Why I Am 100% In Support Of A HasLab Figure Pack For The 4 Main ANH Heroes

Part of the reason I've given up on writing daily articles (on days when Mr. Nomadscout doesn't have a photo gallery) is that writing requires a degree of passion. I'm not a deep person. There simply are not that many things that I'm passionate about, so I run the risk of repeating myself, especially since Nomad constrains me to Star Wars. If I could write about the Wonder Twins, there'd be a lot more content here. Seriously, when that egg split in the womb, it was the most inequitable division of super powers in history. But I'm getting off topic.

Suffice it to say, I am very passionate about a HasLab figure pack for the 4 main A New Hope heroes of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Ben "Obi-Wan" Kenobi. They have to be 100% new tooling, and this is the only way it's going to happen, but the concept has its detractors. Below I'm going to address the most common "cons" for this, but before that, I want to say that we would never suggest that these four characters only be available to HasLab. Something this critical to most collections simply must not be firewalled behind something so exclusive. Crowdfunding would only be used to get the tooling funded. It would not be used to lock these characters into permanent scarcity. The figures would have to be eventually re-released into main line for casual fans, and those that do not have access to HasLab.

There are a number of ways that some exclusivity can be baked into the HasLab that is not the figures themselves (special card backs, accessories, etc.). In fact, I would start it off making the Kenner "alt cards" exclusive to this proposed HasLab and include a set of proof cards. I fully realize that this would require giving Hasbro license to invent an "alt card" for Leia, but I'm not opposed to that at all. The standard cards could be released for the main line down the road, but I don't want to get too deep into that for this article. The point here is just to address the two main arguments within the community that go against an ANH Main Character HasLab Dream pack. Here goes:

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1. The fans shouldn't have to fund the tooling for the 4 A New Hope main heroes. Hasbro should fund them in main line.


Of course they should. It's the most obvious statement that could be made, but hanging your hat on what should is a formula for disaster. When the light turns green, I should be able to go without having to look both ways to make sure someone isn't running their red light. I should be able to go to sleep at night without locking my door. I should be able to trust that when I scan an item at the Walmart self-checkout that the price matches what is on the shelf. "Should" is idealism and doesn't get results. We need results.

Please join me in the real world for a moment. Depending on your accounting, we're getting around 11 to 12 newly tooled figures a year. We still have figure debt from Rogue One seven years later. We are getting new media fast and furious, and we're only getting token representation of those shows in the Vintage Collection. New tooling for the 4 ANH heroes is NEVER going to crack the main line roster. So you can cling to your ideals and go to your grave with sculpts of critical figures that are old enough to vote, or you can step up to the plate and fund the tooling so they get proper modern treatment.

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2. HasLab is for dream projects. Figures of core characters are not dream products.

In this context, the definition of dream is "something that fully satisfies a wish". In this sense, the Sail Barge was a dream project because retail would never fund something that ambitious, so we needed crowdfunding to make that wish come true. In the case of the ANH big four, retail is not the limitation, but rather it is Hasbro's limited tooling budget. If you think that figures of characters from a 45 year old movie have a shot of cracking through that contraint amid a flurry of new media, you're satisfying the other meaning of "dream." WAKE UP!


Getting newly tooled figures of Luke, Leia, Han, and Ben is absolutely, positively a dream, especially for the near future. It's critical that these four figures all get updated together because they are complimentary pieces. I can't imagine all four getting updated through main line in anything less than a decade (if that). The chances of the first and last figures being visually cohesive over that much time are nil.

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In summation, this article could have been reduced to one sentence: If you're opposed to using HasLab to get new tooling for the 4 A New Hope main heroes, you're never going to get them. So for those who are opposed to this concept, what's more important to you? Your ideals, or getting these critical figures brought up to modern standards?

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