The Death Of Collect Them All

Our vintage Kenner cardbacks mandated that we "collect them all", and, for the most part, we did. I had no idea where FX-7 appeared in the film (at the time), but I died a little death every day I did not own one. This collecting pattern, more commonly called "completism", is all but dead. It started going extinct in the 20th century!

What has replaced the completist collector is the niche collector. The breadth of that niche varies wildly from collector to collector. It might mean "only Imperials", "only OT", "only ST", etc. That focus can get very narrow too. Some collectors are "cantina patrons only" or "Jabba's characters only".

Here's the challenge for Hasbro: Collector passion is like a pilot light. Once it goes out, it's very difficult to reignite. We know the "60 figure per year Vintage Collection" is not coming back. That's personally a bit of a dagger to the heart. We're about to have our 10th Star Wars film, plus video games and expanded universe. It takes at least 60 figures per year to satisfy all of these sources.

The new Vintage Collection will be 30 to 40 figures per year. Let's take the lower bound of that estimate. That's six five-figure waves per year. Getting every segment represented in a wave is literally impossible. This means some collectors will be skipping waves entirely. At 30 figures per year, some of the very specific niches will likely not be satisfied at all in a given year. This can be problematic. The fire for some collectors will go out, and likely permanently so.

We feel maintaining "segment momentum" is critical for Hasbro, but there are now so many segments, this cannot be achieved through the traditional brick and mortar pipeline. Retailer exclusives were ideal in the past, but obviously are now risky for all those involved given the retail and consumer environment.

If only there was a new pipeline that could be exploited for such things. Oh wait, there is! HasLab is perfect for satisfying these niches. The problem is the HasLab rate, recently revealed during a Hasbro Q&A, to be only one Star Wars project per year (and with two scales to satisfy). HasLab is only a workable solution to maintain "segment momentum" if Hasbro considers multiple Star Wars projects per year. We hope they will. Perhaps only one BIG Star Wars HasLab project each year is feasible, but adding a few smaller ones each year would satisfy this proposal.

Boxed sets of figures for certain segments that don't have optimal brick and mortar viability seem like a natural, and there is a well known vintage Kenner analog:



The Sail Barge created a ton of buzz and excitement for Star Wars collecting, but it's not a product that is accessible to everyone (and not just for geographic reasons). Announcing-six packs of cantina aliens, skiff guards, or army builders would create a renewed wave of enthusiasm. It's something we'd love Hasbro to consider for HasLab.

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