1. Of your Disneyland Droids review (past or upcoming) - have any seen screen time in any of the movies? I have made the assumption they are ‘fantasy droids’ cooked up for the park, with no foothold in Star Wars canon.
--Paul

My guess is no - there are many droids in the movies which fans still haven't seen in their entirety yet, and can be glimpsed as a dome in a corner of a group shot. It's possible they're going to that well, but I don't believe so. Many of the last batch seems to be based on droids from the movies and cartoons, but they're a little more obvious and already exist as toys - R2-D2, R5-D4, R2-Q5, R7-A7, and so on. As far as I know most of them are originals, but it's possible I missed a few in Rebels or The Clone Wars - but so far, I have not seen any from Disney recently that are obviously from the existing movies.

It could mean we have some surprise The Force Awakens droids and not even know it. Now we know there's also a new boxed set with some new robots, and some of those do appear in the existing movies... either with a different name or barely-different deco.

 

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2. I went to the midnight event at my local Toys R Us this year (just as I've done in the past with such events). However, this year was a big disappointment for me.

It wasn't the toy selection, it wasn't the employees...it was the "fans."

I have always enjoyed these gatherings because it brought together a group of people with a common interest to celebrate the hobby of collecting Star Wars toys. In the past, the people in line were very friendly and everyone seemed to be buzzing about what goodies lay inside or talking about collecting or just sharing their general love of Star Wars.

It was fun...it was SOCIAL. It was (to coin a sixties term) a "happening." I met quite a few very nice people in those lines over the years and made quite a few friends.

This year? There was no buzz...no excitement...no talking...no friend-making. All that was there was a long line of people silently futzing with their damn cell phones. The people weren't talking with each other at all. They were all just standing around with ear buds in their ears instead of listening to each other. Everyone was pretty much ignoring each other. It felt like a dentists' waiting room and it, at least to me, felt awkward and uncomfortable.

I used to count on this community of people to be friendly, Adam. Star Wars fans used to talk with each other. I used to strike up conversations with people all the time in the action figure aisles. What's happened? Do you also find the fellow collectors less friendly these days, also?

I just wondered if you've noticed a similar change.
--BRENT

I'd really love to have known how the demographics have changed - if there has been a change - since the last round. So much has changed, but it's possible that the individuals are the same. We've been to this show before. We're dumb - we know that the stuff is the common first-wave stuff, we're pretty sure we'll see it cheap in a few years. But I think you really nailed it - but I'm biased. (I don't have a cell phone.) The iPhone came out in 2008, so the prequels lacked even the option and some of us are self-conscious about being seen with a GameBoy. Now everybody's got a phone, and when I'm in a gathering with other people - especially other new fans I don't know well - the phones come out and I sit there, awkwardly. That's progress - I won't say it's good or bad, because forced interaction with the competition my peers is something that I could probably take or leave.

People have really changed in how they buy, too. This sort of thing is less of a party and more of an obligation thanks to the pre-order embargo. A lot of us buy more online now, so being forced out - at midnight - isn't exactly a fun thing if you're the kind of person dropping hundreds or thousands of dollars in Hasbro's coffers while the market at large ignored it. But, who knows. I found it odd - very odd - that when I went out on Friday afternoon I could pretty much spy who was going to look for toys based on how they carried themselves. Nobody had a Star Wars shirt, but all of the toy people had a distinct way of being. (I include myself in this.)

Given the lack of information and rumors of shortages, I bet that didn't help - in 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2008 we all knew the score. There were a few surprises (sometimes waves 2 and 3) but generally speaking we were there for a Darth Maul or a Jango Fett or a Senate Guard or a big Millennium Falcon - we had a goal. Basically we were asked to be a part of a blind box where we were expected to immediately show up and fall in love for a line with very little recognizable. On the note of friends, there were few - we're here because of our fictional buddies. For Episode I we already had met C-3PO, R2-D2, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. We were looking forward to meeting them. For Attack of the Clones we wanted to meet our friend's dad, so we got Jango Fett - and more of the Jedi we may have missed during the first prequel. Revenge of the Sith as a line was basically a family reunion - most of the figures were existing characters in new costumes or more-pregnant bodies, recognizable and familiar. The Clone Wars was largely stuff we recognized and loved - prequel ships, classic deleted scene figures of legend, cartoon troopers, Yoda, Evolution packs - it was really amazing.

...and then there's The Force Awakens. By most reports, the 2-packs weren't there so 3 3/4-inch BB-8 - a newcomer we wanted - wasn't an option. R2-D2 and C-3PO weren't there. Ahsoka was missing. Kylo Ren isn't a Sith - so who is he? Chewbacca was there, but let's be honest - we saw Chewbacca wearing the same thing to the last party. We were not only denied knowledge of why we should leave our homes on a Thursday night (with work the next day - we aren't in our teens or twenties anymore) and our good friends didn't even show up to the party. We wanted to meet up with Luke, Han, and Leia - and they couldn't make it. We don't even know when they're coming.

As I look at a desk with a lot of stuff - not everything as of yet - I see a bunch of strangers. Kylo Ren looks like any comic dude and is neat, but Zuvio looks a little unfinished. I don't know Rey or Finn or Poe well yet, and asking me to be excited three months early for a movie with so many total strangers is rough. We really don't even have a hint of what it's about, whereas we previously knew that we were to be treated to a glimpse at the origin of Darth Vader. Think about it - what do you really know about The Force Awakens? "It's Star Wars" is about all I can muster, and between the prequels and TV shows I've got plenty of new Star Wars. There was no 16-year gap of stories with the major characters.

Maybe things will be different next time - but from the sound of things, Rogue One is similarly packed with strangers. A lot of our real friends are gone too. I waited with my friend Laurence in 1999, I haven't spoken to him in 13 years. Zac, Dan, and Shaun were with me in 2002, and I get to see Zac and Shaun once a year at best since we all moved apart. Dan I haven't seen in nearly ten years. In 2005, I was on my own - everybody else was gone, so I was in line by myself. In 2008 they made the decision to run the launch during Comic-Con, which was just a bad idea - but at least I got to see Mike for a bit. But nobody was here last week, so I stayed home and launched the shop online at work.

One of the sad things about life is not everybody is going to be there as it moves on - stuff comes up. If everybody stuck around, we wouldn't be arguing over things like if the Black Series 3 3/4-inch line is genuinely good, or if we're just mourning stillborn potential in something that never actually got off the ground. As a group, Star Wars fans started moving away in 2008 when the TV shows started. The future probably belongs to a mass-market audience, and kids, and they don't go shopping at midnight.

3. I was wondering if you know if all of the figures (including the Rancor) in the new SDCC / TRU exlusive Jabba's Rancor set are new sculpts or a bunch of repacks? I missed the Target exclusive Rancor set a few years ago, and now that the new one is out, prices on the older version have dropped. So I am debating if I should invest the $160.00 + tax (Canada) in the new set or not.
--SQLJedi

The Jabba is a new sculpt - everything else is pretty much the same. There are minor deco tweaks (a bit more pink on the Gamorrean, Luke's skin tone seems a smidgen lighter) but on the whole they're fundamentally the same 3 3/4-inch figures you may have already purchased.

This hit the USA as part of the September 4 drop, and is $129.99 here. I haven't yet bought one, I'm playing chicken with the pricing (or possible gift certificates, as my birthday is next week.) For me, all I want is the Jabba - so maybe I can do $80, possibly even $100, but not $130. It's just not that packed with plastic.

 

FIN

Well, that was certainly a weird launch. Seemingly low quantities of stuff combined with a lack of main characters and perhaps too much mystery made it feel sort of like - if this is possible - a successful thud. Nobody seems too furious, stuff seems to be selling briskly, and if you see empty shelves as a sign of success we can call this a success. The real question is restocking - when, how often? Will we see shortages? Have people had their fill? And is three months too long to launch a movie line these days? With very few genuinely recognizable characters as part of the "real" (read: 3 3/4-inch) line, it's easy to ignore at this point, or dismiss as Expanded Universe. We have no connection to any of these guys, and we probably won't know if we should have cared until the waves stopped shipping. This is, of course, cruel. Then again, Hasbro probably could have sold more Jar Jar Binks toys in 1999 had they given collectors more than 3 weeks to ponder the significance of the character, rather than showing him to the world and everyone passed at that point.

I had a September 4 Q&A ready to go and it just made me mad. I didn't post it. Most of it was "You know what's going to happen" (truth is, I only knew bits of some things) and a lot of "Agree with me that I'm quitting because this sucks." From the look of things, there are good toys and bad toys. A clip from the official unboxing shows it may not be possible to get Poe in his X-Wing (I haven't played with it yet), and that's worthy of pointing out - figure/vehicle compatibility is probably my biggest problem with many modern "toys." If you sell a figure with a vehicle, it needs to work - and the new Speeder Bike is really rough, too.

What I've opened is mostly good - obviously we're taking a big step back, and I don't think Hasbro is being consistent about figure design. Some can sit, some can't - many can't fit in vehicles either. The 6-inch figures being display pieces helps, because it reduces expectations. It does what it's expected to do - look cool and stand around. When you have to consider kids might play with the figures, it changes expectations and the need for more functional hip joints... which the Black Stormtrooper does not have.

As I pen the FOTD reviews, I realize it's all pretty dumb. I don't know if the figures are authentic or not - all I can do is say "this is a neat design" or "this figure can't sit." What else is there? Most of them haven't been revealed yet, and without photography or some idea of how the character carries itself we're sort of just stuck. I can only tell you if they're good toys, but as a collector it's pretty infuriating. The lifespan of a Hasbro action figure at retail is usually weeks or days - not months. It's possible by the time you learn that Zuvio is a time-displaced C-3PO in an organic body, the toys will be long gone from retail. It's a different era - it used to be that a move would inspire you to buy the toys. Now we're being asked to invest in the toys before getting a fair shot at seeing the movie - and with some assortments having 3-4 or potentially more waves this year alone, it's possible you will not even know you wanted a figure until it's too late. There's somehow both too much and not enough variety.

--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.