1. Do you know whether there will be any more waves in the 3 3/4" Solo line? With all the great droids and aliens from the movie it seems like a missed opportunity to only produce such a short-lived line (plus how could they not make a Woody Harrelson figure??), especially considering that Episode 9 won't be out until December 2019?
--Joel

While there are plans for more 3 3/4-inch figures this year, the thing to remember is that for 2 out of the previous 3 movies, not all of the figures actually made it out to American shelves. We were shown them, they were at trade shows, and at some point they got dropped. (And later picked up, you are welcome.) At this time we don't know which figures, if any, will or will not make the cut - in part because Hasbro has yet to announce anything officially beyond what you've already seen. There will be 3 3/4-inch figures before the next movie launch, beyond that of which you have previewed, but I'm not at liberty to say what.

 

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2. We all know that you are a huge fan of droids, and the Solo movie really brought droids to the forefront. Which of the new droids would you like to see made into a 3 3/4 action figure? They are all pictured nicely in the book Solo: A Star Wars Story The Official Guide. What are your top 3?
--Steve

Let me shock you by saying the last thing I want at this point is more droids from the new movies. I'm really interested in aliens, Qi'ra's other costumes, troopers, smugglers, and even beings from Kessel. Disney gave us 4 new Astromechs and 2 dubiously scaled wind-up droids, which actually makes a pretty big chunk of Solo's toy character selection along with Qi'ra, Chewbacca, Mimban Stormtrooper, Lando, Han, and a couple of others. I'm very happy Disney provided at least 3-4 new droids (if not more) for each and every new movie with their gift sets. That's really superb. I'd now like to see that expand to literally anything else, especially if Hasbro is going to be devoting more slots in their product development world to remakes and rereleases. I'm fine with rereleasing figures with no changes, but tooling costs them money and likely costs us development of an actual, legitimately new action figure. Similarly I've got so many Astromech droids I haven't had time to open or review yet that I can't say I feel the need for new droids from any new movie until we get some new characters with meatier parts first.

Bring on aliens. Troopers. Variant costumes for main characters. If you want to toss me an astromech or two a year, that's fine - but with six new droids for the year and only one new alien so far, I'm ready for some variety.

3. I see there is a Black Series Zuckus, now that is suppose to be Toys R us Exclusive.. Sadly now the company is no more, do you know what will happen to that now.. ? Is it likely be given to target, or Walmart etc. instead.
--Michael

Thanks to the shifting world of toy retail, a lot of products will be given new homes. I am not at liberty to announce the partner(s) in question on a lot of these items but I will say that as far as I know, everything is still going to make it out somewhere in the USA. I expect the final official answer will be announced in about two weeks.

Numerous stores are ramping up on toys lately - Target is expanding a tiny bit. Party City will be opening Toy City pop-up stores. GameStop continues to add toys and just announced they're going to add comic books, like on those rotating stands we saw at Waldenbooks in the 1980s and 1990s. The world of retail is bustling right now thanks to opportunity and fear of being dominated by the digital realm, so we're going to see some things pop up in not entirely unexpected places that will make toy runs both interesting and irritating over the coming months.

Thankfully, at least a few of the items will be going to online stores. But I have no comments on Zuckuss specifically until Hasbro reveals that to the public - which I assume is in 1-2 weeks.

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FIN

The mailbag is empty! If you have questions, please send them in. If we missed your question, and it's not "Will Hasbro make X," please do send it our way. Otherwise I get to take a week off, and nobody wants that.

Comic-Con is days away, and fans usually ask "What can we expect?" In recent years, we sometimes get a preview of things that don't quite make it out as planned - as well as waves that could well be en route to stores before SDCC and on shelf before the official announcement. It happens. A lot of things haven't made the rounds so I'm not sure what all will show up, where, or when. I'm kind of amazed Forces of Destiny got a con exclusive with the retail line no longer showing up at big box stores - it's neat stuff, it has an audience, but the first wave is still pretty easy to get. This is one of those lines that will probably sneak up on the secondary market over time, with kids growing up and realizing that dolls came out that they never saw at the stores. It happens - look at The Clone Wars as time went on.

It's safe to probably expect a peek into 2019 for Vintage and Black Series, with some new exclusives and items Hasbro may have forgotten to bring to Toy Fair. For whatever reason, they've been less than regular on the announcements of the kid line, which is where all the best 3 3/4-inch alien toys are. I hope we see more there - but we'll know for sure very soon!

--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.