Bantha Skull Q & A: Episode 4 - Part 2

Posted by Chris on 03/18/25 at 07:05 AM Category: Vintage Collection, Bantha Skull Q&A

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We tackled some of your burning questions in Part 1 of our 4th Q&A HERE. Now let's get to part 2 where we answer some more. Again, if we didn't get to your question, please don't take offense. There were a lot.

Chris and Bret, have you guys considered doing collection/display showcases? I always love seeing how people set up and display their collections and Chris’ dioramas always catch my eye on livestreams. - Dylan Smith

Would you consider doing a full collection room tour? - CptEks

Chris:

There's an expression in my industry that goes, "some times you have to shoot all the programmers to get the software out the door." It's very true. If the managers didn't set deadlines, we'd keep working and refactoring in an effort to come up with a more perfect solution. My display is the exact same way. I've never felt it was finished. There's always a set up that could be done better. There are displays that could use some more figures to flesh out that I seem to never get around to acquiring. We moved into our current house in the summer of 2020. I still haven't out put out all of my figures. I've started putting my Ewoks back out twice now, but got overwhelmed trying to align them all with the correct accessories. Plus, I (like Bret) have to tear down my displays to do some of the photography here. My display room is trashed right now. I haven't recovered from the these last two waves. But I will do one at some point. I feel like I need to wait for the Cantina to really do it right, though.

Bret:

Ha. My answer is nearly identical to Chris's, and I don't even know what programmers do, so I don't know if they should be shot, but I'll take his word for it. Like Chris, I'm not anywhere near finishing my displays. I'm currently working on a dual project, which involves a lot of time-consuming documentation and matching of all the accessories to their figures, which is a nightmare, despite having stored them together in bins for many years. But those years have been filled with plenty of starts and stops and opportunities for mixups and loss. Since I started collecting, I've only had 2 times where most everything was on display. The first was in the beginning when my collection was relatively small and I lived alone in a two bedroom apartment in El Paso in 1999/2000. When I left the Army and returned to NY, my collection travelled across the country, and was temporarily sharing space between a storage unit and my parents house, both in NY - while I myself was living in a studio apartment in NYC. After meeting my eventual wife, the second time I had everything on display was in a large apartment in Montclair, NJ around the time of ROTS. That was also the time that I proudly posted pictures of my entire collection in the now defunct Banthaskull forums. That was before things got too big for the place when TSC kept things moving faster than my space could keep up. My wife and I moved to a different (smaller) apartment in NJ which was closer to NYC where we worked, and once again the whole shebang got boxed up and put into storage. We eventually bought our NJ house in 2013, and I finally got all my stuff out of purgatory once again...only to stick it in another purgatory: My never finished basement. Despite starting and stopping a couple of times, I never got things off the ground, and the basement was essentially just another storage facility for all my crap. When life took an unexpected turn and I moved out to Phoenix, once again my stuff made the cross country trip and was jammed into a storage facility until we moved into our current (forever?) house. After rescuing my collection (again), I had it stacked between the garage and two rooms in this house. I built a bunch of Ikea shelving to get a lot of it displayed, but just never had the time or energy to do it because I was overwhelmed by how disorganized everything was. Also, I had been lacking a key piece of display furniture that was intended to show off my more prized items, but as of November 2024, it is finally complete. So I was left with no excuse to continue my procrastination, and I have now been working for several months on the meticulous task of getting everything documented and displayed. I'm probably about 1/3 done. My goal is to have it all finished by the time the Cantina ships, which, like Chris, seems like the current item that is holding me back from having a satisfactory display. If all goes well, I should be more or less settled in by then.

Do you think that Hasbro's CEO was sincere in his remark about people writing into Hasbro to let them know that they if want the USS Flagg, that is the only way he can convince his team to get it done.

If something like that would work, do you think a "letter writing" campaign of our own could work for a large Star Wars playset outside of a Haslab? - Maarek Stele

Chris:

When HasLab was announced at the 2018 Toy Fair, the first thought that came to mind was that the ultimate purpose of the platform was so that the Flagg could set sail again. So I do think it's genuine that Hasbro could be "nudged" to do that. Of course "letter writing campaign" is probably meant metaphorically as a tie to the past. Fan polls serve that purpose now. If you really want a Death Star (we know what you were getting to), a poll would go a long way. Finally, as someone who may come across as elitist at times, I'm not so sure the Hasbro CEO should have copped to being one of the spoiled kids that owned a USS Flagg.

Bret:

I think Hasbro has shown that they are interested in customer feedback and are willing to try to fulfill requests if there is enough noise. Obviously, their own business needs and internal market research will ultimately dictate what they will and will not do, but despite all the nonsense about "corporate greed" (shockingly, companies exist to make money!) a good business has its finger on the pulse of its customer base. There's no way that executives who want to sell a product are going to completely ignore the desires of their customers, nor would they be stupid enough to ONLY listen to their customers without taking into account the massive amount of market, financial, and manufacturing data at their fingertips. So if enough people make noise about a particular thing, there's no doubt in my mind that Hasbro will at least investigate the feasibility of bringing that thing to market. And if it ends up not making business sense, then they simply won't risk it and will instead repack Aurra Sing.

To advertise the Cantina Haslab figures Hasbro obviously had already put some work into designing and tooling them. If we were ever to be offered a dream figure pack Haslab do you think we should expect to see all of them before backing the set? This sort of played out with many arguing we'd get Arliel anyway because he was already tooled. What is there to stop this happening with a dream pack? Would fans fund a Haslab based on 10 stock film stills? - Rich Sims

Chris:

This has been a frequent point of confusion. When we say "tooled" we mean that the steel tooling has been cut for mass production. This is the single most expensive part of the R&D process. None of the figures that were shown for the Cantina were "tooled" at that point. The steel tooling wasn't cut until the project funded. Steel tooling is needed for mass production, but it is not needed for prototyping, which is what was shown. Figures are no longer physically sculpted. They are digitally sculpted in ZBrush (or a similar drafting program). That digital sculpt can then be 3D printed, and hand painted. This is what Hasbro did for the Cantina, and Hasbro could do this for a hypothetical HasLab dream pack. It's not "free", but it's less expensive than tooling a figure. As a tangent, I personally feel like sticker shock is what's keeping a HasLab dream pack from happening. I don't think fans are ready for how expensive small batch figures are. Think deluxe pricing for basic figures as a starter.

Bret:

Chris answered the question, so I'll just emphasize that collectors would indeed be shocked at the cost of a Haslab figure pack. After the Death Star, a figure pack is probably my "dream" premium item. It would be a 10-pack of never before made nonsense background figures from the OT (and maybe one or two from the PT) that had zero chance of success in the wild. I'm talking tertiary cantina/palace denizens, deep background droids, and maybe someone like Cliegg Lars or Bob Hudsol. Some of the figures I have in mind would likely have little opportunity for tool reuse, but if that was possible and it helped, then so be it. Also, I wouldn't want to pay for packaging, so I'd like them sent to me in a white mailer box with plastic baggies inside. No reason to inflate the price any more than necessary by putting them on fancy cards that I'm going to toss in the trash anyway. I would expect to pay at least $350 for such a 10-pack. And it should come with some awesome exclusive accessories, so if there was some opportunity to offer any of the figures to the general public, the initial offering would be special in some way

Are we currently in the golden age of collecting? - Carbonite_Hydrates

Chris:

I honestly don't think we can have this debate until the line rests for good. I trimmed down your question for time, but you mentioned 2007-2012 as something previously regarded as a high point in the line, but the figures in the current era put them to shame. I know this is a cop out, but I think we can say this is a golden age, but if the line continues for another decade, who knows what advancements it will see. We might get butterfly shoulders and toe crunches. And then I'll be dictating articles to my personal assistant robot about how we need a new Snowtrooper because the 2025 one is trash.

Bret:

I was going to say exactly the same - that this is a golden age. But 2007-2012 was special due to the sheer volume of figures and vehicles available while pulling from so many deep-cut sources, and was something we'll likely never see again. What made it The Golden Age wasn't the quality of the toys as compared to today. They were indeed outstanding for the time, and we are often frustrated at the "missing tooling" from the TLC line even today. But it was a great time because almost everything was affordable and relatively easy to find, and the sheer volume of product provided enough choices to keep most collectors happy and able to readily pick and choose and not feel like they were missing out. There was no nonsense 6" or Retro competing for space and resources. We did have the cartoon-styled TCW figures, which I avoided, but I rarely got the sense that those were cutting in on my action as I feel today. I got plenty of OT, PT, and EU figures anyway, and the TCW vehicles were great. Occasionally I was bummed when a cool figure was made in TCW instead of realistic style, but it wasn't often. It just seemed that the sky was the limit and it was never going to end. Obviously today, TVC puts TAC/TLC/TVC1.0 figures to shame, but we are all feeling the crunch of the realities of economics, a dwindling collecgtor base, over-saturation of controversial Star Wars media, and the general sense that at any moment, it might all go away. The offerings are incredible, and Haslab has brought us some shocking dream projects, but things are definitely not nearly as "golden" as they were before The Dark Times.

Let's say TVC ends (at some point, it probably will). What's one previously-unproduced vehicle that you think the line would be totally incomplete without? - Blasko

Chris:

I'm not saying that this would be a high selling item, but I think the vehicle that would make the Vintage Collection feel incomplete to me is the same exact one that makes the vintage Kenner line incomplete: The White Witch. I'm being a little disingenuous because I didn't feel that sense of incompleteness in 1985. I honestly don't even know when I learned that a White Witch was planned for the Droids line had it continued, but the year probably started with a "2". I didn't have any of the 1985 product aside from the POTF R2-D2. I'm obsessed with it now because it feels like part of my personal story that went unfinished. I should have gotten all the POTF, Droids and Ewoks figures. So the thing that should have been in the the line that I should have collected is like a grail on steroids.

Bret:

A two-pack of "BMF" Imperial Shuttle and "BMF" U-Wing, where they take up 142 cubic feet of space, and can hold 2 figures each.. I don't feel that strongly about any particular vehicle that is "missing" from the line. I think we have things pretty well covered, even if some are sub-par. The one that could benefit the most from an upgrade would probably be the sandcrawler, mostly because it would get MAKXMELZJIENQ to shut the hell up about the Fakecrawler that was made by Fazio. But seriously, an acceptably scaled official not-bootleg sandcrawler would be exceedingly large, and would just house a bunch of Jawas, hardly exciting. The only item that I really feel is missing is the Rebel Transport, since Kenner made one, and it's never been reproduced in the modern line. Not that I'm advocating for such nonsense, but it does nag at me a bit that we don't have a modern one.

With Shasa Tiel coming within 6 votes of knocking off the Big Bad from the Prequel Trilogy, does this send a message to Hasbro and to the community that Alien Characters of various prominence are just as desired and as important as any other character? - Pat Shark

Chris:

Shasa coming up only six votes short of Papa Palpatine is like Rocky going the distance against Apollo Creed, but losing the decision. It's not a victory, but it's a "victory". It's astounding really. I do think that alien characters are very important to the line because it's what keeps it fresh for the long time, hard core collectors. Those collectors might not represent the majority of the current fan base, but it's in Hasbro's best interest to keep their best evangelists engaged. Having said that, and in the interest of "keeping things real", Shasa only got 806 votes. If Hasbro sold ten times that amount of Shasa figures, it would still be a colossal retail failure. So while I do feel Hasbro should make that figure, it needs to be released in a manner that mitigates the risk.

Bret:

Palpatine should be embarrassed and should feel bad. The overarching supervillain of the entire 9-film Saga barely squeaked by a blink-and-you'll-miss-her alien with no speaking lines. This supports the importance of world-building, the whole reason 3.75 is king. I think it was a great showing, and 806 votes is a relatively solid performance. I hope to see Shasa Tiel someday in an exclusive muitlipack that is similar to the epic Jabba's Court Denizens.

My question is WHY am I in the minority about the 9x7 versus the boxed figures? - Scott McManigal

Chris:

Here's my take on the situation. With the larger card, Hasbro tried to serve two masters at once, and failed at both as often happens. They wanted to appease carded collectors to tap into the "one to open and one to display" crowd. It obviously doubles their sales. But, for many, the whole point of a carded collection is some sort of uniformity. So a carded collector has literally hundreds of 6" x 9" cards, and then suddenly these wider cards start dotting the landscape. It breaks the presentation. So they failed at capturing the "one and one" mindset, but also screwed over openers because the bubble on card can't accommodate all of the same accessories that a box can.

Bret:

I think the Hasbro team legitimately made an attempt to please as many people as possible with this type of product packaging, and it just didn't work at all. I give them credit for trying, but it's a definite failure. Once again, however, the problem from Hasbro's perspective is trying to listen to a divided community. As with such things as the design of a Haslab Death Star (which under no circumstances should have anything resembling a curve), nobody can really agree on what they want, and we're too consumed by debating which figures should even be deluxe in the first place (regardless of packaging), and how much they should cost.

Do you think we will ever get a Puppet Sy Snootles in the line? Also, if they EVER get to the Max Rebo Band do you think they will make Max Rebo anatomically correct? And do you think there is a chance they will correct or rerelease Hammerhead on a 6x9 card? (I’m not hanging that deluxe card on my wall with the rest). Finally the final question. Will they rectify 8D8? - Uncle Dino

Chris:

You're doing a bit of a speed round, so here goes. I don't know that there's enough demand for the band. It feels niche. But if Hasbro ever does release it again, I feel it would be the puppet Sy and the two-limbed Max Rebo. If Hasbro did a 6" x 9" Hammerhead card, it would probably be a convention exclusive which would mean a foil card. That still doesn't blend with the rest of the modern O96'ers. Finally, no. I think the 8D8 we have is the same one we'll take to our graves.

Bret:

I don't think there's enough demand for an updated Rebo Band. There's definitely a vocal minority out there - but once again, as I mentioned in my previous answer, the figure source (puppets or CGI), the packaging, the cost, the availability...if you ask 10 collectors, you'd get 4 different answers: 3 would have expectations wildly different from each other, and 7 would tell you they're not interested in the limited tooling slots going to this update. But for the record, I don't want any part of the weird "his hands are his feet and his feet are his hands" nonsense. Just give me a piano playing blue elephant and I'd be fine with that.

Don't expect an answer to this, but want the question to sit here and simmer, so people can mull it over. Is the luster starting to fade on Steve Evans? - TWOWANBEE

Chris:

I write software that I do not use myself. I don't think the fact that I'm not a consumer of the product I make means that I don't try my absolute hardest to make it as perfect as I can. I don't care that Steve isn't a TVC consumer so long as he listens to its fans, and I can promise you that he does. As did Patrick. As does Jing, and Emily. Unfortunately, much of the interaction with Hasbro has to take place off the record now (for very valid reasons). Some of the best conversations come outside of the formal Q&A's at things like Toy Fair and other cons, but we can't report on that. I wish we could because we could more forcefully defend the brand team. They have a tough job with limited resources and high demands. They are not perfect, nor should they be free from criticism. But if you like this site, I just ask that you trust us in this regard. When Steve (or previous members of the brand team) disappoint fans, they don't take it lightly. They take it to heart. There are things you can't fake. I can tell they personally share in the disappointment regardless off whether or not they are consumers themselves. They put thought into this and care.

Bret:

I second all of that. Again, it's funny how divided our community is. We get one question that asks if we think we're currently in the golden age of collecting, and another that basically asks if the guy leading the team should get sacked.

How important at this point are successful Haslabs to the survival of TVC? Are Haslabs just gravy or are they vital? If they're vital, how many failures do you think TVC could withstand? Even if they're gravy, would a series of products themed around a Haslab (like Return to Tatooine) be detrimental if the Haslab failed? - Wampa_Stompa

Chris:

I think they're critical. Hasbro has stated that it costs them roughly the same to produce a TVC figure as it does a TBS figure, but they obviously get to charge $8 more for the TBS figure. Adult collectible toys are the ultimate in non-essential frivolities. The only incentive to make them is profit, but TVC figures don't offer much profit. But HasLabs do. It doesn't cost that much more to produce big steel tooling as it does to produce small steel tooling. Not proportionally, anyway. HasLabs, play sets, and vehicles are where TVC can become profitable, so they are important, but they can't exist without robust figure support. I think TVC could only survive one failure, and yes, the main line HasLab orbit would be detrimental if it failed.

Bret:

I think it would be a huge blow to the community and the health of the line if a TVC Haslab failed. And yeah, we'd potentially get stuck with a bunch of associated product that has no core. That's why I think it's critical that the choices make sense, and that they hit a home run every time. We wrote about our versions of a Death Star in Part I. Chris played Hasbro, and I played the collector. I don't know that either of our proposed options struck the perfect chord among everyone reading. There were pros and cons to both. It's all very controversial and difficult to navigate, but I don't know that I can think of a better Haslab, aside from figure packs that we discussed above. And I believe the reason they are so important is that TVC collectors generally seem to demand much more than what Hasbro can feasibly deliver through regular channels. So the Haslab is currently really the only way they can shed the restrictions of traditional retail channels, and try giving us something insane that we'd otherwise have no chance of seeing to keep us engaged. TBS collectors don't operate the same way. They just want more clone figures to look at when they aren't busy foraging for food in the forest.

A Prequel Trilogy support question. The recent RotS packaging for the 6" line is a Wal-Mart Exclusive. Do you think if Hasbro & retailers could be convinced to do something like this for TVC? All of the TBS releases could be done in TVC with little to no new tooling + they could do a vehicle and we don't seem to have much store exclusives anymore. - 77skywalker

Chris:

This is the question that prompted me to ask Bret to split this round into two parts. I was going to answer it at the end of part 1, but I knew I was going to write a book in response in what was already a very long article. So now I can put it at the bottom of a different very long article. In this spirit of this two-parter, I'm going to split this answer into three parts.

Part 1: Do I like the concept? Yes. Yes I do, and I would like to expand it beyond the scope of the question. Hasbro also released TBS figures on replica POTF2 cards. I would like to see them do that too. I wrote an article about it HERE. I liken this concept to "parallels" in trading cards. In that case the parallel cards come with different colors to the border or the text, and there may be multiples. Some fans will then "collect the rainbow" of a given card which means to get all the parallel releases of that same card. I get this. If you have a favorite card, you can only experience the dopamine drip of acquiring it once. If there are parallels to hunt down, however, you can experience it over and over (yes, I'm an addict). I love the recent Ep 4. Luke Skywalker. I would love to a chance to experience that acquisition thrill again on a POTF2 replica. But these are carded collectibles, and I would hate to see them as a Walmart exclusive. Good luck to the TBS fans trying to get those die cut ROTS replica cards in good shape. I'd prefer them to be shared con/Pules/Fan Channel exclusives.

Part 2: Could they do the ROTS TVC replicas without any new tooling? Mostly, but not Kit Fisto. Hasbro had a window to re-release that figure in TVC 2.0, but that window officially closed in 2022. Fans wouldn't accept a major Jedi with old style ball jointed hips, knees and elbows that don't even bend to ninety degrees, non-hinged wrists, and standard ankles. We'd need an all new Kit Fisto.

Part 3: Could retailers be convinced to carry them? Nope. As you said, big box TVC exclusives are effectively dead (as is TVC at retail in general, for that matter). They don't want to touch this stuff anymore, and it frustrates me because I think it's due to their mistakes and fumbling of their previous exclusives. Walmart had exclusive rights to the 2022 O96 wave which included one exclusive figure that was so good that it was borderline criminal: the OG Stormtrooper. What happened? Their site crashed throughout the day when it went up for preorder, and other than returns, not a single figure from that wave made it to Walmart's physical stores. In both cases WALMART failed to distribute the product effectively, but do they blame themselves? NOPE. They just see that TvC dOesN'T sELl.

Bret:

After reading Chris's answer, I just had to pick myself up after cowering under my bed in a fetal position, rocking back and forth and weeping gently. I really don't know how I feel about alternate cards. I personally get zero satisfaction out of them. If they are just repacks, I can effectively ignore them. If they are new figures, I will end up opening them anyway. If they were available online from more collector-oriented sources, I'm supportive of those that care about such things. But I'll do my quick soap box thing on the whole nostalgia angle: For me, collecting Star Wars figures is, in and of itself, the nostalgia. I don't need gimmicks to feel any more nostalgic about it, especially since the line has been packaged in the original Kenner style look for many years now. I don't get especially nostalgic with other modern cardbacks (none of which are from my childhood since I was already out of college by the time POTF2/EP1 stuff was available), nor do I get especially nostalgic about things like Retro - which I find to be a complete waste of time and resources. The whole act of buying toys and displaying/playing with them is the thing that brings me back to my childhood, and I get to do it every day in this hobby as an adult. I prefer to collect as if what we see today is just the logical extension and evolution of what we would see if the Kenner line never ended. I don't need to go backwards, which is why I was so personally offended by the regression to 5POA, and why I think Retro is nonsense. BUT, if any of it somehow contributes to more engagement with TVC (by bringing in younger fans or keeping the older ones), then have at it.

Annnnnddddd...scene. Once again, if you made it this far, you're a hero. To anyone whose question was not answered, please don't take it personal. We'll get you next time. Maybe.