Hasbro Pulse Fan Livestreams

[Jeff]

From Hasbro PR:

"Join Patrick, Chris, Emily, and Eric from the Hasbro Star Wars team next Wednesday, February 9th, at 11am ET on our YouTube channel for the first #StarWars stream of 2022! They'll be celebrating with reveals, pre-order news, and what's in the pipeline!"

[Diddly]

Book of Boba Fett Finale day makes me think this will be MORE Boba junk. I'd be happy with a Black ChrisHansen figure, and I'd die laughing if they reveal figures for the Power Rangers Moped Gang.

[McMetal]

I'd be happy with a Black ChrisHansen figure, and I'd die laughing if they reveal figures for the Power Rangers Moped Gang.

That made me lol, thank you. 

[Nicklab]

I'm a little less enthused for the Black Series reveals that might be coming on Wednesday.  It feels like that segment of the line is just going through the motions right now.  I feel like the people at Hasbro who are planning out The Vintage Collection just "get it" a bit more.

[Jeff]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKQAJhrYJV0

Going to do a running list here...  today's 6" reveals:

Black Series 6" Archive Series:
- C-3PO
- Skiff Guard Lando  (I'm guessing they picked him to go with the Rancor... oh, wait  )
- Dengar
- Emperor Palpatine

Black Series 6" Gaming Greats"
- #10 Nightbrother Archer  - Pre-Order tomorrow, 2/10, at 1pm ET (GameStop in US/CAN, Fan Channel in UK)


Pipeline Reveals:
2023 Black Series 6" Archive Series:
- TFA Han Solo w/head/hair updates
- ANH Chewbacca
- ANH Grand Moff Tarkin
- ROTJ Boushh Leia

2023 Black Series 6" Mainline
- Aayla Secura
- TCW S7 Darth Maul
- RO Saw Gerrera

[JediJman]

I'm a little less enthused for the Black Series reveals that might be coming on Wednesday.  It feels like that segment of the line is just going through the motions right now.  I feel like the people at Hasbro who are planning out The Vintage Collection just "get it" a bit more.

I don't know, BS seems ahead of TVC to me.  Kuiil showed up there first, Bo Katan showed up there first. They've got the 40th anniversary carded figures, Animated Clone Wars 6" figures, Bad Batch figures, and now the Dark Trooper.  Lots of variety and new figures.  By comparison, TVC has a few prequel figure waves in the pipeline and some repainted ARC Clone Troopers.  I'm still collecting both lines, but more excited for what's coming our way on the 6" side these days.

[JediJman]

Black Series 6" Archive Series:
- C-3PO
- Skiff Guard Lando  (I'm guessing they picked him to go with the Rancor... oh, wait  )
- Dengar
- Emperor Palpatine

Well crap, I'm going to want all of these.  New finish for C-3PO, Photo real heads for the other three.   

[Nicklab]

I'm a little less enthused for the Black Series reveals that might be coming on Wednesday.  It feels like that segment of the line is just going through the motions right now.  I feel like the people at Hasbro who are planning out The Vintage Collection just "get it" a bit more.

I don't know, BS seems ahead of TVC to me.  Kuiil showed up there first, Bo Katan showed up there first. They've got the 40th anniversary carded figures, Animated Clone Wars 6" figures, Bad Batch figures, and now the Dark Trooper.  Lots of variety and new figures.  By comparison, TVC has a few prequel figure waves in the pipeline and some repainted ARC Clone Troopers.  I'm still collecting both lines, but more excited for what's coming our way on the 6" side these days.

The new figure announcements today were encouraging.  I'm looking forward to those.

But most of this livestream was Black Series Archive.  For a line that was launched with a philosophy of "Get it right the first time", they sure are repainting A LOT of figures.  I get that painting tech has improved, but the repaints have been so blatant that it's getting to be a bit much.  How many times are they going to say "This time we got ANH Leia right"?

There have been plenty of opportunity for The Black Series to knock some things out of the park, but they just whiffed.  Case in point?  The 40th Anniversary Collection figures from ANH.  It seems like the ultimate no-brainer to me that Hasbro should have released ALL of the Kenner 20 back characters in that "expression".  They could have done it as 4 x waves of 4 figures, plus another 4 that were exclusive to retailers.  But they only just got to Ponda Baba with the exclusive Cantina pack, and a basic figure release in the past few months.    But there are still another 4 of the 20 back characters that haven't been made (Hammerhead, Snaggletooth, Death Star Droid & Power Droid).  You can't build a line around those characters, but they add richness to the entire line.  They need to be sprinkled in judiciously.

Character selection, generally speaking, has been REALLY safe.  Main characters, bounty hunters and troopers - many of which are repaints. 

As for some characters turning up in TBS before TVC?  There's been some very fair criticism of the Black Series Bo-Katan compared to the TVC release in terms of the paint apps.  Kuiil, as well.  And it also seems like The Black Series has to strike while the iron is hot.  I think the average TBS buyer (who only buys Black Series) has a shorter memory for characters, so Hasbro needs to address those more quickly.

[Brian]

That’s how I feel as well. It has been said before, but the wait between character reveals in “new media”, and the time when we get the figures in our hands is ridiculous and I think hurts the momentum of the line somewhat. I mean, yes, we still buy them but the grumbling gets louder and you may miss casual fans that were interested. I don’t know if it is a Lucasfilm secrecy thing, or Hasbro, or a combination…but it simply takes way too long to announce and release characters that have been shown a year or more ago.

It’s like, we saw Boba in Mando 2 in 2020…why can’t that figure be ready to go and shipped in solid cases if nothing else is ready? Heck, we got solid cases of each member of the Eternals in at Target (that are still there in many cases), why can’t they take one of the most popular characters of all time and ship him out. I know there is plenty of room on Black Series pegs around here for him. They finally announce the Dark Trooper (looks great), then say he’ll be here next year? I had to preorder him on a card that will have expired/changed by then! 😂

I really think that Throne Room play set saved their bacon today. It is pricey as all get out, but at least it is new and looks amazing. It seems like all these other Hasbro lines (Marvel, Joe, TF, Power Rangers) can really rock these livestreams (and have product from current media actually available), but the Star Wars team is slow or their hands are tied. The quality of the product isn’t the problem. I actually think most of it looks outstanding, it just seems like the news and releases are such a cluster.

Another issue, is maybe the entire Star Wars Saga is getting to be a lot to cover in one (two) lines. I’ve maintained that Mando should have a dedicated line of its own, preferably in 3 3/4” scale so we can gets vehicles, beasts, and playsets. Keep the mix of everything in Black Series. I’d still want TVC figures from other media (particularly OT), so it is tough. Maybe move the “finish the 96” stuff to readily available Pulse exclusives, I don’t know. Just feels like we are missing out on a lot of cool stuff from these shows. Imagine a ROTS sized line (ok maybe that is excessive) focused on Mando, or Book of Boba together.

[Jeff]

I am really bad at tracking the 6" stuff since I'm not buying it, but here are a bunch of Amazon links for today's pre-order stuff #jdreferrals #sponsored

- 6" Echo - https://amzn.to/34vJu6c
- 6" Omega - https://amzn.to/33buPML
- 6" Corvus Ahsoka - https://amzn.to/3swzWjj
- 6" The Client - https://amzn.to/3BbvwCv
- 6" Death Watch Mandalorian - https://amzn.to/34PcpBP

- 6" Archive C-3PO - https://amzn.to/3HGIHxy
- 6" Archive Dengar - https://amzn.to/3BaOZmO
- 6" Archive Skiff Lando - https://amzn.to/3GFA9WA
- 6" Archive Palpatine - https://amzn.to/366rHmz

[Nicklab]

I only ordered the two figures that I really wanted - Ahsoka and the Death Watch Mandalorian.  Everything else?  We'll see.

On that matter of that assortment making its way out in the midwest, evidently that was an outlier.  It was brought up during the fan site Q&A sessions today and Hasbro stated that those should not have been shipping yet.

[JediJman]

I only ordered the two figures that I really wanted - Ahsoka and the Death Watch Mandalorian.  Everything else?  We'll see.

I did the same.  I figured those would be the two in highest demand.  Would be easier to just order it all at once I guess, but with the playset and a case of TVC, I didn't plan on dropping that much money on a Thursday afternoon.

[Nicklab]

There's somewhere around $500+ worth of preorders that have dropped this week.  People have to make choices.

[Jeff]

Sounds like there will be new pre-orders coming on 4/7 as a result of this live-stream...

From Hasbro Tweet:


From Yakface Tweet:

[Nicklab]

From what Jayson was hinting, it sounds like there might be a couple of Vintage Collection Gaming Greats figures revealed.  Maybe some other TVC, also.

As for Black Series?  Eh.  I have to see something that's really going to impress me, or it will have to be a character that I REALLY like for me to go for it.  Space and funds are a significant consideration, and if something is gonna go, it's going to be The Black Series for me.