The Star Wars Retro Collection Is Out Of Control

I stopped into my local Walmart yesterday, and as is customary, my first stop was the action figure aisle. The Vintage Collection offerings were minimal, consisting of a lone Din Djarin (Morak) and three Landos that have been there since the Taft administration. But just below that were so many cases of the Obi-Wan Retro wave that it looked like a bountiful Thanksgiving cornucopia spilling out onto shelf below. Like the Borg, the Retro collection is assimilating neighboring pegs at an alarming rate. If you think that Borg reference is arbitrary and capricious:


I swear I did not stage that photo. It gave me a chuckle to see the scourge of Retro taking up residency on the Star Trek pegs. Let me state emphatically that this is NOT a Hasbro problem. Walmart and Walmart alone decides what will be stocked in its stores, but that should be alarming to you. You see, this is what the market wants, and it's at this point that I need to remind everyone that we are not the "market.” Hasbro does not sell directly to collectors (not even with Pulse, technically). They sell to retailers, and that is the market. Retailers don't want high quality, low margin boutique items like The Vintage Collection, which requires a very specific customer. They want low quality, high margin junk that your average everyday schmuck will buy, and even if they don't, they can still break even at clearance due to that high margin.

In 2011, Mattel bucked contemporary industry trends of ever increasing articulation to resurrect 5POA (five points of articulation) for the Green Lantern movie line. The toy buying public and collectors alike roundly rejected those low quality offerings, but guess who didn't: Target and Walmart. They gobbled them up like Mattel solved cold fusion. Even though the line was a retail flop, I doubt Mattel sees it that way. They sold a lot of it, and it made me worry that other manufacturers would look on Mattel's Green Lantern sales with envy and resurrect their own limited articulation lines. It would only be a few short years before we would see 5POA become the predominant line in the Star Wars 3.75" scale.

This is why I cringe every time collectors ask for things like Retro Collection or 5POA. Retailers can't control themselves, and eventually these budget / higher margin lines choke out anything even slightly more premium. It's hard to see the type of glutting pictured above to be good for 3.75" in general, so to all of those who asked for Retro Collection:


By the way, that arrogant a-dash-dash in the clip above is Luthen. Finally, if you think my hatred of Retro Collection is hindsight, check out what I wrote in 2017 before The Vintage Collection even returned to stores (see number 5).

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