1. Do you have any ideas or tips about storage for loose 6 inch figures? I recently moved and have to downsize. Since the Black Series boxes take up so much space I'm considering just trashing the boxes and keeping the figures loose.

--Dennis

I open it to you guys - have you come up with an awesome storage system for loose 6-inch figures? I use fishing tackle boxes for 3 3/4-inch guys, but haven't seen a good (read: scalable and cost-effective) 6-inch option as of yet. The best thing I've come up with is a display option where I slice up 2x4s as tiers/risers - they don't take up a ton of room, and I can see them on bookcases/shelves. But that's not "put away."

I would also suggest another strategy - sell them. If you're going to open figures just to put them back away again, they may not be worth the space they take up, and some go for decent enough money that they may be better as part of someone else's collection. (Yes yes I know scalping is bad but there are times to consider letting a line go.) If you don't see a future where you will have your figures out where you can enjoy them, or if they're just going to permanently be stowed out of sight, there's no shame in rehoming them.

As a no-longer-completist I'm certainly eyeballing some figures to go - admittedly nobody is going to want 2016 Jyn Erso or Cassian Andor now that we have the new-and-improved heads, but I either also need to figure out a storage system or just cash out and get five bucks or whatever.

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2. Regarding the Amazon Retro Dengar and IG-88... I don't have any of these new retro figures. Are they the same as the original vintage molds, but with updated copyright? I'm digging the box. Is there a checklist of the new Retro figures?

--Jason

It's a small line. I don't have a checklist, but so far there are three full waves of figures (Target/Star Wars, Walmart/ESB, Mainline/The Mandalorian) plus three board games with exclusive figures (a Tarkin, a Snowspeeder Luke, and a Remnant Stormtrooper), plus three "prototype figures" in multiple color combinations (Stormtrooper, Boba Fett, Darth Vader - all Target exclusives.) With the IG-88/Dengar 2-pack [affiliate link, I may make a few cents if you click it and buy something], that's it. That's the whole collection so far.

The Star Wars wave was Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Princess Leia which started as a Target exclusive and later sold through Entertainment Earth. Walmart's The Empire Strikes Back wave was Bespin Luke, Hoth Han, Hoth Leia, Boba Fett, Lando Calrissian, and Yoda. The Mandalorian wave was Mando, The Child, Kuiil, Moff Gideon, Greef Karga, IG-11, and Cara Dune. An upcoming Mandalorian Wave will include Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, another Mando, Bo-Katan Kryze, the Armorer, ad a Death Trooper.

Figures do have updated markings on them - the sculpts are also softer than the Kenner originals, so there's really no mistaking them for the originals if you have authentic old figures handy as a point of comparison.

I assume a Return of the Jedi wave must be in the works given 2023 is the film's 40th anniversary, and it would probably be very easy to sell The Mandalorian fans a Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker right about now.

Seeing Dengar and IG-88 reissued as the most expensive (outside the board game) figures in the line is something of a hoot. Back in the day, those figures were pretty common and cheap/worthless. You could easily get either in most of the 1990s for a couple of bucks, and I see closed lots on eBay selling the pair for about the same price as Amazon's reissues. Such is life! I hope more are coming, I assume Bossk must be just around the corner. Real vintage Kenner 4-LOM and Zuckuss are still around $15-$30 a pop (out of the box) if that's something you want, I assume a reissue Bounty Hunter 6-pack is inevitable as a convention exclusive some day but I wouldn't hold your breath for those two getting new production right now.

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FIN

Be sure you send in your questions for next time. The mailbag is out of on-topic questions, so if you got some, send some in.

And another week in the history books! Not much new for Star Wars for storytelling, but Walmart has a bunch of new The Vintage Collection figures going up this week - two flavors of Bespin Security Guard, a new Stormtrooper, R2-D2, and the Imperial Gunner should make a lot of old fans happy... unless you remember that The Power of the Force was a thing and it seems Hasbro has some allergy to using that design most of the time. It's pretty good news overall that we're actually getting new Bespin Guards because this probably means Sim Aloo is on a list somewhere. Will he be coming along soon? Probably not. But at least they're recognizing that this is a category to expand, and probably also that the clock's a-ticking as old-school fans enter their 50s. And 60s. (I assume toy runs are not regular activities for AARP members, but I'm not there yet.)

Also it's nice to see the loss of the 50th Anniversary of Lucasfilm logo from new releases. But I digress.

Since Hasbro skipped Toy Fair, some sort of Pulse Con release is surely not far away as we wait to see what is going on for 2022. Hopefully before it leaks or hit shelves (like with a lot of Transformers as of late.) Of course, there's no guarantee when all of these new reveals will hit. Those 5 Vintage figures are scheduled for "Fall," but with all the stuff getting delayed lately (and new COVID cases overseas) any of these things could move at any time. As many things from last year have continued to move. Many of the new The Black Series releases are shaping up for Spring 2023, and if some recent releases are any indication production seems to be going up on exclusives. I'm seeing more (as opposed to none) in GameStops, but most baffling of all are the continued growth of Carbonized Shoretroopers in Targets. Dozens. Possibly close to hundreds at one. Hopefully we'll see this done with non-carbonized figures, I assume either Arizona is getting a preposterous portion of the figures, or some factory issue resulted in the wrong figure being made in huge numbers. We'll see!

Oh, and a new issue of 1995's favorite email text newsletter has gone live. You can read new issues of Adam's Star Wars Newsletter right here, and now it's mostly a checklist of stuff and a round-up of some worthwhile news. (Look, I hate being asked to watch a video for a sentence worth of news.)

--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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