Thanks everyone, sincerely. It was days after my 50th birthday, such a wake up call for what the rest of my life means to me.

I did not intend to derail the thread!!

I watched the first episode of the Acolyte when it dropped, but I did not opt to watch the second one even though it was also available. I wasn't captured by the first one, it felt amateurish and hollow somehow ( it turned out I was in the midst of a heart attack at the time, so perhaps I was...distracted?)

Once I took care of all that, I never came back to the show. Like I said it didn't hook me with the first one, and even though I am a lifelong Star Wars and SW toy fan, these days it has been my stance that they need to pursue me, not the other way around. If they can't entice me with the "entertainment" or make it fun and easy to purchase their products, I am just as happy to ignore it. It was the first live action SW TV show on Disney+ I didn't watch all the way through. (I tried Resistance and Bad Batch, which were both also a first episode try and pass.)

Looking forward, I hope more Star Wars projects are launched as self-contained things. My one big letdown with the Ahsoka show last year was how unresolved it ended, and from what I hear the Acolyte had the same kind of "ending." Leaving the story unfinished is just more salt in the wound for the fans that did engage. Mando Season 3, as much as I disliked it, had an ending even if it opened the door for more adventures. Resolving things is a necessary part of storytelling.

Hopefully, there's enough time for Hasbro to lower some of the production numbers to get ahead of this, but it doesn't seem likely that, that is the case given the expected October release. I am increasingly wishing they would move to a model where all of the figures for new shows came out on an 18-month delay to see what goes over well with fans to get us the figures we actually want sooner and hopefully have fewer duds in the lineup.

Yeah, if they are due in October they are probably being loaded onto the boat now. No chance of dialing it back.

Also, putting everything out with an 18-month delay would be counter to the whole point of toys in modern Lucasfilm/Disney's mind, which is to promote the current media. There seems to be no interest in the profits to be had from the merchandising any more, it is all just an advertising expense so they don't even try to make things hardcore fans want, so long as the "Star Wars" name is out there in front of the consumer in some form. It is depressing as a toy fan.

Also in explanation of the higher price, someone on the Hasbro  team ( I believe it was Chris Reiff) said that they would never be able to release the ROTJ Boba Fett as a mainline figure again because of the paint apps and the complexity of assembling the arms with the hoses that attach. So far, every Boba Fett or Mandalorian constructed in that way has been at Deluxe prices, including the otherwise regular carded exclusive Target Fetts in 2022 and 23.

It all goes back to the underlying fact that in reality all the brand-new tooled figures in TVC really cost $25, we just get a price break because so much reuse and repainting is going on to bring the average figure price down. They have a brilliant budget on these to hide the reality of the figure cost.

Are you sure it was not the BS Jabba the Hutt that came out last year? The local toy store has that on the shelf next to the Jabba's Palace Denizens 4-pack and it makes me do a double take every time!

I had to look up the dates, but I remembered there were still weeks to go, because it seemed to me like they were poised to also add Klaatu if they needed to, but then didn't.

Just remember that the "huge surge" for the Barge only resulted in 8,000 units being made...and it happened when Hasbro added the POTF carded Yakface to the package, not really in the final few days.

HasLabs these days have truly huge end spikes, though. Once it funds there will be a huge spike of the people with their heads on the sand who "need" a complete collection, but are currently hoping for the project to not fund so they don't have to drop $400 on 3 new figures.

It all depends on how much time is left after it funds.

At this point it seems to me like he has some kind of mental illness. This is not healthy rational behavior.