1. [Paul sent a graphic with this text] So I saw in a forum that there is a guy "in the toy industry" who is saying there are rumors hasbro is looking to let go of the star wars license. Honestly considering how little effort they seem to... [and followed it with] Your thoughts?
-- Paul

Collectors have always - always - complained about Star Wars since Kenner brought it back. And other companies have wanted a shot at making toys for it. We're seeing some genuinely ambitious products coming, and it's easy to lose sight of that when the day-to-day line is harder to access and doesn't feel too different from what long-term fans already own. But The Ghost is supposedly coming to my mailbox really soon, and that's not something I'd expect from anybody but Hasbro. Also someone else is looking to make another stab at Star Trek and I don't know if a new company is going to be a good thing for any long-term collector brand. Playmates didn't get to wave 2, and that's unusual for them.

I've also heard rumors that say Hasbro will never, ever give up the license willingly because they don't want to give up nearly five decades of assets to a competitor. Obviously Hasbro owns the Kenner branding, but anybody could make something with that style of graphic design on a box. If Super7 or Playmates did a Retro line, would fans care about the lack of Kenner logos? Probably not. But Hasbro can pump out figures, and probably keep pulling in the dollars, with less emphasis on new tooling until fans stop buying or until the Mouse says "we're going to split this up." When we got one wave per movie per year, it felt like something was moving forward - maybe you'd get a pilot, or a cantina alien, but you'd never go more than a year or four without something mew from your favorite film. "New" is defined as "different from what I can buy on eBay."

I have a hard time agreeing with the "no effort" statement because there's just as much good stuff as dull stuff. The catch that nobody seems to call out? The best stuff is online only. Hasbro is putting a lot of effort in its $100 helmets, $275 lightsabers, and HasLabs - the Cantina, the Ghost, these things look good. We're getting an E-Wing from Hasbro Pulse, the Vintage and Epic Hero N-1 Starfighters are both very good for what they are, and the best new figures remain hard to find. (There are not many best new figures.) Oddly, The Black Series has been a line that seems to be cheaper if you wait, but that's not good for anybody's bottom line. Pegwarmers hurt collecting.

It's also easy to forget Hasbro does more than action figures. There are Star Wars Play-Doh sets, preschool toys, occasional animatronics, cutesy collectible figures, board games, roleplay lightsabers, high-end helmets, higher-end lightsabers, and some of those things are the best in the business. All of these items split their attention and focus, and all that a certain kind of collector wants are figures and figure-related stuff. Fans also want some helmets and lightsabers, but figure collectors don't care. Hasbro is very happy to have a popular $100-$275 item to sell that sells well year in and year out, but probably not as happy as LEGO to sell you the same bricks in new configurations.

I can't imagine Hasbro would cede ground to the competition with new shows and a new movie coming in the next two years, but it's possible it could be reassigned. At the end of the 1990s Hasbro (Kenner) saw the DC/Batman license go to Mattel, who have subsequently let it go to McFarlane, Spin Master, and others. After Jurassic World Hasbro also let that license go after a couple of decades, giving Mattel a massive boost to its global mass market figure business that it hadn't had in a while. I can only say "I'll believe a licensee change when I see it," if only because we've had variations on this conversation maybe a dozen times since I started writing about toys.

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2.You mentioned that you have a selfie series figure in a Q&A and that got me thinking....

I've been following you weekly for almost THIRTY YEARS now. I've had "contact" with you more often and for longer than I have with my own family members!

Yet...I have NO idea what you look like!

How in the world have you managed to stay off the grid like that considering you've been an online force sine the early 90s?? It's impressive!! Especially considering you make public appearances at cons and stuff. Do people have to lock away their phones to see you, like at a concert? Or do you wear a disguise?

I don't know why you've hidden from view all these years, but I know it's damn impressive that you've managed to pull it off!
--Angelo

We're out of questions, so I went ahead and used this kinda off-topic one, as is the way here. So send in those questions for next time!

I am the least interesting part of this site. If I post a picture, I assume you'd rather see a toy than me - I sure would. Similarly, I don't think people want to see the bloggers and photographers and podcasters, they're here to see the stuff. (This is one of the reasons I am loath to watch or post on YouTube. Show me the toys, not you or your avatar.) Similarly, most of my friends also don't post a ton of photos of themselves - we know how we look. And in this era of increased AI and monitoring, for all I know there are plenty of pictures of me on a server out there somewhere.

I have been spotted a few times over the years, though. I did make some Galactic Hunter/16bit.com pins to hand out to people if they find me at a con. But then COVID happened, and now I got a bunch of pins they'll find with the collection when I die. So if you do see me, odds are I'll have a name tag on - sometimes even my own name - and you should ask for a pin as proof that you found Bigfoot.

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FIN

It's always interesting to see what comes up in conversation - I got more than one question about the Hasbro Star Wars figure license in the past week and here have been a lot of conversations about Hasbro's path forward in general, no doubt due to conversations about the rumored move to Boston after 100 years and a general shift in the market that seems to have no interest in going after new kid customers. Star Wars is kind of a mess, licensing-wise, with Jazwares delivering great vehicles, LEGO seemingly having the best vehicle/playset/figure brand, and Mattel having, sort of, kind of, Imaginext for the tiny tots. I wouldn't mind seeing Mattel get plastic figures and real vehicles for Imaginext, if only because what they have now - while good - certainly seems handcuffed by a licensing clause. The quality of much of what Hasbro is doing right now is excellent, it's just that it's like a massive appetizer platter. You're not getting filled up on anything other than, maybe, prop replica items and Grogu.

I could be wrong but the Kenner/Hasbro and Lucasfilm relationship is probably the longest running working partnership in the world of action brands. Unless you're a company that developed and owns the brand outright, we've seen Marvel and Batman and Star Trek all bounce around. I feel like a shift away from the house Kenner built could be off-putting to some fans, but also, a new company could come in tomorrow and kiss up to all of us immediately by throwing us a bone like Sim Aloo (Imperial Dignitary) or Vlix or even just some sort of program that aims to recreate the entire Kenner-era vintage line like Mattel has been doing over the last 4 years for Masters of the Universe. There are opportunities, depending on your corporate overhead. Odds are nobody else would do $500 ships and playsets, Hasbro's uniquely large number of mouths to feed and a desire to feed the beast allows them to experiment on the high end in ways you'll probably never see from Playmates. Note, I said "probably," because I'm still waiting to see what they're going to do now that they're taking over Power Rangers. We're seeing collector companies like Super7 dabble more on the lower end of things with puzzles and Deluxe figures, which are $35 "lite" versions of their very impressive $55 Ultimates! figures. Heck, Macy's will even be getting one as an exclusive.

Having no facts whatsoever, I assume Hasbro's price drop on Epic Hero Series from $10 to $8 may have been to satisfy a contractual need - they don't make a lot of product under $10, leaving room for another company to say "Hey Disney, let us have that space." I assume those $80 8-inch figures a few years ago exist for the same reason, but again, that's just an assumption as it didn't seem to fill on obvious market need but absolutely fit in with how some other companies' licenses were written. You'd have to ask someone with more information than I do, I just speculate here.

As of right now I'm looking forward to years of more Star Wars toys out of Hasbro, but I also can't imagine Hasbro really moving to Boston after a century. But things can change, just not me, I'm stubborn.

--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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