SDCC Hasbro Star Wars Recap

San Diego Comic Con, which is on my bucket list, is being held this weekend. Friday, the Star Wars Hasbro team made their presentation and dropped some big reveals! I'll cover both the Black Series plus the Vintage & Retro Collections!

Now for the elephant in the room: Hasbro's commitment to reducing/eliminating plastic on action figure boxes. If you're a Vintage Collection fan (also Marvel Retro, Retro Kenner figures and Retro O-ring GI Joe figures) there will be NO PACKAGING CHANGES!! However, for the Black Series there will be a picture of the figure on the front of the box, so the plastic window will be gone. Now, had Hasbro eliminated plastic bubbles for the VC & fellow Retro lines it would have meant the end of the VC, where the card is as much a selling feature as the toy. This has angered some Black Series fans, as expected. Selfishly I have no problem with the change. Aside from a few 6 inch figures I do get this isn't a big deal, I open those. But I do keep some main characters on their VC cards, so I'm happy and hopeful I can get some missing main characters soon (AOTC Padme and Dooku, Ben Kenobi and I'm done, unless Vader goes on an ESB or ROTJ card).

BLACK SERIES REVEALS

As expected, the Black Series is Hasbro's top Star Wars line and went first in the presentation so they'll go first in my blog post. Like I said, I only get a few of these so I won't go into as much detail here as I will for the VC. But, needless to say, there is a lot to choose from. Even if there are a lot of repacked repaints (which isn't necessarily a bad thing).

Holiday Themed Figures. Following in the Christmas tradition the last few years, Hasbro is going for Halloween themed figures: a Werewolf Wookiee (repainted Chewbacca with Black Krrsantan armor, also has werewolf ears!) & a Skeleton painted Clonetrooper. Each figure comes with a unique creature and should be in stores by Halloween. We don't want a repeat of the figures that were supposed to be out before Christmas 2021 that showed up a couple months ago...

Gaming Greats: B1 Battle Droid and a KX Security Droid (K2-SO repaint).

Credit Collection:

1. Din Djarin: Amazon, spring 2023

2. Bo Katan: shared fan channels this fall

3. Ahsoka Tano: this fall, Target

4. Nomad Boba Fett: Wal-Mart, spring 2023

5. Tusken Raider: Gamestop this fall

6. Darktrooper: Hasbro Pulse/Shop Disney this fall

New figures: Grogu will come with new articulated arms and his pram (you might want the SH Figuarts version if this is a retool of the original Black Series Grogu, which is too small, in my opinion), Season 1 Migs Mayfield and Mandalorian Luke Skywalker, which appears to be the Luke offered in the failed Rancor HasLab (Luke has a new head sculpt, and it appears to be similar to the VC 175 Luke), which is supposed to be an all new sculpted vest. Once more images of the figure out of it's box are seen we should have a better idea. Grogu and Migs will be some of the last Black Series figures to get plastic windows in the box.

Pipeline Reveals: Hasbro has announced the 40th anniversary Return of the Jedi line figures that will come out. These figures will have plastic bubbles on the packaging like the Kenner cards replicated for the 40th anniversary of ANH & ESB. Note which main character ISN'T EVEN LISTED!

Endor Han
Endor Leia
Chewbacca
Skiff Guard Lando
Wicket (new sculpt)
Paploo (new sculpt)
Bib Fortuna
Palpy
Stormtrooper
Biker Scout
(No announcement on C-3PO and R2-D2 which shocks me)

Mainline: Ki-Adi Mundi, a new sculpt for Din Djarin and a new sculpt for Black Krrsantan!! That last one should make those who ordered the Comic Krrsantan cancel their order, probably.

VINTAGE COLLECTION REVEALS

Well we are getting a vehicle, a repainted Slave I yes I didn't say Boba Fett's Spaceship although that's the name on the package. It is painted to match its look from Book of Boba Fett and comes with a Nomad Boba Fett action figure. Also coming (next year) is a Speeder Bike with Biker Scout. Probably a repack of the 2012 Speeder Bike, and the Biker Scout may also be a repack (although keep reading, I have a theory down below).

Main figures: The Klatoonian Raider gets his reveal, but honestly the other 2 reveals blow him away. And the KR is a good action figure, too.

1. Cal Kestis. From the upcoming Jedi Survivor game, Cal sports a beard and comes with BD-1. Still hoping for a Fallen Order version, but this is welcome news! Cal has 2 Black Series figures already. This is his VC debut. But while I'm excited for Cal, he's second fiddle.

2. Mandalorian Luke Skywalker! Well, actually Luke Skywalker Imperial Light Cruiser. But from the image shown, from the waist down Luke looks all new! He has rocker ankles and VC 175 Luke can't exactly pose his legs as this Luke can. This may be the most anticipated VC figure since Darth Vader in the Kenobi line. Y'all should know how eagerly I've been waiting for this! The head sculpt looks to correct the eyes from VC 175 and it also looks like Hasbro has enlarged this head sculpt to use with their Imperial Light Cruiser Luke for the Black Series line.

Retro Kenner Collection: coming is another 6 pack of figures from ANH: C-3PO & R2-D2 make their Retro Kenner debuts (both vac metalized), Death Star Commander, Jawa, Tusken Raider and Ben Kenobi. Also the 40th anniversary ROTJ figures have been revealed and I was right on a lot of them! Jedi Luke, Skiff Guard Lando, Boushh, Endor Han, Biker Scout & Palpy!

Pipeline reveals: Hasbro has listened and it seems that the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi will get a lot of love from the VC if this is any indication! The reveals are:

1. Endor Han Solo. This will be an all new figure, which leaves hope that ANH Han could soon come. Surprising since Hasbro repacked the old Endor Han last year as part of their Fan Channel wave. So does this mean a new Endor Leia is in play one day?!

2. Biker Scout with Speeder Bike. Pipeline reveals are supposed to be for brand new figures. I speculated above that I think these will be repacks of previous releases. But a new Biker Scout would be a welcome addition!

3. Phase II Clonetrooper. This is the Clonetroopers seen in Revenge of the Sith. And I have to say it's about f**king time Hasbro made a new clone sculpt. With the excellent RO Stormtrooper from 2019 Hasbro showed how cool troop building can be! Hopefully this figure gets the Phase 1 reboot going too. Makes me glad I didn't get the Clonetrooper Troop Builder Pack.

4. Admiral Piett. Want to know how long it has been since a named Imperial officer was made into a super articulated 3.75 inch figure? 2009. That was Captain Needa, and back then Hasbro promised more Imperial Officers. Well they made a Janek Sunbar and Baron Fel in comic packs but not on single cards. Needa has been mighty lonely. And gets used as random officers at least by me (Pellaeon, Piett, Ozzel, and random lower ranked officers). Well now we get Piett, who hasn't had a figure since 1997! Ozzel was last seen in the 2002 Saga era, Veers in the 2004 Saga era. Then Needa. Now for 2023, Piett! As I said, pipleline releases tend to be all new sculpts so maybe we get Ozzel, Veers and a new Tarkin and Director Krennic making future VC debuts.

That wraps up the coverage. Admittedly I am more excited over the VC than the Black Series. But some of the Black Series figures look good, but for some figures I would take a hard look at SH Figuarts, especially for Grogu and Mandalorian Luke. But I am willing to give these Black Series figures a chance, Migs looks cool and so does the HK-87 figure (which I didn't go over). The new packaging for Black Series will take getting used to, but for the other lines I am glad plastic free isn't happening.

Pictures

VC Imperial Light Cruiser Luke Skywalker