Hasbro Star Wars Livestream Recap

 This past Tuesday, Hasbro did their 1st livestream of 2024, and I had high hopes....that completely fell through. My fault for being optimistic! Now, it wasn't all bad, for a change the VC had more reveals than the Black Series, and I will cover the Black Series figures revealed and give my thoughts on them, as well as the VC reveals, and of course the most fun part of the livestream: pipeline reveals!

BLACK SERIES REVEALS

1. Grand Admiral Thrawn.

 From the Ahsoka series we have our 1st live action Thrawn, and to say it was so artistically done is an understatement! And if you caught my reference to his final line in The Last Command, bravo! The face sculpt looks great, and there is a newly tooled torso and legs to look different from the original Black Series Thrawn. This looks to be a great figure, but you're not getting him until 2025.

2. Phase I Clonetrooper. 

Utilizing the new Clonetrooper buck, this is the 1st clean Phase I Clonetrooper offered in the Black Series. He's got a removable helmet and his long and short blaster rifles.

3. Destroyer Droid aka Droideka. 

This may be Hasbro's most impressive Black Series figure ever, and this isn't hyperbole! Not only does he look good displayed in battle mode, he can also be folded up into a wheel shape to speed to his targets as he did in the movies and Clone Wars series!

BLACK SERIES PIPELINE (NO PHOTOS)

1. IG-12, Grogu and Anzellan (Amazon 3 pack) For those who don't know, Anzellan is from the same species as Babu Frik from Episode 9. This doesn't feel like a 3 pack, more like 1 figure with 2 smaller ones. No photos of any of the figures were revealed, so it will be a mystery to see how this set looks.

2. Mandalorian Nite Owl. Wal-Mart exclusive, so expect to find it on eBay for three times the price. Looks to be a female, Yakface reports a male Nite Owl will be exclusive to Target.

3. Jedi Survivor 3 pack. Regular and Super Battle Droids, plus one of Grievous's bodyguards.

4. Super Battle Droid. A long time coming. Out of my price range but one Black Series collectors want, especially Prequel era ones!

5. Mandalorian Moff Gideon's helmet. One step closer to the Mauldalorian helmet being a reality now...


VINTAGE COLLECTION REVEALS

1. X-Wing Luke Skywalker (no picture). Not a bad figure, but a repack from 2019. If you missed out, it is a good figure.

2. Mandalorian (Mines of Mandalore). 

Yet another Din Djarin repack, this time with a cloth cape and Darksaber. Looks to be a repack of the one from The Rescue multipack, and has a silver painted right thigh pad, making it different from the initial Beskar Mando.

3. Captain Rex! 

YES!!! On the new Clonetrooper buck, Rex is from Bad Batch and not Clone Wars, making him the 2nd single card release from the series now entering its final season. He has a removable helmet and Tem Morrison as a blonde underneath it. Might have to get 2...

4. Grogu (no picture). A repack of the Grogu from Deluxe BOBF Luke, this time with an all new Pram. If you missed out on the previous release, get this one. If you have the previous one you may want to skip this.

5. Axe Woves. 

Hasbro came to their senses and gave him a swappable helmet to give you options for a masked and unmasked version. One I want, and unlike the previous release not a retail exclusive.

6. Mandalorian Fleet Commander. 

Like the one from the Black Series, not a bad figure. I see some custom potential in buying multiples, I don't know if the helmet is a swappable helmet, or one that fits over his head. I need to see this figure closer before I consider pre-ordering.

7. Chopper & Sabine Wren 2 pack. 

They will be on the same Mural cards from the Ghost HasLab, but this time they're available to the general public. I feel that is a mistake since if it were up to me, they'd be available to Ghost backers ONLY, and at a reduced price of $40, which is the going rate for 2 packs. But at the price of 2 regular Black Series figures, collectors are grumbling very loudly about these 2 figures. The term "Talk with your wallet" is being used a LOT. I wasn't wild about the VC Chopper, but this Sabine looks great, and even comes with a jetpack that her current deluxe figure doesn't have, and a swappable helmeted head her aforementioned VC figure should have come with.

VINTAGE COLLECTION PIPELINE (NO PICTURES)

1. Ahsoka aka Ahsoka The White. Easy to repaint the Mando Ahsoka figure.

2. Mandalorian with Mandalorian Commando jetpack. Another Din Djarin, with a jetpack of a popular request figure (Mando Commando) accessory.

4. Bo Katan. With her new shoulder pad, and hopefully a head sculpt accurate to her appearance in Mando S3.

5. Darktrooper. This time without the charging station, and on a single card.

6. HK-87. Different color pattern, looks like the Retro version, or the 1st version Black Series version. I'd use it as a droid commander.

7. Ahsoka and Droid Squad (Amazon exclusive). From S7 of Clone Wars, Ahsoka gets repacked with the Droid Squad that helped her and Rex escape their Republic Cruiser as Order 66 unfolded. Good mix of astromechs, but I am most curious about how this set will look.

8. Cobb Vanth. Finally! He will be a deluxe figure and come with Boba Fett's armor which he found in the 1st Aftermath novel. I would normally say wait for a version without the armor on a single VC card, but I'm still waiting for the Tatooine BOBF Boba Fett on a single card as the only version of him is deluxe.


FINAL THOUGHTS

I see Hasbro as playing the card game "Go Fish". They don't want to spoil the entire year in one livestream, I get that. They know collectors want ANH Leia and Vader, and might be holding off on revealing them until May 4th's livestream. They'll play those cards when the time is right. I'm not shilling for Hasbro, just making a point about having high expectations. For a change, the Vintage Collection got more reveals and pipelines than Black Series did. That hasn't happened a lot, as the Black Series like it or not, IS Hasbro's preferred toy line (I've been over this before but look at Marvel Legends and GI Joe Classified: all are 6 inch/1:12 scale). What this livestream did show for the Vintage Collection is the line is strong, however, if we keep getting Din Djarin and Grogu every year instead of OT/PT mains it could create potential collector burn out. So there is hope, bit also caution for the VC. And for Black Series collectors, I have no doubt the next Hasbro Star Wars livestream will prominently feature Black Series figures next time.

And for the next livestream, a Bingo Card (created by Jayson aka Yakface):

All pictures of figures are from Hasbro shared via social media accounts, and are not mine. Thanks for reading! Please share this link on your social media accounts so I can get more readers!