Regarding these pipeline reveals...

Hasbro announced a total of 5 figures from A NEW HOPE.  Granted, the versions of Luke Skywalker, R2-D2 and the Stormtrooper are all reissues.  But a new Darth Vader is in the mix, plus the biggest reveal - a new Princess Leia - which has been called for in the whole "Make The Mains" campaign that's been circulating around social media.  But I'm struck by what looks like it might be a wave of A NEW HOPE figures.  Is anyone else surprised by this development?  And could it be an indication that Hasbro might be moving back towards building waves of figures based on a common theme?

The thought that immediately crossed my mind was that Disney told Hasbro that the movie is going to be in theaters again in 24 or 25 to help fill the schedule vacancies created by the strikes.

Next I thought they could be gearing up that Haslab Death Star.

Cynical me thought they were getting into some new ANH tooling so they had figures ready to rerelease for the 50th anniversary that is 4 years away.

It looks a lot like the Jabba's Goons repack wave coupled with Han/Vader/Piett wave honestly.

I received notice of the Throne Room shipping soon, too!

I still don't understand why this didn't pre-charge. It seems a lot riskier of a sale and a lot lower of demand than the Ghost was.

In a way I am glad to have that charge finally landing and no longer hanging over my head. Oh, and excited about the playset too.

Target had to find ways to get stuff into the online buyers hands faster in order to stop losing business to Amazon Prime 2-day shipping.  The Store-as-hub model apparently saves them tons in that regard.  Filling the orders closer to where the customer lives is apparently driving a lot of those savings.  I am sure there is probably savings in the fact that the retail store workers ($13-15/hr average) are usually getting less than the warehouse workers ($18-20/hr average).

In the case of little plastic Star Wars figures, it may not be saving them very much at all. I'm sure there probably is a better, cheaper way to service the niche "old men buying little plastic men" community, but not cheaper enough to any degree that it makes sense upsetting their giant store-as-hub strategy and $110b in sales operation.

Thanks, that really does add a lot of context outside of the action figure niche, which of course is their focus as a company, and may at long last help to satisfy my curiosity about Hasbro's switch to solid case packs (vs assortments)  in the TVC World-Building boxed figures, the Retro ROTJ wave, and the TVC exclusive figures.

I appreciate the education!

Nicklab, the theory makes sense, but how does it jibe with the stories of Target stores not even receiving full cases of some of the products at times? I understand stuff like the nonassortment packed Boba Fetts and Indiana Jones figures arriving in stores and being shipped out to fulfill online orders, but when the regular TVC and Retro figures show up in batches of 3s from the repack box it doesn't add up.

Especially considering their has to be a warehouse/DC somewhere putting together those repack boxes to ship out to the Target stores.

They allow the figure to sit on a speeder bike LIKE A BANTHA.

Fixed that for you!!!

They came and went at the same time as Short Round. He was plentiful in my area for a few weeks, then clearanced and gone. Still waiting for Henry and Sallah to show up in stores in these parts.

Too bad they didn't do a multi-pack of Chewie and his family

How did Disney miss the opportunity to do a remake with Alden Ehrenreich going to Kashyyyk to meet Chewie's family (Baby Lumpy = $$$ right?) and celebrate his first Life Day? This stuff writes itself!