See?  Things Aren’t So Bad!

In yesterday morning's article, I tried to add perspective to today's doom and gloom outlook by comparing it to the situation in 2013 - and then a thing happened...!

Showing they can still wow us with the occasional surprise announcement, Hasbro came through a few hours later in a big way by revealing the Heir to the Empire figure 6-pack 3-pack, including Abs C'Baoth, Mustache Pellaeon, and Grand Epaulet Thrawn.

As I mentioned in the comments yesterday, old EU figures are never my first choice, but as with many collectors, Heir to the Empire is of major significance due to it raising Star Wars from the ashes. I would prefer that Hasbro spend the tooling dollars on more figures that help me build out my movie scenes, but this was a terrific announcement. While I loved the Zahn trilogy, I didn't typically imagine the characters as action figures back in the early 90's, because I had put the toys behind me. Even when I started collecting in 1999, I was way more interested in the movie figures, and I met Hasbro's earliest EU offerings with some disinterest. I know there are a large number of collectors that have been dying for proper TVC upgrades to some of the existing HTTE figures as well as some never-before-made characters, and this set accomplishes both. You get an all new C'Baoth character debut, a re-tooled Pellaeon character debut, and the first Thrawn with proper Cap'n Crunch epaulets.

Again, not my personal first choice, but I was thrilled with the near-unanimous reaction of glee from the community here. I will gladly take that positive shot in the arm for the hobby over my personal top figure desires. Is it possible Hasbro could do more from HTTE for TVC? I assume anything's possible, especially if this set hits Hasbro's pre-order targets (1PM ET, today, Dec 11).

For those celebrating the wrong thing, which is that this set must be due to the new regime at the Star Wars Brand team, remember that figures take 12-18 months to develop. So with this coming in the spring of 2025, it has probably been almost a year since this was pipelined for TVC. That means it very likely was initiated by the previous team. I'm only saying this because I think that collectors continue to unfairly bash individuals at Hasbro for not making exactly all the figures they want, when they want, at the price they want, and with the details they want. There are those among us that would make this situation personal and get internet ugly, and I just do not believe that is either appropriate/fair/warranted. I don't think that's the case with very many people who comment here, but it's definitely a thing "out there."

Anyway, with the imminent arrival of The Haslab Ghost, this is just another bit of good news for TVC collectors, as we start to look towards 2025. This may expand the playing field as far as what kind of figures and sources are possible. It seems lately it's been either OT or Disney+, with a few video game things thrown in there. There has definitely been some calls for more EU/Legends characters, as well as stuff from the PT. I definitely don't want to give up the precious few OT slots we're currently getting, but if they can squeeze in a few offerings like this, I think it's going to go a long way to keeping the community engaged.

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