REPORT:  Hasbro Has Extended The Star Wars License

Even though toys and collectibles are ultimately trivial aspects of our lives, they are Hasbro's business, which is anything but trivial. As such, fans lack transparency into things that are considered industry secrets, or things that might place Hasbro at a competitive disadvantage. While there are estimates bandied about, we don't really know what the minimum production run for a figure is, we don't know how many of a given figure are made, and we don't know how much tooling costs. We also never get good insight into the status of Hasbro's Star Wars license. We know when it gets renewed, but don't really know for how long. This causes constant "Hasbro is not renewing the Star Wars license" rumors to swirl about the interwebs. This is particularly nerve wracking to me because no one mass produces the kind of 3.75" quality that Hasbro does. If Hasbro lost the license, my collecting days would be over.

So it was great news when CNBC reported that Hasbro has extended the Star Wars license. They write:

But, notably, Hasbro said Wednesday it extended its relationship with Lucasfilm by renewing its long-standing licensing deal for the "Star Wars" franchise.

As noted above, we don't know how long this renewal will run, but my collecting days have received a stay of execution.



LONG LIVE THE VINTAGE COLLECTION!

The same article also had this tidbit about an Indiana Jones line:

[Hasbro] also struck a new agreement to develop products based on the "Indiana Jones" franchise, which it hasn't done since 2008.

Many of us remember that Indiana Jones line from 2008. The paint applications were occasionally so bad that they became memes before memes were a thing. The line also suffered from poor sellers that blocked in-demand figures from ever reaching retail. Everyone wanted Major Toht, but that wave never went into retail production because an army of Mutt Williams on the pegs contributed to the cancelation of the line. Toht would eventually be released as an SDCC exclusive, which represented a swan song for the line. If that scenario makes you wince a little, it's because Star Wars fans are all too familiar with the problem of brick and mortar road blocks. We call it 2012.

Hopefully lessons have been learned, and this won't happen again. We also have to wonder what the scale of the Indiana Jones line will be.

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