Ghosts of Comic Cons Past

SDCC and the promise of new Star Wars toys is one of the few things that makes July bearable. Banthaskull has covered the convention to varying degrees over the years (including having an actual credentialed correspondent there), but most of the history of the site got erased when Big Jim's fat fingers hit the wrong key back in 2012 (This concludes our Jokes Only Randy Wiill Get section). So let's pick up with 2013!

The big news at SDCC '13 was a new wave of the terrible 3.75" Black Series line featuring Fan's Choice winner Mara Jade (Big Hair). It was disappointing considering that we still remembered what it felt like to be the main line. This was a weird confusing time as encapsulated by Chris:



Not surprisingly, 2014 was even more disappointment. The 3.75" line saw a Clonetrooper that was painted like Dr. Doom for some reason, Clone Commander Wolf- who was inexplicably in a different scale than every other figure in the line, and Ceremonial Leia who got delayed until the even worse Walmart Black Series line. It was not very satisfying.




We apparently passed on 2015. Also on 2016. The only coverage was a post I made speculating on what wonderful Rogue One figures we might see. And just a mere 10 years later, we almost have the complete crew!




2017 marked the glorious return of The Vintage Collection, and thus the return of actual Banthaskull coverage. While the return of the line had been revealed earlier, this was where we first started seeing what would be included. And it was... not as great as we had hoped.






While TVC was alive, it was not exactly healthy, and Hasbro spent more time talking about Mighty Muggs and farting chopper than anything we cared about. They did announce a repack of the (then) 10-year-old Darth Revan which was fortunately scuttled after fan backlash.






In 2019 Hasbro revealed literally nothing for TVC. Not a single thing. This was attributed to an embargo on Triple Force Friday product that would be revealed later in the year. This showing was so bad, SDCC was canceled for the following 2 years as punishment.



By the time people stopped being afraid of being crammed into enclosed spaces with thousands of nerds, TVC was somehow in a much better place. While Black Series got to see a bunch of Halloween repaints and a continuation of the legendary Credit Collection, TVC actually got some good stuff. Most exciting was the pipeline of a new Piett (The sculpt that launched 100 officers).
This is also a weird time when Banthaskull was briefly overrun by OnlyFans bots.



2023 had a veritable bounty of product for TVC led by the launch of the Ghost Haslab campaign. We also saw the officer 4-pack (using the Piett from 2022!), an all-new Revan (replacing the blunder from 2018), the first few figures from Ahsoka, and the Disney-exclusive Life Day Chewbacca- which gave hope to Ackmena fans everywhere. Despite all this, literally the first 45 minutes of the presentation were about Black Series Christmas figures.




Between the 2023 and 2024 conventions, TVC fans managed to fund not one but two different Haslab campaigns. With the Return to Tatooine themed year pending, it is fair to say we had high expectations. And what we got- The Blurrg, Cobb Vanth, and The Armorer's Forge- were welcome, but still felt underwhelming. To be fair to Hasbro, they had already pipelined Luke, Han, and Obi-Wan as part of the Cantina campaign, so a letdown was inevitable.



That brings us to 2025, which I'm told was last year. We finally got our first look at the new ANH Han to finish off RTT and concerns immediately began to be raised. We also first got the tease that VC375 was being saved for something special (and thus skipped). We're still waiting on that one. But the big drop was, of course, the Haslab Gunship and the announcement of the Battle of Geonosis theme for next year (which is to say this year). We all know how that funding campaign eventually turned out, so no need to rehash it here.
Though I did find a possible clue to where Chris has been lately:



There is some reason to be optimistic about this year. Rumors suggest that there is at least some quantity of product to be shown, but whether it is anything we want remains to be seen.
Sometimes we have to cling to hope because the alternative is dispair.

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