1. Apologies for not having a Star Wars question, but I was wondering if you had heard whether Hasbro was planning on revisiting the Indiana Jones 3 3/4” toy line after the relative failure in 2008?
--Jeff

Very unlikely.

As of my writing this I am unaware of anyone looking to flex the Indiana Jones brand name for American toys - or really, any kind of figural product.

If you zoom out a bit, it's important to remember that 3 3/4-inch is kind of a dead thing. Marvel has more or less dropped it with a few exceptions, we didn't even get 3 3/4-inch for the hugely popular (and would-have-been-great) Guardians of the Galaxy movie. Hasbro isn't doing a heck of a lot with 3 3/4-inch G.I. Joe either. They dropped the kid's Star Wars line for the year... and possibly longer.

As far as Hasbro is concerned I would bet heavily against seeing Hasbro introduce new licenses to the 3 3/4-inch scale. (Again, a pity, because Ghostbusters.) It's possible someone like Lanard will see it and find a partner that wants an exclusive line, but given Indy's non-appeal to small children, his failure to click last time, and the fact a good chunk of his villains are literal Nazis and you can't sell Nazis in a toy store, I would not bank on ever seeing a fully fleshed-out line of Indiana Jones toys as 3 3/4-inch figures.

Having said that, I would bet that there's limited - very limited - potential in a small 6-inch line if someone had the guts to try it.

 

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2. We've never had a super-articulated/TVC [3 3/4-inch] Kylo Ren unmasked. Do you see that happening?
--Ryan

It's possible!

I am unsure if the sequel trilogy has a future as toys and collectibles go - it was pushed pretty hard, and a lot of figures failed to make a hit with fans. We had a lot of unmasked Kylo Ren toys, but what surprised me the most was that Hasbro didn't give us a 3 3/4-inch Kylo Ren in The Rise of Skywalker line, new helmet or not.

If there's a lot of love for the Disney era of movies, outside of new Imperial items I don't see it. I would guess Kylo Ren would be one of the most sensible figures to revisit in this scale, but as of right now I'm finding it increasingly unlikely that this era is going to get much more attention. Baby Yoda sucked all the air out of the room, it's all about The Mandalorian now and there are so few (and random) new figures that it's difficult to know how much love the Sequel Trilogy will get going forward. I would bank on "not much."

3. Shae Vizla, Maris Brood, Darth Talon, and the Mandalorian ladies Rav Bralor and Isabet Reau. For the men, there’s Rahm Kota, Endor Rebel Commando, and Rebel Fleet Trooper.

All [these 3 3/4-inch Hasbro figures] carry a ridiculous price on Ebay, so why doesn’t Hasbro do collectors a favor and bring down the aftermarket value by re-releasing these figures, as they did with Darth Malgus?
-- Derek

Fan demand can make a lot happen, and I wouldn't anticipate reissues of many of these figures in the current market. Unless I'm way off base, most fans aren't organized and lobbying for anything and when I hear Hasbro say "this is something fans have been asking for," I can't find any evidence of fans asking for it. It's generally a cool thing that can sell, but there certainly didn't seem to be a groundswell of support for it.

If you personally want these figures I'd recommend starting a campaign, and lowering your expectations. It'd be smart to reissue or remake some of those classic Mandalorian figures, but it may be incompatible with the current plans for these armored characters on TV and in the movies. Darth Malgus' last stint at retail was a while ago, and while Hasbro does show a lot of interest in doing reissues they're focused on main characters. And that seems to be across the board - we get precious few characters from any movie or TV show unless that character is popular enough to appear on the poster these days. You might be better off seeing if you have any toys to sell off so you can buy existing ones, rather than hoping they'll show up again. Hasbro's reissue campaign is rarely about "let's make sure all fans can get all figures they want" than it is "we have tooling for this one and it should sell well if it gets another run." It doesn't mean it won't ever happen, but when we're talking about figures that are 10 or 15 years old - specifically, anything pre-2010's The Vintage Collection - it doesn't seem likely.

FIN

This business is sometimes hard to predict. I've had to rewrite this because of how much things are changing. Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC) in Seattle went from "not gonna cancel no way no how" to "postponed until summer." South by Southwest (SXSW) is off, so is Anime Japan, and a lot of other events and business gatherings. Some of those unique promotional items and exclusives are going to come out somewhere - assuming, of course, they were in production already - so keep your peepers peeled. We don't know what that means for later events in the year. And that's not even considering the actual human tragedy element in China and the rest of the globe.

News of Chinese factories slowly reopening are hitting the non-toy press, and Hasbro's Chinese production ain't looking great but nothing is known for sure yet. Lunar New Year was a month and a half ago, and I have yet to see anything specific about any toy manufacturer being 100% back. Hasbro made an official comment about there not being sufficient raw materials, so we don't know quite what that means as Star Wars goes. I'd vote for "not great."

In the near term some stuff was on the water, and some stuff still needs to be built. The Zorii Bliss/Knight of Ren/Count Dooku/Bly wave of The Black Series is shipping now (if you pre-ordered from Entertainment Earth you may have a case en route). I'd say it's a good time to catch up from your favorite online toy store, because why not. It doesn't seem like it's going to be a particularly great year for being in large, sweaty gatherings of your fellow fan. I have no crystal ball and a minimal understanding of how these things shake out, but I've got a sinking feeling we might not be back to normal for a long while. I guess I'll start stockpiling old Famicom cartridges for summer.

--Adam Pawlus

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