1. With the Acolyte's fate as a tv show to be a one season wonder, what about the figures?

When Willow was unceremoniously cancelled its 3.75 figure line was cancelled.

Will the Acolyte's figure share the same fate as the show? I'd love to have the vintage and retro figures previously announced.
--David

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember Hasbro ever putting up something for pre-order and then failing to produce it. There were two The Black Series HasLabs, and the Vader Funeral Pyre was a "we're thinking about this" reveal. At least one comic pack (Luke & Han, ESB) was hidden under a sticker on another comic pack, but Hasbro never offered it for sale. And I guess those Trophy OOM-9 and Obi-Wan from Episode I, but most other stuff wasn't meant to be consumer-facing and I'm struggling to name much from the 21st century that got canned after we actually saw it. I'm fairly sure (maybe a packaging variant aside) nothing ever went up for order on a major toy store web site and completely failed to materialize anywhere. This is a long way for me to get to "no Hasbro isn't canceling anything you've seen." I don't think Hasbro knows the fate of any unannounced product yet - they're probably looking into it as I write this.   All of this "we're killing the show" thing is new teritory, unless you're Willow fans.

It's possible - and likely - we won't see many more additional figures for The Acolyte. Hasbro not giving us the main cast is increasingly the norm, see also The Bad Batch and Resistance. We don't have the main bad guy from The Rise of Skywalker yet either. Unless I'm forgetting something, we've never gotten an action figure of Rey with her yellow lightsaber. Or a 3 3/4-inch Leia in her Resistance vest. Or... well, we can keep going, there are a lot of figures left unmade that we will probably never see. I'd love to see all the patrons from Maz Kanata's castle, but at this point, I've given up. Hasbro or Disney need a complete change of perspective for this line to get interesting guys out again, instead they're following Marvel's lead by doing the main characters only - usually - eventually. I miss Hasbro more or less doing whatever they thought would look cool.

Fan demand is what got us stuff, and we're a lot quieter lately. Grand Moff Tarkin took almost 20 years to see production, and Vlix is now on year 39 without a licensed toy in America (but who's counting.) If you guys really want the Stranger, or other characters, start a fan petition or a write-in campaign. 20,000 names saying "we want to buy this guy" gets attention, and companies want to go where the money is. The sales of the Stranger's helmet have been really good for New Disney stuff, I hope Hasbro produces enough to cover current (and future) demand for that 2025 release... and hopefully puts out a figure, too.

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2. I received and opened my Vibrage Collection X-Wing Pilots set from Hasbro Pulse yesterday, and a thought hit me about the head sculpts. Lately, these troop builder packs that they've been doing some very distinctive human head sculpts for non-clone troopers, and I was wondering, are these sculpts random, are they people the sculptor know or Hasbro execs, or are they the likenesses of the people who submitted their likeness to be made into a Hasbro figure a couple of years ago?

I wanted to do this, but my wife (a lawyer) stopped me and said that I don't want Hasbro to own my face. Is this why? Can they use people's faces like this? Thanks for taking the time to read! I love your column!
--Matt

Someone out there may know more than I do - I heard some fans saying some of the Star Wars The Vintage Collection X-Wing Pilot 3 3/4-Inch Action Figures 4-Pack (sold out) were something they recognized from the Disney+ series Ahsoka - but having watched the show twice before the figures came out, I sure as heck didn't recognize them.

Some quick Wookieepedia searches didn't pull up any for the blue Duro alien or the green Mirialan. So I am assuming those are either unnamed, or I just plain didn't clock them.

Hasbro described the humans as "generic human characters," and I'm inclined to trust them. The helmets don't quite match the Ahsoka show characters I saw on Wookieepedia, and the Hasbro designers sure make it sound like these are just generic pilots to fill out your set. And fill out the Disney/Fan Channel rosters for exclusives.

To my knowledge Hasbro isn't doing anything with its Selfie Series program, be it the faces or the files or anything. I had the chance to get a free one in a press event, and I did, and it's a fine idea but I don't know that it actually looks like me too closely, but I am using it on a LinkedIn profile because that's about how seriously I take work.

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FIN

It's almost time for the next main event - Hasbro's PulseCon is this week, and you'll see a lot more pre-orders go up Friday. And a new 6-inch scale STAP with Battle Droid in a box that doesn't mimic either of the 1998 or 1999 boxes precisely. Ah well. Should be fun, I have other toy adventures on deck but I am not permitted to write about those.

Since their release late in 2023 I was expecting to see Kenner-style The Retro Collection figures from The Book of Boba Fett in stores. I've seen them online, and I've seen them at places that I know buy from fan distributors (like EE Distribution), but weirdly Walmart seemingly never stocked them since Retro went non-exclusive and Target completely skipped The Book of Boba Fett, making me wonder if we'd ever see them in a major regional or national chain. And guess what? I finally saw the Tusken Warrior last weekend, in a store, for the very first time!

...at Ross. I've since also seen Cad Bane.

Given the fact that there have been zero "FOMO" Prototype edition Target exclusive The Retro Collection figures, I assume those are done. Amazon hasn't gotten any more figure two-packs. Nobody has put up any singles for pre-order - this year we've seen such choices as Episode I (nice figures), The Acolyte (curious choices all around), and a set spanning both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, which I assume exists only to invite chaos because nobody can satisfy fans by making six figures from two movies that Kenner-aged fans generally don't like. It seems to me that fans are generally quite receptive to The Retro Collection figures when they make it in stores and are from the classic trilogy (or near it.) Prototype figures are a tougher sell - even I'm not buying every variant - but I never saw the Star Wars or The Empire Strikes Back six on shelves, and only saw a couple of the Return of the Jedi guys at GameStop and Target. (And of course, online, as that wave wasn't exclusive.) But the only place I ever saw The Emperor on a peg?

...at Ross. Why the stores weren't keener on carrying actual Kenner figures for the anniversary last year, I don't know, it's the kind of thing I assume people would happily snap up if they saw them where they shopped.

I do admit I'm more than a little concerned for this format - I love it, but I can't argue that New Media characters don't seem to be mega-hit figures. It makes sense - if I were old enough to have seen the original Star Wars in theaters in 1977, I probably wouldn't be terribly interested in any of the Disney-era stories because a lot of those kids were already partially grown out of it by Return of the Jedi. I was late to the game, so I was all about the Ewok movies and cartoon, and yes, Droids. I really wanted to see more of the post-Return of the Jedi galaxy so I see things like the Ahsoka and The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett figures as truly exciting - but not as exciting as Grand Moff Tarkin, along with Mon Mothma who I believe is the only never-before-made characters in Retro from those first three films. I hope the format has enough steam to get a few more old-school figures out, maybe for the 50th anniversary of the movie, because I assume they would be easier to sell - but also, if those movies are 50, those fans are probably 54-70 and I assume a heck of a lot less interested in buying just one or two figures, or a wave, or anything that's not part of an ongoing lifelong collection. And that's assuming they are still interested or capable of participating in this kind of hobby.

But having said that, since the Kenner revival of 2019, we've had about 78 reissues and new guys - with 12 more figures up as pre-orders. Plus prototypes, plus that Boba Fett reissue. It's a really good showing, and even if the line dies and you can score some at Ross, well, you should. For $3.99 these are the best things you can get. I can't speak for all collectors, but getting roughly 90 Kenner figures (admittedly the two Grogu figures and two of the Mando figures are dang near identical and yes I'm counting new molds of old figures as new) is a pretty satisfying run. The only figure I rolled my eyes at was Boba Fett getting a second (and arguably, much-needed) run for an Amazon exclusive since the Walmart one was hard to find... and I don't complain that much about refreshing Grogu and Mando since they are, arguably, selling or would if more stores had them.

As I write this I have no idea what (if anything) the future holds for the line after the last prequel set and Acolyte set drop - hopefully more. Hopefully something for the 50th anniversary of the movie, or the 40th anniversary of Ewoks/Droids, and hopefully not the 10th anniversary of The Force Awakens. (Nothing against the movie... it's just that the kid line is good, I'm good, we're all good here, thank you.)

--Adam Pawlus

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