Bantha Skull Q & A: Episode 2

Posted by Chris on 02/09/23 at 07:05 AM Category: Vintage Collection, Bantha Skull Q&A

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Here we are with our second ever Bantha Skull Q&A. Based on this pace, I can calculate when we should reach our 100th Q&A. I just reserved the big conference room at the Omaha Hilton Gardens Inn for March 5th, 2121 so we can all celebrate!

Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. The response is almost overwhelming. Please don't take offense if your question isn't featued. There were a lot of them.

What is the minimum POA, in your opinion, about what makes a figure "super articulated"? - Coleman Miller

Chris: 14. NEXT.

Oh, you want more? Neck, shoulder (x2), elbow (x2), wrist (x2), waist, hip (x2), knee (x2) and ankle (x2). It takes all of those points of articulation to fully take the posing decisions out of the designer's hands and put them in the customer's hands.

Bret: Fourteen. Chris picked these questions and he answered them first, just so it would look like I was copying him. Jerk. So I changed it up by spelling out the number. He never saw that coming. I guess I would add that super articulation for a simple character should be those 14 points, and while the wrists and waist can probably be swivels, the rest of the joints should be ball jointed. Bantha Skull coined the term "Jedi Level Articulation" (I don't remember who came up with that, it could have been a reader. I know Trooper31 has come up with a couple of terms we use regularly.) Dynamic characters like Jedi and troopers, as well as most of the main cast, should get JLA. They need this premium upgrade, which would add the double jointed neck, ball jointed wrists, ball jointed waist (or even the torso, if it can work aesthetically) and rocker ankles.

Kitbashing for secondary/background characters is a great way for Hasbro to add to the world-building scenes and I'm glad they're doing that somewhat. Do you think they have enough parts in their library to do that for Tessek (Squidhead) and Sim Aloo? - Trooper31

Chris: Enough parts to completely kitbash them? Heck no, but there is enough so that they don't have to be 100% newly tooled. Since the two figures you mentioned are robed characters, they benefit from what shall heretofore be known as the "Bib Fortuna Exemption." Hasbro can save a lot of money by once again reusing the Lando lower body and cover it with soft goods. The one catch with Sim Aloo is that he has some epic wizard sleeves. It would be impossible to capture that with soft goods at this scale, so it would have to be a sculpted detail, and we'd end up with flipper arms like the VC84 - Queen Amidala. I actually think Sim Aloo would be the perfect candidate for a reduced articulation Vintage Collection figure, but that's a huge can of worms.

Bret:. So Chris picked these questions and answered them first. Did I cover that already? OK then. I will add to his last sentence, especially given the previous question. Does every figure need super articulation? I'd agree that there are some characters that don't need basic SA, either because of the inherent lack of dynamism generated by their on-screen appearance, or due to some engineering issue (like the flipper arms Chris mentioned). But I don't know that Hasbro would pick and choose the same type of articulation for particular characters that collectors would choose, and that could be mighty frustrating.

What would you like to see as the next playset (either smaller adventure set or larger throne-room-style Pulse exclusive)? What’s your favorite one so far? - Wampa_Stompa

Chris: If we could get the figure support for it via an Office Duel Palpatine, new Episode III Anakin, and new Mace Windu, I'd love to get Palpatine's Office as a playset. That would be my first choice. My second choice would be a Hoth trench, inclusive of a turret and radar laser, since we already have the figures to populate it. My favorite existing set is far and away the Carbon Freezing Chamber. Setting two of them up is such an epic display piece.

Bret: Agree with Chris in that my favorite so far is the Carbon Freezing Chamber, because it supports so many figures that we have. It's a bit large for a "small set", especially 2 of them together, but it makes for an awesome display. My most wanted would probably be the Home One Briefing Room. I'd imagine it as working with 2 sets to make a full display, like the Carbon Chamber. It also would support a ton of figures that we already have. My second choice would be a Star Destroyer bridge, mostly for the ESB Bounty hunters, but also for any number of key scenes from across the Saga.

With so much Star Wars media, do you think it would be in our interests to push Hasbro to concentrate primarily on 2 sources (though not exclusively) - The OT and The Mandalorian? As someone that is a huge fan of video game and EU figures, it pains me to think along these lines, but at least we would tend to have more scenes built out cohesively. - THE...Ohio State Randy

Chris: Hey kids, it's ClassicRando74! So here's an interesting thing. We already have or have coming the same number of carded Mandalorian figures that we got for The Empire Strikes Back in the vintage Kenner line. I actually think it might be time to start throttling down the Mando figures for a bit in favor of other sources, one of which should definitely be non-ST/Solo big screen characters (OT, PT, Rogue One).

Bret:. Tough one, given the limited volume of new offerings. While I love a lot of the characters and designs from the new media, it would take a VERY long time at this rate to properly fill out the many memorable scenes. I would rather fill in the holes I am missing from my aging collection of OT figures, and/or, complete the crews of a few other sources. I want to complete the Cantina, the Rebel Briefing and Ceremony scenes from Yavin, Red Squadron, the skiff crews, Jabba's Palace, Palpatine's Office, the Podracers, The Lars family, and the Rogue One team. I would also love #MaketheMains from the OT. All in all, what is that, 30 figures? That's one year's worth. And it would complete my collection, so everything beyond that from newer media would be gravy, and I would love every subsequent release because it wouldn't have come at the expense of leaving conspicuous gaps on my shelf. I don't want to wait 30 years by getting one of these each year until I die, if at all. I want Hasbro to make more of an effort to focus on some areas that need attention before spending too many resources on something brand new, that likely also won't really be complete for years and would just make more holes in my collection. While probably not at the top of many older collectors' lists, I do love that Hasbro went for it all on the final arc of The Clone Wars, with the Season 7 Ahsoka and Maul, along with a bunch of Mando troopers, 501st/332nd clones, Jesse, and even Bo-Katan (yes, officially from The Mandalorian). All we'd need to really complete that entire ARC would be a couple of the Mando characters, those feisty Astromechs, and a Captain Rex that doesn't suck.

There have been only 5 newly tooled OT figures in 150 TVC2.0 releases. With the ongoing failure to get fully newly-tooled main OT characters (e.g all Endor Heroes, ANH mains) made and with the neglect of OT backgrounders despite new media appearances (8D8, EV9D9) yet ongoing bizarre character selections from new media (Vel Sartha, Tusken Warrior), would you support moving to a subscription only/HasLab figure pack model of themed groups of figures for classic media? If yes, and knowing that lower production runs and all-new tooling will come at a cost, what would you be willing to pay per figure? - AqualishDoug

Chris: I'm not a huge fan of subscription services since I don't want an even amount of each wave. I want to be able to control how many of each assortment I buy on a wave by wave basis. I completely support HasLab as an option to get more new tooling, however. I would be willing to pay $25/figure in that scenario, but I fear it still might not be enough (and probably why we haven't seen a HasLab figure pack to date).

Bret: Again, I agree with Chris (man this is lame). I would pay at least $25 each to get the figures I mentioned in my previous answer. But as Chris said, it's probably not cost effective for Hasbro. perhaps the only way to pull it off would be to have several of the aforementioned figures included with, or as tiers for, a larger HasLab set. So you'd pay like $500 for a Cantina, but it might be the only way to get the Tonnika Sisters, Arleil Schous, Yerka Mig, Debnoli, and Cantina Dude.

Understanding that the line will most likely never be as healthy as it was in the late 2000's/early 2010's, what would be considered a healthy place for TVC moving forward? - McBeard

Chris: New tooling is always the barometer to me, and not the overall volume of figures. We're getting roughly 12 newly tooled figures per year now. That's actually a pretty good number. We only had 14 newly tooled figures in 2011's TVC 1.0 lineup, but that was honestly the weakest of the three years. The problem is that we have a triple whammy going on right now: classic figures are dated and in dire need of update, we haven't recovered from the debt built up during the dark times from 2015 - 2017, and new media is coming at a breakneck pace. I feel we need to get the budget up to 20 100% newly tooled figures per year to consider the line healthy under these circumstances.

Bret: In addition to the basic line new tooling that Chris covered, I would also want to see at least 3-5 small vehicles and beasts per year. We need some speeders, hovercraft, cars, transports, as well as things like the Blurgg or the Mudhorn. I think we're in decent shape otherwise, since we do tend to get one big vehicle, a playset or two, a couple of troop builder multi-packs, and a bunch of exclusive figures and multi-packs annually.

Is there any appetite - beyond myself - to push for small repack runs of more obscure, hard to get figures? - The Newt

Chris: Within the vocal online collector community, there is definitely an appetite for this. I can absolutely speak to that. But our community doesn't represent the entirety of the Vintage Collection customer base. I don't know for certain that there is sufficient overall market desire for repacks of say K'Kruhk for example, but I suspect there is. One thing to keep in mind is that "small run" isn't negotiable. There are fixed minimum order quantities that Hasbro can't go below. The factories simply aren't willing to set up the tooling unless the production run is big enough to make it worth their while.

I hope Fan Channel starts seeing that such waves at those minimum order quantities are viable. The 40th Anniversary "Skiff Guard" wave should give good indication if it's feasible. If we start seeing Wooof on deep discount, it's probably a non-starter.

Bret: Most collectors refuse to grasp the complexities and layers of what goes into bring a figure to market. There really isn't much that is a "no brainer." Hasbro doesn't simply answer to what their market research shows that people might want - and getting a solid answer from our community is damn near impossible because we're terrible. But Hasbro answers to both Disney and Lucasfilm, and they have to fall within strict budgetary guidelines, and they have limited resources at factories to pump out only certain amounts of certain products at certain times. And with so little wiggle room, Hasbro may be risk-averse. So again, I agree with Chris, that while I personally would like to see some older minor characters brought back to give newer collectors a shot at getting them, the demand is iffy.

Do you think hasbro should make a expanded universe line? (no repacks) - Spawn

Chris: Yes. Specifically I want to see the Comic Packs line return with it's own budget. I wouldn't want to further pull from the existing TVC budget. The reality of that is somewhere between slim and none, and this country has an obesity problem, so slim doesn't exist. But can you imagine how epic Comic Packs in TVC styling would look? And let me ask you another question: Is my Spawn #1 worth anything?

Bret: No. While I think some of those figures were cool, most of them exist in my collection with no context. As I said earlier, I prefer to build out and finish my existing scenes, rather than add one-offs. And I don't really follow much of the Star Wars universe outside of what I see in films or TV, so I don't have much of a desire for any such characters. Again, I do like the figures I have from the old comic packs, but I honestly didn't know anything about the source material in almost all cases.

I'll do my own Q&A with leftover questions. - CJ

Chris: This isn't a question. I deduct 50 points from Slytherin.

Do you, like me

Chris: Sure. You seem like a nice enough fella.

Whoops, I started answering before you were finished with your question.

Do you, like me, find it criminal that we likely aren't going to receive a figure of Karis Nemik? I understand the "non-toyetik" nature of him (and most Andor characters), but given that he wrote the manifesto that will go on to inform the ideological cohesion of The Rebellion... I dunno, he seems like an absolute must for me. - JsironStories

Chris: No, I do not think it's criminal. In the 3.75" scale, I don't care for getting specific characters in isolation, with rare few exceptions. A Nemik would be worthless to me without the rest of the Aldahni heist crew (Arvel Skeen, Taramyn Barcona and Cinta Kaz). I wouldn't want all those tooling dollars going to a three episode arc of a television show. There are much more deserving, and marketable figures. The latter is of critical importance to the health of TVC.

If I want a single character "prestige" collection, I'm going to look to small batch companies like Hot Toys or Medicom.

Bret: Sigh. What Chris said.

Do you ever think we could see a HASLAB for relatively inexpensive things that the collector community wants but wouldn't be a huge seller otherwise? Im thinking overpriced accessory packs? Obscure carded figures for like $45 where they would sell for $16 if released normally? I dont think they've ever done a mini-haslab before? - Duke Skyfarter

Chris: I don't know, but I will say that I am disappointed that HasLab seems to have become conflated with "big", and honestly I think there is a segment of the fan community that feeds in to that. There seems to be collectors who always want the HasLab to be the equivalent of the "Christmas/birthday" items from their childhood. To me, Hermi Odle is every bit the "dream product" as the Barge. I want Hasbro to use HasLab to bring us smaller things for which they are unwilling to assume the risk. Honestly, the number of big ticket items to which I'm will to devote my dwindling display space, is fairly small.

Bret:. I would love a mini-Haslab, but no idea if this is something that's feasible. I have to admit this: The Barge is one of my absolute favorite pieces in my collection, but I am kind of disappointed that I have a Razor Crest. I'd probably would rather have a bunch of mini-haslabs to fill out my shelving with scenery, accessories, weird background characters, and so forth.

How can we convince Hasbro to make more Alien/Intergalactic Riff-Raff figures? Do other fans want these figures as well? - Pat Shark

Chris: We probably can't, but retailers can. We can convince retailers to ask for more by supporting them when they're available. Since the Vintage Collection customer base largely rejected The Mythrol, which reached under $4 on Amazon at one point, and since retailers paint in broad strokes, the alien/backgrounder category probably took a big kick in seat.

Bret:. If Hasbro can manage to put together a couple of 3 or 4 packs using largely re-used tooling to get us such background figures that don't demand a ton of accuracy or articulation, they could probably pull this off if, as Chris says, there's a retailer willing to support.

What is every collector mistake possible? Well some of them. - Carbonite_Hydrates

Chris: The biggest mistake I've made is selling off parts or most of my collection three different times. I end up buying most of it back for much more than I got for them. If you get bored of collecting, put it in storage for a year or two. If at that point you still don't want it, then you can sell it. Similarly I've skipped product over some form of boycott, only to later spend much more on the secondary market once I was over whatever ridiculous nerd outrage I was feeling at the time. Finally, there is no such thing as paying too much for a collectible you want. You didn't pay too much. You simply bought too early. So don't let something rare slip through your fingers because you're not willing to step up to the plate (assuming you have the finances to do so). If you do end up overpaying, it's only temporary. The market will catch up to what you paid eventually. That unpunched, offerless, no price sticker, AFA 85/85/85 12-back A Vader is never going to come up for sale again.

Bret:. Ha! Chris sucks. And he didn't even tell you the Queen's Royal Starship Story.

Who is in your all time NFL dream team? - Mr. Mack McSwif

Chris: Tom Brady playing all 11 positions on offense and defense, and playing starting shooting guard for the Celtics. Dumb question. I feel like you already know this. NEXT!

Bret:. Lawrence Taylor playing all 11 positions on offense and defense, and going up against Chris's Tom Brady team in the Super Bowl, and winning by catching a pass against his helmet.

Despite what they say, it's clear Hasbro no longer has access to a majority of TLC molds. Why do you think they refuse to cop to this? Wouldn't it be better to just rip off the band-aid and tell everybody if they want Giran and his pals, they're just gonna need to resort to the secondary market? - TWOWANBEE

Chris: I really don't know, but I can't figure it out. Overall fans are pretty reasonable (waits for laughter to subside). We won't be happy if the tooling to some of the best figures in the history of the line has been lost, stolen, or rusted, but stuff happens. We'll understand and get over it. Right now what we're hearing is that Hasbro has all those assets, but despite being a company that loves repacks, they'd rather watch fans suffer not having access to some very important TLC figures. The later comes across like the cable company, having the capacity to alleviate a serious point of customer angst, but choosing not to for reasons:

How many times has Hasbro asked to let them know what figures would make for smart pack refreshes? How many times have we named the rare TLC figures? We'd rather know it's not possible than feel ignored, which is exactly how the community feels with respect to this issue.

Bret: I like the Tin Man.