My Biggest TVC Letdowns of 2025

I'm sure either Chris or I will do some kind of 2025 wrap up before we turn the calendars to 2026. But even before we dive into that, it's hard to argue that the sum of the products didn't amount to the best overall year in the history of TVC. However, there were several things that annoyed me. While I'm not alone on several of these, I'm sure at least one or two may be unpopular. Number 7 will shock you!




We'll start with one that probably doesn't have a lot of support for the most annoying TVC item of the year. But it definitely ground my gears. Hasbro released VC348 Clone Trooper Lieutenant (Teth) The figure itself is quite good. I have no complaints about either sculpt or the paint job. But I have a huge problem with the naming of the figure. This is a Phase I 501st Clone Trooper, not a Clone Lieutenant. I mean, it may be a 501st lieutenant, but that would just be dumb luck. The naming indicates it's the blue version of the ranking system the was introduced during AOTC. Sergeant (Green), Lieutenant (Blue), Captain (Red), and Commander (Yellow). However, the lack of the 4 dots on the chest, as well as the lack of the full central dorsal stripe connecting the fin to the visor on the helmet, are the giveaways. Not to mention that Teth was a mission handled by the 501st, and the troopers depicted in the cartoon (TCW) as well as live action (Ahsoka flashback) support this figure being a 501st.

As a 501st collector, it bugs me no end that this figure is named improperly. I'm not laying full blame on Hasbro for this, as Funko did the same thing with their POP figure. So I assume LFL has something to do with this nonsense as well.

This annoys the hell out of me.




This pack was a prime example of an unsatisfying incremental change to a figure that needs and deserves a full overhaul. I'm not sure if it's worse when this crap treatment happens to an army builder, since it ruins the chance for some collectors to buy pallets of the figure in question, or if it's worse for a one-off character that may never see an update. For the Battle Droid Army builder 4-Pack, Hasbro tooled new legs to help improve sturdiness and some posability, but stopped there and did nothing with the upper body. This created two problems. The first is that one of the biggest issues remained unresolved, which is the inability of the figure to perform the iconic two-handed weapon grip. But it also meant that we got a thick lower body that is disproportionate to the thin upper body. It's kind of another Dedra Meero situation.

Hasbro should just fast forward to the inevitable fully upgraded version of the Battle Droid, and skip a torturous 7 year period of giving us one with a new head, then another with new wrists, then another with a new torso, and another with new forearms, and another with new shoulders, and another with new toenails, and then another with a new crotch.

Screw this guy.




This Stormtroopers of the Empire set was perhaps more annoying than the aforementioned Battle Droid set. This one has 3 of the most iconic Star Wars army builders in one pack. And while the snowtrooper lieutenant is pretty much perfection, the Sandtrooper and Scout Trooper are both guilty of providing collectors with incremental updates that are more insulating than anything else. The sandtrooper has a couple of sculpting differences that are important distinctions between it and a regular stormtrooper, so good for Hasbro on these. But they left a couple of important ones out. So instead of giving us a definitive modern TVC stormtrooper, we got another half measure.

The Biker Scout may be the King of Hasbro Half Measures. It proves the mathematical rule that if you keep cutting the distance to the finish line by half, you'll never reach it. I've lost count, but Hasbro may have made minor tweaks to this sculpt about 329 times since it first debuted in the year 1739. And we're still a good way off from where we need to be. In fact, the cumulative changes are awkward to the point where Hasbro should now scrap the whole thing and just give us a brand new figure from the ground up.

This set frustrates me.




The lack of a new C-3PO has been compounded by the fact that every ANH main got at least a facelift over the past year or two. Even R2 recently got a nice new paint job, although many collectors would probably like to see an all new astromech sculpt. Chewbacca got new legs (and he's heading dangerously close to Biker Scout territory), and Luke, Leia, Han, Ben, and Vader got all new figures. Meanwhile, poor
VC06 See-Threepio (C-3PO) is still plaguing our collections with his weird, over-engineered self. One of the biggest letdowns of 2025 was that there was no C-3PO. I'm not sure if there's any time left for Hasbro to reveal VC375 as the perfect Threepio before the year is out, but I'm not holding my breath.

Let's go already. I ain't got all day.




Looking at the Return to Tatooine poster (which Mr. Stevie has made available on his website in hi-res), you may think this was an awesome project theme. On some level, it was. We got the Cantina, which is one of my top 5 items I own in my collection (maybe as high as #2, as I may have the Barge as my #1). The figures included were awesome, but 3 of the 5 were redos. (The Tonnikas were all new, of course.) We also got the Streets of Mos Eisley set, which I love (although there are some warts that annoy me). Beyond that, every single item we got was a redo of stuff we already had. Now, as I've said many times, I'll make exceptions for the mains. So Luke, Ben, Han, and Hammerhead are fantastic (if not perfect) all new sculpts. Chewy and the Sandtrooper got some incremental tooling updates. We got re-releases like Evazan, Ponda Baba, and Vom Bimdin. We got newly accessorized figures (Jawa and Tusken). And we got the all new Landspeeder and Bantha.

Aside from the playsets, Tonnikas, and the 3 all new mains, the rest of the theme gets an underwhelming sigh from me. The Bantha did nothing for me. The landspeeder did almost nothing - although I do like that it has a space for Threepio to sit (even though we didn't get a new Threepio). Unpopular opinion, but Hammerhead also did almost nothing for me. The old one from 2006 wasn't up to modern standards, and this TVC figure is definitely outstanding, but I just never felt I needed an update. Even though the articulation is limited, the old figure looked great, and his stance with the bent knees allowed him to pretend to sit, like the POTF2 Lak Sivrak figure. So there was zero urgency for an update there. The Jawa got nice soft goods, but the underlying figure is terrible. The Tusken got new soft goods, but again, the figure itself, like the Biker Scout, is ready to be launched into the sun to make room for a proper TVC-worthy update. The re-issues did nothing for me either. Oh, and let's not forget the kitschy Kenner Cantina set. Nonsense nostalgia within a hobby that is the very embodiment of nostalgia serves almost no purpose in my collection. I couldn't even bring myself to review the set, so I took the stupid photographs and punted the review to Chris. I would have given it a 0. Maybe a 1 if I was in a good mood. In the end, I put the four figures as backgrounders in my Cantina and Palace, so it's not a total loss. But the bright neon Kenner colors makes them stick out too much and are almost an eyesore and distraction.

So the Tonnikas, while a seismic triumph, were the only new characters we got. How is that possible? There are 17 figures (21 if you count the 4 Kenner alien repaints) that were included in RTT. While I think Greedo and Nabrun are great figures, Hasbro blew the chance to give us some new Glups as tiers within the Haslab. Yeah, maybe we collectors are the ones who blew it because we didn't hit the Arleil Schous tier. But any of the "debut" figures on my Cantina Top 10 would have been preferable to another Greedo and Nabrun Leids. And how about a Lars Family Speeder or Ball Speeder instead of another landspeeder? And how about a Jerba instead of another Bantha?

Overall, RTT was disappointing to me, and it was the biggest chance for us to get a bunch of new deep backgrounders. "Opportunity wasted," I say. I have to hold out hope that the rumored Cantina Alien 4-pack provides some satisfaction.

Hasbro, in the above items, I am disappoint.

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