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The Vintage Collection / Re: 2024 HasLab - TVC Project, Coming Soon!
« Last post by Nicklab on Today at 05:13 PM »I have a little bit to add to the story. I went to Rhode Island Comic Con back in the fall, and was going to this party they were holding at the official convention hotel. I saw some people recording a podcast and one of them looked pretty familiar. When we were leaving they were still there. And I realized just who it was I recognized - DERRYL! I had dealings with him when I reported for a couple of collecting sites, and he was always pretty genuine in our interactions. I remember hanging out with him at Star Wars Celebration in LA in 2007. We had both been imbibing, and he was explaining the whole prototype swap meet that was happening in the lobby of our hotel that night.
But back to RICC! At first the conversation was mostly just to catch up. Whether or not my gf was impressed that I was acquaintances with this former Hasbro exec was beyond me. But the conversation turned to the Tonnikas, and this whole situation that had been going on at this point for decades. He was well aware of it all. I distinctly remember at Star Wars Celebration III in 2005 when the guys from Sandtroopers brought one of the Tonnika sisters actors - Christine Hewitt - to the Hasbro panel to ask about getting the Tonnikas made. And Derryl had to look down at the table in awkward silence. Fast forward to 2023 - he had left the company years earlier - and even now he could not say exactly what the issue was. But the essence of it seemed to be that the Tonnikas were essentially blacklisted by Lucasfilm. I pitched the theory about the whole "Star Whores" bit, and the current climate around the objectification of women. He seemed to think that was likely not the issue - despite the situation that developed following the release of the Black Series "Huttslayer" Leia.
There were indications at one point in time that Hasbro *MIGHT* be able to produce one of the Tonnikas because they could get the aforementioned likeness rights. But that did not seem to get Lucasfilm's position to change. He summed things up by saying that the licensing people at Lucasfilm that he had worked when he was with Hasbro had not turned over in a long time. And they seemed to have a long memory, and he felt pretty certain that LFL's position was almost certainly not going to change.
Taking all of this into account? I don't feel overly optimistic about them being part of the Haslab.
But back to RICC! At first the conversation was mostly just to catch up. Whether or not my gf was impressed that I was acquaintances with this former Hasbro exec was beyond me. But the conversation turned to the Tonnikas, and this whole situation that had been going on at this point for decades. He was well aware of it all. I distinctly remember at Star Wars Celebration III in 2005 when the guys from Sandtroopers brought one of the Tonnika sisters actors - Christine Hewitt - to the Hasbro panel to ask about getting the Tonnikas made. And Derryl had to look down at the table in awkward silence. Fast forward to 2023 - he had left the company years earlier - and even now he could not say exactly what the issue was. But the essence of it seemed to be that the Tonnikas were essentially blacklisted by Lucasfilm. I pitched the theory about the whole "Star Whores" bit, and the current climate around the objectification of women. He seemed to think that was likely not the issue - despite the situation that developed following the release of the Black Series "Huttslayer" Leia.
There were indications at one point in time that Hasbro *MIGHT* be able to produce one of the Tonnikas because they could get the aforementioned likeness rights. But that did not seem to get Lucasfilm's position to change. He summed things up by saying that the licensing people at Lucasfilm that he had worked when he was with Hasbro had not turned over in a long time. And they seemed to have a long memory, and he felt pretty certain that LFL's position was almost certainly not going to change.
Taking all of this into account? I don't feel overly optimistic about them being part of the Haslab.
