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And Now, A Rant About Line Looks

Posted by Bret on 10/21/18 at 07:05 AM Category: Hasbro
Back in the day, Hasbro generally had at least 3 years between media events (with only the relatively minor Tartakovsky Clone Wars Microseries squeezing in between AOTC and ROTS), which gave them time to develop loads of action figures and toys from the latest source. By the time of the next line launch, collectors probably felt like they had about 80%+ of the the characters from the latest media source, and could look forward to the remaining figures on their collective want list to generally appear within the next couple of years, along with improvements made to some of those figures that grew too dated.



Things began to get more complicated after the PT was complete (and presumably, Star Wars films in general). Starting with The Saga Collection in 2006, Hasbro introduced a subline of repacks, alternatively called "Heroes and Villains" and "Greatest Battles." The packaging was basically the same, although the titles and numbering were different, and this continued with the 30th Anniversary Collection. A subline of repacks afforded collectors and consumers, who had missed these popular characters the first time around, the opportunity for a second and third chance to purchase them at retail. All was fine.



With the premiere of The Clone Wars animated series in 2008, Hasbro made a huge decision to split the line into more than one main branch. For several years, we had cartoon-styled figures and traditional realistic figures on the shelf side-by-side. Personally, I hated the decision to do anything cartoon-styled, beyond a smattering of main characters as a novelty subline. This is what was done for the Microseries, and I collected every one of those adorable little statuette figures just for fun. But this decision to split the line set Hasbro inexorably down the path of catering to two separate audiences - adult collectors and kids. Collectors probably agreed, for the most part, that the audience was really one in the same, and that there was no reason to "dumb down" half of the figures and toys. Nevertheless, things moved down these parallel paths for a couple of years through The Legacy Collection (Red). But by this time, the repack subline was gaining traction, and it was quietly branching off onto its own separate path.



Even with the official launch of The Vintage Collection in 2010, Hasbro continued to have a rather perplexing and ever-changing strategy. Along with TVC (which was borne from the success of the boutique sublines of VOTC, VTSC, and "VTAC", which was still technically VTSC), Hasbro was producing two versions of the Shadows of the Dark Side Line. One had animated Clone Wars figures, and the other had realistically styled repacks. We now had 3 separate parallel lines: TVC aimed at collectors, SOTD-CW aimed at kids, and SOTD aimed at new collectors, or some kind of hybrid kid/adult collector. This is when things were getting really crazy.



Between 2012 and 2015 (henceforth known as the Dark Times) there was so much going on (or from a certain point of view, so little going on) it was almost impossible to track what was happening to Star Wars action figures. Not surprisingly, this coincided with the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney. Hasbro produced a series of confounding product lines that just left a big hole in the hearts of collectors. At the start of that 3 year period, TVC was in its death throes. Part of this was due to the launch of the Darth Maul line look (effectively replacing Shadows of the Dark Side), which was created to coincide with the theatrical release of TPM-3D. Packaged in this line were a combination of premium figures (Discover the Force), under-articulated movie figures (Movie Heroes), and a mix of new and repacked animated figures (The Clone Wars). To make matters worse, some of the Discover the Force figures were re-released a short while later in TVC. Actually, these were postponed in TVC to make way for their Discover the Force release, and appeared months later in TVC, with their originally intended numbering. The cherry on top of all of this was that the Discover the Force was a Walmart exclusive subline. Sigh. SIGH! And finally, Hasbro / LFL clearly overestimated the consumer interest in TPM figures and toys at this point, and much of it rotted in place. This is unfortunate, because many quality figures and toys were made during this time period, but most of them were crushed under the weight of TPM apathy. TVC sputtered and almost ground to a halt during this time. Today, you can still acquire many of the TPM figures on the secondary marked for something close to retail.



Right after the TPM-3D debacle, the bizarrely handled Legacy Collection "2" Droid Factory line was..."launched." The line was apparently intended to be the heir to TVC. If executed as planned, we may actually have gotten some nice collector-driven figures in this line, with the always popular build-a-droid parts. However, the TLC2 Droid Factory was aborted. Amazon ended up rescuing some of the figures as an exclusive set, while other figures dribbled out later on at weird regional discount outlets like "Mama's Pants Barn" and "This Place is Gross!"

One of the first things Disney did with Star Wars was to scrap plans to release the rest of the films in 3D. But it seemed that inertia was behind the unveiling of both the Yoda and Vader Creep line looks, which each lasted only a short while. Those lines were split into repacked and repainted figures, along with new under-articulated (5POA) figures. There was next to nothing here for the adult collector. The Yoda line was likely meant to coincide with AOTC-3D, while the Vader Creep line would have gone with ROTS-3D. Things were falling apart quickly now. The Vader Creep line was just a mess that contained nothing of interest for anyone, anywhere, ever. (That's a proven fact, backed by thorough bipartisan research.)



In 2013, right smack in the middle of The Dark Times, Hasbro finally re-introduced collector-oriented figures, in something known as The Black Series.. The Black Series was Hasbro's updated look for TVC (after the TLC2 mess) and while many of the figures were pretty good, bland packaging, poor distribution, wretched paint apps, and "Bubblegate" helped give the line a bad rep. But that wasn't the worst of it. At the same time, Hasbro did something that nobody anywhere ever asked for (proven again by the aforementioned bipartisan research): They introduced a new scale. 6" scale figures had been offered by Hasbro a few times over the years, but always (correctly) as a temporary niche item. It now seemed that not only was Hasbro spending resources on developing the 6" figures to be offered concurrently with 3.75" figures, it looked like Hasbro was pushing 6" to become THE actual standard collector main line to eventually replace the 3.75" line. The 6" figures were even called "The Black Series", just like their 3.75" counterparts. So you had TBS-6 and TBS-3.75. Not content with the horrifying state of things, Hasbro introduced another main line based on characters from the 2014 Rebels cartoon series. That line was also split into two parts - animated figures based on the show, and realistic figures from previous media. But wait, there's more (or less)! Hasbro took the "action" out of action figures, and all of the figures in the Rebels line had only 5 points of articulation. By this time the Black Series entered phase 2, and replaced the orange highlights with blue highlights on the packaging, and also gave us the TIE Fighter pilot cardback for the 3.75" line. Makes total sense, especially since there were no TIE Pilot figures released in The Black Series.



By 2015, we had gone through a 3 year period that saw TVC die and get replaced by both the depressing Black Series 3.75" and 6" line. Both of those ran alongside 3-4 different "budget" line looks that contained repacks, nearly cancelled exclusive sublines, and the introduction of 5POA as a staple product. While things were already bleak, the year ended with one more huge blow to the collector community. Phase 3 of the Black series (now with red highlights on boxes that replaced traditional bubble/cardback combos) would be a Walmart Exclusive. Maybe not everyone could see the writing on the wall at the time, but in retrospect, despite all the abuse the collector line had endured since TVC (or more specifically, since the TPM push during TVC) nothing would do more harm to the collector line than the two years it existed under the warty and gangrenous thumb of that miserable place known as Walmart. Only a few new figures were released each year under this model, with a pitiful few dedicated to each new Disney film. Meanwhile, Hasbro continued to provide premium support to the still young 6" line, and it was seemingly done at the expense of 40 years worth of 3.75" figures and vehicles.



There was one bit of clarity that was achieved as TFA hit theaters, even if it didn't mean much to TVC collectors. The 5POA figures were finally streamlined into a single TFA line look (which contained a few cartoon-styled figures mixed in), which would later change rather logically for each subsequent film release. Gone were the days of multiple budget lines aimed at different audiences. This was ultimately a good thing for consumers.

Today, in October of 2018, things may have improved significantly. The "main" budget 5POA figures were funneled into a single, cohesive line and contain a consistent offering of 5POA characters focused mostly on the current media, but mixed with occasional figures sourced from previous media. 6" figures are still around, but whaddya gonnn do?



Most importantly, The 3.75" Walmart Black Series line has been put out of our collective misery, and The Vintage Collection is back. After a slow start, Hasbro seems to be responding to fan concerns, and is reducing repacks, while slowly increasing new offerings. Throw in the dream-come-true Sail Barge, and other vehicles like The Combat Assault Tank, and things are looking up. While 2007-2012 might be the Golden Age, 2012 to 2015 are definitely the Dark Times. We may look back at 2015-2018 as Reconstruction, in order to make way for the Renaissance of 2019 and beyond.




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