewie one is obviously a new sculpt. Both were really neat, but I'm a Fett fan and want the Boba one they showed at SDCC last month. But to no avail. They did have one of the huge figureless X-Wings, which I hemmed and hawed about getting but in the end put down. The area was pretty barren and there was a new Star Wars banner above it, and everything said Rebels on it, everything that was there anyways. So I don't know if they sold out of everything really quickly or if that's all they have right now. My Target is pretty horrible about bringing in new stock they've had the same 3 slave Leia's and Greedo's in the 6" scale hanging on the pegs since their release. Although I did once find two 6" Boba Fetts there once that I picked up immediately. So that now that I've rambled and wasted a good thirty seconds of your time, did you know the Jakks figures were being released so quickly and do you know if the Fett figure will be an exclusive and if so, with whom? Also are they discontinuing the 31" scale figures? I'd really like a Fett in that scale. I'm assuming Hasbro is waiting to see how the jumbo figureless Falcon and X-Wing do before they decide to go any further? But I'd love a TIE fighter to go with the X-wing in that scale, have you heard anything on that front? Lastly, I'm a Sideshow Star Wars collector, I have almost all of the sixth scale figures they offer, much to my wallets chagrin {mortgage? what mortgage?}. Hot Toys announced at SDCC that they have the 1/6 & 1/4 scale license for Star Wars figures. They did that great double set of Bespin Luke a couple of years ago but their figures are more like museum pieces, expensive ones, that aren't conducive to posing for fear of messing up the meticulous costuming and paint applications {I do have a few, most recently the Adam West Batman figure, which is awesome but it comes with a instruction sheet that basically says don't touch the costume because it might snag or stain}. Do you know what this means, if anything to SSC's run on the 1/6 scale line? They showed at least eight figures coming up at SDCC so I'm assuming they're not out yet. hopefully.
--Martin

My wife brought home a copy of Diver Gent and I got bored when he never showed up after 20 minutes.

This line has gone through many phases of what you're describing - "All I see is crap I personally don't want so clearly nobody at Hasbro knows what they're doing." Around 1983, we saw a lot of Ewoks. In 1996, Shadows of the Empire delighted younger fans (to some extent) and put off older ones (to some extent.) The Special Editions, Clone Wars (2003 and 2008), and other years had focuses that just turn off some fans. The lack of 3 3/4-inch is, well, clearly Hasbro is struggling here and I don't suspect it to get better until they clean house and kill all extant SKUs for these products in favor of new ones. They have a lot of old stuff to sell too - and even though we know (and they know) it's not selling incredibly quickly, it's really hard to go to your boss and say "Yeah, those figures we made that aren't selling through? We need to make more new waves. I know we're sitting on inventory, but we need to make more." That's a hard sell at any job - the fact that we're still getting new stuff is proof that someone over there really is trying to do good by us, even if it is a slow trickle rather than the deluge of 2006-2008.

Sideshow is its own beast which I don't follow because I don't collect it and it doesn't come in to my job-related duties either. (Sorry. Nothing wrong with it, I just never really got into 12-inch other than buying Kenner and Hasbro's out of habit, which mercifully stopped.) When you get right down to it, I'm a toy collector - I like to play with this stuff, museum pieces (while gorgeous) are things I'd rather admire than curate.

When it comes to jumbo vehicles, take a good, hard look at their inspiration. The 31-inch X-Wing and its cousin the Falcon are the first big vehicles, and they're Hasbro's attempt to make good on the promise of the 31-inch action figure. Most 31-inch action figures have 1 character in the line - like Batman, or 1 or 2 Power Rangers. Few have a suite of products, and they're usually AAA main-characters with few exceptions (again, mostly in Star Wars). There's no 31-inch Joker - as much as I want a 31-inch TIE Fighter I would not anticipate Hasbro will be doing one until later next year at the earliest, if the format clicks. And even then, the intent of the big figure format is to sell a ton of one or two styles to a ton of kids. This isn't a "collect them all!" format - a child may get one, possibly two of them and that's that. If a kid isn't a collector, a single 31-inch figure may be enough to sate their love of Star Wars - they don't need a whole set, or even a smattering. Having said that I was kind of surprised to see a 31-inch figure of The Inquisitor this week, because even if that show hits fairly well I assume that will be a dud.

I can give you my personal guarantee that the first time I saw 31-inch Darth Vader the first thing out of my mouth to the Jakks Pacific crew was "So when are we getting Boba Fett?" Not yet, obviously. Hopefully soon.

3. I keep a spreedsheet of every Star Wars toy I have purchased since 1995. I update it with stuff that I have, stuff out I dont have and stuff that has been announced but not released. This helps me to keep of track of what is to come (mostly info from websites, NYTF, SDCC, etc)

Anyhow, I always notice several stuff released never actually makes it out and 3 new peices I see may not either
- Black Series #30 AT-RT Driver
- Black Series #31 Republic Commando
- Black Series 6" #13 Chewbacca

--Jeremiah

Hasbro plans lots of products that don't get a formal announcement - and some leak out incorrectly. Chewbacca, as mentioned above, is a fine example - there was a plan to put out Chewbacca in an orange box for The Black Series as #13 between Anakin and the Clone Trooper. Official photography exists - but Hasbro changed the mix back around February, replaced the figure with other characters, and delayed it so he looks less squished. (The new blue boxes have the exact same measurements, just a new layout.) It may show up for sale on the secondary market, but you won't find it as a mass-produced item. It's going to cost you if one ever comes up for sale.

I don't recall a formal announcement of the Republic Commando or AT-RT Driver, plus we now know the line is changing its look after figure #29 (Wedge Antilles). As such, if those items were to be released they certainly aren't expected now. I haven't seen test shots or packaged samples of either, so I wouldn't get your hopes up for orange-packaged figures. For blue? Who knows. If they aren't significantly different I would just be happy... every time Hasbro cancels a potentially poor-selling product, especially if it's a reissue of an old toy in a new box, it's probably best for all parties involved.

There are lots of really interesting names that got out from Hasbro's lists that just plain never showed up. I seem to remember reading Gnaw and Brawn were coming to Transformers Generations Legends, and while it seems Brawn was actually Gears all along nobody knows where Gnaw was or how far along he was. A deluxe Hardhead is also missing in action, but for all I know he'll show up at Toy Fair next year or as an exclusive for somebody. Well, maybe not, it's not like Hasbro has made exclusives particularly exciting for collectors over the last couple of years, especially as Transformers go.

 

4. Thanks for the great coverage of SDCC. One thing new that I noticed about the Phantom is that you can open the back/top behind the cockpit. Unfortunately I haven't seen any pics of what's inside. Could you tell me what is inside the Phantom, please? (Seats like the new troop transport or just storage space?)
--Damian

The interior is actually quite nice, and lucky for you YAK_Chewie posted a bunch of pictures on the Yakface.com forums. There's seating for an extra humanoid figure back there, and when I was shown the interior it looked like it should fit an Astromech droid in between the two seated humanoids. (I wasn't able to test it against the various sizes of bodies as of yet.)

 

FIN

I don't know how many of you guys keep up on the news, but there have been more than a few credit card breaches lately here in the USA. For this reason, my provider sends me a new card every six months - if not more frequently - despite the expiry date being three years away. I used this card to pre-order my Walgreens Boba Fett back in July, and when I called them to say "Hello there, please update my expiration date as my company forced a new card on me and deactivated the old one" they said "Can't do it. We can cancel your order, or we can leave it, but we can't change it." Great. I talked to a few people who were experts at telling me where to stick it, so this did not work out as intended. From my experiences ordering toys online, rarely does anyone have a problem with me updating credit card information so I can pay them.

This was on Wednesday, which meant trips to Walgreens followed until I found Boba Fett late on Friday evening. I went to 3 during lunch and at least 7 more after dinner - and there are many, many more that weren't within a 5 mile radius. What I found was that the bulk of stores had one or more of their other exclusives. I could get several of the Game of Thrones Lannister, but what really surprised me is that most of the stores had a few Agent Venoms from Marvel Legends. Some stores had 4 or more, while one had at least 8. This is, to say the least, surprising - but it does give me hope that the concept Boba Fett and any other new figures will be out in large numbers. If each store gets at least one case, the sheer volume of stores means that they might stick around. Not only that, the vast quantity of the previous guys makes me think they may even be clearance fodder down the road. Let's face it - concept Boba Fett is a collector figure. Luke, Chewie, Darth Vader, and maybe the Sandtrooper will sell to the sneezing, snot-dripping masses, but concept Boba Fett requires a certain sense of lunacy to chase it down. A lot of people will probably skip it over, because the notion of hitting 12 drug stores on the way home from work sounds like a bad idea. And let me tell you - it's a bad idea. So, so many sick people, bright lights, and terrible awful music.

I hit a few more locations on Thursday, but on Friday I mapped out several locations on the way to (and from) my favorite burger joint across town. I started heading out around 5:30 PM after work, and by 8:30 PM - and several stops later - I had found a shop with 3 Boba Fetts in a plastic tote near the toy aisle, and no other Star Wars figures. The location before that one had two Darth Vaders, but on overstock neat the liquor and not by toys. Earlier that day I saw one lone new Sandtrooper at another store. As far as I can tell, they're divvying up cases and at least right now you won't find more than a couple of figures per store, and whoever splits the cases to ensure each store gets 3 of the same character instead of an assortment is crazy. And oh yes - there were plenty of Tyrion Lannisters and Agent Venoms to go around.

Anyway... if history is any indication, those who wait it out will probably have a solid window to get these guys on the cheap. That's my guess, anyway. Ordering exclusive toys online can be like shooting fish in a barrel, and sometimes it would be a more enjoyable experience. This time around I got to plod through 20 or so drug stores and what I learned is I really, really hate going there. Generally when someone gets sick I head over to Target or Walmart thanks to proximity and a better toy section, or perhaps the grocery store because of the better food section. Walgreens is sort of like a 7-11 with pills replacing the diverse snack options and sick people replacing the junkies and/or teenagers. Hopefully next time, it goes to 7-11.

--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.