My Reaction To Yesterday’s Vintage Collection Fan Stream Reveals

I need to start off with a bit of preamble for this reaction article to add some nuance to the tone that is about to unfold. I need it to be understood that what follows is to be viewed in a completely isolated bubble. I was a little gutted by the reveals yesterday for varying reasons, but the scope of the emotion is strictly siloed to the three items shown on 02/26. These emotions do not project to 2025 Vintage Collection year as a whole. I am overall massively positive on TVC so far this year.

In fact, for me, this is the greatest year for TVC ever. It's only February, and we already have three Figure of the Year candidates IN HAND with VC344 - Luke Skywalker, VC347 - Anakin Skywalker, and VC349 - Imperial Snowtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear). Add to that, we're getting an all new Han Solo, Ben Kenobi, Tonnika Sisters, Greedo, Wuher, Nabrun Lieds, ROTS Anakin, Heir to the Empire 3-pack, Landspeeder, and the Cantina itself. Holy Cow! I should go out on top like John Elway and retire from collecting after this year, but I won't. I'm going to hang around too long like a former Green Bay quarterback (either one). I at least need to see what 2027 has in store. [Editor’s note: So…you’re saying you’re going to play for the Jets next year on a 2-year deal? I don’t like it.]

So this year is incredible for the Vintage Collection, but yesterday was a disappointment on some levels. Both things can be true, but I need to make sure it's understood that the tone of some of what follows represents a rare dip in an otherwise stellar year so far. I'm going to go from good to bad with the reactions.

---

Okay, for this one I have zero complaints about the figure itself. I was a little miffed at an army builder falling into the $25 deluxe price point at first, but after taking inventory of the accessory count, it's justifiable. Do fans need an entire army of Beskar Commandos to come with all of these accessories? Probably not. But I'm not sure which ones I would want to sacrifice. As stated, I have no real concerns with the figure itself aside from some potential elbow range of motion issues. It looks incredible. I do have a gripe with the timing, however. For me, this is coming far too late. I'm completely over The Mandalorian: Season 3 at this point. It's not evergreen like seasons 1 and 2.

Here's the thing, though. I don't think Hasbro could ever win in this regard. If they get in front of the media, and it's not well received by the fans, you have a recipe for peg warming. The current Acolyte figures might be an example of this, but hopefully some of that tooling can be leveraged to bring us some big screen Jedi. However, if Hasbro waits a year to make sure the property/character is evergreen before putting a figure in development, it would be another 18 months until it sees the pegs. The fans would riot at that point. Disney+ figures are Hasbro's Kobayashi Maru.



Once agin, my big gripes are not with the figure on the card. This time, it's the card that's giving me agita. If you're not a carded collector, you won't understand this at all. If you are a carded collector, you're probably joining me in my pain that a long, long awaited O96 update is getting released on a 7" x 9" card. If this were released on a 6" x 9" card, I would buy a case of them even at the $25 price point. As it stands, I will get two. It goes beyond just matching the Kenner card. The 1.29:1 ratio of the deluxe cards is just ugly in my opinion. My rate of purchase is unmoved going from the boxes to the oversized cards.

As for the figure itself, it looks fantastic, but the color of the sleeves (and by extension pants) is completely wrong. It's way too orange. It's giving me vibes of the POTF2 "Uncle Traveling Matt" Yak Face. There is no question that the sleeves on the Hammerhead puppet were the same brown color as the vest. I admit the colors of this behind the scenes photo are somewhat muted, but you can still tell that the garments match:


On the flip side, kudos to Hasbro for applying a wash, and painting the toe nails like the TBS release. We're spared a deluxe line repeat of the IG-12 underpaint.



This is the one that just absolutely kills me. Fans have been complaining about Pinhead Ponda since its initial release in 2011. We've been begging for a re-release with a properly sized head similar to the Black Series figure. When Ponda's partner in crime was repacked for wave 1 of this year, most fans assumed that a Walrus Man repack was a fait accompli. This re-release would most assuredly correct the tragic case of microcephaly that has inflicted this figure for over a decade. Yes, it would require new steel tooling, but they could leverage the digital sculpt from the TBS figure to save a little of the R&D costs. But, nooooooooooo.

Seeing the same exact peanut sized head trotted out again was such a disappointment. We all understand that TVC operates under a shoestring budget, but not correcting a "fatal flaw" over something as simple as a head sculpt is almost gratuitous cheapness. It's aggressive cheapness. I've told this story before, but it bears repeating. My older cousin helped me on my paper route one summer day so we could get back to the pool sooner. It was the day where we "collected" (i.e. the customers paid for their week's worth of newspapers). The tips typically ranged from twenty five cents to fifty cents. One customer tipped my cousin a nickel. He threw it back at the customer and told him he needed it more than we did, while calling him a cheap [expletive] (yes, this predates the scene in Waiting). Full disclosure: my cousin's retelling is definitely apocryphal because I didn't get in any trouble, but that doesn't change the spirit of this writing.

After seeing Pinhead Ponda getting trotted back out, I feel like driving to the estate of Chris Cocks, and throwing a bag of nickels at him while exclaiming that he apparently needs it more than I do. The cheap [expletive].

---

I will be getting two Hammerheads and one Beskar Trooper for a grand total of $75 spending based on yesterday's reveals. I would have bought eight Momaw's on a 6" x 9" card, and I would have bought five Ponda's if the head were updated. I would have been willing to plunk down $310 ($200 + $85 + $25) if Hasbro were a little more in tune with this hardcore fan with respect to the two Cantina denizens. I'm disappointed, but not beaten like I was after seeing the unpainted IG-12. Moreover, I can't wait for the next reveal, because I'm confident this is just a temporary blip. We'll get back on the 2025 gravy train with whatever is next. I can feel it.

---

comments powered by Disqus