1. Why do you think nobody ever made 1:18 articulated figures for so many great movies that have gotten the 5 poa treatment:

Star Trek (classic movies)
Aliens
Predator
Big Trouble in Little China
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

Is it that nobody thinks there's a market, or the rights remain expensive decades later?
--Derek

I have good news - some of what you want is out there. Hiya Toys has had a number of 1:18 scale action figures made for the Asian market, and Diamond has brought most of them out to the USA. They have a lot of Alien and Predator releases - not everybody, but a lot, and variants galore like headshot aliens and game-based stuff too. Hiya also does Star Trek, but so far, only the Bad Robot movies.

I don't know that 3 3/4-inch action figures have a lot of life left in them outside Hasbro for Star Wars, Hiya Toys, Mezco Toyz' many excellent (small) lines, or Super7's ReAction Figure offerings. There are some great indie toymakers and up-and-comers doing some really neat stuff (can you believe Labyrinth and The Prisoner figures exist?) But right now, I would bet against any manufacturer taking steps to start a new collector 1:18 action figure line based on 1980s properties. Unless, of course, someone is reading this and has a mountain of cash to launch a new company called "Spiteful Toys."

One of the things I touched on last week is that we're getting older, and that's a big part of what is going on here. Signing a license typically isn't that expensive if a market for an item exists. If you're going to struggle to sell 3,000 of each and every figure from a license, any licensing fee is a risk.

I assume I will never see another company license Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in my lifetime as that movie rarely (never) comes up in my orbit - there may be fans out there planning something, but I haven't heard about it. A lot of people love Big Trouble in Little China but it remains a cult movie. Most recently, a BST AXN figure from The Loyal Subjects has been made, but obviously that's not an entire line nor is it 1:18 scale. Star Trek continues to struggle on the lower-end of the figure market, although EXO-6 making a bunch of seemingly very successful 1:6 scale figures. Given the showing of recent Playmates figures - which were priced well, distributed well, and didn't sell - I can't imagine anybody is looking at the movies as a viable property right now..

Think of it this way - when the studios gave away broadcast TV, you watched a lot of stuff. While a large audience had basic cable, it was never as large as the big broadcasts over the air. Streaming (minus Netflix) is even smaller than that, and Netflix has had few breakout hits that could warrant a big merchandising program. Star Trek classic movies certainly had a massive audience in the 1970s and 1980s through the 1991 "finale," but in 2024 you have to ask if it has a new audience. Playmates started a new line a couple of years ago, and the wave 2 stuff never made it to shelves. Star Trek has a massive fanbase, but it's not as big as it was in the 1990s when it multiple series were on broadcast TV seven days a week.

As to everything else: if it's 30 years old and doesn't already have toy momentum, I would not anticipate seeing them materialize now.

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2. Well, that was more of a shock than a surprise. Hasbro released a new (non-mold-reuse) vintage collection ship. And, it was an E-Wing of all wings. Being a fan of ships, I voted yes with my hard earned dollars. Do you think Hasbro is testing the waters for more of the less common ships? Tie Defender by Grand Admiral Thrawn. Or, a sinister (exaggeration) plot to keep the fan base guessing? As always, none-of-the above is still an option.
--Dan

I would exploit The Retro Collection like nobody's business. For example, I'd have every Star Wars HasLab include a secret figure not revealed until after it ends, like Boater and Pipo for Transformers Deathsaurus, which incentivizes flippers to pledge. You could throw in a Vlix, or Wedge, or Dagobah Luke - it would give people reason and incentive to buy. "But Adam, I hate Retro!" you say. That's OK - you just got a bonus figure you can sell on eBay for $30-$60 and recoup some of what you just spent on the lightsaber/ship/playset/creature. A lot of G.I. Joe fans seem to be making good money selling the figure they don't want from the Classified Series HISS vehicle, so I strongly feel bonus figures of some sort should be mandatory for every Hasbro crowdfund project. I don't love encouraging flipping/scalping/etc., but when it comes to made-to-order items that are paid in advance? Hasbro should do whatever it can to get those numbers up, and a low-cost bonus figure would be good news for all parties involved. Hasbro gets to charge more for the item. Consumers can make back a percentage of their purchase. Retro fans could get one more figure in the line - I don't see a downside here. If I miss it, that's OK - someone will sell the figure that came with the bigger item.

At retail, I would probably push Kenner remakes at retail with (at most) 1-2 new characters per wave. It seems like 1978-1985 remakes sell out quickly, as opposed to Disney+ characters, which do not sell out. With that in mind, focus on the big guns and keep the likes of Yoda, stormtroopers, Darth Vader, and the like rotating in assortments with era-appropriate cardback logo and photograph variants. Ideally, there would be at least one Original Trilogy movie wave per year - so maybe you do Star Wars in 2025, The Empire Strikes Back in 2026, Return of the Jedi in 2027, and loop around to Star Wars again for the 50th anniversary of the original Kenner line.

I think the 6-packs of retro figures are a good idea to keep doing, especially for things with narrower interests. I'd love to see a Droids box in 2025 focusing on R2-D2 and C-3PO in cartoon colors, while adding cartoony IG-88 and Boba Fett. And Vlix. Especially Vlix. I'd be thrilled to see more The Mandalorian waves or boxed sets with the Mythrol, the Client, removable helmet Mando, season one Greef Karga, and the many, many droids on the show. And more variant Remnant Troopers. And the Frog Couple. Or Gor Koresh, the Abyssin gangster. There are a ton of awesome character designs I'd pay to own from these shows, but honestly if it's not from the immediate Original Trilogy (or Mando) era, I will likely not want to push that out there.

Vehicles are required. A Speeder Bike with a Biker Scout would be nice, as would Mando's Speeder, a Blurrg, or a reissue of the Tauntaun with Luke Skywalker. (Maybe give him a cracked horn this time.) I would love to build a campaign around selling these to kids (or grandkids, as we're almost there) so parents could give their kids a Millennium Falcon. It might be $100 with inflation and a few minor updates, but why not do it? Mattel made it work for Masters of the Universe Origins Castle Grayskull, tweaking it a bit and actually giving a really good updated (but still retro) toy. I would love to see them keep the original Kenner sculpted proportions, perhaps drop the sound effects in favor of storage space, and replace the cardboard wall divider with something sculpted. I think you would have fans knocking down your doors for a Millennium Falcon exactly like they remember... with a few minor improvements. Make those six vents on top sculpted, and not stickers, for example. Fix the form fit function of the removable lid. I think it's a real opportunity to push your childhood on the younger generation, adults love doing that. (See also: Classic Rock, Atari VCS games.)

As to my first three waves of six movie figures?

From Star Wars I'd push for Garindan (new sculpt) and at least one Cantina Band Member to join R3-M3, Yavin Ceremony Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader (repack), and Wedge Antilles (which can be pre-used later for X-Wing Luke.) And a Millennium Falcon with Big Head variants Han Solo carded inside for $80-$100. And I wouldn't mind a Rebel Fleet Trooper or Sandtrooper.

For The Empire Strikes Back, I was actually always pretty happy with the original Kenner line - I wasn't left wanting a lot of unmade figures. Wiorkettle would by my long-shot new character, along with Bespin Escape Leia, an all-new Han Solo in Cabonite (fix the shirt on a correctly-colored slab with a less-dumpy figure, but still reissue the Power of the Force one later), Luke Skywalker Dagobah Training, Snowtrooper (reissue), Yoda (reissue), and Boba Fett - but this time, paint him like his 1979 12-inch counterpart. It'll sell. Trust me, it'll sell. Also throw in an X-Wing Fighter with Luke (1979 X-Wing Pilot) packed inside. I'd pay $50 for one in a heartbeat.

For Return of the Jedi, let's do an Ishi Tib finally. Shasa Tiel would be exciting and new! Joining her could be Bib Fortuna (with a red cloak this time), Lumat (reissue), Princess Leia Organa (Battle Poncho), 8D8, and Death Star II Luke Skywalker - which could just be the Battle Poncho figure, with a different head, and no poncho or belt. The design is already done, and excellent. I would love a returning Speeder Bike with Biker Scout and Paploo so Hasbro can have a higher-priced vehicle that fans may be excited to purchase. I think $35-$40 would be fair for that, but only with both figures.

While I can see playsets being a tough sell, I don't think the Retro ecosystem will ever flourish without - at the very least - some of the iconic vehicles. An action figure is not much of a toy, but figures drive vehicles, and if you gift a kid a vehicle he's going to ask for more action figures. It propels itself forward, and honestly, a lot of those vehicles could go with the other 3 3/4-inch figure lines pretty easily.

Thank you for prompting my rambling TED talk.

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FIN

Disney did the unthinkable and kind of, sort of, gave us what we want. Rey's story finished. We got a post-Return of the Jedi story allowing us to visit Luke again. We got Boba Fett show. We got more Rogue One-adjacent stories. We got post-Order 66 stories, with Rhea Perlman no less. This news of Disney to Release 2 New ‘Star Wars’ Movies in 2026 makes me say that I'll probably like these movies, but the probability of any movie pushing my buttons as an increasingly old fart seems unlikely. With one movie allegedly being Rey and the other being Mando, they're basically sequels to sequels, new installments on new installments, which is kind of fascinating. It's my hope that both branch out to new places, in part because I'm not sure what else Mando is going to do that's exciting (season 3 wasn't as focused on his interests), and I don't know what other story there is for Rey unless she winds up being Grogu's new pal.

What I want - or what I think I want - is for there to be a new chapter in Star Wars I (indeed, we) can all live in for a few years. The Force Awakens pulled the rug out from under us at the end, removing any chance of follow-up stories of Rey going out on adventures - she's with Luke, and now we have to sit and wait. When Star Wars ended, we got comics and novels. After Attack of the Clones, we got a couple of pretty good years with comics, novels, and video games to just enjoy and explore. Disney'a Star Wars is less interested in letting people really play around with the characters from its big movies and big TV shows, which I think hurts it. I don't know that I want Grogu comics, but it would have been nice to see a bunch of stories about Mando going and hunting bounties for a year (or two) before the two reunited in The Book of Boba Fett - just to give us some more time in there. I don't love bouncing around in the time line, either, so any one place they want to pick and just expand on would be great.

Since this announcement came on the heels of an earnings call with other Disney sequels - Moana 2, Toy Story 5, Zootopia 2 (or "Twotopia," or "Zootwopia," I hope) - I assume this is more about the stock price than anything else. The road to earnings has been paved with a frankly upsetting amount of non-starter Star Wars movies and I can't help but think a lot of this song and dance is more for Wall Street than for aisle 7C. It's not about us, is what I mean, and as long as the kids really like it I think that's good. Having said that, I don't think you can have a generation of kids imprint on and obsess over any one franchise (let alone one movie) given the infinite options they have at their fingertips. When I was a kid and we could rent a movie, that was kind of mind-blowing. Literally dozens of choices, and they were just a car ride away! Maybe you rented The Great Muppet Caper a dozen times, because that's what was there. Today, you can watch it once, have the entire The Muppet Show, a number of post-Henson shows, plus TV specials and additional movies. And if you know where to look, numerous other projects in less licensed spaces. And that's just one franchise - there's very little you can't watch if you hear about it on social media or a podcast if you want to put some time in.

I can't imagine a massive action figure revival from Hasbro until they really pare down their offerings to - at most - two scales of realistic figures. (In theory, one 3 3/4-inch line and one 6-inch line tops. I'd prefer they kill 6-inch entirely or limit it to movie poster characters only.) The competition is nutty, and decision paralysis is real. I really do think fans want to buy a line and collect them all, but when each scale has unique characters not in the other, it makes it hard to pick. And easy to skip. Or if you're under 30, you just buy LEGO and call it a day.

Speaking of things for the olds...

Back when I started writing about Star Wars online, the first film wasn't even 20 years old - but looking back was always as much of this space as looking forward. The old movies were why we were here. And speaking of looking back, I have to share Sheena's Jungle Room Guest DJ: Dr. Johnny Fever if you're old enough to remember WKRP. Someone edited together a massive three-hour radio show using clips from the show and full songs as described in the series. If you're an old-school fan of pop culture, this might be for you - the show ended in the early 1980s, so it would qualify as oldies. Also, there's a Captain Beefheart song on here, so I warmed up to it pretty much immediately. It's probably a pretty good example of how to pander to any kind of fan of media. You want something to make you feel young again, which The Mandalorian did with aplomb and the sequels didn't. So I guess I'm going to listen to the doctor while working on whatever it is we'll talk about next week.

--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.

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