1. what is the deal with the softness on the retro sculpts? Super 7 had nice sharp features on the Alien figures (some of the other lines are too soft on detail, though), and the TVC figures are super-sharp, it's not like it can't be done. Are they getting generation loss from actually molding old figures? Using too soft a metal in the molds? Have the designers not actually handled vintage product? Those pictures you had of the Boushh comparison were really something.
--Mike

Honestly? I'm not sure. My best guess is digital sculpts vs. not digital sculpts - like a level of generation loss in the Hasbro guys. I don't know if they scanned originals (like Gentle Giant for the jumbo figures) or made new sculpts that look incredibly close to the old ones, but my hunch is that this has to be an intentional design directive. The Marvel guys aren't quite as soft, but the retro G.I. Joe guys we've been getting are a bit softer. It's not as pronounced, and it might even be an illusion from the plastic they used.

With Super7, there are absolutely signs of multiple sculptors doing different kinds of work. Word on the street is that Planet of the Apes, Universal Monsters, and possibly others were sculpted by an actual old-school Kenner sculptor who knew what to exaggerate and where to result in the best production product - and I would guess he's analog. But that's just a guess. Hasbro does a lot more digitally these days, and some of the Super7 figures show signs of being digitally sculpted - some layers are a little too perfect, sometimes an arm or a leg seems to be copy/paste/flipped, or something like that. It's very possible we're seeing the results of someone who was really a master of the style doing a bang-up job with some figures, while others were farmed out to newer people who, for whatever reason, don't quite get how to do it right. The figure might look good on screen (or as a prototype) but you can see things like Reissue Retro Dengar where a lot of the rings around the shoulders are just washed out by what appears to be a lack of detail. I assume if they exaggerated the cuts in the sculpt a bit more before they went to tooling, we'd get a better end product.

It's also possible Hasbro's retro softness is intentional. We've seen a retro Boba Fett with working rocket launcher that was perfectly nice (the mail-in figure from over 10 years ago), and their The Vintage Collection product is usually excellent with incredibly fine detail and some very small parts that look tip-top. Like the card distressing, it's possible it's a design choice and could even be mandated by the licensor. It's not something we know for sure, but when you compare some elements of Marvel versus Star Wars, it's hard to not think it is. But then you get something like Indiana Jones which has no distressing and no sticker, and you're left wondering just what the heck the reasons are why these things are happening. (And if you were a former Hasbro employee, please do write in and let us know.)

One industry insider shared a bunch of opinions on these lines with me, and one of many things he said to keep an eye open for is symmetry. (It's bad.) If the figures have a little bend in one leg and not the other, an open hand expressing some sort of feeling, or the like, you're probably getting a better end product by someone who really gets it. And I don't mean to imply something is necessarily better or worse, but if you compare something like the Super7 Vincent Price - which has a great head sculpt, but a pretty unimpressive body sculpt - to the Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth, you can see a significant diversion in the creative process.

It could also be the factories. For example, for The Last Jedi ForceLink line, Hasbro had the very same Rey sculpt produced in China (single cards) and Vietnam (2-packs) from the same sculpting. Each factory did the tooling a little differently, with minor changes to level of detail, the lightsaber hilt, and so on. It's possible, as a lower-price point product, Hasbro isn't paying quite the premium we saw given to their "collector" lines to make them their very best. But also, I could see someone kicking and screaming about making these figures stand apart from the originals so they won't be passed around as the real deal. But again, I'm just guessing, nobody seems to know for sure just yet.

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2. This one might be a slightly tougher sell, but maybe worth a shot. I'm thinking of some Jabba's Palace aliens that could be made with little to no new sculpting: use the second Legacy Collection Ugnaught, paint it red, and there's Yoxgit. I've seen several different "recipes" for Geezum (the Snivvian) around various sites that use all existing parts, the much needed Shasa Tiel (aka Palace Ishi Tib) could be made with a Yavin Luke body with new hands and a new head, and the also much needed Velken Tezeri (the last holdout from the prisoner skiff) could use the torso from Vizam with whatever existing legs and arms they want to use, and just needs a new head. This last could be further used to make Nizuc Bec (just a new head) and Taym Dren-Garen--the only character other than Vader that actually hurts Luke and the reason he wears his iconic black glove--also just needs a new head and some kitbashed arms.
--Matt

Sadly, it's usually the tooling costs that get smaller companies. Hasbro is very likely not as cost-sensitive as a Super7 or an Toy Pizza, but they do sometimes exploit older tooling and give us some genuinely odd retools and kitbashes for reasons that I can't assume are ultimately economical. Seeing the Bespin Security Guards, for example, it's better than nothing - but not by much. The sleeves are wrong and they look kind of goofy in spots. I'd have been just as happy (happier) if they gave us new sculpts with 5 joints that actually looked right.

Generally speaking, when you run a mold, you run the whole mold. It's possible arms and torsos and legs are on different tools, but only Hasbro knows for sure. It may be worthwhile to do and then throw the excess in the garbage, but that's also kind of wasteful. And we don't know what the factory would charge Hasbro for the creation and disposal of parts that aren't being used - probably not nothing, you have to fill those cavities with plastic.

With thousands of figures to collect, I'd rather they wait to do something good. I'd like that Ishi Tib, but I've waited this long - I'd rather they not skimp on the effort, because we may not get another shot at anything coming out now.

Having collected figures for a while, it can be disappointing when corners are cut - especially when you see what Hasbro is capable of lately. Figures like The Vintage Collection Bo-Katan Kryze or Fennec Shand are next-level stuff with superb leg joints and superior ranges of motion on each joint. And then you get figures like the ARC Troopers, which make use of molds from 12 years ago and aren't really all they could be. Given that they repaint them so much, it's the kind of thing they really should invest in doing right - and the same is true with aliens or anything else.

I'd love to live in a world where Hasbro has multiple concurrent 3 3/4-inch lines, because not every figure needs to be super articulated. My life is in no way improved because Yak Face from a few years ago got ball-jointed ankles. If he just stood around holding his drink, he'd be fine - and Hasbro could cut costs, we could afford to buy more figures, and it would not cost as much to produce and assemble each figure. On the other hand, figures like Reva do benefit from the extra articulation - so it would not be a bad idea to make an assortment of "cheap" figures (army builders, background weirdos, and the occasional main character - for kids!) and a separate assortment for "collector" figures (higher-end super-articulated figures with more gear for the fans who demand it - Darth Revan, Mando, etc.)

While some fans bristle at the thought of this, look at it this way - let's say they do another Max Rebo. Does he need to do much more than sit in (or on) the organ? Not really. Conversely, the Cantina Band member really makes a lot of good use of those extra joints - it's sensible to do them that way, so we buy more and Hasbro only has to design one figure. I'd love to see a little more flexibility in design so not every figure needs to be $17. You could probably make some excellent $10 Darth Vaders, Stormtroopers, C-3PO, generic Imperials, and so on.

The catch is Hasbro has to want to do it. And while we are finally getting some more Jabba goons, they're really making us pay for those two all-new human guards with the third issue of that Ree-Yees. We'll probably get more stuff eventually - but I don't think Hasbro is really accounting for how "saving stuff for later" for aging Gen Xers as they age out of having extra money for silly toys.

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FIN

I was writing a buddy this week and we were talking about what could just be a rapidly cooling collector market. We're probably going to look at this era like the 2000-2001 toy market correction. Hasbro dumped all the old Kenner stuff for pennies on the dollar, the whole indie "princess of Hell" figures went from hot to not, when Playmates Star Trek died, and when LEGO even struggled for a while to find its footing. There's also the issue of there not being that much more good nostalgia to mine - I'm kind of surprised nobody is going after 1990s Kenner all that much, with bigger figures. I guess McFarlane Super Powers is pretty close, but those 4 1/2-5--inch chunky action figures with big, silly backpacks and rocket launchers kept kids buying Batman for years.

This all came up because it seems to be a buyers' market. You can get some really good, new, and cheap stuff at Ross. If you want Hasbro's Kenner's Marvel Legends figures, Ross and FYE and Ollie's may have something for $5 or less right now. A lot of last year's The Black Series figures can be had under $20 - or under $15 - on Amazon already. The market for this stuff is not necessarily growing, with entry-level product increasingly tough to find and people who jumped on the collecting fad a couple of years ago are probably about done trying to find room for figures they may not actually have wanted and bought out of boredom or a sense of retail therapy.

Back in the day you could always count on some phenomenon coming up and picking the market out of a rut. Kenner alone had a great run for a decade with Batman kicking things off followed by the likes of Terminator 2, Aliens, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Starting Line Up, bringing in younger and older fans. Playmates powered its success with Star Trek collectors (and kids) with the hugely popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Right now feels like we're still coasting on the 1990s, and there's really only so much you can squeeze from some of these thing without going into weird corners. (NECA, Super7, you're doing some pretty great jobs there. Hasbro, well, maybe there needs to be some more direction there.)

Speaking squarely as a person who goes into toy stores, it seems like it's one of the worst times to be a kid who wants toys. You'll see Indiana Jones (the brand) but not Indiana Jones (the character), with history repeating itself once more. LEGO delivers by force-bundling important characters in spendy sets, ensuring some level of availability, and hopefully action figure makers can steer clear of the wall that hasn't even hit yet. Mattel and Hasbro alone are allegedly sitting on over a billion dollars of combined unsold inventory that's probably going to hit closeout stores at some point - were seeing some hit right now. I wouldn't say the hobby's dead or even dying, but making stuff just for collectors and the needs of big business to sell massive quantities (with repaints and reissues) won't work for the long haul as things pile up.

--Adam Pawlus

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