3rd Party Kenner Retro-Style Toys

[Rob]

Oh that I didn’t know.  I thought they typically do runs if 500 or 1000 (sometimes ordering more like with the Bantha) and always assumed at that size it was kind of all delivered at once.

[EdSolo]

In a move that will shock no one, TFSB website has now disappeared.  I guess we wait and see if he comes back with another "update" in the future.

[EdSolo]

The next SS figure is up for preorder.  He is doing Yarna.  Two different versions, one with cloth skirt and one with plastic skirt.

[Rob]

Yarna makes a lot of sense...  I have one of about 25 of this older version that Ryan Shaw made and I've always really loved it.... it's got a plastic skirt, so I wonder if I'd rather have the cloth skirt on this new one... but then again that seems like not what Hasbro was doing.  I guess I have awhile to decide.

[Rob]

I don't know if any of you have been following along, but there's a Chinese seller who has been listing the Smith Lord Creations unproduced figures this week... they're charging between $70 and $120, and no one is quite sure how many they have and what the deal is.  I've been able to buy all of them except Owen Lars and an Orange Pauldron'd Sandtrooper.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?item=146493444212&rt=nc&_trksid=p4429486.m3561.l161211&_ssn=mountain_top1

[McMetal]

Wow! Do you think those are better quality than the Stan Solo figures, Rob?

[Rob]

I doubt it, Stan Solo is the gold standard as far as I'm concerned.

But, most of these are the fabled "13" that Krahn was producing before his business went belly up and everyone lost their money.  So there's something interesting about being able to own them.  I've spent a small fortune this week on Space Man, Aunt Beru, White Pauldron Sandtrooper, Holo Leia, Biggs, Wedge, Admiral Motti, Antilles, and R4-M9. 

It's all very stupid, but I don't know if these are a few samples this factory had and found and this is a buy-em-now-or-regret-it-later thing, or if they've got a ton of them and will slowly trickle them out for an extended period of time.  So I went for it.

I'll report back when the first ones show up.

[EdSolo]

I've seen various rumblings over the past year or so about the SLC 13 being out there in China.  Considering this guy also has SS figures listed, I wonder if these are just some left over product or if this guy has access to the molds.  SS has had some excess stock of the big red snaggletooth in the past several weeks.  That was one I had never purchased so I jumped on it when I started seeing the posts.

Such a shame if there is SLC product out there that somehow never made it from China to the US.

As for quality, I could almost guarantee it is less than SS.  All you need is to get Slave Leia from each (which I have) and that tells you all you need to know.

[Rob]

Yeah on Rebelscum someone was saying he’d heard they were available for the equivalent of like $10 at local markets. 

The million dollar question is the one you’re asking, is this old stock that never got shipped over once things fell apart, or is this someone with the molds producing it. The only way we’ll get an answer is if the eBay listings dry up before too long.  But they seem to have a lot of stuff.

And yeah, I have both Slave Leia’s.  The SLC one is a total joke.  People who have gotten a few of these new ones from China so far say they’re good quality though.

[Muftak]

Quality on the SLC figures looks good from the photos so far (I am not buying) and that makes sense when you put it all together. SLC was set up by Chris Smith, who then wanted out and sold it to Chris Krahn, before Smith decided he wanted back in and started Stan Solo. So for a few months or a year, both companies products were being produced by the same factory. Until things fell apart and that factory stopped working with them.

Stan Solo knew what he was doing so when he switched to a new factory he maintained the quality. SLC did not, and probably went with the low bidder...which showed in the Slave Leia.

At any rate, all this new old stock appears to be coming out of that original, good factory. I would be surprised if it was a new run and not just getting rid of everything that was made circa 2020.

[Rob]

At any rate, all this new old stock appears to be coming out of that original, good factory. I would be surprised if it was a new run and not just getting rid of everything that was made circa 2020.

Yeah, as cool as it would be for everyone to be able to buy this stuff, with what I spent this week I’ll be fine with it if it ends up being limited old stock.

[EdSolo]

Let us know how it goes.  I would like to have the figures, but can't justify it at these prices considering what we already paid to get nearly nothing.

[Rob]

Yeah for sure, I’ll report back when they start arriving
 
I lost $220 or so on the Bantha but luckily hadn’t preordered the 13.  This is dumb money but at least I’m not already in the red on them from before. 

[CorranHorn]

If you poke around Aliexpress, you can find some Stan Solo figures for about $10 a pop. Picked up the ESB & ROTJ Boba Fetts and Garidan. No accessories, but that’s what the retro collection blow outs at Ollie’s are for. Not bad for maybe $15 each all in.

[Rob]

I’ve never even thought about looking for stuff on their site.  What kinda of search terms are you using?  “Stan Solo Star Wars” doesn’t seem to come up with anything.