This Is Your Flagship Line?

I've been collecting toys as an adult since the early nineties. I have never seen what we are experiencing with the Hasbro Black Series line. We keep hearing about its unmitigated success while witnessing product after product failing to move at all. This goes back to the line's inception. I can't believe Toys R Us didn't file for bankruptcy years earlier due to dozens upon dozens of unsold TBS6 Greedos. This trend is continuing through today. Stores had some of the same The Force Awakens and Rogue One product from their respective Force Fridays make it all the way through to pennies-on-the-dollar clearance.

In April, we reported on this Black Series feature end cap. Half a year later, that SAME end cap looks largely identical with regard to the Black Series figures:



Meanwhile, this store received two cases of vintage collection with many of the same characters, and they sold through in a flash leaving only three carry forward figures behind (yes, the First Order Strormtrooper from my report 4 days ago was sold).



Now, I don't mean to suggest that the narrative surrounding The Black Series is wrong. It may be true on some level, but this phenomenon feels utterly unobservable by the lay person. At brick and mortar, it appears one or two popular figures per wave sell instantly and the rest are used to judge how fast dust accumulates in a Walmart store. Perhaps the 6" line is for the younger crowd who use their electronic thingamagigs to order the figures on their internet computers and have them shipped via rowbit. Maybe the old fashioned retail paradigm of brick and mortar isn't a valid judge of The Black Series.

But that begs the question: If brick and mortar is the "nostalgic" shopping experience, wouldn't they be wise to prioritize the nostalgic Vintage Collection product?

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