Hasbro Eliminating Plastic Packaging

 This week Hasbro debuted what will be their new packaging going forward beginning next year, the elimination of plastic on toy boxes. Marvel Legends, Transformers, Power Rangers and Fortnite will soon be getting this. So to will GI Joe and Star Wars. So what will this mean for Hasbro toylines? What will this mean for Star Wars toys in general? I have thoughts. So did the late great George Carlin. So let's go!

Now, these won't be blind boxes. Pictures of the toys will be on the front cover. Admittedly, I haven't taken a hard look at the images, but like many collectors I have some concerns. More on that later. Admittedly, I don't know if Mattel, Playmates, Super7 or other toy companies will go this route. But since I run a blog about Star Wars figures (although I have thought about making a blog about Masters of the Universe figures), this will be all about Hasbro. So when you see a toy on the aisles of Wal-Mart, Target or a local comic book store or another toy retailer they will be in a sealed cardboard box, with an image of the toy on the front. Sounds great, right?

Well, not exactly. The only way you know you're getting that same figure on the box photo is by opening it up. Some retailer (I see this at Wal-Mart more than Target) take returned figures and place them back for sale if the box isn't damaged. Often times the figure is swapped for another figure. So you think you're getting Spider-Man but instead get Batroc. That would tick me off, and it ticks off a lot of collectors too. The reason Hasbro is eliminating plastic on packaging is to be more environmentally friendly. But this only adds more weight, which makes it heavier and causes more fuel to be used in delivering the product. Way to save the planet!! Yet, the figures will still be made from plastic. Go figure! Oh, and the added weight means yet more price increases since the heavier the item the more it costs to ship it.

So when this happens, gone are the days when you could see multiple items in store and pick out the one that has the best paint apps, no weird or broken joints and other features you want as a toy for your collection or for your child. Star Wars collectors have given up on finding toys at retail and pray the online retailer they pre-ordered from has the same discriminating tastes they do when choosing the figure they want to buy. Seeing toys in package is an essential part of toy buying, I mean look at Hot Wheels. Sure they could put them in a small pill box with the photo on the front but you will search the racks to compare the same car to find which is best. Look at McFarlane's DC Heroes line. McFarlane has always had the best sculpting in action figures and their Batman and Superman figures look good enough to be statues but these you can actually pose! But you do see some flaws. Batman may have a smudge on the chest logo. Superman may have a crooked right ankle. You can't see that in a box photo.

So what does this mean for Hasbro Star Wars toy lines? For the Black Series I don't see this as a big deal, as most collectors don't open their figures anyway. But the figure switching could be a problem at retail. Packaging for the Black Series in my opinion isn't a big deal like it is for Marvel Legends. That toy line has been around for almost 20 years, going back to the Toy Biz era. The Black Series isn't even a decade old yet. There isn't a nostalgic or emotional connection as the packaging has changed every couple years to "freshen" the line's look. Hasbro has yet to show what the Black Series boxes will look like in this new look. But assuming it will resemble Marvel Legends isn't too far of a stretch. They are the same size, and come with accessories.

The Vintage Collection has already seen a couple of these new plastic eliminated boxes. The deluxe Book of Boba Fett Tatooine Boba and the Mandalorian Ahsoka Tano have arrived. These figures are in a box with lots of space inside, too much if you ask me. The figures and accessories come wrapped in paper and taped in some cases to another inner layer of cardboard. Watch some unboxing videos on YouTube or bitchute to see it. The Troop Builder packs do the same, but don't waste internal space. They're more efficient.

Now, if when happens for the mainline Vintage Collection consider the line done. Unlike the Black Series, it is the card that sells the figure. People buy more than 1 of each figure, generally 1 to open and one to keep on card. Plus the nostalgic connection to the 1978-1985 Kenner era Star Wars figures harkens people my age to how the toys looked when we were kids. When Hasbro makes the change expect VC sales numbers to plummet. Heck, why not keep the plastic bubble but eliminate the inset tray and tape the accessories to the bubble sides?! Anyway, there are no images of what a plastic-less standard VC card will look like. Will it be the same but with a cardboard pouch like the deluxe figures or will it be a 4.5 inch tall cardboard pill box? Nobody but Hasbro's marketing teams can answer that question. Star Wars isn't the only Hasbro 3.75 inch toyline that may have this problem. While the O-Ring 3.75 GI Joe's are coming back, but in 2 packs like they did in the mid to late 1990's, what will these figures look like on the packaging? If they bring back the single card, what then? Like the VC single card Joe's have unique, nostalgic packaging that collectors are fans of. Look at the recent "Retro" Wal-Mart exclusive GI Joe 3.75 line. The 1980's cards were reintroduced and collectors gobbled them up. Especially Scarlett. The only one I never found in any store.

But in conclusion, George Carlin said it best about plastics, and if you are sensitive to language here's your warning:

We’re so self-important. Everybody’s going to save something now. “Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails.” And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. Save the planet, we don’t even know how to take care of ourselves yet. I’m tired of this shit. I’m tired of f-ing Earth Day. I’m tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is that there aren’t enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don’t give a shit about the planet. Not in the abstract they don’t. You know what they’re interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They’re worried that some day in the future they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn’t impress me.

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!

We’re going away. Pack your shit, folks. We’re going away. And we won’t leave much of a trace, either. Maybe a little Styrofoam … The planet’ll be here and we’ll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.

The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed. And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, “Why are we here?”

Plastic… asshole.

George Carlin