3rd Party Kenner Retro-Style Toys

[McMetal]

Damn, I would really like a White Witch… :'(

[Rob]

Me too.  I wonder if he could make more of them.

[Rob]

Damn, I would really like a White Witch… :'(

I shot him an email this morning and asked if there was a chance he’d ever do a second run if White Witches.  He didn’t commit, but hinted that he might this year and said he’d put me on the list. 

So, if you really want one and don’t want to spend $2500, emailing him to get on this list is probably your best bet.

[Rob]

I bit the bullet on a $200 U-3PO last night... I think I'm down to just R2-M3 and R2-Q5 to have every one that I'd like to have. 

[Muftak]

I guess $200 doesn't sound so bad in light of that one having been gone for a good long time. 2 Astros left doesn't sound insurmountable, either. Good luck!

I finally bit the bullet too and got the Stan Solo Ball Speeder when it came back in stock last week. I do love it, fits right in with the Kenner Mini-Rigs.

[Rob]

Yeah that Ball Speeder is great.

I was reading an interview with Chris where he said the small runs are 400, the larger runs are as much as 1,000. 

Not big numbers no matter how you slice it and it seems like the popularity of his pieces if growing rather than shrinking. 

I'm not paying $600 for either of those droids though.  If things calm down and I can get them in that $200-$250 range, I'll do it. 

[Rob]

I stumbled across this SLC R2-Q5 just now but want a Stan Solo one on principle… wondering if this is something different or are they the same thing from the same molds back from before things fell apart
?

Not knowing might lead me to missing out at this price…

https://www.ebay.com/itm/304828621858?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ciEwGUL6Qq-&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=VeQYiKDeRYm&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY


Edit, never mind… I found pictures and it looks like at a minimum they are different stickers.

[Muftak]

I can confirm that, when I worked with Chris Krahn after he took over SLC, he wanted me to develop a playset that could be sold alongside the upcoming R2-Q5 figure. I sold the item from December 2019 - March 2020 on the Fans Strike Back portal, and he offered a deal to bundle the droid with the playset for customers.

Suffice it to say, the deal wound up not being worthwhile for me. I was doing it to gain exposure through his website, obviously, but his business practices left a lot to be desired as a partner and it increasingly became more work for me than I signed up for. When the pandemic started I had to shut down business for a time, and I used that opportunity to end our partnership.

I can not confirm in what capacity the R2-Q5 was produced prior to Chris Krahn's involvement, only that he told me he was launching the figure in November/December 2019, which I took to mean it hadn't been offered before.

[Rob]

I didn't realize you were actually working with them on stuff...

Looks like maybe the fact that a few SLC R2-Q5's showed up at the same time as the Stan Solo one might have driven the price down.  One just sold for $158...

The R3-M3 still went for over $400.

[EdSolo]

Stan Solo's UK site has the Rebel Fleet Trooper up for preorder.

[Rob]

Saw that.  I only found that one a few days ago scrolling through his old Instagram posts. 

He also had digital sculpts of a Bo Shek and a Vader with a removable helmet.  I wonder if those are still possibilities.

[Muftak]

It's a strange marketing approach, he could have been hinting and teasing for the last month that this was coming. Instead, he was raving about quitting after the Dagobah Luke figure. A strange guy who gets the asthetic for the old Kenner figures.

I do like the looks of this Fleet Trooper better than the Procustoms one. But the Procustoms guy is already in my collection now so there is very little urgency for me to preorder this from the UK. If it presells out (which they claim it may due to army builders) I won't be upset, but if it shows up with my US hook-up I will likely get one.

[EdSolo]

At this point, it will be interesting to see the continued feud between him and Smith Lord Creations.  SLC has sold slave leia, sandtrooper, RFT, Death Star Droid, Black R2, ST Han and Luke, and many others that Stan Solo has done.  Essentially almost everything from SLC has been done by Stan Solo.  If SLC finally puts out the rest of their wave of 13, then they will finally hit some new figures not covered by Stan Solo.  So far, only ST Han and Thrawn have made it out, so they have one unique figure.  The feud seems to be pretty one sided, with Stan Solo ranting and SLC essentially saying, don't believe what is said, we will ship our products.  Only time will tell at this point.

[Rob]

I hope they do someday!  I’d like sell the Bantha I paid for in 2019 to get my $200 back.

[EdSolo]

Really not sure what is going on with their Bantha.  They just had an update on the wave of 13.  Essentially boils down to factory problems delaying stuff and whomever receives the product in the USA having "storage issues" and therefore items are being held at the plant in China.  They are shipping Thrawn and ST Han from the wave of 13.  However, that is really old news since I received those two probably two months ago now.

My personal opinion is that SLC is just overwhelmed and doesn't know how to run things.  While Stan Solo is based in the UK, he does have the his US partner.  Anything I have ordered from the USA sites has shipped extremely quickly.  I just ordered the last few items that he had that I hadn't picked up yet.  Placed the order around lunchtime on Friday and received it on the following Monday.  Less than 24 hours between receiving the order and putting it in the mail.  With SLC, I will probably not see the rest of the order in the next year.  He supposedly has ESB and ROTJ waves planned out already.  I would hope he waits until everything is complete for the ANH wave before listing others.