My Reactions To Yesterday’s Vintage Collection Reveals

Hasbro warned us right at the beginning that the reveals would be light, or in their words "easy", to set the expectations lower. Despite this, it was still hard to not come away unimpressed. If you can't tell what's going on, Disney/LFL have delayed a bunch of the planned entertainment in response to the recent talent strikes. Even though those projects might be close to completion, Disney still has to spread them out so they don't have a big "dead zone" heading into 2025. Some newly tooled figures for new media were likely planned for the first half of 2024, but they had to be delayed to better coincide with the corresponding media. This would leave Hasbro with "holes" in the line and not enough time to fill them with other newly tooled figures (remember the 18 month lead time). The only things that could replace the bumped new media figures are repacks and repaints, and well, you saw the stream yesterday.

I'm very confident that the lack of newly tooled figures for 2024 so far does not reflect on Hasbro's commitment to the Vintage Collection. It has to do with the shuffling of the entertainment schedule. Having said that, it doesn't mean I have to like it. In fact:

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Grogu

At this point, Grogu figures in the Vintage Collection are about the equivalent of the hologram figures that came with The Saga Collection figures. Ubiquitous and useless. We're basically being asked to pay $17 for a doll stroller. Hasbro should have been able to cost the season 3 pram in with Mandalorian's N1, but why do that when you can take advantage of the customer base? I don't think it's going to work this time. I have the case ordered, but I will not be ordering any extras. It's two per case (of course), but even if it were one per case, I wouldn't be getting an extra. I'm that over Grogu figures.

Axe Woves
The 2022 release only just recently sold out on the Target website, and that was selling for $15. So Hasbro is re-releasing a slow selling unrequested repack for more money. You should know that formula well. We call it the 2018 launch wave. As with Grogu, I'll only be getting the one that comes in the assortment case, and won't be ordering any others.

Mandalorian Fleet Commander
If this were released amongst some stellar 100% newly tooled figures, I think it would be an exciting partial tool release. Instead it typifies the repaint/repack/minor retool-heavy 2024 lineup which is helping mute any would-be enthusiasm. I think the card and figure both look good, and if this were in a more exciting case, I'd probably be thrilled about it (like with Pre Vizsla in the Revan case). I will order a couple of extras.

Luke Skywalker (X-Wing Pilot)
I extremely regret not getting a few spares when this figure was first released in 2019. The reason being is the the flight straps break very easily. I need some extras for future proofing my collection. Plus the now unobscured Hilderbandt logo gives me motivation to replaced my existing carded sample. Put me down for three or four extras.

Having the warning label moved so that it would no longer cover the Hildebrandt logo was a big campaign for our friend John Miko and his SW The Vintage Collection Facebook group. John even wrote a guest article about it HERE. Congrats to John and crew.

The Mandalorian (The Mines of Mandalore)
I need more Din Djarin figures with the soft goods cape and rocker ankles. I currently only have one loose. It's the one from the Rescue Set, and I have it displayed fighting the included Dark Trooper. I couldn't bring myself to open the mint carded one I got with the N1, so the cockpit currently sits unoccupied. It's always good to have extras of core characters on hand. You never know when you'll need one to anchor a new display you may want to set up down the road. As with Luke, I'll pick up an extra couple three.

Clone Commander Rex (Bracca Mission)
This is the star of the main line reveals. After two previous lacking efforts, we finally have a definitive Captain Rex which has display options well beyond The Bad Batch. Well, considering we only have Hunter in TVC, it's actually better suited for anything other than a Bad Batch display. The only thing that chaps my backside is that we now have three Rex figures in TVC before we had one Episode IV Luke. I know the fans that grew up with Rex as a kid are now firmly established adult collectors, but they are the adult collectors who buy one or two of their favorite figures (I know that's what I did at that age). Hasbro had better get to the heroes that collectors my age grew up with soon, because we buy one or two cases of those figures, but we're all quickly aging out of the hobby. It's a ticking clock to ring that cash register. As for this Rex, yeah, a couple three more of these too.

Sabine Wren & Chopper 2-pack
This was the overall star of presentation. That Sabine Wren figure looks a-maze-ing (mailbox holsters aside), but my God, that price point. $50 for two figures, one of which is a half figure. The "one to open, one to keep carded" pattern will set collectors back $100. That's what I plan to do, and then I'll go try to find something to stop the nose bleed. Ouch.

I get Sabine being that expensive. I can see the value there with the insane paint apps, but Chopper should have brought the price average down somewhat.



The product reveals are not what made this Fan Stream a clunker. We all knew that yesterday's product reveals would be mined from the existing pipeline backlog. Most of the previous pipelines were shown at SDCC, and we were underwhelmed then, so the band aid had already been ripped off to a degree. The community was hoping we were putting the boring repacks and repaints behind us, but yesterday's pipelines only promised more in our future. Making matters worse, we didn't even clear out the entire backlog of clunkers. In addition to yesterday's lackluster pipelines, we also have the Mandalorian Judge and ISB Officer Cal Kestis still awaiting product reveals. We have A LOT of boring livestreams in our future.

Cobb Vanth is the obvious "fist pump" out of the pipeline group. We'll have to pay $25 for him, but we'll finally have this key Mandoverse character in TVC. The Ahsoka and Astromech 4-pack is interesting, but it's an Amazon exclusive (i.e. lower production run). I have a feeling the price point is going to make us think the Sabine/Chopper 2-pack is reasonably priced.

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