The Face That Launched 366 Figures…So Far

Dengar. Dengo! The Denganator. Dengmeister. John Jacob Dengarheimer Schmidt. TVC's OG. The GOAT. Kneel before Dengar!

For some reason, Hasbro decided that when they were going to launch The Vintage Collection, Dengar would be the flag bearer and lead the charge into a new era. Despite relentless investigative reporting and withering questioning over the past 15 years from the world's top media outlets, Hasbro has been steadfast in keeping the reasoning a tightly held secret. We may never know why Dengar was granted the honor of the VC01 designation.

After revisiting the figure back in 2018, we gave it a 10/10. The figure was outstanding when it was first released in 2010, and still holds up extraordinarily well today. Despite not having the most modern forms of articulation (barbell hips, rocker ankles, and ball jointed wrists) it holds its own with an excellent array of contemporary-styled joints. The ball jointed head, torso, and shoulders have terrific range of motion. The hips are unencumbered by the stormtrooper-style hip/thigh armor, and can rotate to perform a perfect split (which is screen accurate if you've seen the cut scene of his wild martial arts duel with Admiral Piett outside the Executor's Whataburger). And both the elbows and knees flex just past 90 degrees. There are paint applications that provide some "dirt" on the boots, gloves, and head wrap, while also giving various armor parts some depth and dimension. The face is painted remarkably well despite being pre-FACE! technology. He was accessorized with a removable backpack (which sorta-kinda allows you approximate his Jabba's palace look) and two weapons - both of which have paint details applied. And of course, he's got his legendary removable crotch. Many collectors had slept on this figure, because it was over-shipped during the launch and was a top tier peg warmer. But those same collectors have likely come around to appreciate ol' Dengar and his timeless excellence.

Many of you probably read that, sat back in your chair, and in your best Ralphie impression told yourselves, "Wow, that's great." But this article isn't all about Dengar. Just like he introduced us to TVC, he's providing my introduction to this bit about repacks in TVC. Repacks are always controversial. They rarely seem to please the clear majority, and plenty of collectors will find reasons to complain about this or that repack. As a community, while rarely reaching a consensus on any detail, we have settled on the term, "Smart Repack", which would be defined as when a figure has enough logic as a choice to be re-released or refreshed in TVC. But while we have rallied around this term, it was still difficult for any given figure choice to have general community agreement as a smart repack. Some collectors will make suggestions that a particular figure is a "no brainer", or that another figure is going to be the death of TVC.

Very rarely is a repack going to elicit excitement (the good kind). It usually either falls flat - which makes sense because most collectors prefer newness, or is met with an uproar of negativity. Probably the most infamous example was when Hasbro announced the repack of the 2007 Revan figure for 2019. Collectors united in a singular voice to tell Hasbro. "NO!" Hasbro listened, and nixed the plan. And just 27 short years later, they made an all new Revan. But what this told Hasbro was that fans had a limit to what they'd be willing to accept as a repack. In general, figures from at least 2008 have the minimum articulation that could be acceptable. And for almost 15 years, the standard articulation type, which was exhibited (very well) by Dengar, was the norm. But then in quick recent succession, ball jointed wrists, rocker ankles, and barbell hips sharply raised the ante on what was the baseline for a figure.

Now, we could take the dogmatic view that only 2022-ish articulation is acceptable, but that would essentially eliminate 98% of figures from our collections as being "sub-standard". Now, I am not a supporter of reduced articulation, but I am a supporter of accepting older figures as they are - as long as they were done well and with Hasbro's good-faith attempt at doing the best they could at the time. This is why I take umbrage with the reduced articulation nonsense that nearly killed the line from 2012-2018. We cannot go backward. BUT - we can honor the past, and recognize good figures, especially ones that manage to hold their own today, and Dengar is such an example.

Articulation and sculpt are not the only factors in what makes a good repack, of course. Another key factor is timing. Recently, Hasbro announced repacks of Ponda Baba and Dr. Evazan. These are more examples of excellent figures in their day that manage to hold the line today. But importantly, they are key characters in the Cantina, and Hasbro decided to re-issue them as part of the Haslab Cantina's orbit. This is important to show collectors that Hasbro has the intention of supporting Haslabs with relevant associated product. Some will be new, and some will be retreads. Here are two figures that need to be in the Cantina, and they've been out of circulation for a long time.

And finally, it has to be determined if it's important enough to dedicate precious new tooling dollars to update a figure that isn't up to the most modern of standards. Personally, I don't think Evazan, Ponda, or Dengar require new tooling, especially given the constraints of today. Aurra Sing, on the other hand, was not even a top tier effort when she was first released back in 2012. But Hasbro's decision to bring her forward this year was a complete bust. Not only does she lack any ankle articulation, but Hasbro decided to throw a stomach punch by reducing paint apps all over the figure, and then followed it up with an immediate groin kick by eliminating the accessories that made the figure notable back in the day. For icing on the cake, the figure had no logical reason for being carried forward at this time. You could only make the weakest of arguments by saying she was spotted on Tatooine.

To that last point, Dengar also seems to be presented in a bit of a vacuum. Unless there's some plan to do a mini-beat on the Executor bridge, there's little obvious logic to this. If I had to prioritize those figures, I 100% would prefer that we get a proper ESB version of Boba Fett, followed distantly by a new IG-88, since we've gotten IG-11 and IG-12, making that a scratchworthy itch. Also, my IG-88 disintegrated, so I need a new one.

This finally gets me back to "Smart repacks". It looks like Hasbro may be running out of fresh options for repacks. Better nerds than I probably have an accurate spreadsheet count of the remaining viable candidates. If you go by the theory that Hasbro launched the TLC tooling into the core of the sun, then we're pretty much limited to TVC and TBS375. A large number of the options have already been carried forward over recent years. While there may be a few that have some lukewarm support, I don't think many would be slam dunks - especially if you try to add logical timing to them, like Cantina patrons for this year's Haslab, for example.

And for those in the community that still would have preferred some new tooling go to Dengar, then it would have had a ripple effect across the other planned releases. Remember, every new tooling means something else gets taken away. Let's just contain that ripple to Dengar's wave. Here's the case breakdown as it is in reality:

2x Carson Teva
2x Asajj Ventress
2x Alexsandr Kallus
1x Ponda Baba
1x Dengar

If Dengar was new, then here's an alternative wave we might have gotten instead:

1x Carson Teva (Luke X-Wing Pilot body with new head)
1x Asajj Ventress
1x Alexsandr Kallus (Cassian Andor (Aldhani) body with new head)
1x Ponda Baba
4x Dengar (All new with removable crotch and new removable butt!)

So would you rather have an all new Dengar instead of an all new Carson Teva or Kallus? I'd take a new Dengar if this were 2009 circumstances. But times are different now. We have an excellent Dengar from TVC already, whereas we have no Teva, Ventress, Kallus, or 300 other characters that should have tooling spent on them before Dengar (This does not include Pong Krell. I'd rather have 2 full waves consisting only of all newly tooled Dengar variants). Other than a main character or a big-time troop builder, I would prefer Hasbro leave most figures made since 2007 alone.

This article is dedicated to Tyler "@SWTVC" McThrawnington.

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