6" Black Series Rumors

[Jeff]

Jayson's apparent quest to spoiler everything Hasbro has planned for Pulse Con next month continues!

Today's rumor =Rumor Report: GameStop Exclusive 6” Black Series Gaming Greats 07

[Nicklab]

There is what looks like a mechanical leg crossing into the montage image. I’m wondering if it could be one of the droids from KOTOR?

[Dave]

Jayson's apparent quest to spoiler everything Hasbro has planned for Pulse Con next month continues!

Today's rumor =Rumor Report: GameStop Exclusive 6” Black Series Gaming Greats 07

They should just pay him off.     

While they're at it they should pay him to be their product manager so we can get some cool new stuff.

[Dave]

I opened the Gamestop Nightbrother Gaming Great figure yesterday. 

I never played the game, but the figure is pretty cool - great paint job, fun weapon, and good facial expression.

I've cancelled all my other Gaming Great pre-orders as most of these aren't that interesting and I've got way too much stuff as it is.  Although I am glad I kept this preorder as its a fun figure.

[Jeff]

Sneak peek at the first Black Series 6" figure from Kenobi?  From Jimmy Kimmel twitter (Ewan is on Kimmel tonight):

[Dave]

It looks like some people are getting their Cobb Vanth orders outright cancelled by Amazon due to lack of supply. 

I got a weird "do you still want this?" email like Target sends to approve a delivery delay, with no estimated delivery date provided.

[JediJman]

It looks like some people are getting their Cobb Vanth orders outright cancelled by Amazon due to lack of supply. 

I got a weird "do you still want this?" email like Target sends to approve a delivery delay, with no estimated delivery date provided.

Uh oh.  I think I ordered mine through EE...

[Dave]

Yakface is stating there are four Andor exclusives coming - two to Target and two to Walmart.  Packaged examples are shown.

“Navy” Shoretrooper – Target
“Ocean” Imperial Officer (Ferrix) – Target
“Turquoise” Imperial Officer (Dark Times) – Walmart
“Royal” Cassian Andor (Aldhani Mission) – Walmart

Fairly underwhelming with the amount of repack/repaint/kitbash involved with these figures.  Hopefully there are a handful of mainline figures that are all new.

[Dave]

Yakface says pre-orders for these are:
- Target - September 23, 9AM ET
- Walmart - October 6th, 10AM ET

[McMetal]

Whew, this is definitely a low point in the history of the line. The price, character selection etc is super underwhelming. Not only am I not buying this at full price, I went back and canceled my preorder for the other Carbonized 2-pack too, because it’s just gotten too crazy.

No intentions of buying either of those at full price, gonna hold out for a steep discount. There almost nothing that’s worth buying at the retail price anymore, except for maybe some exclusives.

It occurred to me today that this is exactly the same kind of crap they pulled at the end of the Clone Wars line, lazy repaints, repacks, halfassed inaccurate designs, etc. Not saying the writing is on the wall for the Black Series, but they’re sure treating it that way.

[Nicklab]

I ran into a Hasbro rep this morning at a local store.  He and I have spoken a number of times when he's been in stores working on the merchandising for Hasbro inventory.  And he had A LOT to say today!

-Yesterday there was a corporate conference call.  It was company wide.  Hasbro corporate is well aware of how poorly they performed in Q4 of 2022.  The CEO said that he wants the company to shift from a "Product Focus" to a "Customer Focus".  What will that mean?  I think we have to wait and see.

-Hasbro is aware of the widespread issues with the plastic free packaging.  Especially after the disastrous images from the D&D line that were all over social media.  To that end it sounds like Hasbro will either be modifying or abandoning the plastic free packaging in order to achieve the aforementioned "Customer Focus".

-Hasbro will be eliminating their merchandising department of staff that works with retailers.  That's happening around May of this year.  They are looking at contracting that work to an outside vendor.  And in an effort to not lose so much institutional knowledge they are encouraging the contractor to hire as many of the Hasbro staff as possible.