Multipacks come in multi-expressions for some reason.
This article will probably not provide that reason, because I have no real idea why, other than, as me ol' pal Chris succinctly stated in a text to me yesterday: "Cost."
I could leave it at that, but as you know, that would run askance of my contractual obligation to write lots of words. So I'm going to write lots of words even though it's late and I need to go to sleep.
I love multipacks. They are almost always a quick and easy way to build out scenes or crews in my collection that might otherwise take months or years to accomplish. An example would be the 501st Legion ARC Troopers, which was a convention exclusive. This gave us all 3 of the main ARC Troopers from the 501st that were featured in TCW: Echo, Fives, and Jesse. And take the recent "Mandalorian Shriek Hawk" set. It consists of all 4 members of the Covert's Shriek-Hawk Training Team. Let's just accept that the naming of the set is odd, as it would indicate that you're getting the actual Shriek-Hawk lizard/bird thing. It should have been called the Shriek Hawk Training Team. But of course, that's weird too, as what are they training? The birds themselves? That may be the case, since the team did "rescue" 3 chicks and bring them into the covert, so maybe they were tasked with training them. Or they train teams of mandos to defend against, or hunt/kill, shriek hawks. Or they're actually the trainers for combat teams, and "shriek-hawk" is just their team name (as it's their sigil). I think it's really the latter. But that's not what this is about, so let's just move this conversation forward.
Both of these sets gave us complete crews, and that's awesome. That seems to be the M.O. for these packs, and I'm all for it. But why the different "expressions," as the Hasbro team liked to call them?
In TVC 2.0, we've received 2 different versions of 3-packs. The first is the "Special Set." We've gotten 4 of those, starting with Dr. Aphra and her 2 droids. The set was a continuation of this expression, which had already had 5 releases in TVC 1.0 (as well as an additional mega-pack of 3 of these sets). Those, in turn, were actually a homage to the same format that was originally used by Kenner. The sets consisted of 3 figures that were packed in a window box, and were themed in some way, either by character type (i.e., "villain" or "hero") or by faction (i.e. "Hoth Rebels"). The figures were often loosely connected - if at all, like the 2012 Villain set which consisted of a Tusken Raider, Boba Fett, and Snaggletooth. Also, the source film was featured on the packaging logo in the TVC 1.0 releases, although the aforementioned Villain set dubiously has "Star Wars" as the source, so you'd have to stretch to assume Boba Fett is from the Docking Bay 94 Special Edition scene.
Aphra was the first multipack in TVC 2.0. This time, Hasbro (thankfully) bucked the trend of specious trios, and actually gave us a real crew. In another welcome departure from previous "Special Sets", all 3 figures were brand new this time. Aphra was released as a carded figure in the main line not too long after this, but the droids were not. I assume Hasbro had plans to do so, but perhaps the demand didn't justify that move. And finally, it seems Hasbro passed on the source logos, and just went with the classic Star Wars double racetrack. They must have foreseen the challenges, as the second of these sets was the Luke Skywalker Jedi Destiny set, which had two Lukes from ANH, and one from ROTJ. This didn't complete a crew, per se, but it did give us updates to Luke in 3 iconic outfits (not farm boy, though). It was followed by The Cave of Evil set, which was essentially a crew of all 3 organic characters that were on Dagobah (not Artoo), and contained 2 repacks and 1 new figure. And finally we got the 501st ARC set. These were from a brand new sculpt, which was painted 3 different ways to get the three figures. The entire Luke Set, the entire ARC set, and Dr. Aphra were re-released as individually carded figures. Since Vader and Luke from the Cave of Evil set were previously released in the main line (Black Series), that currently leaves Aphra's 2 droids as the only ones out of the 12 total that did not see main line release.
After the Aphra set, but before the other three 3-packs in the Special set format, Hasbro released another 3 pack, but in a new and different format. This time we got 3 of Jabba's henchmen, which were on single cards, but packed together in a window box that showed off the figures in their individual bubbles. The packaging was labeled as ROTJ, and was called simply "Special" (dropping "Set" from the format). But this time, there was no name of the pack contents. In Chris's review, he addressed it this way:
At the time of this review, site sponsor Entertainment Earth is naming the set “Skiff Guard Action Figure 3-Pack.” Meanwhile, Hasbro’s consumer-direct outlet, Hasbro Pulse, is naming the set “Tatooine Skiff Set.” This inconsistency is fine and is not something I will obsess over. [YEAH RIGHT! THIS IS GOING TO KEEP ME UP AT NIGHT!] Things need names for the naming. Now fans are going to be calling this set all sorts of different things, and it’s sure to cause fist fights. I decided to go with the Entertainment Earth name as the primary title of this set because that’s the name that appears to be gaining traction within the community.
These 3 characters didn't complete a crew, but they were definitely part of the crew of Jabba's henchmen. If you want to get technical, neither EE's nor Pulse's naming were accurate, as Vizam was not on the skiff, but was on the deck of the Khetanna. THESE THINGS MATTER! In the case of this 3-pack, we got 2 repacks, and one brand new figure. Since this 3-pack "carded-in-a-box" format debuted, Hasbro released 2 more sets from Jedi Survivor and Obi-Wan Kenobi. All 6 of the figures contained within these two sets were repaints/re-accessorized/re-tools of existing figures.
Hasbro's multipack efforts of late have been dominated by 4-packs. These come in 3 flavors so far. The first 4-pack to be released was of the carded-in-a-box variety. This "Special" set with no name consisted of 4 individually carded figures in a source-branded box. The first one was from The Bad Batch. It contained the first four figures from that source, although none of them were Clone Force 99. All were repaints/re-accessorized/re-tools of the annoying VC41 Clone Trooper. A few years later, we got the second of these sets, which is one of my all time favorites. "Jabba's Court Denizens" (officially unnamed) had 3 brand new figures, and one repack. A third set followed, which was the recently released "Escape from Order 66 (officially unnamed), consisting of 1 new figure, 2 repaints, and one repack.
Most recently, we got the Shriek-Hawk set, which is so far the only one of its kind, being a 4-pack variant of the 3-pack Special Sets with figures that are packaged together in a bubble inside a window box. This set contained 4 repaints/re-accessorized/re-tools of existing Mandalorian sculpts. Unlike the similar 3-packs in TVC 2.0, this one has The Mandalorian source image.
Dominating the multipack scene is another 4-pack expression, known as the "troop builder" set. The sets come in a white, windowless, cardboard box, with simple black and white artwork with limited colors. They are generically named, and make no note of any named characters within. The first set, "Stormtroopers", was well received by the community, as it contained 4 popular stormtroopers at a discounted price. It included an orange pauldron accessory, so you could make one an officer, if you so chose. The second set was even better. "Rebel Fleet Troopers" had the (somewhat dated) RFT figure x4, but each had a unique headsculpt as well as one that was heavily repainted to represent (a bit inaccurately) Captain Antilles of the Tantive IV. We then got the "Shoretroopers" set, which again contained 4 of the same sculpt, but with some new accessories and repainting, to represent different ranks. The "expression" was off to a good start, but stalled with the next two releases. "Death Troopers" and "Phase I Clone Troopers" were, at best, uninspired. Hasbro looked like they were jumping the shark on something good, but recovered nicely with the next few sets.
"Rebel Soldier (Echo Base Battle Gear)" brought us a popular figure, but with new headsculpt variants. The only complaint here was that Hasbro chose the wrong Hoth trooper to troop build. Phase II Clone Trooper (212th) gave us repaints of the all new Phase II clone (from the main line) from the 212th battalion. This was a welcome set, but some people weren't fans of it including the unique "Waxer" figure, which made army building a bit of an exercise in frustration. Previously, the RFT set included a figure that was probably Captain Antilles, but it was generic enough that it could have been any RFT officer, or rebel soldier character. Waxer's unique emblem made it impossible to pass off as any other character. "Tusken Raiders" continued this problem. While it contained some nice repaint/re-accessorized Tuskens (from BOBF) to mix up your Tatooine tribes, it again contained a specifically unique character, the Tusken chieftain. You could definitely get multiples, and mix up the robes and accessories to add some variants, but the chieftain was a bit of frustrating inclusion. One of the more controversial releases was the "Imperial Officers" set. This set made use of the recent debut of the all-new Imperial Officer figure, which was highly demanded and very welcome, but the choices here were puzzling. Admiral Motti (unnamed) and Admiral Piett (also unnamed, but with the updated rank badge that differed from his previous carded release) were included, along with two generic officers. This was frustrating because this clearly mixed unique characters in the same set as "army builders," which resulted in a somewhat lackluster reception because collectors couldn't really buy multiples unless, like the previously mentioned Waxer, they wanted an army of Mottis and Pietts.
We got a brief reprieve from unique character inclusions with the "Phase II Clone Trooper" set. This included 2 white clones, 1 332nd (Ahsoka) Clone, and 1 501st Clone. While all 3 of these troopers fought side by side in the final confrontation depicted on board the Star Destroyer Tribunal, fans were somewhat confused by 2 of the 4 figures being the lesser desired white clone, when most would have preferred just the 332nd and/or 501st. But at least we got 4 true army builders. But before we could get comfortable with that, Hasbro returned to its frustrating ways with the "Captain Enoch and Thrawn's Night Troopers". Here Hasbro actually named a character in this expression for the first time. But again, if you wanted to army build, you'd get stuck with a bunch of Captain Enochs. The most recent set had 4 generic X-Wing pilots, seemingly from different eras. I think some collectors have identified a few of the figures from descriptions/images in comics or other source materials. It would seem that 2 of the figures are from the Imperial (OT) era, and 2 are from the New Republic. Most collectors seem to have preferred that Hasbro give us a set of 4 named X-Wing pilots, such as from Yavin, Scarif, or Endor. Sometimes we want 4 unique characters, and sometimes 4 generic characters, but a mixture of the 2 is right out.
As if to show that anything's possible, Hasbro busted out a 7-pack in this "troop builder" format, giving us Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, complete with their instruments - some of which were new to the line. While D'an is a "unique" character, Hasbro did the right thing because not only is he identical visually from the other band members, I'm not sure that anyone is really interested in army building Bith musicians. In this case, you got the complete "crew", which is outstanding.
In this expression, some figures had been previously released on single cards in the mainline and were repurposed as the basis for their respective set, but so far, no figure has debuted in the "troop builder" packs and then been released in the main line.
And finally we got a couple of 2-packs, but they are in the same format as each other: Two carded figures inside a windowless box. The figures represent a pair, either partners or adversaries. We've gotten Obi-Wan/Vader, Revan/HK-47, Sabine/Chopper, and Wicket/Kneesaa. They are a mixture of repaints/re-accessorized/re-tools.
Lots of words. Circling back to my original question, as it applies mostly to the 3- and 4-packs, why the differences? How does Hasbro decide a set should be packaged in one way or another? I can't really find a specific thread that links the variant sets together. The troop builder sets sometimes contain unique characters, the Special Sets (not carded) are sometimes crews that appear together in their respective media, and sometimes the themes are more loose. For the Special packs (carded inside), they are sometimes just a bunch of figures from the same source that don't appear together (The Bad Batch), and sometimes they appear together on screen in a key scene (Escape from Order 66). And the Shriek-Hawk set, which is unique as of this writing, consists of 4 figures that might have fit in the troop builder category, but maybe not since they are a unique crew, consisting of 4 identifiable (although not named) characters.
None of this matters, really. I was just curious as to how the format is choses. Chris suggested "cost", and that's probably accurate, as that is the bottom line. And he was able to sum up this entire article in that one word, because he's a jerk.
So what's your favorite expression? What would you prefer to see going forward?