After New York Toy fair last weekend, our friends over at Banthaskull were invited to participate in a follow-up Q&A with the Hasbro reps who presented the Star Wars panel. It was a very insightful interview, and they got some specific answers about the line instead of general PR responses. You can read the full interview on Banthaskull here, but there is one important part I want to cover with this article: repacks. Click here for more…
We have covered this topic in several previous articles, most notably a poll done in 2017 , and its follow-up article compiling the results. I must add that Hasbro has repacked several of the repack choices within the last couple years (Ree-Yees, Han in carbonite, Phasma, Jawas, Boushh, etc.). Hasbro is listening.
There has been more light shed on the future of The Vintage Collection coming from Banthaskull’s interview since those polls 3 years ago, though. In summary (basing numbers off what we are expecting this year): TVC will get 12 figures per year. 3 will be repacks, and 9 will be all-new figures (figures with any new tooling).
Yes, that means only 3 waves of 4 figures each year. What’s more, is that figures like the Remnant Stormtrooper and the Shadow Stormtrooper take the slots of a new figure. This can be seen in the recent Mandalorian wave (clone trooper was the repack), and Shadow Stormtrooper/Yavin Leia wave (Jawa was the repack). This leads me to make the strong suggestions, that we as collectors, and Hasbro 1) are going to need to be very picky when it comes to choosing figures for TVC, and 2) are going to need to be on the same page going forward. If Hasbro listens to fans, and we are very picky, I think we may still find some satisfaction even though the number of figures is very small.
One thing the article also clarified is that the “repack waves” available online-only are NOT part of the mainline, and do not count toward the 12 figures a year. I would venture to say any additional figures for the foreseeable future past the 12 in the mainline would be repacks. Let Hasbro know if you want more repacks than 3 per year.
Hasbro is also aware of the desire of long-time collectors to complete the “original 96.” Those will certainly take the slots of new and repack slots in the next few years.
Here is your task in this article:
Here are my answers (for clarity, please format your responses the same way):
TVC isn’t going anywhere for a long time, but it won’t have as many figures as it used to. Please use this opportunity to help Hasbro get on the same page as the community, not to vent about the small number of figures.
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