![Val (Vandor-1) (71) - Hasbro - The Black Series [Phase III] (2018)](/star-wars-the-black-series-phase-iii/thumbs/tbs3-six-71-val-vandor-11-th.jpg "Val (Vandor-1) (71) - Hasbro - The Black Series [Phase III] (2018)")
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Let’s check out the first wave of The Vintage Collection for 2025! Let’s check out Jedi Master Indara from The Acolyte. See it in our Research Droids Reviews today. (more….)
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Let’s check out the first wave of The Vintage Collection for 2025 with the classic Luke Skywalker from A New Hope. It’s imperfect, but you’ll be glad you added it to your collection. See it in our Research Droids Reviews today. (more….)
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Star Wars is celebrating 2025 with a year-long campaign: Power the Force. Head over to StarWars.com for more details.
Power the Force is a year-long campaign showcasing some of the saga’s iconic ships, favorite characters, memorable droids and, of course, lightsabers. In addition to even more new LEGO Star Wars sets coming soon, Power the Force will feature collectibles, apparel, and toys across a host of brands, including Hasbro, Funko, Citizen, Jazwares, RSVLTS, RockLove Jewelry, Topps, and more. And keep your Jedi senses honed for some surprises along the way!
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Third time’s the charm? The Rey Palpatine movie, tentatively titled “New Jedi Order”, has found yet another new writer. This after Damon Lindelof and his writing partner were let go over creative differences, then Steven Knight was tasked to come up with something, yet according to reports Lucasfilm didn’t like any of his treatments, so he focused on other things more worth his time and moved on… but Kathy won’t give up that easily, Lucasfilm has now hired yet another screenwriter as per The Hollywood Reporter, so this is pretty official!
And the new vict… I mean writer is George Nolfi! If you wonder “who?”. Nolfi has written seven movies in total so far. Among them several pretty average and forgettable ones. His best known works are the very average (some would say bad) “Timeline” (the movie based on a Michael Crichton book), then there’s Ocean’s 12, and he also wrote two pretty good Matt Damon movies, The Bourne Ultimatum and The Adjustment Bureau, the latter is like Timeline the only somewhat more fantastical movie where mysterious guardians of the timeline try to prevent a romance between Damon and co-star Emily Blunt. But Nolfi has never really worked on an all out scifi/fantasy movie before.
Nolfi is also a director, his most notable work as a director is The Adjustment Bureau.
So he has experience, he knows how to direct and to write (and produce) movies. Nolfi certainly has the qualification and at least the two Matt Damon movies are even pretty enjoyable. But let’s see where this is going. I am saying it once more: if Disney really let Kennedy make her Rey movie, even more so with a non-director like Obaid-Chinoy at the helm, they are more foolish than I already think they are.
Also, since Nolfi has worked a lot with Matt Damon previously… could this mean he’s joining Star Wars as well? Now we only need Ben Affleck!
Post your humorous thoughts in the comments!
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It’s been a while since I talked about rumors, well, this time it’s more “leaks” than “rumors”, one of the sources is even The Hollywood Reporter. So no YouTube shenanigans really this time, more like credible leaks about upcoming things! Of course this article will be spoilerific to the max, so if you are allergic to spoilers please avoid! Click through for all the rumours and leaks!
You are about the enter the Star Wars Rumor Zone!
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Pre-orders are now open for the latest The Black Series & The Vintage Collection reveals. Click below for available pre-order links:
The Vintage Collection
- Baylan Skoll (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Shin Hati (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Mandalorian Super Commando (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Clone Trooper (501st Legion) (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Battle Droid Builder Pack (Hasbro Pulse)
The Black Series
- Anakin Skywalker (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
- Clone Captain Rex (Entertainment Earth • Amazon)
Full Cases Via Entertainment Earth
- The Vintage Collection Wave 22 (Includes Baylan Skoll, Shin Hati, Mandalorian Super Commando, & Clone Trooper (501st Legion))
- The Black Series Wave 2 (Includes Anakin Skywalker & Clone Captain Rex)
Tags: Fanstream, Hasbro Pulse, livestream, Pre-Orders, The Black Series [Phase IV], The Vintage Collection
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Today’s Hasbro Fanstream featured a quick update on the Haslab Cantina (parts are starting to roll in, first shots of figures revealed), as well as several new additions to the line.
TVC figures revealed today:
- Baylan Skoll (VC355)
- Shin Hati (VC356)
- Mandalorian Super Commando (VC353)
- Clone Trooper (501st Legion) (VC240 Reissue)
- Battle Droid Builder Pack (Pulse/Disney Store)
Preorders begin on January 23rd at 1 pm ET with availability Spring 2025.
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Skeleton Crew just ended on Disney+ so it makes perfect sense for Hasbro to make a livestream all about the Ahsoka series! That’s next level marketing!
Two (one really) new Black Series figures were revealed today, and nothing more, no pipeline reveals either.
- Anakin Skywalker from the World Between Worlds Flashback
- Captain Rex (using the new clone body) from the same flashback scene
Preorders begin on January 23rd at 1 pm ET, they say availability is “spring 2025”! Happy hunting! Will you get any of those? Since I have all the Captain Rex I need I will only get Anakin. He looks pretty good. And that’s all folks!
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The year is still young and we are treated to the first Hasbro Star Wars fanstream already! The event starts at 11 AM Eastern. What are your predictions?
I will update this post with a link to the video once it is available (usually a few minutes before the stream begins), so refresh the page a few minutes before the event to see the link to the video or to watch the embedded stream after the jump! Or just head over at the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel for today’s event and watch it all there!
The stream is now live, the event will kick off soon! Watch the stream here or click the YouTube link above!
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Hasbro has announced their first Fanstream of 2025 for tomorrow, January 22, at 11 AM Eastern. Tune in here or on their YouTube channel.
Attention STAR WARS collectors! The Hasbro STAR WARS Fanstream is happening tomorrow, January 22nd, at 11:00am ET on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel. Join the Hasbro Star Wars team as they unveil some exciting new figures from STAR WARS The Black Series and The Vintage Collection.
Get ready for a galaxy of surprises and updates you won’t want to miss. Set your reminders and tune in tomorrow!
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Amazon has re-added their exclusive deluxe The Black Series Emperor Palpatine & Throne. Click here if you still need it!
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I’ll make this quick, since I have discussed this in detail previously. But the Skeleton Crew series finale failed to make the Luminate streaming charts which are already out for the past 7 days, so the final episode is already included. The #10 entry on the Luminate charts has 377.8 million minutes.
Meanwhile on the Nielsen charts episode 4 also failed to leave an impression, the show is still absent from those charts as well, the #10 original series here has 326 million minutes.
This means Skeleton Crew is with little doubt the least watched Star Wars live action show on Disney+ ever. With probably even less viewers than for Ms Marvel.
Anyone who still clings to the hope that this may somehow, maybe get an order for a second season will be sorely disappointed. It’s moot to discuss the reasons for this failure. It’s probably a combination of factors: kids as main characters which may not be something most adult Star Wars fans want, Star Wars Goonies meets Treasure Island may be too far removed from Star Wars as fans know and like it, and maybe The Acolyte has left nothing but scorched earth.
The only people to blame here are the ones making all the decisions at Lucasfilm and Disney. Absolutely not to blame however are the showruners Christopher Ford and Jon Watts and all the actors starring in Skeleton Crew, they delivered. The only question Watts and Ford may have to answer is if their pitch really was a good fit for Star Wars, however that is Kathleen Kennedy’s job to decide, not theirs, they did a really good job. So if you like Pirates of the Star Wars Galaxy as a concept the show was a fun ride with the best writing for any Disney+ Star Wars show outside of Andor and early Mandalorian seasons.
Why there is still no report of Kathleen Kennedy leaving Lucasfilm after her third colossal failure in a row (Indy 5, The Acolyte, now Skeleton Crew) and cratering merchandise and video game sales keeps on boggling the mind. Next victim of her touch of death could as well be The Mandalorian & Grogu movie, the leaks for that movie sound horrible. But by then it may be far too late to replace her. It’s difficult to see how Star Wars could make a comeback any time soon when there’s nothing but craters, smoking ruins and scorched earth.
Let’s hope for the best.
Defeat
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Skeleton Crew released its series finale on Tuesday. Sure, in theory this could get a season 2, but let’s be real, audience numbers make that almost impossible.
Which is a bit sad really, because people missed out on a genuinely good-hearted, fun and entertaining show that tried to give people a really good time. And the finale “The Real Good Guys” is no exception, it’s a fun ride with more action than any of the other episodes. All important questions and mysteries are answered too, but it also leaves a few things open for future stories. But unlike other shows Skeleton Crew feels more or less complete, yes, with potential for more, but this particular chapter of the story had a proper beginning, middle and end. It was a fun journey!
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The Black Series “Deluxe” IG-12 & Grogu gets another major price drop on Walmart’s website. Get it now for just $9.96!
Check out some of the other clearance markdowns right here.
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I still owe you all my spoiler review for episode 7 of Skeleton Crew! Sorry for the somewhat late post, but better late than never as the saying goes…
“We’re Gonna Be In So Much Trouble” is the endgame for Skeleton Crew. All the different factions arrive on or in orbit of At Attin, we learn a bit about At Attin and its secret is mostly solved by now, with one important omission, who the supervisor is (we do hear him for the first time).
It was a fun ride once again, very enjoyable, but maybe, when you think about it all, not really all that star-wars-y. In fact, you could easily remove the few Star Wars references from Skeleton Crew and the series would still mostly be the same… a quasi retelling of Treasure Island and Goonies.
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This is just an update really, because I discussed the streaming charts for Skeleton Crew in detail only earlier this week. But Nielsen and Luminate have both released new charts earlier today. Nielsen for week 2 of Skeleton Crew and Luminate for week 6! So Luminate has data for episode 7 (review will follow probably tomorrow, stay tuned).
And what do the charts tell us?
Skeleton Crew made neither of the charts. The #10 entry on the Nielsen charts has 306 million minutes, the #10 entry on the Luminate charts 288.7. It’s safe to assume even the final episode next week will not make the charts, which means Skeleton Crew will be the first Star Wars live action series ever not to make it into the top 10 original shows streaming charts once. Even Marvel hasn’t managed that yet, Echo was in the top 10 for one week (because all episodes were released at once, if not, this show would not have made the top 10 either).
With that it’s now evident that Skeleton Crew is a colossal and pretty expensive ratings flop for Disney. Even though the show is generally well received. All possible alarm bells should ring over at Lucasfilm and Disney. And Andor will certainly not take the world by storm either, despite very enthusiastic and overwhelmingly positive reviews for season 1.
My advice to them… fall back upon what is known to work. Maybe it’s time to make a deepfake Luke series. If Disney even still wants to make more Star Wars for Disney+ after a string of super expensive flops. Ahsoka season 2 in 2026 will certainly not be it.
The Nielsen Streaming Charts
The Luminate Streaming Charts
The kids learn about the ratings for their show
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The Hollywood Reporter broke the news yesterday: contrary to what some fans theorized, Baylan Skoll will not die off-screen or mysteriously disappear in Ahsoka season 2. Late actor Ray Stevenson will be replaced by Rory McCann, who, among other things, appeared in Game of Thrones before.
Baylan was too essential of a character to write him out of Ahsoka season 2, with various plot threads unresolved, so a recast was the only sensible option.
Ahsoka season 2 is currently scheduled to release sometime in 2026.
What are your thoughts on this?
The character will live on
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As you may know I look at how each and every Disney+ Star Wars series performs on the streaming charts. Earlier in 2024 I also added Luminate to the picture and looked at their charts. And I already talked about the Luminate charts for Skeleton Crew previously, because their charts are released in a much more timely fashion. Nielsen has a four week delay, Luminate usually posts their charts 24 hours or so after the data gathering period has ended for the week (however, Luminate have not updated their charts since mid December).
So what do the Nielsen streaming charts say? Did Skeleton Crew perform any better here after never making the top 10 Luminate streaming charts? Click through for the details!
No love for Neel
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Sorry for the delay but to release episodes for a tv/streaming show over Christmas and even New Year’s Eve is an odd choice maybe, when people are busy doing other things. Anyway, I did of course watch the latest Skeleton Crew episode titled “Zero Friends Again” in the meantime and it was another very solid and fun entry!
We are nearing the endgame of season 1 (which will probably also be the only season this show will ever get based on audience numbers and the pretty high budget) so there’s lots to talk about!
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With a new year comes a new TVC March Madness! It’s time to start picking your favorites to submit for the upcoming 5th annual The Vintage Collection March Madness bracket, hosted by @SWTVC. Preliminary submissions will run from now until the end of January.
Click through for guidelines on how to properly submit your Top 25!
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Pre-orders are now open for the Hot Toys Darth Malgus (VGM70) 1/6 Scale Figure. Click here for the pre-order page.
Tags: Darth Malgus, Hot Toys: Sixth Scale Figures, Legends, Pre-Orders, Sixth Scale Figures, The Old Republic
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Hot Toys reveals their latest Legends figure: Darth Malgus (VGM70). Click through for details and gallery images.
Tags: Darth Malgus, Hot Toys: Sixth Scale Figures, Legends, Sixth Scale Figures, The Old Republic
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Happy New Year from the JTA Family! Here’s hoping everyone has an exciting and prosperous 2025!
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2024 is almost behind us now! The perfect time to talk about your personal Star Wars action figure of the year 2024! Please pick only a figure that was actually released in 2024, so if you bought a rocket firing Boba Fett prototype, good for you, but that figure would not be eligible. It doesn’t need to be a Hasbro figure, anything goes, Hot Toys, Funko, SH Figuarts, as long as it’s Star Wars and it was released in 2024! Also, no vehicles or playsets please, even if the Ghost has been shipped, let’s make this about figures only!
Post your personal pick for Star Wars action figure of the year in the comments! I will tell you about my pick after the jump!
And the award goes to….
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We got a new episode of Skeleton Crew earlier this week, because of the Christmas holidays my review follows somewhat later than usual, but I did watch the latest episode over the holidays!
And it was the most and best fun I had with Star Wars in ages. “You Have A Lot To Learn About Pirates” was a near perfect lighthearted romp and adventure for the whole family, kids and adults alike can love this.
So even if you have turned into the Star Wars Grinch… maybe give Skeleton Crew a chance and see how your heart will grow a size or too… it may rekindle a spark inside of you!
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Toy Reviews
