Is It Time To Refresh The Backs Of Vintage Collection Cards?

Aside from changes to the legalese, and the removal of some text from inside the top racetrack, the backs of the Vintage Collection cards have been largely unchanged since 2018. In fact, the look was actually started with the 2012 lineup during TVC 1.0. It is reminiscent of the back of the Kenner 20-back cards:


Those 20-back cards showed the eight new figures in large images with the original 12-back figures in smaller images below. The current Vintage Collection cards show just the eight large images taken from the figure's wave and some random figures from adjacent waves, but there's one major difference. The Kenner cards always showed all of the figures that were available while ordering us to collect them all (and I have!). It wasn't a random eight figures on those 20-backs. It was all of the new figures. They would soon be replaced the following year by the 21-back card (adding Boba Fett). Then replaced again the following year by the 31-back which added the first Empire Strikes Back figures. The Kenner line was never locked into a specific back of the card for very long.

There is no way Hasbro could show all the figures. Heck, Kenner really had to cram 92 figures on there. But the current "20-back" look is starting to get a littlen stale in my opinion. The overall theme of individual squares with different background colors was phased out by Kenner with the 41-back which transitioned to a group shot on a blue background (a favorite among many collectors). That lasted for one iteration until being replaced with a yellow background for the 47/48 backs. That yellow background would be used until the line was sadly retired in 1985. A refresh to either of those looks would be welcome, in my opinion, perhaps in 2023 for the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi.

But if you want to do something really bold, YouTuber Action Figure Grader mentioned how nice the second film out looks on the back of the recent Clone Wars Microseries figures:


The best part of the vintage Kenner look is the film out on the front of the card, so why not add a second one to the back? That's probably a nonstarter because the card purists would riot.

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