1. Using Action411 as a guideline, it seems that the Vintage Collection (2010-present) tends to hold their value much more vs The Black Series (Orange line - Present). I don't personally collect with the intention of "flipping for a profit" but it is nice to see that if I ever needed to sell my collection, I could make quite a profit. Do you think the reason the Vintage Collection has more value is due to there being more collectors for this live vs. The Black Series or the number of figures being produced vs collectors out there? I look at The Barge selling up to $3000.00 and does not stop going up

--Jeremiah

Price guides... I'm not a big fan of price guides.

Supply and demand - The Black Series is largely more popular, so they make more of it. Stores order less of The Vintage Collection, so it's harder to find and since it has an older fanbase, they have more money they're willing to pony up for figures that they've missed. (People are paying $300 on eBay for the Mando/Jawa Chief/Grogu figures from the Razor Crest, which they had ample opportunity to buy with a vehicle for only slightly more than that.)

The secondary market/value/whatever is hard to grasp because you've got a lot of things competing. Gen X nostalgia for black and silver packaging runs deep and has gotten in to the younger fans, but people who just want a figure will usually buy whatever they can find in whatever size they can find it. There's a big difference between the old-school collector and the fan who just wants to buy something - people who read (and write) columns like this one, and post on forums, and all of that, are not necessarily Hasbro's target audience. There's more money for them in 6-inch, thanks to the higher price point and a larger (shall we say) casual audience.

The Barge's high price makes sense. A lot of people dragged their feet, inflation is real, and people probably have more than a few bucks saved up from the vacations they didn't take, the dates they didn't go on, and the restaurants they didn't visit for the last few years too. Not many people felt like pre-paying for a big ship several years ago and even fewer bought extras to flip later - we saw the same thing in the early 1990s when it came to the secondary market prices for original Kenner vehicles and 12-inch figures. Those tended to shoot up first, as people don't tend to stockpile things that are somewhat cumbersome to store.

The rambly conclusion is that The Vintage Collection has a very organized and very focused (and much older, well-to-do) collector base, which is probably how they were able to get things done like the Barge and Razor Crest. The 6-inch line is pushed more, and is in more stores, and is made in bigger numbers - the math just works out that the collectors of the smaller guys have less product to go around, period. When you have less product in the market, prices do tend to go up as people come on board to compete for the smaller pool of stuff. (Also I would argue 3 3/4-inch fans are significantly more hardcore than 6-inch, until someone slips me a memo proving me wrong.)

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2. Boba Fett rode the Rancor in the season finale of his show, and then it went berserk in Mos Espa.

Wouldn't it have made more sense for Hasbro to set the crowdfunding deadline for the Rancor until after the finale, when everyone would see

it and then want one? On some boards, I'm reading posts like "Well, after seeing the finale, now I wish I'd have backed one. I hope Hasbro tries it again."

--Chris

While not specifically related to the Rancor, I would recommend skimming the article "Todd McFarlane Reveals Corporations Are Systematically Removing Firearms From Action Figures, Reveals His Creative Workaround To Their Agenda." You may not want his stuff, you may have opinions about guns, but the licensor/licensee relationship as displayed here is something I keep bringing up that doesn't seem to get discussed in an official capacity. But now here it is, so you can understand a bit more of the kind of discussions Hasbro is likely going through every single day with any current licensed product development.

I'll just pull this quote out: McFarlane answered, “We’ve done hundreds of licenses over the years. And the people who own the brands and the IP, the intellectual properties, they are the boss. And they basically dictate to us, not the other way around.”

Sure, Hasbro could've sold more if they waited. But I don't know if that was an option. I don't have confirmation of this specific instance, but licensors do take a more active interest in toy development and marketing today compared to 20-30 years ago. It's also possible Hasbro was told "sell this, make it like that, and put it up on these dates" so I don't necessarily know that Hasbro knew for sure that the big guy was coming in The Book of Boba Fett with regards to cameos, characters, and so forth. Plus it's a different design.

I doubt Hasbro will try again at that size, but I think it would be neat to see if they can do a 3 3/4-inch Rancor again. The interest exists, kids might want one, even in Mission Fleet or Mattel could try Hot Wheels' Starships assortment. Problem is, a lot of these items aren't ready for the streaming series' debut - just the other week, we got Hawkeye figure pre-orders announced almost four months after the show ended, and a year before they'll be in stores. It does not appear Disney/Marvel/Lucasfilm are coordinating with Hasbro to get stuff on-shelf while shows are on the air for any of their many properties these days. Lucasfilm/Disney/Hasbro weren't able to get the title characters from The Book of Boba Fett out in good numbers before or during the show... or since. This is kind of where we're at now.

I'm interested in big things that are centerpieces of a collection, but The Black Series seems to be struggling with holy grail-level awesomeness. A big, expensive Rancor is cool if you like Rancors - but few fans spent their life hoping to pay $350 for a big version of a Rancor toy they may have bought for $10-$40 when they were younger. With a big ship or a big playset, you can build a whole thing out of your collection. With a big creature, it's one more thing that's probably going to get in the way in your increasingly crowded room. (Before you say "no it isn't," I'd be curious to know where everybody's big 6-inch scale First Order TIE Fighters are being stored these days. Mine is on top of a shelf in a closet!)

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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.

You should really read that Todd McFarlane thing. (I know, a lot of you don't buy his stuff. Read it anyway.) Licensors have a lot of say in what gets made - it's their toy, after all - and many of you already know that. If Lucasfilm doesn't want Hasbro to make the Tonnika Sisters, well, here we are. We don't have them, we will probably never have them. But if you want gold metallic Shoretroopers and you live in Arizona, by golly, Target has you covered. (But looking around Los Angeles' store inventories... not so much.)

This week's big complaint was Walmart's pre-order window, which was supposed to be at 1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT. It was up significantly earlier than that - oddly, this worked out in my favor and I could just pre-order the figures I want because I checked after I rolled out of bed. Two Bespin Security Guards (new), R2-D2 (presumed repack), and a Death Star Gunner (also presumed repack) were listed and as of my writing this, only the guards are available. The complaints have been many, but this isn't really abnormal - I missed out on the Vintage Clone Wars pre-orders last year, and was able to luck into the two ARC Troopers when they were in stock a few weeks ago.

And for better or worse, it's doing what the retailers probably want. Believe it or not, the goal is not necessarily that you get what you want, but that what is purchased completely sells through. Nobody wants inventory on-hand for toys - especially items that have a somewhat fickle buyer base, some of which are buying because they're lifers and some of which are buying because they're flippers. The Bespin Security Guards are the two I was the most worried to get this week, and their being available to order still is probably a pretty good indicator that the casual fans didn't care and the hardcore guys aren't building armies like they used to. Heck, I only ordered one of each. I've got too much of this stuff.

I have no idea when or if more figures will wind up in stores - most of Walmart's Hasbro Star Wars exclusive output from the COVID era I've rarely (or never) seen on shelves. This might be the way things are now - after all, they still haven't put the stores back to being open 24 hours, which is vexing as "the middle of the night" is my favorite time to go places. The parking is amazing.

As a fan I like to go in stores when it makes sense to do so, but we're in a weird era where we have to consider things like gas prices, time, and getting a rake to the face as you try to hunt down the figure you want. (Heck, I went around looking for Silverstreak at Target last week. No dice.) Things have changed a lot over the last few years, with an increased emphasis on online pre-orders and launches, variable emphasis on sticking to launch times, and a seismic shift in where we buy things. Toys R Us and Kay-Bee are gone, and with them, much of the kids ages 4-11 who helped keep prices low and things interesting. The Final Form of most 1980s and 1990s toy lines seems to be super-articulated, higher-priced, adult-driven collector lines. Somehow Hot Wheels (and to some extent, LEGO) have avoided that fate, I'm hoping you're still having fun, and I will say this - if you missed the pre-orders this week, make some bookmarks and check them regularly. So far it's paid off for me, but the delay in missing some The Black Series pre-orders got me moving from denial/bargaining/reloading to acceptance and now I'd rather just keep the money than pay for repaints. But that's me. I'll leave them so you can buy them.

--Adam Pawlus

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