Could Hasbro Repeat The Blue Leader’s X-Wing Success With Red Leader?

We've recently been discussing rare Legacy Collection figures to which the fan community needs primary market access. One of the more expensive and inaccessible Legacy Collection items is the famous Scramble on Yavin battle pack. When we recently reviewed that pack, we said that it should be re-released, but I feel like we need to backtrack on that assertion. That Garven Dreis simply would not cut the mustard in 2022 especially when the VC158 - Luke Skywalker (X-Wing Pilot) figure set a new standard for pilots. So I thought we could replay the pattern that has recently unfolded with Antoc Merrick's X-Wing Fighter Vehicle, and rather than re-release a dated figure to satisfy demand for a character, it should be updated. Doing so is practical in this case because of the degree of existing tooling that could be leveraged.

Step 1 would be a release of Red Leader's X-Wing vehicle with a carded Garven Dreis figure based on the new X-Wing pilot buck. We've actually already had a Red Leader's X-Wing released in 2004's Star Wars "Saga" line:


The paint applications on that release are comically crude compared to what Hasbro is doing today, and the "big X-Wing" mold has undergone so many impressive updates since 2004 that it's virtually become a new mold. Both reasons would justify re-releasing the vehicle.

Next comes the issue of Dreis' astromech, R5-K6. Step 2 would follow the Merrick pattern again with a Fan Channel singled carded re-release. Either use the existing version based on 2006's TSC 032 - R5-D4 if the tooling is still available, or the build-a-droid Astromech buck (with the secondary leg holes filled in) if not. Admittedly, paying $17 for an Astromech is not ideal, but it beats paying $50+ on Ebay for the 2008 version.

So what says you? Instead of re-releasing a rare, but dated figure, follow the Antoc Merrick X-Wing playbook to upgrade that figure (and vehicle), and then re-release the corresponding Astromech. Yes, I know that I didn't address the Ground Crew figure and Transport, but the recently pipelined Speederbike shows there might be a different path for that.

---

comments powered by Disqus