Hasbro May The 4th Be With You Livestream: The Black Series Reveals
Hasbro’s May the 4th (on May 3rd…) livestream was mostly a nothingburger, unfortunately, especially with the HasLab announcement being delayed until further notice. The Black Series mostly gets kitbashes, refreshes or rereleases.
- Darth Sidious (Revenge of the Sith)
- Qui-Gon / Obi-Wan / Darth Maul 3-pack
- Yoda and Commander Gree 2-pack
- Super Battle Droid
- Captain Enoch and Nighttrooper 2-pack (Walmart Exclusive in the US and Canada)
The figures will be released in fall 2024, the Enoch/Nighttrooper 2-pack will go up for pre-order tomorow, May 4th at 10 am ET on Walmart. All other sets will go up for pre-order at 1pm ET, as usual you can find everything on Pulse.
There was also a pipeline reveal and my reaction was “WTF?”. Click through for the details!
Multipacks are apparently very popular at Hasbro
Let’s quickly talk about the figures!
Darth Sidious is a kitbashed figure, based on the previous Return of the Jedi figure. But the Revenge of the Sith variant has a new headsculpt, upper torso and an all new soft goods cloak.
50% reuse
I guess Sidious is a release that makes sense. Even though not the most exciting prequels figure maybe. Release date is fall 2024, pre-order is on May 4th 1pm ET.
The Phantom Menace 3-pack is mostly reuse with one all new figure. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan received new portraits and now come with soft goods robes (removable, as they felt was needed to point out during the livestream). Darth Maul however is an all new figure. It appears we have reached a point in the lifecycle of The Black Series where instead of getting new characters we just get old figures refreshed. While some refreshes are necessary (more about that soon), others do not really seem necessary. I think Maul was not really necessasary to spent tooling budget on, the old figure was fine enough, maybe just add a new portrait.
60% reuse
A Duel of the Fates multipack probably makes sense… but that we already have all these characters, even if somewhat different versions, makes it hardly all that exciting, but the few people who still don’t have any of these figures will get a decent multipack at least.
Again, release date is fall 2024 and pre-order is May 4th 1pm.
The Super Battle Droid gets his expected single figure release, he was previously released in a lousy 2-pack with a battle droid (without an extra C-3PO head). Anyone who skipped this release (I did) can now get the one figure you really want.
Repack
Release is fall 2024, pre-order once more at 1pm ET.
Next up is a previously revealed pipeline reveal, the Yoda and Gree 2-pack! Yoda comes with an alternate head and his council chair. Gree has different deco, so he’s different from the previous release and also uses the new clone body as the base.
Mostly reuse
Some of these sets must have been in development a long time, since this 2-pack and Sidious still have the old angled box design. Fall 2024 release, pre-order tomorrow on 1pm ET.
And then we get a Captain Enoch and Nighttrooper 2-pack, which comes as no surprise, they too were a pipeline reveal and TVC also had them already.
Mostly new actually
They look pretty good, if you care for the Ahsoka designs, that is. But the gold color pops and Hasbro even tooled all new parts to make the troopers screen accurate. This set is a Walmart exclusive and release date is fall 2024, but pre-order is May 4th at 10 am ET, so NOT 1pm! The Walmart exclusive Baylan Skoll will also go up for pre-order at the same time! Good luck with pre-ordering from Walmart tomorrow!
And finally there are also some pipeline reveals for The Black Series:
Hasbro sometimes make weird decisions
An all new (I guess) Luke Skywalker Farmboy figure makes sense, because all the versions we have are different kinds of terrible… Leia with photoreal also kind of makes sense, given how her iconic A New Hope version was released pre-photoreal. People love stormtroopers so I guess a 2-pack with another rereleased figure kind of makes sense… but what on earth are the smoking or snorting at Hasbro to release a freaking Dagan figure from Jedi Survivor?????
If there is ONE character people love from this game, other than the protagonist, it’s Merrin. Everyone’s favorite Nightsister. Do we get a Merrin??? Of course not, that would require all new tooling you cannot even reuse for other things (probably). Instead we get a second rate villain who wasn’t even THE villain from the game. Some High Republic bozo who was hibernitating and woken up by Cal and immediately turned evil “because”, I guess they can reuse some Acolyte tooling for him? Either way, this makes no sense and feels like one of the most idiotic choices for a figure in a long time. Insta-Skip. Not worth my money. I wish someone would ask Hasbro why they chose not to make Merrin if they release one more Jedi Survivor figure. It makes no sense. Literally.
All in all the livestream was mostly just “meh”, even for The Black Series. We get repacks, kitbashes and overall the selection of characters feels boring. Also, I feel this was the perfect opportunity to announce Queen Amidala in her Theed dress. But no. Hasbro wants you to buy Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Maul all over again instead. I get it, Amidala may be an expensive figure to make, because of all the paint deco, and she would be a traffic cone, but she was used in so many of the promos with her extravagant look that it feels like a massive oversight that Retro of all things got a Queen Amidala, but not the Black Series.
Anyway, this livestream left me mostly disappointed. I had hoped for a much more substantial reveal. Also, that Dagan announcement was the biggest WTF moment for me in quite a while as far as The Black Series is concerned.
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