1. I was never much for GI Joe, but I always thought the O-ring and all the other joints was an important part of what made it a Joe. What do you make of the Super 7 Joe's, and their limited articulation? I'm astonished that this license happened.
--Mike

As it is one of their current house styles, it makes sense - right now, Super7 seems to be making most licenses as either Kenner-style 5-jointed figures from the 70s and 80s, or super-articulated Matty Collector-style figures from the 2010s. A few years ago, they were making everything like Keshi Gomu/M.U.S.C.L.E. figures too. For all I know Hasbro insisted on the style as part of the license, but if you look at the entire 3 3/4-inch Super7 action figure offering you may see it's just how they do things. Jem looks like a Kenner figure, Optimus Prime looks like a Kenner figure, and Rita Repulsa does as well. Clearly it's not a style for everybody - at least at work, the 7-inch Ultimates figures are significantly more popular and about triple the cost of a ReAction - but it's there for those who are interested.

Every style isn't for everybody. I know someone who's super in to a brand of high-end statues - which aren't for me, but I've got other options. Hasbro seems to be enjoying licensing out parts of its IP catalog that don't conflict with their current plans, and it seems Super7, Mezco, and the rest are running with it. Mezco has stunning 1:12 scale figures with cloth outfits for $80 or higher - the same size as Marvel Legends or G.I. Joe: Classified Series, but seemingly not too competitive. Similarly Super7 has its own scale of 7-inch Joes, and the 3 3/4-inch figures they offer don't seem to compete with the Walmart exclusive super-articulated reissues in stores now. (If you can find them, and you can't.)

I think Super7's style is great - but I only have a few of the 3 3/4-inch figures. There are some specific licenses where I'd dive-in whole hog, but I've typically bought their bigger scale in a few cases, or other brands, mostly due to some reason or another. With TMNT, the 7-inch guys are stunningly good. With Back to the Future I just went full-on with Playmobil since vehicles were important to me (and they made Mad Dog Tannen and "Clint Eastwood!") And while I love the Joe figures, I'm mostly happy with what I bought from previous revivals.

As time goes on, manufacturers seek out new angles to sell figures to new and existing fans - and that's great! It's a new collection, a fresh start, and something that may appeal to fans that skipped out previously. Children of the 1980s frequently threw out (or blew up) Star Wars' 5-jointed figures in favor of the 14ish-jointed G.I. Joe figures (the monsters!) so if you grew up in that era, the current format for ReAction makes little sense. For people who didn't live through the toy wars of the 80s, Kenner's style - somehow - took over as a retro standard. It's sort of like how Mego is a big deal for anyone born in the late 60s and early 70s and it signifies the era despite alternatives.

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2. By now you've heard Hasbro is getting an early shipment of some 600 Razor Crests. Do you know anything about this, and perhaps the distribution to backers?
--Chris

I wouldn't get your hopes up for 2021. Supposedly we're already seeing slowdowns - I had a couple packages from September only just getting here now, one of which is still hopefully en route - and I don't know what carriers or fulfillment companies Hasbro has contracted for this one. (Also my Playmobil Enterprise just got here and I need to rejuggle some things.)

I can't confirm this, but it is a story that has been posted elsewhere. This early stock could go to Lucasfilm VIPs or to Hasbro for quality assurance. It could take two (or more) months on the boat - there are some things sitting off the coast for a month or two as well, and other things that are unloaded in a sort of yard that are just sitting there waiting for trucks. Just because it's on the water doesn't mean anyone is necessarily going to touch them before December... or possibly later. You may have noticed that some stores are pushing out ETAs on items to better convey when the items will actually arrive.

I don't know if Hasbro plans to ship these out in any particular order, or to avoid death stares, they may just wait to ship them out until they're all here (unlikely) or after the holidays (possible). I don't know how they're handling fulfillment. It's possible the warehouses have other priorities than pre-sold items, although they are big items so there's a benefit to getting them out the door quickly. Super7 sent out Snake Mountains as they were ready, which is good, but then some fans complain theirs wasn't first. I saw similar complaints (and loud ones) about how Hasbro handled sending out Unicron earlier this year.

It wouldn't surprise me if Hasbro were doing whatever they can to get all their product into the country because everybody (and I do mean everybody) is fighting with carriers to get containers of their stuff here for the holidays. Last I heard Hasbro said they were going to ship them out in early 2022, and I assume that's still the plan just because of the realities of how long the boats take, how long the boats take to unload, how long the containers take to get on a truck, and goodness only knows what the warehouse handling distribution is doing. If they're also handling Christmas shopping orders, you can probably forget about anybody getting one in 2021, assuming that they do in fact arrive on US soil this calendar year.

With over 20,000 sold units, they may want to wait until more get here - just because fans would scream at them. Oh sure you say "well I'd be patient if it means I have a shot at getting mine!" but let me assure you there are going to be screaming fans demanding their vehicle for whatever reason they have. "But I ordered first!" "But I run a popular YouTube page!" This has happened with other HasLab items. We're not patient animals, even if we're told there's a unit reserved for us, made just for us. We can't wait. That's kind of good for business, but horrible for public relations if you can't get one for Christmas and your pal got one. I can wait, because I've got enough toys, one being pushed for a few months makes no nevermind to me.

3. Any sense if [Blue Leader Rebel Pilot] Antoc Merrick will be sold as a single carded figure. The wee quay pirate came with the Falcon and he was sold separately. Any chance Antoc will have a similar fate.
--David

There are no known plans yet, but there could be later - since Hasbro had the foresight to included a carded figure inside the X-Wing, it's unlikely they're even considering a carded release later. This is it - and you have to pay a lot of money to get it (kn the ship box), and hopefully people won't steal it out of the ship before I get mine.

If enough people ask Hasbro to reissue a figure with minimal changes, I assume they'll do it - but not until after the X-Wing has long sold through, and there would probably need to be a lot of vocal fans. And so far it's been pretty quiet.

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FIN

This constituted as an exciting week, with a new wave of retro Kenner-style figures - four of the six were Mandalorian. That's amazing. It's super cool in a "I'd have killed to have these in 1991" kind of way, but the balance - 1:1 women:men - is something of a milestone. We've never had a balance that good in an action figure wave, let alone one where (unlike the 1980s and 1990s) the one token woman figure you got in some figure lines was shortpacked to avoid becoming a pegwarmer. Today, all of these figures are potentially superb and future hard-to-find releases just because demand exists for more of this kind of thing - ain't it great?

While I'm not super happy that the trend to few to no aliens or droids continues - the old Kenner line was about 40% aliens/droids by volume - at least we got Ahsoka to tick the "alien" box. That's fun. It's also always interesting to see how the Kenner "house style" translates with new figure designs. Hasbro seems intent on making the detail much softer and rounder than the original Kenner figures (which had simple designs but very sharp tooling), and it looks like most of the new figures will have two functional hands. Boba Fett is particularly interesting in that his helmet is done differently - not in the same way as the old one - and he's also got the blaster that the 1979 Boba Fett probably wanted. (He had, if you'll recall, a Stormtrooper's blaster.)

Nobody has removable helmets - I'm not sure how true that would be to Kenner's 1980s ethos, given that at least four figures had removable hats or helmets and nobody before 1983 - so that leaves the door open for a future unmasked head variant on Boba Fett, Bo-Katan, or Mando. Bo-Katan's chest armor also looks aggressively bland as an unpainted piece, but since she does share most of her armor with Koska Reeves (but not the belt) there could be potential for an easy repaint there.

As a young old fan, the Kenner guys were my favorite thing in toys and something I enjoyed buying while the old ones were undesirable and largely worthless. Having "Boba Fett of the future" and more Mandalorians and a new flavor of Stormtrooper is incredibly exciting to me, and I hope those of you who appreciate such things are as excited as I am. (Also, be sure to order wave 1 while it's still affordable. And don't forget the dirty Monopoly Stormtrooper.) I assume this line won't be around long, and for my generation (give or take) it must be a lot like those lost Beatles demos that got reissued 20 years ago, or the Plant/Page CD. (Or the new NES and Game Boy games coming out right now.) Seeing as how toys evolved - specifically, away from being toys for kids anymore - it's really wonderful to have something that is, unquestionably, designed to mimic actual toys meant for actual kids. I like super-articulated action figures too, but I assume these little waves are probably not going to last for too much longer. Maybe we'll get some pilots for the Rogue Squadron movie, but probably not. Maybe we'll finally get a Kenner Wedge Antilles some day! We got Tarkin, so I can dream.

More than a few of you have asked "Where's the Return of the Jedi wave?" and to you, I have no answer. I hope one is coming, I've heard nothing. I also hope it's Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight), R2-D2 (Pop-Up Lightsaber), Han Solo (Carbonite), Biker Scout, Admiral Ackbar, and Skiff Guard Lando. For starters. I'd keep it going too if they let me. Heck, repack Darth Vader while you're at it, he'll sell.

--Adam Pawlus

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