I Forgot How Bad Things Were…

While writing yesterday's re-review, I stumbled upon something that kicked me right in the crotch.

If you think for one minute that things are bad now - and 2024 has been somewhat subpar, for sure - then take a closer look at what I found yesterday. I reposted a link to Rebelscum's coverage of 2013 SDCC in order to highlight a slide that featured the two ewoks that didn't make the final cut when the TVC Ewok Assault Catapult was released. I made the mistake of clicking around the other slides, and immediately took me back to the early stages of The Dark Times.

There were already terrible things happening to the line prior to SDCC2013, it was the beginning of the end of the Golden Age, although we probably didn't fully realize it at the time. In 2012, we saw TVC get crushed under the weight of the ambivalence that greeted the 3D theatrical release of The Phantom Menace. It was bad enough that TVC had overshipped TPM figures which were rotting on the pegs, but gasoline was poured over that fire when Hasbro decided it would be a good idea to simultaneously release a f***-ton more product in TPM3D packaging. This included a bunch of repacks that were already out in TVC (and not doing well), as well as what I believe were the first instances of the devolution of the 3.75" line. This concurrent line was a mishmash of reduced articulation figures, Clone Wars animated figures, and a subset of Walmart Exclusives comprised mostly of TVC repacks packaged with 3D glasses and whatnots.

Now there definitely were a few gems hidden within the mess (mostly the TRU exclusive multi-packs, and one or two figures and vehicles. But overall this was a seismic shift in 3.75" collecting.

Take a look at the 2013 NYTF Hasbro Presentation slideshow on Rebelscum, and then come back here. I'll wait.

OH MY GOD I THINK I FELL ASLEEP FOR 20 YEARS! Did the Knicks win a championship? Did I miss it??

Anyway, that slideshow was some kind of nightmare! It was as if Hasbro/LFL was imploding our hobby right before our very eyes, and they presented their plan directly to us! Let's unpack it:

1. The presentation begins with the big announcement of the Star Wars x Angry Birds crossover. The first 45 slides are about Angry Birds - and a 46th at the end for good measure - out of a total of 87 slides. So more than half of the presentation was devoted to this effort. We're in trouble.

2. If you survived that, you were then greeted with news of a second wave of The Black Series 6" figures. At the time, I remember being shocked that it survived one wave. Hasbro had tried a couple of times to test the waters for 6" Star Wars figures, and it died each time. But I guess if you sabotage the competing 3.75" line, you increase the chances for its survival. 6 slides were dedicated to the research and detail that went into the Slave Leia figure, before revealing a few more figures and exclusives.

3. Slide 55 finally leads us into the 3.75" part of the show. At this point you'll clearly see how big of a mess things are. It starts out with The Black Series 3.75" wave 2, which had 6 figures. Going back and checking tape, Banthaskull graded these 6 figures, in order, as 5, 8, 5, 0, 1, and 6 out of 10. That's an average of just under 4.2 per figure. (As much as we can gripe about the state of TVC, it's rare for us to score a figure below 8). The Black series 3.75" line was objectively terrible, but it hadn't even hit the Phase 3 Walmart days yet, so the worst was yet to come.

4. After TBS375, we are then treated to 3 figures from the latest wave of Saga Legends, which were in the Creepy Hand Vader packaging (ostensibly intended to be ROTS3D). While TPM3D had a few good items, AOTC3D (Yoda packaging) and ROTS3D had very little of value for the collector (we reviewed a handful of the items that did have some value). Anyway, Saga Legends were, you guessed it, 5POA! After revealing that last wave of 2013, viewers were treated to a sneak peak of more 5POA in 2014. Yay! Accompanying these crap figures were downsized vehicles, which were awesome horrible.

5. Next up were the retailer exclusives, most of which were TVC (even though the presentation slide background artwork was the ROTS3D look). This included the Gunship (awesome vehicle with horrible figures), X-Wing, random Vader multipack (that actually was in the ROTS3D packagin), TVC Death Star 2 packs, the Ewok Catapult that started me down this rabbit hole, the TIE Interceptor, and Slave I.

6. Then there a few slides dedicated to the disaster that was "TLC3" build a droid line, which for 30 seconds was going to be a thing, but instead went through some nonsensical blowout at TRU and/or Amazon.

7. A few closeout slides and mercifully it's over.

If you're keeping score, what you have is simultaneous product branding for 3.75" line in TBS, TVC (all retailer exclusive), ROTS3D (5POA), ROTS3D (a lone articulated multipack), and Legacy "3" B-A-D that was dead on arrival.

So almost in real time, you can watch Hasbro tell us that the 3.75" line had no identity, had dramatically reduced figure articulation and vehicle sizing, and was unseated from its rightful place at the top of the action figure mountain.

2024 ain't lookin' so bad after all, eh?

---

comments powered by Disqus