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Messages - Nicklab

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1
The Vintage Collection / Re: The Tonnika Sisters
« on: Today at 12:16 PM »
OMG!  This thread goes back almost 20 years?!?!?!

2
UK retailer In Demand Toys has these on hand at MCM London Comic Con this weekend.  I think Hasbro has a presence at their booth.  Bossk's Bounty has been showing off a number of the upcoming TVC figures on social media today.  Including the upcoming ANH Leia.

3
I heard that condition about the figure and it sounded like BS to me.  She got her husband involved along with legal representation in her communications with LFL.  It almost certainly got adversarial.  That set the tone and LFL was probably like "Yeah, no".

No doubt Angela Staines is missing out on being involved in officially sanctioned Lucasfilm events.  That alone could be bringing her a nice income stream.  Lower level actors are charging maybe $40 or $60 for autographs these days.  Factor that in to appearing over a 3 day weekend and averaging 10 signatures per hour?  And charging more for photo ops?  And one of the actors with non speaking roles might taken home close to $10K for a weekend's work.  Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees...

4
TV-9D9 / Re: Tales of the Empire (Disney+)
« on: May 24, 2024, 09:44 AM »
I took some of Morgan's motivation as she thought that she could only count on herself.  Night Sisters in her clan failed her.  And so did the Mountain clan.  She encountered the corruption within the Empire.  So people became a "resource" to her.

5
What someone says on a podcast might be completely different from their interactions with Lucasfilm.  What I took from Victoria's interview with Angela Staines is that Lucasfilm was of the opinion that she wanted to shake them down for $$$, and that's just not how they do business.  They have on screen talent (with no dialogue) sign a STANDARD release in order to produce licensed merchandise.  If someone bucks that standard?  It potentially opens the door to countless other on screen talent to attempt to negotiate their own deals.  And the legal costs alone might make the situation incredibly prohibitive from a financial and administrative standpoint - down to the point of potentially slowing production of new content.  It seems like a pandora's box of hassles.

7
I would be willing to bet most of those licensing people at LFL are no longer there at this point.

I’m pretty sure Chris Holm is still there, but he might fall under a Disney reporting structure.

8
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.

9
And now this is going to arrive today.  It seems like almost all of the Amazon delivery dates are padded by at least a month. 

10
WOW!  I can reclaim a slot from my 2023 list since the announcement of the Blurrg opens things up.  Otherwise, very little has changed

1 - Mudhorn (TM)
2 - Bantha (ANH)
3 - Boba Fett’s Rancor (TBOBF)
4 - Tatooine Sand Beast (TBOBF)
5 & 6 -  Hutt Twins (TBOBF)
7 - Ziro the Hutt (TCW)
8 - Lady Proxima (SOLO)
9 - Giant Ice Spider - Maldo Kreis (TM)
10 - Loth Wolf (REBELS)

11
The "paywall", in this context, refers to a specific figure being exclusively available to one Haslab release.  At $400 or $500, that's a potential obstacle that might prevent people from getting a figure that they want.  I don't think it's out of line to call it that among the collecting community.

12
I'm still a little surprised that Hasbro would put the Cantina behind a Haslab pay wall.  And I'm seriously wondering if this situation might evolve into something like the Jabba's Palace sales model.  Could that be the reason behind the delay?

13
No change in the status of my order.  But I think we're on the verge of A LOT of things shipping, this set included.  Maybe things will change this week?  But my order still shows a late June delivery date.

14
Something is going to get locked behind a pay wall.  I think that's a certainty.  But it just comes down to WHAT is that?  And is it niche enough to belong there and only there?

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TV-9D9 / Re: Bad Batch (Disney+)
« on: May 12, 2024, 09:27 AM »
Interesting take.  One theory I heard floated was that

an adult Omega is one of the central characters in Skeleton Crew.  I have no idea what timeframe that show is set in, so let's see.

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