Author Topic: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection - Star Wars  (Read 51587 times)

Offline dave in the basement

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #45 on: February 18, 2019, 03:54 PM »
I'd love to grab Chewie and a Stormtrooper if I saw them in the wild. Hopefully that will happen!

Offline Brian

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #46 on: February 22, 2019, 10:35 AM »
I’ve been listening to/reading a number of recaps and opinions from Toy Fair, and these figures definitely seem to be the hot button issue. Some of them brought up an excellent point that I was thinking about too, it was only a matter of time. Retro, especially these days, have always been a thing. Heck, look how often we see Transformers reissues, and people don’t seem to have as much problem with those. I just bought a Bumblebee one this week, and was happy to find it to go with my reissue Prime and Sideswipe. I have a set of reissued Ninja Turtles figures I picked up at TRU years ago as well. I remember looking at (and wish I could have bought) the reissued Masters of the Universe figures when they were out as well. Honestly, Star Wars is one of the few “big” lines from the 80s that hasn’t done this aside from the POTF2 four pack. They (Hasbro) seem to have gone out of their way to make sure everyone knows they aren’t REAL vintage, from the cardbacks to the date stamps, etc. so hopefully there aren’t any issues there.

It may be that the reactions were just as divided with those other line reissues I mentioned, I’m not as plugged into the various other fandoms as I am with Star Wars. I just wish there wasn’t always so much conflict in our fandom. I am not at all directing this at people here, but just with various podcasts and videos I’ve been taking in from creators I very much enjoy, it seems like many are upset by this. I get they aren’t for everyone, and that’s fine, but I guess they don’t bother me too much. I know I’ll likely pick them up if they aren’t too difficult to find.

Offline Rob

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #47 on: February 22, 2019, 11:23 AM »
I was warming up to the idea, until I saw this:



So, they're just out of scale with the originals... my initial thinking had been to just buy NEW figures and mix them in... now it seems like it's got to be something completely separate (for me at least), which means collecting vintage again?  Are they going to stick with this enough to remake everything? 

Maybe if they do a retro / TVC Sim-Aloo 2-pack it'll be worth it.   :P

Offline Mister Skeezler

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #48 on: February 22, 2019, 11:41 AM »
That's a resculpt of the vintage figure too, right? They didn't just size up the mold slightly, I'm assuming?

Won't there be other identifying features? Does the "made in China" text appear differently than it did in the 70's and 80's?
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Offline Rob

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #49 on: February 22, 2019, 11:49 AM »
The second image in that Yak Face post was a screen grab of a Rebelscum post, with a KENNER header on it that said:

"Hasbro will be producing a new line of action figures based on the classic Kenner action figures.  Like the Boba Fett released in The Vintage Collection, these figures are new sculpts and are just a bit bigger than the originals.  The line will offer newer collectors an alternative to the vintage market prices and gives collectors of the original line some new figures to fill in a hole left when the collection in 1985!"

^ The verbiage errors in that last sentence were D. Martin Myatt's, not mine.

So I guess that image is using the mail-away Rocket Firing Fett as an example, and isn't some new Retro figure that we hadn't seen...

Offline JediJman

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #50 on: February 22, 2019, 12:38 PM »
That's a close enough scale that newer figures like Tarkin won't bother me.  I guess I'm on the side of liking that they're doing something slightly different.  There are a lot of differences in the picture posted, so hopefully its very easy to tell new vs. old.  You can't really go by paint though.  I must have half a dozen vintage Fetts with completely different paint apps/colors.
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Offline Jeff

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #51 on: February 22, 2019, 01:03 PM »
I get they aren’t for everyone, and that’s fine, but I guess they don’t bother me too much.

I agree, Brian. There will be some people put off by these, but they are so different I can't really see them impacting the 'real' Kenner market for carded figures.  They are a nice alternative for Kenner fans who can't drop $1000+ on a original 12-back.

The figures themselves will probably have enough differences to tell them from the originals, but there will be jerks out there who lie and try to sell them as mint Kenner figures.  Big deal.  Those guys are out there right now lying about repro weapons being real or pawning the 1995 re-do figures off as 'originals'.  It sucks, but that kind of stuff has always been a risk to Kenner collectors.

This line would be much more interesting to me if they were all like Tarkin (like adding new Kenner versions of Sandtrooper, Stormtrooper Han, Rebel Fleet Trooper, etc).  We'll see if that happens or if this is just a one-time thing I guess.
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Offline Ben

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #52 on: February 22, 2019, 02:39 PM »
Somehow I doubt Hasbro will ever produce these in numbers that genuinely impact vintage prices. Unless of course they did something really awesome and offered Yak Face...

Hasbro and Takara have been selling reissues of Transformers for 20 years now and they really haven't lowered prices on the vintage stuff, though it could be argued they got out ahead of the stuff rising in value. Characters that haven't been reissued still maintain some secondary market heat (Wheeljack, Mirage, Sunstreaker to name a few) so maybe there's an argument here. I doubt this line of Kenner retro stuff will last too long, but I hope to be surprised.
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Offline JediJman

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #53 on: February 22, 2019, 03:14 PM »
I think this stuff is going to sell like hot cakes and we'll be seeing these on the shelf for years.  They're clearly targeting children of the 80s with vintage styling, but it will have appeal beyond that.  The sculpts are new, but very closely related to molds already produced, so while there is some development cost I have to assume the cost is lower than original designs.  They have a fancy cardback and at $10 they seem like a nice savings over both the vintage collection line and original vintage figures.  And while we're thinking that's a steal, they've actually increased the basic figure/5 POA SRP from $8 figures to $10 figures. This line is genius.
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Offline Dave

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #54 on: February 22, 2019, 03:26 PM »
Are these exclusive to Target? 

Offline Jeff

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #55 on: February 22, 2019, 03:40 PM »
Are these exclusive to Target?

Yes, according to press release info, exclusive to Target -

STAR WARS RETRO COLLECTION
(HASBRO/Approx. Retail Price: $9.99/Available: Spring 2019)
Available exclusively at Target
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Offline Dave

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #56 on: February 22, 2019, 04:29 PM »
Thanks Jeff, that's what I thought but couldn't find the Hasbro press release.

Based on that, I would assume that Hasbro isn't going to push an exclusive line all that aggressively.  At the most I think it may be something like when Walmart's Vintage line that had 10 or so figures a year. 

That still probably freaks out vintage collectors if Target/Hasbro would keep the line going for awhile, although I kind of doubt Target would be all that interested in releasing all the obscure characters that would pegwarm if they tried to do all 100. 

I'll be interested to see what the quantities produced on these are.  Hasbro did pretty well on the Vintage packaging that they did for the 6" carded figures a couple years ago.  Pretty limited numbers and they came and went really quick.

Offline Matt_Fury

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #57 on: February 25, 2019, 01:41 PM »
I think I'm in on getting these, now that I know that they are different enough from the vintage line.  Definitely in on the Escape the Deathstar game!
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Offline EdSolo

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #58 on: February 28, 2019, 06:46 AM »
Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but listening to the Star Wars Action News podcast, I believe these were made in a similar process to the Gentle Giant Jumbo figures.  They 3D scanned an existing vintage figure and went from there.  That is why they are a bit off on size.

Offline JediJman

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Re: 2019 Kenner Retro Collection
« Reply #59 on: February 28, 2019, 04:41 PM »
I thought the description flat out said "New sculpts."  I don't know what that entails, but looked like other aspects were slightly different as well.
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