Analyzing Bantha Skull Affiliate Sales Leads To Eye Opening Finding

I was impressed with the individual figure sales of the recently revealed Darth Revan on our Entertainment Earth affiliate account. It was one of the strongest selling preorders that I could personally remember. I decided to expand the search range for the entire year to see which figures sold best. It's no surprise that VC231 - Stormtrooper is the best selling figure in that time frame. I knew that would be the result before even running the report, as would all of you. What I didn't expect was how many more Stormtrooper were sold than any other figure. VC231 lapped the field like it was playing Mario Kart on the 50cc setting against a bunch of preschoolers. It's eye popping.

I'm not going to share with you the raw numbers of figures sold. That's a trade secret. It's between us, Entertainment Earth, and our accountant Max Weinstein (who is voiced by the inimitable Peter Riegert). What I will share is what the top five selling items were over the reporting period, and what percentage of the top five sales each figure represents. So this is the relative performance of the absolute best sellers on our affiliate account. I should note that the aforementioned Darth Revan is just outside that top 5, but it's still very early in that figure's run. It will be in the top 5 before its sales window closes. Here are the results:


VC231 accounts for 62.1% of the sales of the top 5 best selling figures on our affiliate account. To put that another way, it outsold the next best selling item by over six times. I'm astounded by this, and I don't need to remind you that this is the Stormtrooper's second life at retail. It was originally a Walmart exclusive where it sold out. If I add in the sales from our Walmart affiliate account, this becomes a blowout of Super Bowl XXIV proportions.

To me this is another case of the market speaking in a clear and unmistakable voice, and indicates where Hasbro should be earmarking part of their annual tooling budget: legacy army builders. It's why it's a sin that Hasbro couldn't have seen fit to give us an all new Biker Scout for the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi. It's also why I think it's mind boggling that a Snowtrooper has not been prioritized thus far. I've said this before, but here's a recap of the great mileage that Hasbro would get out of an all new Snowtrooper sculpt:

• Main line release Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear)
• Deluxe release with the E-Web cannon
• Troop builder 4-pack (perhaps with varying battle wear)
• Blue Stars repaint as a convention exclusive
• Low partial retool for the Snowtrooper Commander

If retailers are seeing similar patterns, I hope they are speaking up and also advocating for some well established army builders.

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