The first HasLabs out of the gate (Cookie Monster aside) were all the gimmes.

This latest wave has been HasLab proving it's worth to Hasbro. Imagine if HasLab didn't exist and they went ahead and did the Ghost Rider Car as a standard release and lost a ton of money on the deal because the value proposition on that one was horrible. They are saving a ton of money throwing these ideas out there  with minimal development involvement and seeing that nothing is sticking.

I don't think they are trying to have a perfect record, they have this minimal-risk option now to see if they can grab a bunch of money, without the years long development and retail risk. I hope they are breathing a sigh of relief when they don't have to ship 20,000 $500 lightsabers on an untested (and ultimately disliked) character at Lucasfilm's insistence, and then only selling 1,000.

There are still a couple 3.75" Star Wars gimmes: If they want something to succeed, the Cantina is there for the making. I'd love to see a Death Star but that is such a dicey proposition, no two fans have the same idea what it should be. The Cantina translates much easier as a massive display/playset.

The price may be the price, but collectors can take a stand and tell Hasbro to piss off.

Well yeah, but the meth addicts could tell Heisenberg that too, but we know that's not gonna happen.

I definitely am seeing both sides of this, I am not saying you're wrong at all. Collectors want this figure, and they definitely have a fear of drawing a line about the price because they don't want to kill the line by not buying it. It's a tough spot.

I plan to get the Retro Deco TVC Fett, because I love that figure sculpt, love that colorway, and have very real nostalgia for how that first Kenner Fett got into my 5 year old hands at the time. But I am not going to preorder it next week because of the price issue, just like I didn't preorder either of the '22 Fetts. I wound up getting a Morak Fett eventually.

I will get the new version eventually, playing the long game of collecting as I have in the past with the idea that eventually this stuff loses value and the things that do increase in value are balanced out by the rest that doesn't. And if this never price-corrects and becomes unattainable, then I probably won't get one, which I have to be okay with because I am not comfortable giving the retail price a pass. (I just bought ROTS Mon Mothma last week for the same price it was 20 years ago when I skipped it, because her Andor appearances have finally made the character "worthy" enough for me to pick up.)

Nah. You're wayyyyy off. Sim Aloo will be a surprise reveal next year. He's just a new head and a soft goods robe on any old body they want.
The last 96er figure will be Hammerhead. He's too much new tooling.

I can see Dedra going against her better judgement and turning to Syril to have somebody on the outside to do some dirty work for her, since it is apparent her assistant is now overstepping his bounds in a possible play for her job. She was warned to watch her back, and now has someone hopelessly devoted to her...will she be able to resist that advantage?

I just realized that Kino must be using the tasteless food paste dispenser as the pomade to keep his hair so slick and now I can't think of anything else.

Well, except that I still want to try a box of Syril Karn's Galactic Crunch cereal.

Regarding the price point?  It's interesting that the Target exclusive Axe Woves got rolled out at $16.99, and people thought that was just Target pricing an exclusive figure a little higher.  But no - it's the harbinger of Hasbro hiking the price on TVC figures to $16.99.  At this price point there should be more new sculpts in this line.  The trooper repaints are getting out of hand.

Everything I see Hasbro doing regarding the Star Wars lines tells me that new TVC figures ought to be around $25, no joke -- like, if the current tooling went away and they had to start from scratch, every TVC figure would cost $25 (Unless it was a Deluxe figure, they would still be more.) Be it the complexity of their construction and paint apps, the ever lower order quantities they can sell as the brand struggles to retain relevance as a kids toy, or the licensing fees being squeezed out of them by Disney, we are kind of lucky the line got rebooted in 2018 and luckier still that it seems to be maintaining a foothold in stores.

My hat is off to the fact that they can work some brilliant budgeting math to get figures out at the prices they currently do. It is all precipitated on the repaints of previously released figures, the rereleasing of figures, and yes the near constant trooper rereleases. I think there is a machine in a factory in China that has had the Stormtrooper tooling in it for 4 years straight now, running 24/7, trying furiously to subsidize the line with all the repaints and rereleases they can get out of that tooling.

But what running decisions through that equation means to the line has become very clear now: Troopers and "part-swap friendly" designs will always get preference over one-off characters when it comes to new tooling. In 2022 I don't think there was a single new figure that was designed as a one-off...even the Dark Troopers came out immediately as a Deluxe release and as a battle-damaged version in the Exclusive multipack.

I enjoy seeing new sculpts as much as the next collector, but I have embraced that not only are they are going to be few and far between, but that they are going to be more and more sourced from the Disney "entertainment" and are going to be less and less anything I want to collect.

Thanks, obviously I haven't been buying these "Fan Channel" figures as a whole. Looking into it now I see the 1027-revealed Mortar Stormtrooper went up for preorder at the normal price of $14.99.

Discussing these prices over at Rebelscum, Jayson pointed out that the SKU on these figures indicates they are mainline releases and not fan channel. Which potentially puts the $16.99 mainline MSRP back into play for 2023.