Hasbro Should Do Another SDCC Death Star For 2027

Posted by Chris on 07/24/24 at 07:05 AM Category: Vintage Collection, SDCC

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If you're a loose only collector, just back away now. This article isn't for you. This is for my fellow distinguished collectors of exquisite taste who collect and display carded figures. If you're a loose collector, just leave now. Go look at some old reviews or something. This doesn't concern you. Or stay, and be a putz in the comments. I don't really care.

As you all know, Hasbro released a 14-pack of "Revenge of the Jedi" figures to commemorate the landmark 28th anniversary of Return of the Jedi in 2011. It was an SDCC exclusive and came in Death Star inspired packaging. It also included the legendary (or infamous depending on your perspective) numbered mini-cards of Salacious Crumb (VC66) and the Mouse Droid (VC67), but that's somewhat unimportant to this discussion. There was nothing really new in that set. It was strictly a set of novelty cards. All of the 12 standard sized cards were released in main line later, but the set offered the best presentation for carded collectors. Not only were the cards unpunched, they were also what is called offerless. That means that, unlike the main line releases, the cards were free of the Prototype Fett offer sticker, and the redemption forms were not in the bubbles. This was basically an exclusive for carded collectors.

Currently, we're rocketing towards a Vintage Collection set of 12-back figures. We have the following pipelined figures:

Luke Skywalker (all new)
Han Solo (all new)
Ben "Obi-Wan" Kenobi (all new)
Chewbacca (partially new)

We have definitive versions of the following:

Finally, we have passable versions of the following:

Hopefully a new C-3PO isn't too far off for us to completed the 12-back collection in TVC. I'm very much looking forward to putting together a carded display of them, but since carded collectors are all partially-insane, there is an aspect of this prospective collection that bothers me. It jumps up and down on my OCD nerve. There is no visual cohesively in the presentation:

The cards may, or may not be punched. The Hildebrandt logo may or may not be obscured by the warning label, which may be either gray or black. The Tusken Raider card has the LFL 50th Anniversary logo on it. That's enough to put me in a straight jacket. Obviously, 2027 is the 50th Anniversary of A New Hope. I think it would be very cool to do a call back to the first Death Star packaging, with the 12-back figures on uniform, unpunched cards. I even think that the small parts warning could be removed from the cards and placed on the outer box. This would be the choicest carded collection of those figures possible. I would be thrilled to be able to purchase that. If you're a loose only collector, you get to ignore a convention exclusive, which is actually a good thing.

I will say, though, this proposal should not be used as an opportunity to revisit the VC67 - Mouse Droid figure. You don't make up for the cruelty of making something an SDCC exclusive by re-releasing it as an SDCC exclusive.