Airing of Grievances

[Dave]

In the spirit of Festivus...

There seem to be more this year.

- Rancor fail
- Excessive repaints
- Price increases, especially for "deluxe" figures
- Product management team at Hasbro
- Hard to find retailer exclusives and pre-order windows that last 90 seconds

We have gotten some really nice 6" figures this year, and its nice to see them going back in time to fill out things like Rogue One.  We've received a few new 3.75" figures but not nearly enough.  I'd really like to see them "world build / expression" out some of the secondary characters from The Mandalorian. 

I do like the troop packs they've started releasing this year, and I'm really looking forward to finally receiving the Razor Crest.

One more - I've been filling my display and finally opening long stored vehicles and figures.  One of my biggest pet peeves is when a figure's foot peg whole is too short or narrow to set on a stand.  I can usually modify a stand by sanding the peg narrower and shorter with my Dremel tool, but foot peg wholes should never be too small.  Luckily this happens less than 10% of the time, but its still annoying.

[JediJman]

Running into that peg hole issue with other lines like Marvel Universe and Minimates right now Dave, so I feel your pain.  I can't figure out why the pegs and holes aren't 100% standard but it is annoying as all get out when they don't fit.

[Mister Skeezler]

I'm finishing up a Mos Eisley Cantina display, and this thread is perfect for me to bitch about how craptacular the POTF2 cantina band members are. Those bastards can't hold their instruments and can't stand, so I'm pretty much seeing them fail both things their supposed to do. 100% failure rate right there. That new Figrin Dan can't come fast enough, IMO.

[Dave]

I'm finishing up a Mos Eisley Cantina display, and this thread is perfect for me to bitch about how craptacular the POTF2 cantina band members are. Those bastards can't hold their instruments and can't stand, so I'm pretty much seeing them fail both things their supposed to do. 100% failure rate right there. That new Figrin Dan can't come fast enough, IMO.

That's another thing that bugs me is the ability for some of the older figures to hold their weapons/accessories. 

Current figures do a fantastic job of molding the hands for exactly what they're supposed to hold, including trigger fingers, etc.  Some of these older figures have hands that are waaayyy too open to hold their accessories properly.

They got a lot of stuff right with the old figures - good accessories, sometimes stands, appropriate articulation, good price point - but man does it frustrate me to pull off the rubber bands from the packaging holding their weapons in place only to realize that is the only way they'll ever hold their blaster again.

[Matt_Fury]

Walmart.

[Nicklab]

There's a bunch, definitely.

-Character mix
-Repaints & reissues outnumbering new figures
-Carbonized - ENOUGH ALREADY.  PLEASE!!!
-Frozen joints
-Exclusive fails - Walmart especially
-Absence of a mass retail medium vehicle line
-Absence of a creature assortment
-Prices creeping up

[EdSolo]

I've noticed the weapon holding problem with the retro collection stormtroopers.  Both the multicolor and the Imperial Remnant ST's have the same problem that they can barely hold their blaster.

[Diddly]

There's a lot to grieve about, most of which has already been mentioned. My three biggest gripes at the moment are:

1. The way you have to buy figures now. You have a 5-15 minute window to preorder figures online, if that, and if you miss it, it's gone forever because most of the exclusives sell out and are never put back up. Meanwhile, you can't find anything at retail. I understand retail has other pressing issues, but Hasbro doesn't seem to want to bother since I assume they make all the money on their limited run figures.

2. Hasbro's lack of enthusiasm for the line. It's painful watching the Marvel Legends reveals and seeing either a slew of new figures, or repaints that make sense. For example, I'm loving the retro Spider-Man figures on the 90s Animated Series cardbacks... those are a GREAT mix of new/kitbashed figures, or repaints that are accurate to the cartoon. And even then, the people in the presentations are just so excited to show the stuff off. Then you get to these boring Star Wars reveals where it's a corporate suit spouting out corporate buzzwords while introducing a metallic repaint that costs double the price of a basic figure. It just feels like the line is an afterthought, and Hasbro doesn't care about it anymore.

3. The fanbase. Long gone are the days where we critique and analyze everything from figure inaccuracies to articulation in a friendly manner. Now, the sequels have brought in new collectors who eat all of these repaints up with a spoon, and if they see any criticism whatsoever, they pounce on you with the "shut up and buy it and then get excited to buy the next repaints." I know we had arguments in the old days, but you never felt personally attacked for the most part. Now you're "not a real Star Wars fan" if you don't want to buy Carbonized Boba Fett or Obi-Wan: the 10 Year Old Rerelease of a Not So Hard To Find Figure. Forums like these are unfortunately a dying breed, being replaced by things like Discord and Reddit, where if you don't follow along with the groupthink mentality, you get downvoted to oblivion, or outright banned.

Having typed all of that out, it makes me realize... it's not really fun to collect at the moment. Hopefully things start to change soon.

[GrandMoffNick]

I agree with your #3 but the everything sucks group is just as bad as the you should like everything group. I still get nothing but joy from this hobby (probably too much). It takes more time money work to get to that joy than at points in the past but I feel bad for all of the people making that same sentiment about not enjoying it anymore.

[Rob]

Everyone makes good points, but the only thing that really kills me is the lack of good world building... the lack of secondary characters across all the properties.  The lack of never-before-made characters...

Rise of Skywalker got it the worst, but they're just not even trying anymore.  The line desperately needs more variety, more oddball aliens, more characters that didn't get made before...

[EdSolo]

Marvel is a good example.  Both Galactus and the Sentinel were spot on Haslab projects for that line.  The roll out and reveals for both projects were handled well and the bonus unlocks were what the backers wanted.  I only scratched the surface of Marvel as a kid.  I had a few of those figures that came with shields that had the little lenticular cards in them.  I think I had Woverine, Doc Ock, Spiderman, and Magneto.  Today, I have actually bought all the retro line for Marvel because of the Star Wars retro line.  I ordered the original Marvel wave kind of as a lark when it was up on the Hasbro site and I really liked the card art and the nostalgia of a "vintage" style Marvel figure.  I have managed to keep up with the line and have them all displayed loose and kept the cardbacks.  I don't really do toy runs, but I have actually seen these figures on the pegs in Target when I have been shopping.  Most of them I have ordered on line, but have had no problem getting them from the on-line retailers.  The regular Star Wars retro figures I have not seen in stores at all.  Most waves have been difficult to order.  The exclusive figures that came in a game have been the only ones I have found at retail.  I have had no success with any of the multi color figures at Target.  I had to ebay most of the ANH and ESB waves.  I managed to get a few ESB figures from Zaavi's UK store.  Somehow got the Boba Fett from there, but it took a long time after they were released to ship and they cancelled about half my orders due to lack of product.  Really the only wave I was able to secure without too much trouble was the first Mando wave.  I also managed to get the second Mando wave on preorder from Hasbro.  I know the retro line has mixed feelings overall, but it hits me in the vintage sweet spot.  I've even got to the point that I'm exploring custom vintage style figures to add to my shrinking collection.  Honestly purging most of my Hasbro stuff and concentrating on things I like has sort of reinvigorated my collecting.  I'm really concentrating on vintage stuff, but haven't pulled the trigger on too much.  I am enjoying looking through listings.  I will probably never finish off the last 17 figures or Droids or Ewoks due to cost, but you never know.  May start looking at vintage vehicles.  I also always loved the micro collection.  I still have a few pieces from my childhood.  Prices aren't too bad on those sets so I may try to pick up a few and see where it goes.

Overall, I feel everyone's pain with Hasbro.  It is crazy to think that the Star Wars line came back 25 years ago now.  Imagine if Kenner had continued even another five years past 1985.  I'm kind of surprised Hasbro has hung on to the license this long.  Toys are a much different market than when we were kids.  My kids were done with toys like action figures a lot early than I was.  I was still playing with my GI Joe and Star Wars figures into middle school.  I honestly wonder what the true breakdown in sales between kids and collectors is.  Hasbro always seem to state it was much more heavily in favor of purchases for kids, but in all these years I only ever saw collectors buying stuff when I did toy runs.

[Nicklab]

Everyone makes good points, but the only thing that really kills me is the lack of good world building... the lack of secondary characters across all the properties.  The lack of never-before-made characters...

Rise of Skywalker got it the worst, but they're just not even trying anymore.  The line desperately needs more variety, more oddball aliens, more characters that didn't get made before...

This is where many of my sentiments lie, too.

Those initial years in the Kenner line seem quaint now in comparison.  But when you look at the characters from the Kenner 20 back cards there was some genuine richness there!
-A Jedi Knight
-A Jedi in training
-A Sith Lord
-The Princess
-The pilot
-The smuggler and his alien sidekick
-4 droids
-4 cantina aliens
-2 aliens of the Tatooine wastes
-2 Imperial troopers
-A new, mysterious bounty hunter

Now the character mix is almost exclusively main characters and troopers.  The Mandalorian is the only recent entertainment that has gotten any richness with secondary characters.  But even that has been limited.  And just how likely is it that we might get a figure of the Trawler from Maldo Kreis who cursed out Mando in the opening episode, and then got his arm broken?  What about the Zabrak fighter that Cara Dune was fighting on Sorgun?  Or even Gor Koresh from the season 2 opener?  It's really frustrating, because in years past there would have been a good chance of us getting those as figures.

I can definitely appreciate the frustration of the reissues.  For those of us who can measure our time in the hobby in DECADES it's frustrating to see Hasbro retreading old ground with figures that we bought 10 years ago.  But I can also see this from another perspective.  The secondary market prices for a lot of the older figures just continues to climb.  A lot of these figures are main characters, and they're also some of the best iterations of those characters.  The new paint jobs are actually really good.  And we have the option of not buying them.  Plus, in the case of figures like the TVC Echo Base Trooper and TVC 501st Clone Trooper, those figures were scarce the first time around.  Having a second chance at those is appreciated.

I know a lot of this has to do with the state of the toy business.  Is it having a resurgence?  We'll see.  I think the line is more popular now than it was in 2019 when we were expecting a lot from The Rise of Skywalker and actually got very little.

[Qui-Gon Jim]

So many great points here.  The blink and you miss it is more than just 3 3/4" and 6".  I am now collecting the black series helmets and all the issues we have with this are also evident in that space as well.  The big differentiator is that there are a ton more helpful fellow collectors with the two main lines.

[JediJman]

I'm just tired of having to be "on call" at any minute for things that drop online and sell out in minutes.  Its exhausting.  I can't keep track of what's coming, what I have pre-ordered, or nowadays even what I have.  I hate constantly ordering online and getting each individual figure in a separate box.  Those of us with spouses who think we already have too much know how awesome it is to get 8 different boxes for 8 TVC figures.  Then I see all the boxes piled up and feel bad about my contribution to the environment.  I'm starting to go back and inventory things and redo some displays and having way more fun with that than purchasing new stuff.  I would frankly be fine with a giant hiatus on new product for a while just to have some time to enjoy what I already own.

I also don't do a lot of store runs these days, but when I'm at a store I still get that glimmer of hope at finding something new on the pegs, only to be let down time and time again.  I somewhat regularly visit the Target and Walmart near my work (1-2 times per week).  The Walmart has 2 black series Lando and about 10 TVC Landos and somehow the planogram has them standing up on the bottom shelf.  I'll go through them every few weeks just to see if there's something new tucked away behind them, but there never is.  Target just has a blank peg for TVC and black series.  Heck, I've bought more figures at Gamestop this last year than either of the two big box retailers.  I just don't get it.  Isn't someone at Hasbro mad that they have empty pegs all over the country?  Didn't someone consider that 3 Landos per case would be too many?  Isn't someone at Target or Walmart concerned that they never sell one of the hottest toy properties out there?  Pretty sure the DC and Fortnite stuff is outselling Star Wars in store these days.  I honestly think that I'm most bothered by the fact that no one at retail or Hasbro seems to care about selling Star Wars these days.

[Nicklab]

So many great points here.  The blink and you miss it is more than just 3 3/4" and 6".  I am now collecting the black series helmets and all the issues we have with this are also evident in that space as well.  The big differentiator is that there are a ton more helpful fellow collectors with the two main lines.

If it's any help, I have been seeing a respectable number of the Black Series helmets at GameStop stores.  I was just in one within the past hour that had the First Order Stormtrooper and Mandalorian Death Watch helmets.  And I know that I've seen the helmets for Wedge Antilles and the Mandalorian nearby, too.  In the case of these you might be able to shop on the GameStop site and select the store pickup option to see what you can get locally.