Author Archives: Thomas
When you look at what other action figure toylines have to offer you sometimes wonder if Star Wars survives on nostalgia and being, well “Star Wars” alone, but not because of great products or good value.
The reason I am mentioning all this is the brand new GI Joe Classified HasLab: the Rattler. And when you look at it, what it offers, its features and its price… you begin to wonder if Star Wars fans are just getting ripped off these days and with the remaining collectors even deluding themselves into thinking something like the Cantina is a great thing to have. Click through for more!
GI Joe Classified Rattler, the full package with potential bonus figures
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While marketing for Skeleton Crew has not yet started what seems to be an official promo poster / artwork has now been found in a thrift store (of all places), according to someone who posted the photo on X. This is a color version of a metal ingot revealed previously, maybe this will be the official poster for the series.
The theory is that maybe someone who worked on the show sold some of the swag crewmembers usually get when production wraps. Skeleton Crew was ready for release in 2023 already and thus production ended quite a while ago, but Iger decided to delay the release as part of his new Disney+ content strategy, which is why we’ll get the show in November this year.
One noteworthy thing is that Jude Law is absent, unless you count his silhouette walking in the background with the four kids in tow. This may imply the kids truly are the main focus here with Law only being a support character. One would think they would feature the only known actor in this show a bit more prominently.
What do you think? After so many either at best average (Mando S3, Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Book of Boba Fett) or outright disastrous (The Acolyte) shows I have doubts Lucasfilm under Kennedy will get a series right that is meant to have kids as main characters, especially when we look at the child characters in previous Disney+ projects. But of course no one will know for sure until release and I will certainly watch the pilot episode.
Found in a thrift store…
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UPDATE: Luminate have already released their numbers for week 7 of The Acolyte, i.e. for the series finale. And episode 8 also failed to enter the top 10 Luminate original series like the previous two episodes. The #10 entry on the Luminate charts has 228.5 million minutes viewed (Sausage Party: Foodtopia, which is a sequel series to the movie) which is just embarrassing. The Acolyte must have had less then 228 million minutes watched, maybe even less than 200 million. According to Luminate the finale was watched by maybe as few as 4.4 million people (or even fewer)! In the update I also discuss some statements made by Headland in a Collider interview that reveal she literally considers Qimir aka Smilo Ren as somewhat of a self insert. You find the Luminate update and the interview quotes at the end of the original article!
Well, that escalated rather quickly… while The Acolyte remained in the top 10 Luminate Original Series charts until week 4 and episode 5 and only dropped out when episode 6 was released in week 5, The Acolyte has already dropped out of the top 10 Nielsen original series charts in week 3 with episode 4! The #10 show has 298 million minutes on the Nielsen charts. The Acolyte must have less than that. According to Luminate The Acolyte had 262 million minutes in week 3 (episode 4). Click through for a short commentary.
The Acolyte is as dead as this wookiee
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It’s finally over… the last ever episode of The Acolyte was released Tuesday night… but Headland’s show ends with a massive middle finger to almost all Star Wars fans. All in all things develop as you’d think they develop, there are no surprises really here. The plot is more than just predictable.
But Headland creates one of the most toxic romances in history (only rivalled by Rey and Kylo Ren) and has the gall to even include a cameo of a certain Jedi we all know… and I do not care about spoilers. The Phantom Menace is more like “The Super Duper Obvious Menace, We’ve Known About For 100 Years” now because at least two members of the high council should know about it all, and knew about it for about a century… which is just laughable. And that other cameo may make some fans even more angry…
There are quite a few things to talk about, none of them pleasant, but Lucasfilm should hear it loud and clear from the normal majority of fans that this is nothing most fans want (in case the lousy ratings do not tell Lucasfilm how a majority of fans reject this). While the two dozen Reylos who now have Oshamir scream on Twitter about how they want a season 2. Anyway, click here or on the banner to read my spoiler review for The Acolyte series finale.
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This week you’ll get yet another pretty short article. Because The Acolyte failed to make the top ten original series Luminate streaming charts for a second week in a row, this time with episode 7, that other flashback episode. Last time the series was on the Luminate charts it had around 220 million viewing minutes, by far the lowest figure for any Star Wars live action series ever – if the numbers will be reflected on the Nielsen charts in a few weeks from now we will know for sure. But week 2 figures agreed very well between the two charts. So it is not unreasonable to assume that we may see very similar trends in upcoming Nielsen streaming charts. Click through for a few comments about this embarrassing performance on the Luminate charts.
No wonder hardly anyone is watching this
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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After last week’s “Day” we get “Night” this week. I wish this was a joke. Anyway, this week’s episode finally reveals the super obvious identity of Smilo Ren. And yes it actually is who everyone said it was from the very beginning… even if some people hoped that Leslye Headland can’t be THAT obvious. Turns out… she is!
What else… in some ways this was the best episode yet. Because it had the least amount of dialogue, half of the episode is just fighting in a dark forest. But make no mistake, the plot we get is still as nonsensical as humanly possible and it may make you question life, the universe and all the rest. I cannot believe anyone who read the scripts greenlit this. It’s even more mysterious why this was given a budget of $180 million. Or why Iger lets Kennedy do as she pleases. I am literally dumbfounded after this episode.
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We are more than halfway through the campaign, only 14 days left for the Cantina! How are things? Click through for more!
Out of reach?
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The new Luminate Streaming Charts were released earlier today on Variety. While we still have to wait about two weeks until Nielsen will finally release their numbers for the premiere of The Acolyte, Luminate releases numbers in a much more timely fashion, these are the charts for the June 13th – June 20th period, which includes the release of last week’s episode. And how did The Acolyte do? Well…
Spoiler!
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WHAT. DID. I. JUST. WATCH????
I don’t know what to say. Only that, in my opinion, I watched the most nonsensical 30 minutes of Star Wars EVER. And this although we had slowmo Space Vespa chases, Kenobi being too dumb to walk around a laser barrier, hiding Lil Leia under a coat with no one noticing that they are walking around in an enemy base, Boba Fett getting tired every 20 minutes and Sabine (and Reva) shrugging off full lightsaber torso penetration just like that.
We need to talk about a lot of things. I also need grief counseling. So please click through for my spoiler review of “Day”, the worst Star Wars streaming episode ever. Yet. This was even worse than The Last Jedi. And four more episodes of The Acolyte are still to come. Someone please help me.
Make it stop, please!
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Nielsen is no longer the only game in town when it comes to streaming charts. Luminate is a new player on the market and they cooperate with Variety, who post the weekly Luminate streaming charts. Luminate themselves are not posting any charts on their website, this is a paid service. They are aiming at industry pros and analysts. Anyway, so what does Luminate say about The Acolyte? Click through to find out more!
The power of…. not so many
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As promised here is the next major update for the Cantina HasLab. Day 11 is almost over, so what are the numbers now, one week later? Click through for all the relevant data!
Update with Thursday numbers in the comments!
$399.99
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That escalated quickly!
Yup! This is happening…
Discuss away… and remember, this is supposed to be fun! Please do not take any of this seriously!
UPDATE: down to 15% now… could this reach single digit territory? As a famous pop culture icon would say: “Fascinating”!
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While user scores at sites like IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic are not the be all end all and will never tell any individual viewer whether or not he or she will like something, they are still a good indicator of what the general consensus by viewers is. High or low ratings almost always have their good reasons, and that reason is not “review bombing” despite what some media outlets claim. So how do things look for The Acolyte? Click through for a closer look!
Spoiler
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I have written about surveys and polls that aim to shed light on the demographics of Star Wars fans before. The surveys I quoted all more or less agree that about 40% of the fans are women. And actual movie attendance data by the MPAA supports this, the three movies in their report: The Force Awakens, Rogue One and The Last Jedi were watched by approx. 40% women. However, all of these surveys and polls are US only. But now a new analysis by Parrot Analytics, via Yahoo (who repost a The Wrap article hidden behind a paywall), has surfaced that takes a look at the all time global (so not just the US) demographics of Star Wars fans. They compare Star Wars to Marvel to see where the differences are. And the findings are very interesting! Click through for more!
Star Wars fans in the wild
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