1. I think I'm not in alignment with most modern TVC fans, but I like the thicker frame of my Evolutions Vader to this day. Does the Dark Times Vader figure from last year stand shorter and slimmer by comparison?
--Derek

To each their own! I never really despised the beefier figures we got in the 1990s as much as some fans, and I grew up with the ultra-scrawny Kenner Darth Vader design from 1978. Evolutions Vader is excellent, but it seems Hasbro wants to demonstrate value with more parts, more articulation, and higher prices. It seems to be working for some figures, but the problem is we have had about 20 years of "this is the best Vader ever," with the likes of 500th Darth Vader, Evolutions Vader, the one in the tin set (later in the 30th Anniversary line), and so on and so forth. Each one has refinements and changes, different deco and proportions, and in the end it's not like any of us are sitting going "we need a new Vader figure!" We're all generally happy with what we have, but Vader sells to the newbies, the moms and dads, and people needing a gift for somebody. So you get refinements, even if the thicker one you have is still excellent.

I don't have all my Vader figures handy, as the display I keep trying to set up gets diverted and at this point, I think it's never going to happen. The line is just too big - but I found the Dark Times Darth Vader to be excellent with incredible detail and in general, a design that seems tough to top. I'd be more likely to play with the older ones, because things like a codpiece molded to the body just plain works better as a toy. But this one has a lightsaber hilt that you can hang on a belt, fist hands, the added helmet deco, and is generally as good as it gets at this size. But I wouldn't say "go run out and buy another Vader" if you have one and you're happy with it - they'll find new refinements later, and find new improvements, so there's no "best ever." There's only "the best for now."

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2. The vintage-style figures are pretty cool to see. I'm wondering if there may be a point in the future where they do some figures in the style of Power of The Force 2, with the weird 90s proportions and the big accessories. Any chance that Hasbro may feel a bit nostalgic for that era in the future?
--Connor

The joke-but-not-really answer? Go pick up the yellow carded Epic Hero Series figures, in stores now. This is as good as it might get - the packaging, prices, and proportions are about as close we have seen in years. These are what I think fans would have accepted with open arms in 1995.

There haven't been a heck of a lot of 90s nostalgia toys for a lot of things - deco, sure. Hasbro has done much for Transformers Generation 2 fans in terms of bringing those garish colors back, but the 5ish-inch Kenner figures have received minimal (but not zero) love. (Kudos to NECA for your Aliens and Predator figures.) I remain more than a little surprised we haven't seen more manufacturers play in the space of 3 3/4-inch to 5-inch figures with 5-6 joints, big accessories, and low tooling costs. But also, I kind of get it - not many of those lines got particularly large, and 1990s kids seem a lot more well-adjusted as a lot of those long-running toy lines are still running long. I think the longest we went without new Star Wars since the 1995 relaunch was maybe five or six months in 2000.

While I don't anticipate we will ever see Hasbro make a 3 3/4-inch buff figure on a lightsaber burst gradient cardback with a broadsaber, we have seen a little love thrown that way with The Black Series packaging a few years ago for exclusives. I would also point you to this year's fairly excellent Epic Hero Series, as the Stormtrooper is really, really close to a better version of what we got in 1995 - big chest, bigger blaster. Someone there loves the 1990s.

I would love to see more 1990s-style figures (and prices), but who, and from when is a big question as the style changed from 1995 to 1998. The Epic Hero Series The Mandalorian isn't all that far off from the December 1995 Boba Fett figure's proportions, but it would be fun to see one with the rail for the jet pack or perhaps a more hunched-over pose. 2025 is the 30th anniversary of The Power of the Force relaunch, and I honestly think they would have made Kenner-style 1995 figures by now if it was going to happen. It was a line of figures made for the VHS generation and the nostalgia market, and I don't know if a lot of people are feeling nostalgic for the era of nostalgia. But there were some fantastic toys with Kenner and Galoob, and some other stuff from other manufacturers like Applause, JusToys, and In Character that were sadly largely forgotten.

It would be amazing to see Hasbro do Star Wars figures in the style of multiple eras and other toy lines. I'd love an o-ring figure, a 5.5-inch barbarian figure, a 1990s Toy Biz figure, something TMNT-esque... it would be fun. It'll never happen, but I'd shell out some money for it.

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FIN

Last year we lost Tuesday Morning, and the colon of the retail business is trimmed a few inches with the loss of 99 Cents Only stores. All of them are going out of business - and it's a weird chain. I remember one near my post-college apartment that had Spice Girls figures long past the expiration date, and just last Friday I visited one that still had a Qi'ra figure from Solo hanging around. Maybe that's why they're going to close all their locations - the stores always had weird stuff in there, and it was somewhere I could count on finding Sidral Mundet, an apple-flavored soda that's pretty dang great and sounds like an obscure Star Wars name.

I know a lot of us have shifted online - heck, I sell toys online for a living, thank you for your business - but I also still go to stores nearly every day. It's a habit, it's interesting, it's research. The American retail landscape has shifted significantly, back when I got out of college I had some toy runs around the greater Phoenix (and Glendale, and Scottsdale, and Tempe and Mesa) area that lasted three days and had somewhere around 150 stops. There were so many malls, toy stores, educational toy stores, baby stores, video game stores, big box stores, department stores, and other places that had action figures that there really was no end to it. And now? Not. Very few places stock Playmobil anymore, no national brick and mortar toy store specialty chains are left standing, and somehow there isn't enough to keep deep discounters in business despite hundreds of millions of dollars in excess inventory across countless industries in the last few years. (See: Funko landfill.) I'm not saying people want 99 cent Pop!s, but I imagine it could have kept the lights on for somebody.

The radical investment in toy marketing (TV shows, comic books, PJs, coloring books, backpacks, etc.) in the 1980s really paid off. People my age are still clamoring for ThunderCats after four decades, but it would seem the entire business has been overfished. So many of us have collections that exceed any reasonable need, and the investment in marketing did not continue to kids of the 90s and beyond - they liked video games, though, and kid IP is still going to be valuable for movies and apparel for years. I just wish it was doing well enough to add a new place to go look for toys over lunch.

--Adam Pawlus

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