Hasbro’s Star Wars releases have been disappointing to say the least over the last couple of years.
The Rhode Island based company did a great job with their line of figures in 2015 leading up to The Force Awakens but since then it’s been a steady decline. In 2020, now that the sequels are over, it seems they’ve just gone to nostalgia as they’ve released reprints of old figures.
As a sequel lover it’s really annoying that we haven’t seen figures for Crait Luke, Ben Solo, the other five Knights of Ren, TRoS versions of Finn and Poe, Exegol Palpatine, and others.
Why give us a figure for Constable Zuvio for The Force Awakens and none of these characters??
It’s also been a huge disappointment that Hasbro has toned things back on their 3.75 figures, which are now known as The Vintage Collection. They only seem to release waves of about four characters at a time. When TFA and TLJ came out it seemed like Hasbro gave us dozens of figures in their waves and they would even follow up with variant outfit figures for characters like Kylo or Rey.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was a massive success in 2019 but we’ve only seen two figures from this game (Cal Kestis and the Second Sister). Yes there was a couple of Purgetroopers but I’m not counting troopers here. That game had tons of great characters like Jaro Tapal, Merrin, Cere Junda, Greez, the Ninth Sister, or even Taron Malicos. Would it have killed them to have at least made TWO of those characters? Hell I would have even just taken the Ninth Sister just so it would be possible to start an Inquisitor collection.
Speaking of incomplete collections, Hasbro never released a Bodhi Rook 6″ figure to complete the Rogue One lineup…
The toy company has also been caught for pure laziness. In their “Gaming Greats” line it’s been clear that they’ve just been reusing old molds and accessories. Heck, the Darth Nihilus figure uses old parts from Maul and Vader figures. Now that’s one crazy Sith.
While many of us are peeved at Hasbro it’s definitely not to late to turn the tide. In fact I have seen improvements on their side recently.
Almost as if they were starting a clean slate, they unveiled new packaging that is color coded to what film or show it corresponds with…super cool. It isn’t just the boxes that are looking better, Hasbro has stepped up their game big time with their face likeness.
It also seems like Hasbro is beginning to listen to the fans as they’ve come out with several fan favorite characters lately like Hondo Ohnaka, Cad Bane, Zeb, and an assortment of prequel faves.
The recent wave of Galaxy’s Edge figures is brilliant but there’s a huge mistake…there’s no Vi Moradi. The Resistance spy (shhh don’t tell anyone) is one of the best things going on at Batuu and Hasbro decided to release a Captain Cardinal figure, who is someone you can’t even meet at the Disney Park.
Another department of the Black Series figure family is the vehicles. In my opinion Hasbro has hit home run after home run with these bad boys, their latest being the BEAUTIFUL Galaxy’s Edge edition Millennium Falcon, unfortunately for me it’s just too darn expensive.
The Rey, Luke, and Enfys Nest speeders were perfect and they look amazing on display. The Hoth Snowspeeder and Slave 1 had minor issues but overall are very nice toys. The next release for vehicles is rumored to be Din Djarin’s Razor Crest. If I had to guess this will be up there with the recent Falcon that was released.
It’d be great to see Hasbro release more Original Trilogy ships in this line as well as a couple of Prequel ships. Imagine a Republican Gunship or a Naboo Starfighter hitting the shelves?? I’d be first in line for one. Also, give me one of Kylo’s TIEs and I’d be happy as well.
All in all, Hasbro has shown a huge improvement in the detail of their figures lately however, they are still falling victim to reprints, repaints, and just using the same molds over and over. Now it would just be great if they could spread their wings and start making more characters. I suppose it’s a quality over quantity thing right now but that’s hard to be satisfied with when there’s so many Star Wars characters to please us.
