![Shock Trooper (MH01) - Hasbro - Star Wars [The Phantom Menace 3D] (2012)](/3D-TPM/thumbs/tpm3d-MH01-ShockTrooper1-th.jpg "Shock Trooper (MH01) - Hasbro - Star Wars [The Phantom Menace 3D] (2012)")
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DisneyStore.com now has The Vintage Collection Captain Enoch and Thrawn’s Night Troopers builder pack available. Click here for the product page.
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Nielsen have a somewhat erratic release schedule currently, they released their early June numbers earlier this week… and on Friday they already followed up with the numbers for the next week. Whatever… Nielsen have therefore now added The Acolyte episode 3 (the flashback episode about the power of maaaaannyyyyyyyyyy) to their charts. And we can finally compare one full week of The Acolyte on the Luminate Streaming charts to one full week on the Nielsen charts. How do the numbers compare? It’s very interesting! Click through for all the details!
The power of… none…
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This is an opinion piece. It’s my opinion. I will try to explain why I think that Hasbro’s HasLab is a scam. I am not saying people who support HasLabs are dumb or idiots, there are very good reasons why collectors would want to have the HasLab offerings, most of which have been good products. What I want to achieve is that we all discuss and debate the very idea of crowdfunding by multibillion dollar toy giants and how Hasbro is pulling the wool over collector’s eyes. So please click through for my opinion piece and let’s all discuss Hasbro’s crowdfunding platform.
You want the dog? Buy 10 of these cars and you’ll get the dog for free!
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Walmart has dropped the pre-order price for The Black Series Mandalorian Nite Owl to $17.48. Click here for the product page. Thanks JTA reader Jon for the alert!
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I thought the worst was behind us. Then episode 7 of The Acolyte was released. “Choice” is a travesty. A twisted mirror universe version of Star Wars that now features current era R&B pop songs and I wish I was just joking, but I am NOT.
This is the nadir. It can’t get any worse… Nothing makes sense. This episode, once more all flashback, is just the amended version of episode 3. All the same things happen again… just with a few more Jedi scenes now. And you know why all of this happened? I will spoil it for you right here and now because you won’t believe me anyway. All of this happens because Torbin is really, really, really, REALLY homesick and wants to go back to Coruscant.
I have no words for this. Okay, I have a few words for this. If you want to know what I have to say about this nuclear catastrophe click here or on the banner and read my spoiler review of “Choice”, the single worst piece of Star Wars ever, and I include The Holiday Special here.
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Walmart stores are setting up new “Dark Side” shippers to display The Vintage Collection figures. JTA reader Jason has the report:
Wanted to send word that more “Dark Side” point-of-purchase shippers arrived last week at some Walmart stores, this time for The Vintage Collection product! Back in April I was able to obtain the large Dark Side capper featuring Vader and Maul (that display included Epic Heroes Series and other merchandise). This time a mix of new and old The Vintage Collection product is featured: Rex, Luke, Vader, and Stormtrooper from the latest wave assortment, plus new old stock of last year’s Klatooinian Raider and 2022’s deluxe Dark Trooper (Dark Trooper only $14.97). Figures are stacked three-deep similar to past displays (2021 LFL50 and 2022 Clone Wars). Bought enough that I decided to take the entire unit to check out. Also nabbed three different versions of the special edition Star Wars Oreo displays from Walmart, Target, and Jewel-Osco (Albertson’s). Fun niche items for your displays if you can manage to snag them from your local stores. Also, if you’ve ordered figures online and they have the issue where the adjacent case-packed bubble has smeared and rubbed printed art off, it’s an opportunity to find some card backs without this annoying blemish, Thanks all and happy hunting.
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Nielsen have finally released their numbers for early June, which means we now have numbers for The Acolyte. Luminate have their own streaming charts so it will be interesting to see how the two compare. What does Nielsen say about The Acolyte? Click through to find out!
This show is wearing no clothes!
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In the Destined for Discounts category, The Black Series Holocomm Collection Ahsoka Tano is now marked down to $14.97 on Walmart.com. Click here for the product page.
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Hasbro is releasing a Halloween-themed 2-pack from The Black Series featuring the Inquisitor and a Duros Bounty Hunter. This will be an Amazon exclusive. Look for this to go up for pre-order soon.
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The latest HasLab campaign has concluded successfully, though it fell just short of reaching the final tier. With a shorter run than past HasLabs, would it have been met with a little more time? The final tally came in at 14,737.
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Here is another figure we had to wait a long time for, although we still don’t have an accurate replacement. That aside, Clone Commander Rex (Bracca Mission) is another fantastic action figure for The Vintage Collection. Check it out in our Research Droids Reviews today (more….)
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With only 23 1/2 more hours to go it’s all or, well, much less now. The Cantina currently has 10,337 backers. Greedo will soon be unlocked, probably in the morning hours or even at night, when people on the west coast pull the trigger. But the big question is: will the usual mad dash on the final day be enough to propel the Cantina all the way to 17,000? To achieve this the Cantina needs to almost match the performance of the Ghost, which added 6,827 backers on its last day and successfully unlocked all tiers, but the Cantina had unlocked tier #2 on its penultimate day and easily blast its way past 17k with time to spare on the last day – and the Cantina has not even quite reached tier #1 yet. The Cantina needs 6,663 backers now or not all tiers will be unlocked. And the penultimate day was quite a bit slower than what the Ghost had, roughly 75%. So this could be a close call.
Bite your nails and post your predictions and other thoughts in the comments! This will be the goto HasLab article and thread for the day! Have fun! And remember, it’s just toys.
Will the Cantina fly to Venus or only to the Moon?
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This week it will be a very short article. Because The Acolyte has, as expected, dropped out of the Luminate Streaming Charts, it was already a very close call last week. It is no longer among the top 10 most watched original streaming shows.
Other websites may try to run interference for Lucasfilm and claim what a raging success it is and how the fans are the issue, not the show, but the cold hard fact is that The Acolyte is a ratings failure on Disney+. And while we still have to wait for Nielsen chances are that they will also confirm that this is the least watched Star Wars live action series yet. Now, in all fairness, Andor also dropped out of the top 10 Nielsen charts for original shows exactly once. So maybe The Acolyte will manage a comeback like Andor did. But Andor dropped out of the charts during the middle of the season, not close to the season finale. It seems naked Manny Jacinto did nothing for the ratings.
And no, it is not istophobes who refuse to watch it. The show is just not good, it’s horribly written, in parts horribly acted and outright nonsensical when it comes to the character arc and motivations of its main characters Mae and Osha. In addition to that it aims to deconstruct the Jedi and portray them as shady people with terrible secrets who feel so guilty they commit suicide and who act as overbearing space cops in the High Republic. Maybe most just do not like this version of Star Wars. Almost certainly so. And to think Lucasfilm spent $180 million on this…
The Luminate Streaming Charts on Variety, without The Acolyte.
Star Wars in 2024
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Pre-orders are now open for the Target exclusive The Black Series Shin Hati (Arcana) & Mandalorian Shriek-Hawk figures. Thanks to JTA reader Jon for the reminder!
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Earlier today the Vintage Collection collectors successfully funded the Tonnika sisters with a cantina on the side. Which means with a little more than 86 hours still to go TVC collectors can now try to get Hasbro to feed them a few more fis… I mean give them more action figures by reaching more tiers! Only a little less than 8,900 backers to go before everything is unlocked!
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ARC Trooper Echo (TMS133) joins Captain Rex, Fives, and the rest of the 501st in Hot Toys The Clone Wars sixth scale collection. Click through to check out the full details and gallery images.
Pre-orders for Echo are now live over at Sideshow.com.
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Hot Toys is adding to the 501st today with the announcement of The Clone Wars ARC Trooper Fives (TMS132) sixth scale figure. Click through for complete details and gallery images.
This is available to pre-order right now at Sideshow.com.
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We had to wait TWO DECADES for Hasbro to update Princess Leia Organa from A New Hope on a vintage-styled card. And this is the first one that is super-articulated. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close. Check it out in our Research Droids Reviews today (more….)
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This week’s episode of The Acolyte is the polar opposite of the previous one. Zero action, dialogue only. Sadly, this also means you need good actors, even more sadly, Amandla Stenberg continues to seriously underwhelm as the lead characters in this. And so much hinges on her here. Anyway. In this episode Manny Jacinto (who is actually a good actor) as the newly revealed Sith gives Osha his best sales pitch (the usual routine), while Sol pretends to be clueless but isn’t really… just when this show finally wants to tell us how the Jedi murdered all the poor space witches we fade to black. Why this show has 8 episodes is beyond me, this is at best a 4 part mini series with one hour episodes.
So… there’s not that much to talk about this week, since things were mostly just boring or the same old same old you expect to see and hear when a Sith tries to recruit someone. But of course there are some things worth discussing… like the vague vibe I get they may retcon Darth Plagueis here, if they do I have a feeling many folks may not be so happy about it. So click here or on the banner for my spoiler review of Teach / Corrupt and let’s discuss the latest episode of The Acolyte!
We also get male frontal nudity in this… where is equal representation when you really want it?
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We are on the finishing straight for the Cantina HasLab! Only seven more days to go! How do things look? Funding seems to be 100% secure at this point. The big question was and is how many tiers may get unlocked and how the 4th of July holidays in the US may impact backer numbers. Click through for all the details!
Stay on target!
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We can almost forgive Hasbro for initially making the Stormtrooper (VC231) figure a Walmart exclusive because they’ve done their part to make it more widely available again. Hasbro re-adds the Stormtrooper to the lineup with enhanced paint operations and card art. The figure hasn’t looked better. We took the time to summarize all the new details for you by producing an all-new 80-image gallery complete with comparison shots and a breakdown of what separates the 2022 version from the 2024 reissue in the Collector Notes. See this essential figure, which has been updated in our RDRs now! There’s more difference here than you may realize.
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While we still have to wait another 1 1/2 weeks for Nielsen to finally release their streaming numbers for early June and thus finally including The Acolyte, new player in town Luminate releases their numbers in a much more timely fashion. So we already know the numbers for last week (Friday – Thursday) for The Acolyte. And not to mince any words here… the numbers are BAD. Click through for more!
Few people care
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Throw away your VC93 Darth Vader figure! It’s officially obsolete! Hasbro gave longtime collectors a gift with the updated and upgraded Darth Vader figure based on Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. It’s an absolute must-have action figure. Check it out in our Research Droids Reviews today (more….)
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In all the excitement about the “Stranger” helmet from The Acolyte yesterday it was overlooked that IGN actually revealed Hasbro’s 2024 SDCC exclusive The Black Series set as well!
It is Darth Maul with his speeder bike! Which is the first Black Series vehicle in a long, long time, albeit a very compact and small one. The set will be $59.99. You can get it at SDCC, but you must reserve a time slot online (with a valid badge/ticket of course), then you show up at the Hasbro booth at the alotted slot to buy the set. After SDCC a limited quantity of sets will also be sold on Pulse. I would suppose etailers outside the US will as usual also get a limited number of sets.
Maul has soft goods robes, so he can actually ride the speeder, in addition to his iconic lightsaber he also comes with a probe droid (with stand) and his binoculars. So the only new thing here really is the speeder.
What is your opinion? Is this a good set? I think the speeder is a welcome addition to the line. To make it an SDCC exclusive is… typical. However, SH Figuarts released the speeder years ago as a web exclusive. Unfortunately the speeder was also a limited release and you need to hunt it down on the aftermarket and prices will be pretty high (and it comes without figure, but SHF have a soft goods Darth Maul as well). But anyone not attending SDCC and having no luck with Pulse and has to resort to the aftermarket should see if aftermarket prices for the Black Series set on ebay won’t make the SHF speeder a viable alternative (and it does look better). The SHF speeder goes for about $230 on ebay. First sellers already offer the Black Series SDCC set for $220.
Will you try to get the TBS SDCC exclusive?
SDCC exclusive
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Hasbro Pulse has the former pipelined The Black Series Rebel Trooper & Stormtrooper 2-Pack available for pre-order. Click here for the product page.
UPDATE: Also available on Amazon and Entertainment Earth.
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Toy Reviews
