1. Adam, one of the things that I thought was cool about the Baroness pilot figure from the Rattler Haslab was that she had a total of 3 distinct hair sculpts.

Aspiras a way of making replaces more interesting, what do you think about Star Wars doing alternate hair sculpts? Even if they weren’t movie accurate, I think that it might be cool to have the choice to give young Lando a bit of a bigger ‘fro, Luke a ponytail to show his transition into a Zen like Jedi master, old Han with a flattop, and so on.
-- Derek

Unless it's reflected in the movie or TV show, I doubt Hasbro will do anything to add to the cost of its Star Wars product.

My hunch is that licensing and a challenge in making the most of reused parts keeps Star Wars expensive, while G.I. Joe has wiggle room in its budget given Hasbro only need pay Hasbro, and not a protection racket from Lucasfilm and Disney. I don't doubt there may be a day in the future where it makes sense to give a character alternate pop-off wigs in Star Wars, but most figures would come with a different outfit or even a different face. Stormtrooper Luke's wet hair tended to come with an appropriately distressed facial expression, and it's rare that Padme or Leia would not change their outfit along with their hair.

There might come a day where it makes sense to do it, but I'm going out on a limb and assuming that Lando streaming series or movie - whatever it is - won't actually come out, nor will the Rian Johnson movie, nor will the Droids Disney+ movie, and I've got real doubts about a second season of Ahsoka too. This sort of mechanism may make more sense for some removable helmet figures some day, as the helmet could slot in where the wig would go for a less-snug but no-less-secure fit. But right now people seem to prefer alternate heads instead, which is nice too.

The place where it might make the most sense would be with variant Clone Trooper figures, although that era is starting to feel increasingly in the rear view mirror.

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2. I see 2 other new [Epic Hero Series action figure carded] sets available on ebay. Stormy/vader and deluxe darth maul with armor. Are these retaiiler exclusives? I cant see them available anywhere?
--Chad

Hasbro has been mum on its plans for Epic Hero Series to the general public, and it's hard to say why. The quality of figures is good, and the prices are generally good - $8-$10 for a basic figure is very much in line with inflation, and $13 for a deluxe, while not great, I assume is going to happen until they can't get a return on the investment.

This season, we've so far seen four Epic Hero Series exclusives, and they are (links may be paid affiliate links wherein I might get a cut to pay for upcoming increasingly expensive domain renewals, so click often and buy anything at all, it puts a few bucks in our coffers):

Target: Darth Vader & Stormtrooper. The figures are the same as basic carded figures, but the Mouse Droid and Interrogation Droid are presently exclusive to this set. $19.99 in the USA. If you didn't get the single-carded figures yet, just buy this set - then you can skip the singles.

Amazon: Unite the Clans Mandalorian Pack. This is the best deal of the season - Paz Vizsla is a repack without his backpack or rocket launcher, but the generic Mandalorian Warrior is a nice repaint of Bo-Katan with Sabine's dagger and a new blaster. Axe Woves appears to be a new sculpt. Any way you slice it, 3 figures for $20 is cheap.

Walmart: Bo-Katan Kryze & Moff Gideon is a "just different enough to make you mad" set at $19.87. It costs $4 more than the individual figure releases, and has two exclusive accessories - Bo-Katan trades her blaster for a new jet pack, and Moff Gideon loses his staff and gains a flamethrower and his own jet pack. Since this set and the singles have unique accessories, you may want both.

Walamrt: Darth Maul is, I would say, a mistake or a poor joke at $19.87. I believe Walmart or Hasbro may have priced it in error - it's one $8 figure with two bonus accessories at a $12 mark-up, and the accessories are not worth a 1.5 figure upcharge. Having said that, there's a retooled skirt that was poorly repainted and the new deco is meant to evoke his cyborg crime lord look - so it's interesting, but given how poorly the belt bit were painted, you'll probably be rewarded waiting for a sale or a clearance deal after Christmas. The figure is unique, so if money is not a concern or you like weird stuff I'd recommend running out to get it. It's a nice figure - the price is not nice.  It is silly, and I do like silly.

If Sam's Club or Costco are getting exclusives in this line, I am unaware of them. It's a good, small collection of toys and there are whispers of some sensible and daffy ideas on the horizon, so people who love all aspects of the 1970s and especially 1980s Kenner line may want to start picking these up as budgets or sales allow.

You can check out my reviews of these guys too. If you grew up on Kenner product, I think you'll find them tugging at your heart, despite being .25 inches too tall.

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FIN

What a week! As this goes up I am most likely in a hotel in a major Pacific city before bed, in town to spy on dignitaries go to another toy meeting. I was at another one a few days ago, and on the flight home I watched a few episodes of The Mandalorian Season 3 - which I had not got around to rewatching. It's been a tough year for loving Star Wars, mostly because some of the new shows felt less likely to be beloved classic and the bulk of the 3 3/4-inch product (but not all of it) seems... sideways. I love Retro but Episode I, The Acolyte, and also Episodes II and III don't make sense for the format - and The Vintage Collection has slowly turned into a line where precious few figures seem vital and new, yet all of them are $17. Maybe things will be better in the rear view mirror, I quite liked the odd betrayal of "The Convert" with people mostly just floating around parts of Coruscant. It could be the lack of surprises or expectations, but after The Acolyte it was pretty nice to see an episode that moves along two stories rather than meandering around just one. If you poo-pooed Mando 3, maybe give it another look. On a rewatch, it was fun to see the dino turtle gator, a crappy office job, and unintentional SCUBA diving among bickering Skittle-colored helmet people. Taking a step back from it all, it's still really weird and I'm here for it. There's very little fun or quirky about the Jedi, but I got to see a green alien puppet play paintball with some tween. That's not a bad time.

PulseCon! We got a new playset, that's pretty good, and a new helmet, that's also pretty good. We got no vehicles, a few 6-inch figures, and a few 3 3/4-inch figures. I would say it's fine, but not necessarily exciting - literally no figures are new-to-toys. The Clone we got as an exclusive in 2008, we've had a lot of Lukes, pre-orders are up for Indara and Dedra Meero, and Anakin... you've got a few Anakins Skywalker. For the big 6-inch guys, we've got Bacara, Xizor, and the Droid Commando from previous (smaller) lines - this trio new to the scale, but it's not new for any lifers or hardcore fans. New tooling is nice to see, but it can be difficult to muster big enthusiasm for figures that we've already pre-ordered (or own) in other scales or formats. This is one of the problems when you've got multiple scales all competing for the same lower/mid-tier figure collector.

Arguably the most interesting Star Wars item for this go-round is a Star Wars The Vintage Collection Streets of Mos Eisley Playset with Jawa, which looks to be a dream come true for toy photographers. A new Jawa, some boxes, a weird AI doorbell, and it is - for all intents and purposes - a plastic version of the old Sears Cantina Adventure Set, more or less. That makes it interesting to me, and the choice to include a dumpy, possibly drunk Jawa on what may be the best cardback I've ever seen. It is inspired. I may buy a second set to keep one carded.

Looking at the other lines, there's a lot to like - Marvel Legends Secret Wars scratches a retro itch for older fans and people who want new versions of the main guys, so that should do extraordinarily well. Transformers is sort of like an old "repaint wave" combined with a "saga legends" wave - they went with reissues of hard-to-find figures, which is welcome, alongside some repaints fans have been wanting. And that's good. I'd much rather see Hasbro bring back old toys into circulation with few (or preferably, no) changes than spend resources tweaking them that could cost us actual new toys or at the very least, interesting repaints. It's a decent and eclectic mix of the mainstream and the weird.

I think a lot of fans will like this new Star Wars The Vintage Collection Luke Skywalker 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure, but I'm not sure how that head is going to look when it hits mailboxes. It's kind of amazing that dozens of figures later, the head remains a sculpting challenge. The sculpt looks good for the costume, and it's been over a decade since we got Farm Luke as a new-ish carded single 3 3/4-inch figure. I assume it will sell well, and I wish they toss in a training remote next time.

There are a lot of things to enjoy, but it's increasingly rare to have anything that knocks my socks off after several decades following this stuff. (Also, I have had my socks knocked off by something I can't talk about, you'll know it when you see it.) More announcements are expected in the coming weeks, why they're spreading them out I don't know, but they are, so stay tuned. But next year, you're going to want to sock away some cash for next year. Skip the soda with lunch, start putting money in a toy jar. I had a really good vague thing to say but it might be too good a clue, so just set aside some money already.

--Adam Pawlus

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