Kenner Focused Ideas For TVC's Return - Make The Most Of It, Hasbro!
There are ten (10) specific things I have been obsessing about that I want to see get done when the return of The Vintage Collection comes this Spring 2018. (A lot of it has to do with the original Kenner line.) While it would be wise for all of us to not count our chickens before they hatch, TVC’s return is likely to be a scaled down version of what we encountered between 2010 through parts of 2013. However, there is no reason why Hasbro can’t make most of their existing tooling budgets, parking lots, checklists and brainstorming to help us complete modern releases of the figures we grew up with as kids. Doing this will benefit everyone involved in the Hasbro/collecting community universe. While this unofficial Top 10 list of mine is really “all over the place’ with regards to what it covers, you will notice that it hones in on one repeated topic: getting those original “Collect All 92” out/completed in this line and offers suggestions on how to do it. Please click through and be sure to leave your own two cents in our comments. We have to keep the conversations going about The Vintage Collection. It’s the most important thing Hasbro has done for us in over half a decade.
1. Begin the Spring 2018 line with VC116. If you repack any of the previously released figures please reissue them with their original numbers. Feel free to update card back art (like the many vintage Kenner running changes) or whatever other details need to be updated to change the pace and keep things interesting.
2. As far as repacks go, please get out the “yet to be released on vintage Kenner inspired card back” figures first. Right now you can easily re-release the following while giving the zealous TVC fans what they want. Oh, and updating paint jobs wherever possible will only GUARANTEE another purchase by us. These action figures include: Snaggletooth (from the Special Action Figure Set), FX-7 (the repainted version from the Special Action Figure Set), Bespin Security Guard (Sergeant Edian from the Legacy Collection), Zuckuss (from the Legacy Collection), R2-D2 (from the LC Resurgence Of The Jedi Battle Packs set), Chewbacca (from The Black Series [Phase II]), Jawa (from The Black Series [Phase II]), Malakili (from Legacy Collection), Obi-Wan Kenobi (from the LC Resurgence Of The Jedi Battle Packs set), Warok (from the LC Battle For Endor Battle Packs set), Luke Skywalker (Battle Poncho) (make with the VC23 figure and the gear from the LC Battle For Endor Battle Packs set), Ugnaught (you can make an exact replica of the vintage Kenner figure if you use parts from both figures released in 2009), Biker Scout (from The Black Series [Phase I]), Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight Outfit) (we never got the right figure on the right card back with all of the needed accessories – this is a “no brainer” Hasbro), Princess Leia Organa (Boushh Disguise) (The Black Series [Phase I], Ree-Yees (The Black Series [Phase I]), AT-ST Driver (we’ll take any one of them on a TVC card back), Teebo (but can you give us that alternate “angry eyes” head sculpt instead? Lucasfilm has no idea what they’re doing with regards to that), Paploo (from the Legacy Collection – although we have always felt he should be taller so perhaps an all-new sculpt will do instead?), A-wing Pilot (from The Legacy Collection A-wing Fighter release), Han Solo (in carbonite) (The Black Series [Phase II]), Romba (from TAC). Feel free to update any of these to make them even better.
3. Please “shrink down” the many beautiful The Black Series 6” figures you’ve already made so that we can have definitive updates of so many classic characters. While we have plenty of great super-articulated action figures already, we’d love to see characters like AT-AT Driver, Snowtrooper and TIE Fighter Pilot come WITHOUT removable helmets.And because you already have the digital files from the 6″ figures, you have an easy task at hand. Most of the OT figures were made during Prequel Trilogy focused years (with all of the Clone Trooper madness) and we need a pure Original Trilogy take on all of them now. Figures that we’d love to see derived from the 6” line are: the three aforementioned characters (Stormtrooper (gosh we need a perfect new 3.75″ sculpt of him), AT-AT Driver, Snowtrooper and TIE Fighter Pilot), Luke Skywalker (ANH) (but avoid the soft-goods please), Princess Leia Organa (with or without soft-goods), Tusken Raider, Luke Skywalker (X-wing Pilot), Boba Fett, Imperial Royal Guard (because it’s beautiful and has no removable helmet). There are probably others too. The bottom line is if you have the digital files on them – make them!
4. All-new figures that you’ve made a bazillion times that just never were up to snuff because of either funky features or lack of articulation – that may or may not have had excellent sculpts. These would include Momaw Nadon (we know you’ve had one in the works for a half a decade now), Lobot (we know you’ve had one on the works for a half decade now), Death Star Gunner (we know he is done) and Saelt Marae (we know he is done). PLEASE FINALLY GET THESE LONG-AWAITED FIGURES OUT NOW!
5. There are some jaw-dropping Build A Droid figures at Disney Parks now. Could you please get permission to use their tooling for two figures? We’d like to see you use their 4-LOM and RA-7 sculpts to give us updated versions of the bounty hunter 4-LOM as well as a stunning new version of the Death Star Droid. They both put the older Hasbro sculpts to shame. These should be cheap to produce too and simple to slap on a The Vintage Collection card back!
6. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE get out the figures that have never been updated by Hasbro in the modern line…. ever. We need Sim Aloo, the puppet version of Sy Snootles and the Lars’ Homestead Power Droid (the blue one on which the 1979 Kenner version is based). Are there others? That’s debatable, but probably. We’re sure that Luke and Han Solo Stormtrooper Disguise figures have reached “update needed’ status now.
7. There are SO MANY simple retools that can be done with your existing sculpts to help complete the vintage Kenner line as well as so many other new figures. On top of our list is a retooled head to create the vintage “mustachioed” Bespin Security Guard. Lando Calrissian (Skiff Guard) (you made a gorgeous VC86 figure but he is too short – can you retool him a bit to give us the definitive Lando Calrissian (Skiff Guard Disguise) figure?)
8. Please ensure that each case of figures you produce for The Vintage Collection line has minimally 10 new figures in it (new as opposed the carry-forward figures from a previous wave). This KILLS your line time and time again. We want to show you ho successful this line can be. Please don’t shoot it in the foot with bad case assortments. If you don’t have ten figures ready, delay the wave until you can fill each case assortment with ten new offerings.
9. Unless you are unprepared to give us the long-awaited Boss Fight Studios Original Trilogy Yoda with all that glorious articulation, please repack the TBS [P1] Yoda (#20) on a vintage Kenner card back. It will have to do, but we need that figure represented in our modern The Vintage Collection.
10. Modern figures made years ago are in need of desperate update. These include: Imperial Commander (we have quite a few, but please give us one that is as close to the vintage Kenner figure as possible), 2-1B (you have a great base figure from the 30 (77-07) line that you can easily update to make Original Trilogy specific), Bib Fortuna (You made a great figure during The Saga Collection, now give us one with super-articulation), General Madine, Rebel Commando (we have received some great Endor Rebel Soldiers, but the last official Rebel Commando based on the Kenner figure was released in 1998 – it’s time for an update!), Tessek (the Power Of The Jedi release is gorgeous, but the articulation disappoints now), 8D8, The Emperor (come on Hasbro, this is obscene now), Klaatu (Skiff Guard Outfit) – the last one was made in 1999, Amanaman (yes, the Power Of The Jedi one is beautiful, but we’d love to see more articulation. If not, how about a TVC card back at least), EV-9D9, Luke Skywalker (Stormtrooper Disguise)
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