I started to worry for our beloved super articulated action figure line the day I saw Mattel’s Green Lantern figures hanging in Target. I knew that Hasbro would look across the aisle and see that retailers were gobbling up lots of minimally articulated low quality figures and say “hey, why not us?”. I hope Hasbro doesn’t see what I saw today at Toys R Us from the Schleich company.
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Hasbro has posted a job opening for “Manager, Global Brand Development: Star Wars Job”. If you have an MBA and a minimum of five years experience in the field, your dream job may have just opened.
You may recall this article we posted where the Hasbro CEO cited 2013 as a non-movie year for Hasbro’s slumping performance. We have to seriously call that statement into question and say it’s more a question of decision making than subject matter.
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Our own Darth Mire sends us this unsettling bit of news. According to the site Grape Soda, the G.I. Joe Brand team at Hasbro has been dismantled. While this isn’t Star Wars news, it hits a little close to home. It would be like Canada getting overrun by wolverines.
Chief Executive Brian Goldner called 2013 “a nonmovie year” when explaining a dip in boys’ lines sales, and is banking on 2014 movie properties to right the ship.
Hasbro beat Wall Street expectations for the third quarter. Hopefully this means we can get all the paint apps on the 41st Elite Corps Clone.
The Wolverine line appears to be joining the Black Series line in a sympathy strike against bubbles. As I was trying to clear the Marvel Universe pegs of Wolverine line figures, one of the figures freed itself from its cardback. As the Wolverine line is also a Hasbro offering, this problem may be systemic.
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Our friends at Yakface have posted some amazing custom pics of the EXACT type of figures Hasbro needs to start producing in order to re-energize the base. Local Gotal managed to produce three figures at the top of my personal wish list. Head over there to check them out.
Our friends at Jedi Temple Archives have offered an article on the outlook for the future of the collector lines. While not quoting any direct sources, Paul Harrison collects enough circumstantial evidence to make you think changes might be in the air.
Dear Hasbro,
Please be forewarned that if your Angry Birds presentation at Toy Fair 2014 lasts more than 60 seconds, I will organize a mass walk out. While I can appreciate that this is apparently a great success for you, know that most collectors are not your audience. Most collectors would sooner set fire to an Angry Bird toy than purchase it. Fan sites will use our resources to promote this product within reason out of gratitude to the access you grant us, but please appreciate that this has limits. Also please be aware of how divisive this particular product is with the collector community and don’t waste our time with things that engender nerd rage.
Respectfully and sincerely,
Chris Swanski
One of your biggest and most loyal fans of the action figure line
Like many of you, I check out most of the fan sites on a daily basis. My morning cup of coffee is usually downed while surfing, Jedi Temple Archives, Yakface, Galactic Hunter, Sandtroopers, Imperial Shipyards, etc. etc. etc. (to any good folks I missed, the omission was not intentional, but the byproduct of a middle aged memory). It’s easy to get a quick sense of the community mood which everyone knows has been getting increasingly pessimistic for over two years. Recently, Paul from Jedi Temple Archives and Justin from Yakface posted entries that seem to indicate that the pessimism is continuing on an upward swing. Here are those entries:
Jedi Temple Archives: How Much Longer Will Star Wars Collecting Be This Abysmal?
Yakface: Remember when collecting was a blast?
The increased negative commentary on the state of the hobby my has me feeling like a viewer of the Truman show wondering “How’s it going to end?”. Given the fact that the early Black Series 3 3/4” assortments spell certain doom at retail in my opinion, I fear the answer is “not well”.
Moderator BIGJIM called our attention to this article on Gizmodo that give an inside look at Hasbro’s Model Workshop.
Jedi Temple Archives gets a well placed scoop for a heretofore unannounced figure. One of the figures in the image below is planned.
While some of us are geeking out about finding fresh cases of year old Vintage Collection figures, forum moderator, BIGJIM, takes the cake as far as finding old stock at current retail goes. Check out Jim’s surprising find at this local Marc’s discount store. To put it in perspective this is about the equivalent of finding POTF ‘85 figures in a store when POTF2 launched in 1995.
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Hasbro has announced two new Star Tours packs exclusive to Disney Parks.
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