That’s exactly what I had in my head when I was writing that.  They could do two packs of unmade cantina weirdos and sell them like crazy.

Tonnika's would be a PERFECT Pulse exclusive...

Somewhat similar to the Sabine and Chopper set that finishes off the Ghost... Not included with the Cantina, but available on Pulse for a limited time.

I see both sides of this issue where people want the Tonnikas and they should be a semi-normal release.  It'd be great if they made them a general release, but if that were going to happen it would have happened a long time ago.  Its never going to happen.

I think this might be Hasbro's only way to "sneak" the verbotten Tonnikas in to an offering since the cantina is a customer direct HasLab "fan holy grail" item that isn't a normal commercial item. 

Sure it'll stink for figure collectors and carded collectors, but I'm like Jeff in that I'll likely back whatever they offer around the HasLab cantina and if we end up getting a truly exclusive figure (not just a deco/card variant) then I'm okay with that assuming its something controversial like the Tonnikas that we would otherwise never get.

Whether you call it a "dick move" or a "paywall", the exclusive pack-in figure tactic has been part of the game for a long time.

I have empathy for collectors who end up in the spot of wanting the tier/pack-in figures but not wanting the Cantina.  Trying to decide whether to invest $500 to get the figures hoping to recoup some of that cost two years later by selling the playset parts is definitely not ideal.

Lucky for me, I'm not in that spot.  I'm fortunate enough to be standing here with $596.05 in hand, ready to buy ($50 Pulse Premium renewal + $499.99 DLX version + plus taxes).  As the wise poet-philosopher Tom Petty once said, "the waiting is the hardest part".  Let's get on with it already, Hasbro!

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.