1. So I watched season 3 of the mandolorian and enjoyed it. Before hand I read a ton of good theories on line with a lot of speculation with evidence to support. For example someone thought the armorer was going to betray the race. They cited the horns on her helmet, her devotion to tradition, and the fact that we were told the finale would make us cry. I responded that it would take two much planning and organization for this to be true because she was who she was from the beginning. I just don’t see Disney Star Wars planning things out so far in advance and thinking that deep. So I watched the finale which I enjoyed but I had this feeling that I was just watching some kids bring to life their childhood playtime. It seems like a kids plot brought to real special effects. I just really think they are throwing ideas out there and hoping things stick. There are so many good shows with good writers. I am watching yellowjackets right now and love it. So my question is more like my feeling and a search for your response. Thoughts???
--Michael

What you're describing seems to be largely the passage of time and how it changes things.

At its heart, Star Wars was always a movie series for mostly little kids that we grew up with and cling to dearly. As many have pointed out to me, The Mandalorian is not a deep show. I also assumed we'd see the Armorer up to something when they had a weird, lingering shot on her as she piloted the ship away. It's a family show, and while there are surprises, there are rarely any twists or shocks. Greef Karga's turns back and forth not withstanding, mostly you get what you expect - your hero saves the little green guy. The spurs that sounded like Boba Fett foreshadowed Boba Fett. This is not a show that seems keen to upset the status quo, which is particularly surprising given the fuss made over the Darksaber - but they provided plenty of text to indicate he might not be the man for the job.

In interviews, the show creators did indeed describe the show as a bunch of kids playing with the lesser action figures, which is why you got an Ugnaught and Boba Fett and the rest. (Believe it or not, Boba Fett was not always the most popular figure in the world to all kids of the original Star Wars generation.) This is their flagship show, and it's something for the whole family. Parents (or grandparents) will no doubt enjoy the cameos and amazing character actor stunt casting. Fans will love the familiar aliens and droids. Kids will dig Grogu's antics. There's enough action for everyone, a minimum amount of suspense, and enough teasing for fan theories that even the obvious seems like a surprise. Who else but Luke would show up at the end of season 2?

There are still opportunities to surprise. At this point it wouldn't shock me if we saw a Gideon clone pop up, or the original Gideon. We could find out Bo-Katan Kryze is unworthy of the sword and either Mando or Grogu somehow go back to get involved. Or, it could just be "happily ever after" and now we focus on Din Djarin and his little pal going off to do something entirely new - which would be great, assuming they bring back Amy Sedaris some more.

I assume things are plotted out in advance, and this is mostly what the plan is. I'd love to know if the plan was always to get Grogu back with Mando so quickly, but these are all things for the tell-all oral history thing they make when the contracts run out or Disney gets broken up by anti-trust. You know, never. These things are four-quadrant movies for television and are doing their jobs mostly splendidly. I really do believe this season had a bit of a misfire, but it could just be season two had so freaking much to enjoy that they couldn't make something as big and therefore didn't. A small battle with Dark Troopers and a squad of goofballs was a lot more tense than a planet-conquering fight between an entire civilization and a chunk of what's left of the Empire - maybe it's us? Maybe it's them? Maybe the magic is gone? I don't know - but we'll see how the other stuff works out, because what else are we going to do? Go see a movie in theaters?

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2. Okay, so you played along with my previous question regarding scale in the 3 3/4 line. I still feel the Koska Reeve mold was washed in hot water and shrunk. The figure is tiny. Well, I felt it was tiny until I saw Vel Sartha on the pegs at Target. Now that's a tiny action figure. There is absolutely no way that figures scales with the masteripieces in the POTJ line. Doesn't a Bespin Leia tower over Koska Reeves and Vel Sartha. I would put good money that the Vel Sartha would fit perfectly with a Mission Fleet vehicle.
--Patrick

Played along? You send in questions to a Q&A column, you probably get answers.

If your standard of excellence is "does it fit in with Power of the Jedi", let's look at the timeline. That was a great line - from 2000-2002. It's 2023 now. That means the oldest figure is 23 years old. To put that in perspective, Kenner figures from 1978 would be 23 in 2001, so a modern Vintage figure compared to Power of the Jedi would be the same amount of time between the original 1978 figures and, coincidentally, Power of the Jedi figures. That's a massive time gap and so much has changed.

Size has always been an issue for Kenner and Hasbro - just line up all your R2-D2 figures. Unless they're repaints, they're all slightly different heights. Some are tiny. Some are beefy. Figures are sometimes made so that the individual figure looks good, so they fudge scale a bit to ensure better vehicle compatibility (remember those?) because a tiny figure may not be terribly impressive back then. But today? Scale is a bigger concern, and while not perfect they're generally getting the new stuff a bit more accurate. And of course, some people don't like that either.

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FIN

Hey, happy unofficial start of summer! I like to think it's when Henry Rollins starts playing Charles Bogert's frog songs on the radio, but we all have our markers. If you like indie toys of a 3 3/4-inch scale, take note. ToyFinity restocked its Manglors with three flavors. He's a little big - as he should be - and there are some Mordles available as well. Healey Made now has a Raider (Shadow V.2) available, and I loved the first one from 2019. This guy fits in super well with your old Kenner guys and Retro figures. Also my pal Seth Longmire has his HEAP and Janet soft vinyl figures in stock, but not many, so give those a look if you haven't yet seen them. He also has some good 3 3/4-inch playsets.

It's also almost June, which means Pride, which usually doesn't mean a heck of a lot for collectors of 45-year-old-toy-lines but now it means you can get a big box of astromech droids that, while kind of pricey, is also exactly the sort of product that the Droid Factory bin parts should have had since the beginning. Six colorful droids with swappable parts, and not a single one is identical to something you already own - that's about as good as this sort of thing gets. Maybe next year we can get clear ones, or some of the other domes since they skipped R3, R9, and R0. I wouldn't say no to protocol droids either, but they already got some of those colors nailed down pretty well. And if they could reissue R2-RNBW, that would be fantastic. There's really no reason for this kind of product to need to be "rare."

I got to visit the HQ of my place of business for the first time since 2019, and it seems everything is exactly the same. Obviously trends are different - things are more expensive, I don't get the feeling people are buying quite as much stuff given the variety isn't what it was - but hey, things are still moving along. Those old Toys R Us buildings? Still abandoned. But I'm seeing pictures pop up of Alex Toys, which isn't in my neck of the woods but may be of interest to you if it's in yours. We haven't had a heck of a lot of news on that front since Toys R Us imploded in 2018. Yes, it's been six years.

--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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