Hasbro Missed A Golden Opportunity With Dark Forces Remastered

In case you didn't know, a remastered version of the 1995 video game, Dark Forces, was recently released for consoles. It's awesome. In fact, I'm angry that I'm writing this article right now instead of playing, but the purpose of this article isn't to review the game. I might do a review later this week, but our video game articles tend to do terrible on here. In fact, I'm a little concerned this entry won't get any traction because readers will assume it's video game related, hence the giant Vintage Collection logo on the lead-in image. You guys and gals like it when we stick to the hits.

Anyway, much to the occasional chagrin of the community, we will always err on the side of giving Hasbro the benefit of the doubt, especially with the brand team. All too often they are the customer facing whipping post for decisions that are above their pay grades. For that reason, we haven't been holding them accountable for the repack-heavy 2024 lineup thus far. We understand that the entertainment strikes and media delays have forced Hasbro to bump the planned newly tooled figures, while leaving them no time to substitute anything but repacks and repaints. The only condition on this understanding is that the Vintage Collection as a whole is not held accountable for the inevitable lukewarm sales that will result from the lack of newness. The poorer sales that are definitely coming do not reflect upon the demand for a super articulated 3.75" line.

Having said that, understand the need for repacks, and the selection of those repacks are two entirely different things. The decision to repack the previously re-released Cassian Andor, and the clearance fixture Finn, was not a good one. There is the possibility that those choices were influenced by the licensor. If that's the case, the article ends here, and there's no point continuing. If not, Hasbro needs to be much more careful when picking repacks (we all remember the launch wave that shall not be named). The 3.75" Black Series Cassian Andor can still be found in some Ollie's stores, and we recently documented sales of the 3.75" Black Series Finn for as low as $3 on the secondary market. Figures that struggle to generate demand at $5 can't possible generate demand at $17 (Vintage Collection cards and Photo Real be damned).

Conversely, this release of Dark Forces Remastered could have paved the way for two much needed repacks:


Hasbro recently said that they still have access to the Legacy Collection tooling. If that's true, the Phase I Dark Trooper and Kyle Katarn would have been the ideal repacks to team with game's release. If the Fan Channel wave had consisted of Dooku, Phase I Clone, a Phase I Dark Trooper repack and a Kyle Katarn repack, I would have considered it one of the most exciting assortments in recent memory. Instead, it was the first TVC 2.0 assortment that I didn't order by the case. "Fan Channel" implies that the line is for the fans, and not for the brick and mortar overlords. If that's the case, it needs to serve the fans better.

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