Vintage Collection:  When A “Redo” Isn’t Just A “Redo”

Over the course of the most recent Q&A, the Hasbro Brand Team seemed to indicate that they weighed figures from new media over "redos" from previous media. In general, this is a decent high level guideline, but it shouldn't be an absolute. We know who is in the only group that deals in absolutes. The problem is that determining when this rule breaks down is almost on a case by case basis and requires a collector's intuitions to determine. Simply put, not all redos are created equal, and the same goes for new media sources.

If it had to be written out as an equation, it would look like something from the chalkboard in Good Will Hunting, and it takes into account things that I'm not always sure Hasbro considers for the world building scale. Factors would include how dated the sculpt of the update is, how prominent the character is, what the figure needs to do (Jedi and troopers are held to a higher standard), and what I think is most important and often overlooked, with how many other existing items does the figure interact. A figure from new media that doesn't interact with many other figures is less exciting to me than getting an update to an evergreen Star Wars figure that hasn't been revisited in over a decade. To give this some specifics, for as much as I love The Mandalorian, I would have taken an update to the Episode IV Luke Skywalker over the Magistrate Greef Karga figure we got. Conversely, I would have taken a Season 1 Karga over that Luke, since we have SO much that would interact with that figure.

In terms of a sculpt being out of date, the "redo" urgency goes up exponentially the older the tooling is, which leads to a somewhat controversial take of mine. I do not consider Power of the Force "2" to be part of the modern 3.75" line for many reasons, but first and foremost is that I'm not even convinced that POTF2 is even in the 3.75" scale. So from my hobby world view, we don't have a modern Ewok Village Leia (which is why seeing that figure getting added to TBS made me wince). But this factor is modified by what the figure needs to do. Relative to that Ewok Village Leia, the Vintage Collection Darth Maul is a somewhat young sculpt, but is one of the most dynamic lightsaber combatants in the history of Star Wars. Any corresponding figure needs to recreate that, and the VC86 - Darth Maul simply cannot. The dated swivel elbows on Ki-Adi-Mundi heavily mark that figure as an update candidate, BUT that's because of the prominence of the character. Saesee Tiin is another PT era Jedi still locked in swivel elbow purgatory, but the relatively lower prominence doesn't make for a bankable update. Again, there is no single rule that can be applied.

In closing, since the POTF2 launched, the line has been filthy with Episode VI Boba Fett figures. By my count it is a source that had received three sculpts prior to 2021, to include one super articulated release. Despite this, the VC186 - Boba Fett is one of the most celebrated figures of 2021. Not all "redos" are created equal.

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