Almost No 2024 TVC Product Has Sold Out On Pulse

We've often used Hasbro Pulse as a bellwether of a Vintage Collection figure's success in the past. Whether or not it's a true indicator can be debated, but it's simply something observable, so we latch onto it. Pulse also seems to be the first to sell through their preorders out of the Fan Channel outlets. We certainly take Vintage Collection victory laps when things sell out like we did HERE. The last wave of 2023 was a banger. Revan sold out almost immediately followed shortly thereafter by Thrawn. At some point after that, Hera, Pre Vizsla, and Chopper also sold out, but once they came in stock. Only R5-D4 is still available to order on Pulse. Obviously, the holidays helped move some of this stock.

If we celebrate when figures sell out quickly, we must also express concern over the opposite. There have been a lot of 2024 preorders so far. Thirteen to be exact, and only one has pre-sold out:


Shocking. The figure that fans actually requested is the only one to presell out. To be perfectly clear, most figures don't pre-sellout. As mentioned above, the final wave of 2023 was one of the best ever, but only two of the figures pre-soldout. Also, the most recent batch of preorders haven't even been up for sale for a week yet. So please don't misconstrue this into me saying things are "pegwarming" just because they didn't sell out immediately, but when there is buzz around the character selections, more than one sells out. A batting average that is less than half the Mendoza Line is no good regardless of the circumstances. It speaks to the lack of buzz surrounding the 2024 offerings so far.

Why I'm writing this today is a message to Hasbro. We understand that the repack or retool heavy offerings for early 2024 are likely out of your control due to delayed media on Disney's part. As Johnny "mustache" Lindquist pointed out in the comments of the livestream on Saturday, Skelton Crew was supposed to air during the 2023 holidays. Assuredly, a figure or two from that show was planned for somewhere in these first three waves, but they had to get bumped. So we understand the need for no or minimal tooling placeholders. We're cutting you some slack, but we expect something back from you: do not blame the fans or a lack of market support for the Vintage Collection when these placeholders are not robust sellers.

Reasonable fans will understand that this run of somewhat uninspired character selections is the result of some unforeseen changes on the part of the licensor, but if Hasbro ever cites this stretch of lukewarm sales as justification for shrinking the TVC budget, just cancel the line. Any goodwill between Hasbro and the TVC community will be lost at that point. Instead, Hasbro should invest in more figures like Dooku that fans have spent years clamoring for like...I don't know...EPISODE IV LUKE SKYWALKER!

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