Some SDCC News Out Of Galactic Trading Post Will Interest 3.75” Collectors

Bummed about the lack of 3.75” news from the Hasbro panel? Our man on the ground at SDCC, Agustín, has gleaned some interesting info from GTP Toys. Galactic Trading Post is the company that has brought us Space Walls in 3 different scales. Unfortunately, the 3.75" scale was a bit underrepresented in the product offerings so far, although they did manage to produce the awesome 7 panel Space Wall set, as well as some nifty hallway support beams. But there were plans to make additional Death Star-themed items, such as doorways and crates. Sadly these never made it to market, and we might now know why.

GTP Toys has a booth at SDCC (check it out, if you can). They are displaying 6" (1:12) scaled product, which it seems they will continue to offer, in various buying formats. But you're probably not reading this for info on overly large scaled stuff. Agustín spoke with one of the reps at the GTP booth, and was told that they had to cease production of the 3.75" Space Walls, as well as any other future product. This was because of the clip system that the space walls employ to connect the modular walls. Apparently, this type of system for Star Wars product is already licensed to Lego, so it was deemed to be an infringement of sorts.

So what does this mean? Well, the follow up news is that there will still be 3.75" offerings, and that GTP will be making an announcement soon about said offerings, which would then be available before Christmas. Agustín was told that the new product (which we can assume is newly engineered without clips) would be a "massive" hangar bay environment, and would include LED lights and automatically opening doors.

Now this sounds kind of awesome (and, pure speculation, expensive), especially if it's a Death Star Hangar (as opposed to something from the sequels). The word "massive" indicates that it could (pure speculation) work for either the Falcon or the Emperor's Shuttle.

It also begs the question, "What about Hasbro?" GTP’s newly rumored licensing agreement with LFL/Disney might have them competing in the 3.75" environment market with Hasbro, which already flexed their muscle with the recent release of the Jabba's Palace Adventure Set. Personally, I’d have no problem with another licensee offering backdrops and environments to help fill out our dioramas. Even if Hasbro ups their game with figure environments, they wouldn’t be able to provide us with enough of that to keep long time collectors satisfied, so this competition could be helpful. Besides, Hasbro looks to be busy with their new 5” scale figures that we’ve been clamoring for.

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