With Vader’s TIE Now Being Charged, Is 2025 A Wrap?

For my money, 2025 is the single greatest year of the Vintage Collection including the initial run of 2010 through 2013 (some of the K-Mart and Toys R Us TVC exclusives shipped in 2013). I've been trying to formulate my Top 10 of 2025 list, and I literally have five figures vying for the top spot. Some years, I struggle to come up with five figures total for the year end list, and this year I have a log jam for number one overall. I really should take a page out of John Elway's book and go out on top. Now would be the perfect time for me to retire from collecting, but I won't. 2025 disproves that theory that if Hasbro makes everything we want, we'll stop collecting. This year has only left me wanting more. I can't wait for that presumed Cantina 4-pack to be revealed so I can start henpecking Hasbro on the next Cantina denizen to make.

The only bad thing about 2025 is that it felt like everything shipped in September. It brutalized my household budget. I'm exaggerating of course as there are some stragglers, namely Darth Vader's TIE Advanced, but if you check your payment method, you will likely see that you've been charged for it. I know I have, which indicates it should be shipping in the next few days. Across Entertainment Earth, Hasbro Pulse, and Amazon, I have exactly one open preorder: that soon to be fulfilled Darth Vader's TIE Advanced. I can't recall the last time I've had only one open preorder. It feels kinda nice. I don't expect that to last for long because the rest of the Padmé and Shaak Ti wave will be revealed at MCM London Comic Con this weekend with preorders going live on the 28th per the NYCC Panel presentation. But that's what's interesting. Per the Yakface SKU list, that product is tentatively scheduled for February.

So if all of this is correct, it means, barring a surprise, we're about to be done with 2025 product with two months left to spare. I usually bemoan these long pauses in the hobby. I normally need the dopamine drip afforded by new acquisitions for my collection, but if there is to be temporary hiatus, this is the best time of year for it. We're five weeks away from Thanksgiving (my GOD, where did 2025 go?), and that will kick off the blitz of the holidays through the new year. For me, my hobby takes a back seat during that time of the year, so it's perfect timing. Plus this will give me some financial recovery time from the aforementioned shipping onslaught we just experienced. It will also give me a little buffer to prepare for the price increase. I'll be able to build up a little kitty for my collecting funds.

If I had to guess, that Padmé will most likely slide up to January. If you check the rumor section of the aforementioned Yak Face SKU list, you will see waves tentatively slated for March and April. If that holds, I'm going to be a happy camper. This year, we went from the Snowtrooper wave in February to the Baylan Skoll wave in May. March and April are the worst months of the year. The weather stinks, and there's no football. My hobby couldn't have picked a worse time to abandon me this year. It's about time the nerd year aligned better for us. Sustain us through the dark, miserable, football-less part of the early year. Then take the usual summer break when we all have better things to be doing, and then resume sometime in mid to late august-ish. I'm all for that, but I fully recognize this is at whim of ninety thousand factors out of Hasbro's control. Just don't have half a year's worth of product ship during a six week window again, please and thank you.

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