SDCC:  Wrap Up and Hasbro Diorama Updates for Day 3 and Day 4

While Hasbro's presentation at SDCC may have disappointed many collectors and fans, myself included, I have to say that I really wasn't expecting much. I was already under the impression that Hasbro had revealed their entire lineup of pre-Force Friday offerings for 2019, and that any announcement regarding product for The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian, or Jedi: Fallen Order was probably going to be saved for Disney's D23 convention. There was also no way that there was going to be any information about 2020 product, which would only serve to undercut Force Friday.

I had been hoping for 2 things from Hasbro, but both of those hopes were mostly dashed just prior to the convention. My first hope was that there would be a surprise wave of figures that would bridge the gap between the current shipments of Wave 7 (the last TVC wave revealed for 2019) and Force Friday in November. That's a long time to go without any new product, and whatever momentum we have for TVC would be in danger of stalling (again). Well, there was actually another "wave" revealed a few days ago, as Entertainment Earth put up Wave 8 (Sponsored link), which contained some carry forwards along with the underwhelming Boba Fett with PhotoReal. So I guess I got what I wished for. Sigh.

My other hope was a HasLab announcement, which was crushed, pre-SDCC, by that diabolical Cookie Monster. However, Unicron's reveal rekindled my hope that Hasbro was prepared to handle multiple HasLab projects simultaneously. Alas, that came to nothing, and that was my one true disappointment out of the convention.

As for what we did get from the Hasbro presentation, there was a focus on items that would seemingly have no impact on TVC. However, with a little optimism, one might glean from the HyperReal Luke in Bespin fatigues that Hasbro is gearing up for an ESB push. After all, the companion figure to HyperReal Vader could have been a stormtrooper, or an Episode VI Luke. I hope this ESB love extends into TVC in 2020 for the 40th.

The Boba Fett helmet (which is awesome, by the way) required a ton of detailed scans of the actual film prop. As pointed out in our comments the other day, perhaps Hasbro could use the scan data to create a perfect Boba Fett 3.75" non-removable helmet figure. We got a perfect stormtrooper helmet (finally!) with VC140, so why not a continuation of this success?

Finally the official announcement of a new line of 5" super-articulated figures with animated styling elicited an immediate eyeroll and a desire to throw something across the room. After some reflection, this could be a good thing for 3.75". I have long hated the parsing of the 3.75" line into so many subcategories and constantly chainging line looks over the years as to confuse the casual customer and divide the collecting base. I know it's not everyone's view, but I personally feel that the animated styling, which started in earnest in 2008 with TCW, and later, the prevalence of the under-articulated budget figures, have done serious damage to the line over the years. The fact that Hasbro has (apparently) abandoned the 5POA figures in 3.75 and replaced them with the new 5" line might be a gift for TVC. While I certainly am NOT happy that there are now 4 (FOUR!) different scales offered by Hasbro, I'm hoping that neither of the new 5" or 8" lines will drag down TVC. This could potentially be a good thing for TVC, but it doesn't change the fact that Hasbro's Star Wars brand team has their resources devoted to making 4 different scales succeed. That isn't really good for anyone. Even those filthy Sixers got almost no news out of the panel, except for some renderings of the upcoming fans' choice Luke figure that we already knew about.

Besides the timing of SDCC in relation to the new media coming in late 2019, collectors continue to be underwhelmed by convention reveals because of the sheer volume of annual events that need Hasbro's attention. Gone are the days of the big three of Toy Fair, SDCC, and NYCC. We now have Celebration every year, Disney's D23, and a number of international conventions in Europe and North America that get their own reveals, not to mention the occasional HASCON.

The disappointment in the community is palpable, but it's honestly hard to expect a whole lot from a particular convention any more. Sure, there was next to nothing at SDCC, but it doesn't change the fact that in 2019 we got the Barge, the Skiffs, The Adventure Set, and some new TVC figures from several sources, including epic winners like the Stormtrooper, Lando (two!), and Saelt-Marae. While it hasn't exactly been a banner year historically, especially when compared to the Golden Age of 2006-2012, it has been, by far, the best year since that time. Hopefully momentum will continue through Force Friday and beyond.

In any case, Hasbro updated their awesome Jabba dioramas at SDCC each day to depict the progression of the corresponding scenes. Here are the images from Day 3 and Day 4. Our man Agustín braved the crowds every day to bring us these pictures. One Bothan suffered a mild headache to bring us this information.

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