1. Am I foolish for wondering why we haven’t seen 8D8 and EV9D9 in the Vintage Collection? Seems like they would tick multiple boxes, helping to “complete the 96” and represent new media.
--Phil

I assume it will happen eventually, but both were pretty hard pegwarmers in the 1990s. 8D8 stuck around into the 2000s, I found some at a Rite-Aid around 2008/2009. These things were close to worthless for a long time, and it's painful because EV-9D9 was basically just a tweaked 1984 figure in the first place.  EDIT: A reader reminded me 8D8 made it out in a reveal at SDCC.  I pre-wrote some Q&A before SDCC, so thanks for keeping us honest here!

But it's worth taking a step back and looking at Star Wars as a line. How many characters do we get from the old movies at all? And how many that are minor characters? Not much. It's amazing to me they're reissuing 13-year-old figures rather than making new sculpts. That's just crazy. That would be like... reissuing 1984 EV-9D9 in 1997, which Kenner came close to doing. Those were new molds and altered sculpts, at least.

At some point they're likely to cave in and do it but there's no sign they're in a rush to do those last Vintage figures right. The Bespin Guards were pretty disappointing, all things considered. The fact that Kenner kicked off a line in 1995 and hasn't remade all the old guys by 2023 is just kind of absurd. Kenner did it all in 8 years back in the day. Eventually you have to flip a coin and ask if it's spiteful malice or just not caring. I am genuinely surprised there's no "collector line" whose entire purpose is to re-sell fans the original Kenner line, in some format or other.

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2. Back in 2008 when the [Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull] came out with all the 3-3/4” figures and vehicles I got as many as I could, even if some of the figures were painted like they were ready to star on Robot Chicken. I was upset when the line ended, and they dumped the last wave with some of the coolest figures they made and made it hard to find unless you went to SDCC or scoured the internet looking for them. Now that [Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny] is in theaters and not packing the punch Disney and Hasbro both hoped for I fear the line is dead or going to die and I’m hoping that my pre-orders on Hasbro Pulse for the third wave will actually make it to market.

I understand they said at one of the first introductions to the line that they were only going to make 25 figures, which makes me think they only made enough to sell during the window the movie was in theaters to drum up interest in the line. I love the line. I have all of them, and like I said I’m just waiting for pre-orders to show up. But it’s a hard line for anyone not invested in Indiana Jones to but into as it’s really a bunch of action figures in suits for $25 a pop. So, this is my question and maybe you know the real answer(s) to it. They produced or will have once the line ends nine different {some not so different} Indy figures from different movies and scenes. But as bad guys go they only made Walter Donovan, Toht, Belloq, in ceremonial and white suit, and coming up Jurgen Voller and Elsa Schneider {who is and isn’t a villain} and that’s it. So where are the big bads? There’s no Colonel Dietrich, no Lao Che, no Mola Ram, no Irina Spalko, no Colonel Dovchenko or even Mac. There are no Thuggee thugs, priests, foreman brutes or even a maharaja. No Nazis of any kind for Indy to punch out. No Russian soldiers either.

So the word on the street {or internet} was that most of these characters would be offensive to cultures and or inappropriate to sell to children, even though Hasbro made them all in 2008 in a different scale which seemed to be oaky with everybody, but this time Disney holds the purse strings, and as I understand it they were behind the ixnay on these figures being made. Is this true? If so it’s another dumb blunder by the mouse house, because they would have sold a lot more figures. Besides, kids aren’t buying these, adult collectors are, and even then really only Indian Jones fans, which it seems has dwindled in the last 15 years. Even if it’s true that somehow making action figures of these characters might hurt someone’s feelings what about Willie Scott, Chatter Lal, Captain Blumburtt, Mutt, Professor Oxley, Dean Stanforth, Marion from KOTCS or anyone from KOTCS. I mean who do they offend, and why did they skip that one movie in the whole line anyways? So I assume the line is dead after wave three, they even said they wouldn’t be announcing anything about Dr. Jones at SDCC. Do you think there is any chance that maybe they cater to the adult crowd only and make them Pulse exclusives for some of these characters? It seems short sighted not to consider it, it’s not like I’m seeing a ton of these being peg warmers right now.
--Martin

If I were them, I'd probably do this year, pause, and see where the demand is. I assume Raiders Indy figure demand won't be met, but it's also a line that - as you point out - isn't as good as the previous one. We see the same problem in numerous Star Trek lines - why start a new scale if it can't be better than what you already have? Get Kirk, get Spock, and the line is over.

I don't think Hasbro's current plan is a blunder. I expect a lot of Hasbro Indiana Jones product will be dumped at Ross or destroyed unless they underproduced on purpose. Other than Indy himself, a lot of the other guys are a tough sell. I do see a few figures sitting in my neck of the woods, but Harrison Fords sell while the others may not be as popular. Also Kingdom of the Crystal Skull may be less popular than The Phantom Menace. I assume there's some part reuse in the White Guys in Suits, but haven't even bothered to collect them myself. I think they're great movies, but fun toys? No. (Sorry, you need vehicles and playsets, otherwise it's just a doll you pose and leave alone.)

There's a lot to unpack here, and a lot has changed in just 10 years - and even more in 40. A movie about an American going overseas to "liberate" artifacts to put in museums in other countries ("It belongs in a museum!" is open to interpretation) is not going to read the same as it did in 1982. Indy married Marion in the fourth movie, and it wouldn't surprise me if it had anything to do with how young she was in the backstory and something that rhymes with congratulatory grape. Cultures change and what people feel comfortable with changes too - I was talking to someone who mentioned something about an offensive Indiana Jones toy, and I wasn't sure what was being referenced, and it turned out it was the whip. I was like... what? But for all I know I missed the point and in 10-20 years, people will read this and go "Wow, Adam was OK with a toy whip? What a horrible monster." I think they're fun movies, but there's a lot about Temple of Doom that didn't really resonate with everyone in 1984 and it thuds even harder in 2023.

Indiana Jones as a property is such a weird one. I've been in meetings with people swearing this is going to be a huge franchise and it's a whole new thing (???) because this is a whole new audience of toy collectors (?!?), so clearly someone out there does not understand what the Hell any of this is. The 2008 collector is the 2023 collector - you'll get some new ones, but Indiana Jones is fundamentally a teen and adult property. Kids aren't coming to it. It's like James Bond - it's not for children, it never was, and 1980s attempts at doing action figure lines tanked so hard most people don't even realize that LJN made toys and nobody showed up for them. Sometimes you get a great line - like 2008 - thanks to inertia. Think of it like watching Wile E. Coyote walk for a while before realizing there's a cliff he's about to fall over, and that's what we're getting in 2023. The stuff was designed, it's far enough along and the investments were made that it will most likely all come out. Some companies are retracting items they pre-sold, Hasbro tends never to do that.

Believe it or not, I think they did too much variety. The bulk of the supporting casts carry the toy appeal of various Imperial Officers or Rebel Generals. (Which is to say, very little, unless you're a hardcore fan.) Most of what you named are boring old white guys in suits, but Mola Ram does have a spectacular hat and a nice hat is a great thing to have in the toy world. (Worked for Darth Vader!) While having "German Soldiers" to punch out (it's not like the did Nazis last time) makes sense, people are gonna write letters if Hasbro makes a Nazi. Even if they have the most punchable of faces.

Some of you will wildly disagree with this assessment. But I can tell you sales of non-Indy characters have been very soft, sales for the last round went up only when things appeared to be scarce, and this audience may be too old (and scarce) to support the line. There were items that never got revealed that aren't coming out - cool stuff like the Staff of Ra aren't exactly flying off the shelves. Hopefully Hasbro hands this over to HasLab to see what they can do with it, but even then, crowdfunding can go really wrong.

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FIN

Hey, Ahsoka is coming! Despite having a pretty big year for Star Wars on the small screen, secrecy and indifference make it seem almost as slow as the non-movie years. It's kind of a pity that we live in an era where there's no "next week on..." teasers and the big media companies are so spoiler-averse they don't tend to do a lot of marketing for the show on a week-to-week basis. It means I have even less to talk about.

The HasLab Ghost got funded but hasn't met any of its stretch goals as of yet. It's 1,500 away from including Ezra, which ain't nothing, but doesn't seem to be incentivizing anyone to buy. (I still need to get my credit card and do it.) But at least it's theoretically on the way, which is more than some recent crowdfunding projects have done. Fans still love vehicles, despite what the retail lines seem to show these days.

Not much new is expected right at this moment, but more is coming. Stay tuned. It's still been a shockingly good year, what with the Ghost, and a Yak Face reissue, and so many other goodies. It just, oddly, doesn't feel like it. I blame that lack of vehicles at retail, it really does make a difference as a sort of milestone purchase a few times a year.

--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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