1. Somewhere I saw a comparison chart of all the HasLab Star Wars projects, and it looks as though ships and vehicles receive more backers than playsets or creatures.

Now that the Ghost has arrived, what other vehicles could Hasbro make from the Star Wars universe?

I've read informal polls where fans ask for an Imperial Shuttle, Falcon, or Sandcrawler, but those have been repopped/remade in the modern line several times.

What unique ship/vehicle might be in the offing for the next HasLab, if you had to guess? What would be your top 3 wants?

--Chris

Hasbro (and Kenner) have done a really good job covering and re-covering the bases for most Star Wars vehicles. Kenner did a bang-up job representing, and Hasbro did a very good job reissuing and/or updating. For new fans who missed existing versions, I can see a desire to want new versions - but for those of us who have a good version already, I find it unlikely that many fans would be excited to buy an XXL version of a) a ship they own, or b) a ship they own 3-5 times, or c) at the current levels of inflation. I don't doubt Hasbro could do a bigger, more expensive version of any ship - but I'd rather have one I can play with.

I have the Barge and the Ghost, both of which are almost too big to actually enjoy and appreciate.

The big Millennium Falcon was nearly $500 when Target had it as an exclusive a few years ago. It would probably be $600 for the same toy, and maybe $1000 for something fancier. I would not pay that, but I'd buy a Kenner reissue if it was $150-$200 with a smattering of figures I wanted. Ditto with the Sandcrawler (Disney made a good one) and Shuttle (I do not need a larger one.) For fans wanting infinitely bigger, better, more expensive versions of toys they already own... I don't get it. I would hope Hasbro could develop a version of these ships for the masses that would satisfy us all - kids, collectors, fans - rather than gate it behind a massively expensive crowdfund. But some ships might not have any chance at Amazon/Target/Walmart, and those I wouldn't mind seeing.

Blockade Runner. I'd be happy with a toy if they kept it within reason and didn't require a special piece of furniture to display. With the existing hallway playset - and maybe 3D printed add-ons - there's not much left to build out as the "interior" goes. We don't have a big exterior ship, and I would personally like something sized modestly so that it can be easily carried - "swooshable," I've heard people say. I don't think this would be a good $500 toy, but I would love something for $200 or under.

Star Destroyer (Super or otherwise.) This is another one where the shape might keep it off a home shelf, because it's honking big and would have to be fudged. Presumably they'd want to make something you split down the middle to put on narrower shelves, and it could probably be pretty close to a Death Star when it comes to hallways, conference rooms, meditation chambers, and so on. Since Grand Admiral Thrawn had one in Ahsoka, it could pull double-duty and tie in to the second season of that show. If Hasbro could bake in enough play features and maximize all available space in ways The Ghost didn't, this has the potential to be a really good candidate if Hasbro can meet or exceed fans' modest expectations. (Hallways, command bridge, meditation chamber, holographic communicator, etc.) I assume something as big as the Barge would be both realistic, and probably also poo-pooed by fans, so this would certainly present a design challenge. Bonus points if they can work in a mini-rig Tantive IV.

Rebel Transport. This one, I'd love to see either a straight reissue or a slightly improved modernization that fits either original or newer figures... or anything in between. It'd need more compartment slots since it couldn't make use of foot peg compatibility with all eras of figures, but the idea of a driver's seat in front, a battle station in back, an escape hatch, some storage, and a relatively narrow girth could mean you could fit it on top of a typical shelf without too much problem. Also include accessories and nifty figures. I assume the audience for this one is mostly older fans who had/missed the original The Empire Strikes Back toy. This sort of thing makes me think Hasbro might be better served just re-running the 1978-1985 line-up in its entirety, with minimal upgrades (as needed electronics, sticker deco, improved use of any hollow space.)

On the smaller end, IG-1000. This is a ship that I would very much enjoy owning, but it's small. It's IG-88's ship from Droids and it's basically a mini-rig that looks sort of like a pastiche of 1980s Kenner vehicles. It's great, and you could put a repaint of IG-88 in cartoon colors in there as well as additional vehicles or figures to beef up the dollars. Making a small toy like this or The White Witch seem like a great way to make a ship with an excuse to throw in remakes (or first editions) of rare and expensive Droids action figures. Granted, the appeal is going to be a certain kind of older collector only - but some of those collectors will buy more than one. Like me!

Honorable mentions: Onyx Cinder from Skeleton Crew, I half expected to see by now if the show was a hit. It's not a bad show but I don't get the feeling people are watching it beyond the hardcore group who will never quit Star Wars fandom. Or which version of the ship would be preferred.

Twilight from The Clone Wars - I am probably the only person who wants Anakin's spice freighter, although that generation of kids is paying a pretty penny for cartoon-style figures on the secondary market now. There may be an audience for it among younger millennials and those who watched the show on TV as kids in 2008.  But probably not.

TIE Shuttle from The Empire Strikes Back is an obscure variant and would be pretty neat, but not HasLab neat.

A mini-rig based on the Scythe would be cool. I wouldn't want a big giant one, though. I know Reva and the Inquisitors aren't everybody's cup of tea, but I like the angular shape a lot and would love a one-person shuttle pod version of it.

Just my opinion, when Fan's Choice poll winners started to be versions of figures we all already owned - a new Maul - I really started to think it might be time that the line was starting to run its course. If HasLab is going to slowly shift into more expensive things I already own, I don't know that I will need to be participating in it.

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2. What do you think finally killed off [Asian eBay seller of unpackaged, frequently scarce action figures] Tunghori?
My thoughts:
1) shipping costs killed off too many of the regular customers
2) Hasbro cut off the product at the source (I had been wondering why new figures seemed to come less frequently).

--Derek

I can say without being coy that I don't know. If memory serves I bought a couple of figures through them - Star Tours stuff before they made it out/got announced, like I was gonna miss out on Teek. I'm not sure what happened there, or how it started in the first place. There's a whole era of Hasbro molds they seem disinclined to reissue, and I wonder if it's related - are they lost? Did they not own them due to some weird loophole, and this guy used them on evenings and weekends? I honestly don't know.

Shipping shouldn't be a major issue - at least, it was pretty cheap to ship from there to here for quite some time. I would assume Hasbro or Disney got involved, and a factory probably doesn't want to lose Disney business because an enterprising person is exploiting existing tooling during a factory downtime. Generally speaking any time there's an issue, follow the money. It might be a stupid reason concerning money, but it usually is always money.

It seems most figures pre-2010 just don't come out any more, and I wonder if there's any connection to all of these things regarding who makes the things, and where. But I don't know the full story with Tunghori or other people pumping out new (probably legit molds, bogus run) figures like a lot of o-ring G.I. Joe releases in recent years in new colorways. Did Hasbro not pay a bill? Does copyright work differently in China? Heck if I know - but if you do, we're all ears.

We do know some old figures still pop up here and there, the oldest of which seems to be 2004/2005 Original Trilogy Collection Chewbacca. It also seems like anything from The Legacy Collection has been off-limits or just gone without being reissued in close to a decade, despite a lot of gold in there.  Hasbro would make some good money were they to bring back some of those higher-dollar Cantina aliens. I don't know why Hasbro won't crank out some of those 30th Anniversary Collection or The Legacy Collection aliens, they're quite good and probably would sell well on The Vintage Collection cardbacks after being absent from the market for over 15 years.

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FIN

As of my writing this, I'm printing out what I hope to be the final piece in a 3D printed plastic Kenner-inspired Detention Block Diorama set. It has a little control station/help desk thing with buttons as well as some walls and a hexagonal portal on the side - sort of like (but different from) the 1996 Detention Block Rescue playset, minus the whole detention block. Or guns. Or rescue. I'm going to need to get some glue and paint or paint pens, but it's a fun little thing to do.

Being the year 2025 - that's the 40th anniversary of the death of Star Wars Kenner toys as well as the 30th anniversary of its revival - it might be increasingly worth paying some attention to these modelers. Not because of community, not because of patting ourselves on the back, but because of the stone cold reality that some things might just never get made, unless you make it. One thing I've been eyeballing is a set called Chewbacca's Casa, which is - of course - The Star Wars Holiday Special treehouse set. It has chairs, walls, doors, and a kitchen as well as a TV and other goodies. (No figures, until Hasbro or another company does it, you're on your own.) It's so bizarre to see the photos of it - the quasi-green not-shag carpet, the not-really wicker furniture, the wooden walls of a tree, it's nifty. Given we can count the official Star Wars Holiday Special toys on our fingers, I assume that this sort of project is the only way any of these kinds of things will ever get made.

I'm hoping we get some brand-new characters this year in our action figure cases, but after last year? I'm not hopeful. We don't get a lot of new "classic" guys, but at least we know Brea and Senni Tonnika are being made for us. Beyond that, well, I'm grateful we've got Kenner-style stuff coming, because I'm not super hopeful that the pipeline reveal Chewbacca for The Vintage Collection is going to be revelatory. But I bet this goofy droid figure I'm going to make later might turn out OK.

--Adam Pawlus

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