Let's face it. Our hobby is one of never ending accumulation. If our engagement in the hobby were hooked up to a heart rate monitor, the beeps would be every time something is added to our collections. Too long between heartbeats, and the flatline solid tone sounds. Too much at once, and it's tachycardia. One of the things that horrified Vintage Collection collectors after the morbid Toy Fair 2020 was that not only did we only get one figure revealed, but that figure wouldn't be available until August. If I had to measure it, I would say collectors were actually more upset about the projected wait for new product than the lack of announcements. At a minimum, it was a double whammy.
2021 is undoubtedly looking better, and we are very appreciative of Hasbro's efforts to jump start TVC, but at the same time we're entering another acquisition desert. The meaningful additions to our TVC collections are going to go from March (the Boba Fett wave) to July (Ahsoka wave / Walmart LFL wave). That's too long to keep engagement up, and to keep negativity at bay.
The optimal new product pace is every six weeks. That's the healthy hobby heart rate. It seems like this year has the product bandwidth to accommodate that, but the product is bunched up with the two aforementioned waves. Theres also the Antoc Merrick X-Wing which is slated for fall (meaning any time after June). Plus we have the Gaming Greats, which have already shipped in the UK, coming shortly thereafter. It would have been ideal if one of these products hit in May.
Of course. now that I've written this, someone will find the Ahsoka wave in California. If that happens, you can thank me for the reverse jinx.