#FightForTVC:  Why This Campaign Is In EVERYONE’S Interest

Bret and I are always worried about overstating our personal beliefs and toy wants when we interact with the Hasbro Star Wars Brand Team. It can do great damage to the hobby if Hasbro thinks anyone's personal views are reflective of the community at large. This is why we say "speak for yourself." The "everyone wants" statements can be damaging when all you are really saying is "I want." So we take great pains not to overstate our own opinions, nor have it appear that we are projecting those opinions on others. It can do more harm than good. Having said that, I feel that based on the feedback we've received throughout this campaign that the following are pretty good consensus takes:

The TVC and TBS markets are largely mutually exclusive

Collectors, for the most part, collect one or the other as their primary focus. Sure, lots of people (myself included) will dabble occasionally in the other scale, but collectors focus most of their purchasing power on one scale. Those who heavily collect both are the exception. Why is this important? Whatever additional investments that Hasbro makes into the Vintage Collection should largely result in "new money." They won't be taking away from TBS sales, because the TVC collectors aren't buying that line for the most part. New money coming into the Star Wars brand at Hasbro is good for all collectors in many ways.

This campaign is about demonstrating this potential opportunity to Hasbro. Whether or not that is a profitable opportunity, has good return on investment, or has good risk/reward is 100% Hasbro's call. It might not be any of those things, and that's okay. We're just trying to say, "We're here, and we have money to spend!" if it is. This is merely an "opening move" to start a bigger dialog. Anyone stating otherwise is misinformed, and probably should check with those at the ground floor of the campaign before doing so. We're all fairly accessible. The principals are being featured in our "Who's in the fight" articles.

If TVC collectors lose interest, most will stop collecting Star Wars entirely

This is a personal statement of mine, but one that has been so frequently reiterated that it's also a good indicator of the consensus. I can't overstate how many different TVC collectors have expressed this exact statement almost verbatim:

Does Hasbro understand that if I stop collecting TVC that all my other Hasbro Star Wars purchases stop too?

This gets to the "dabbling" mentioned above. I buy the occasional TBS or other product because TVC is till keeping me engaged at the moment. Once I lose interest, those ancillary purchases go with it. They are not huge volumes, but over the TVC community, they do add up. Bottom line is that if we see an outflux of TVC collectors, all Star Wars sales will go down. How appreciably is a matter of debate, and not something of which we have any knowledge.

Collecting passion and entertainment passion form a symbiont circle

You can scoff at that, but Star Wars wouldn't be the cultural phenomenon it is today if that were not true. It was the Kenner line that helped keep Star Wars in the pop-cultural forefront between movies, while Kenner would be just another "space fad" toy without the movies themselves. The total is greater than the sum of its parts.

If TVC collectors lose interest in their hobby, it is going to affect ticket sales, theme park attendance, and the purchasing of other licensed merchandize. Once again the mount and impact of that drop is beyond us (or anyone not implicitly involved) to say. We're just stating that it would be an affect. When the flame goes out, it goes out. Again, you can scoff at that, but if you tell me you haven't watched one of the new films and fantasized about how cool a character or ship would look as a figure or toy, I don't believe you.

There are benefits to keeping this segment of the Star Wars community engaged for everyone. Hopefully the benefits outweigh the risks.

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