Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
BONUS POD: February 2022 Roundtable with Emily and Patrick from Hasbro's Star Wars Team
469 Plays4 years ago
We're coming out of hyperdrive as we've just wrapped with Patrick and Emily from the Hasbro Star Wars team following their first Fan First livestream of 2022. Hear from Dave and Erik along with other members of the Star Wars fan community during this 30 min roundtable!
Stay up-to-date with the latest Hasbro news - follow @hasbropulse on Instagram and Twitter.
Follow us @aic_podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
Intro and other voices by Joe Azzari
https://www.instagram.com/voicesbyjoe/
Theme Music is "Game Boy Horror" by the Zombie Dandies
Proudly part of the Non-Productive Network
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Hasbro Virtual Roundtable Preview
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you ready, kids? Get your parents' permission, check your mailbox, and grab your shopping cart. It's time for the Adventures in Collecting podcast. I'm Eric. And I'm Dave. Welcome to Adventures in Collecting, where we talk toy news, culture, and halls, along with our journeys as collectors.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Adventures in Collecting podcast. What you're about to hear and see, actually, because we did a video. Oh, wait. Hi. Yeah. I just wanted to wave. What you're about to hear and see is we got to sit down with the Star Wars team at Hasbro for a little virtual roundtable. And do we want to give just some quick takeaways? Do you have any takeaways? It was very interesting.
00:00:56
Speaker
learn some stuff. Basically, you'll get to see it very, very soon, as soon as we stop talking. Yeah,
Hasbro Star Wars Playsets and Strategies Discussion
00:01:08
Speaker
I mean, it's cool to get a little kind of post event recap. And that's what you're about to see.
00:01:21
Speaker
Let's cut to Emily and Patrick, and you're going to see some faces and hear some voices, depending on how you're taking this in, from some other really great Star Wars blogs out there. So roll tape. Yeah. Roll tape. Morning. The newly announced Hasbro post Boba Fett throne room playset. Will it physically connect to the Walmart exclusive Jarvis throne room? Yeah, thanks first. Go ahead.
00:01:50
Speaker
Oh and will it match in color and the scheme and be cohesive looking with the previous place? So thanks for asking this one. I would say that this is definitely something we wanted to review and evaluate if these could physically connect. Unfortunately there is such a height difference since the new set has that staircase leading up into the elevated balcony and the other set was you know flat to the ground that
00:02:15
Speaker
It didn't quite make sense as we evaluated that for them to physically connect with the different levels. But what I can say is that we really looked at the previous release sets stylistic intention. We looked at the crumbling top walls. We looked at the texture across the arch and the wash deco across it and said, we want to create something that's going to visually look great, even if they are just set on the shelf next to each other. So that was
Shipping Delays and Supply Issues During the Pandemic
00:02:39
Speaker
our approach. OK, thank you. All right, Mark, you're up next.
00:02:44
Speaker
Hey, good morning, everybody. So we've been seeing a longer and longer lead times with each pre-wear that comes up. The last few that were offered in the day are now this as 2023. Is this the result of like the pandemic and importing problems at ports? Or should we expect this to be the norm that we're pre-ordering a year, sometimes 18 months in advance?
00:03:08
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's absolutely a result of the pandemic. And obviously, you know, it's not what we would want to see happen. There's no there's no benefit to us. We're facing global logistical issues like like every company around the world. We're working to provide kind of that accurate information as soon as possible. I think the other thing is we've
00:03:25
Speaker
heard from the community a desire for more transparency and to know what's coming. That's what led to us doing pipeline reveals starting last year. We want to share the product as soon as we have a quality product to share. I think we'll continue doing that as soon as possible in the process, but we would hope that as the world returns to normal at some point in the future, that those shipping times would improve and that gap would reduce. That's our hope. Okay. Thank you. Absolutely. Lacy, you're up.
00:03:55
Speaker
Hey guys. Good morning. Nice to see you again. Happy new year. Um, so going off that question with the supply issues, have you guys had to pivot or make any changes with your kind of planning for toys and figures? Like has anything been canceled or have you been like, okay, that's going to be put on the back burner. Cause we can't even get to it right now.
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, nothing's been canceled. Certainly nothing we've kind of revealed publicly and shared with the world. We had a similar question on a previous interview, but the goal is to get all the product out that the community wants as quickly as possible and in a sane manner. And so I think earlier the question was asked when the world returns to normal, hopefully at some point.
00:04:36
Speaker
I think we would hopefully be a little more thoughtful than that and space it out a little bit so that the waves don't pile up. But honestly, that'll be a good problem to have at that point compared to where we are now. And we certainly have pivoted where it makes sense, but no plans at this point to cancel anything. And I don't think we would expect to see that. OK, awesome. Thank
Future of Black Series and Consumer Feedback
00:04:54
Speaker
you. Thank you. All right, Eric.
00:04:57
Speaker
Hey guys, so you really focused on the concept of world building in yesterday's stream and the three vintage collection army builder sets have been a huge hit. Is there any hope that Black Series collectors will get a similar kind of stripped down multi-pack army builder experience?
00:05:15
Speaker
No, it's a great question, certainly something we've discussed. And I forget who Emily, our lead designer on Black Series, they work so collaboratively. I forget where that idea came from. But it probably came from them both. But yeah, it's certainly something we've talked about. It is something we could see in the future. We know that group building's important in both scales. And so yeah, potential for the future. Thank you. Absolutely. All righty. And then Chris, to end out round one. Good morning.
00:05:46
Speaker
My question is kind of close with another question that somebody already asked. It's about the long pre-order estimates. I just want to make you aware that some companies like Walmart, for example, are unable to change the payment method once you've pre-ordered an item. So a friend of mine, for example, has eight different Walmart pre-orders currently and his credit card is about to expire and they're unable to accommodate his payment method change.
00:06:12
Speaker
So he's probably going to lose all those pre-orders. And they're basically telling him to go ahead and reorder the items, but they're of course all sold out. So just want to throw this out there with, you know, the Jabba's, the Boba Fett's throne room place coming out, for example, being one and a half years out, for example, that could cause some problems for some people in terms of credit cards, daemons.
00:06:39
Speaker
I'm taking a note right now and we've said in the past, we appreciate you guys taking the time to do this because this is a great way for us to learn and improve these things. We have
Lessons from the Rancor HasLab Project
00:06:49
Speaker
great conversations with our retailers. A few months ago, I think we set up a conversation with Emily directly with our internal teams and they're eager to learn. We're all eager to address these issues, so that's good to know. In terms of the
00:07:04
Speaker
accuracy of those dates. I think certainly we don't know what the next several months will bring. I think we err on the side of caution. And so I don't think we want to promise a date and then not be able to hit it. Those are as accurate as we can say at this point, while still being a little more cautious to avoid any disappointment down the line. But that's great feedback. And we'll do what we can to address that. Thanks. Absolutely.
00:07:29
Speaker
All righty, back to the top. We'll kick it off again with Dan. There's a lot of concerns among collectors about the vintage collection deluxe packs that have been introduced and their perceived value, especially with the giant leap from $20 to $27 for the deluxe Boba Fett Tatooine pack. How do you go about deciding what characters to utilize, what to add to make a pack deluxe, and what specifications go into the pricing certain packs more than others?
00:07:55
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of different things that can drive that higher price point for a figure, whether it's deluxe for Black Series, world building for vintage, certainly size is one of them, soft goods can be one. You know, I know when we announced our first Black Series, General Grievous, deluxe figure, those were the two things. We had had that in the mainline for literally several years and we kept not being able to make it work.
00:08:16
Speaker
but it worked at a deluxe price point. We were finally able to get it out. Complexity is another one. And then Deco is a huge one as well. Boba Fett in his armor is one of the, if not the most highly decoed characters in the line. And it's not something we would want to compromise on. That is what makes these products targeted at the fan, at sometimes the adult collector. We know a lot of kids enjoy these products as well. That's the major difference. We wouldn't want to compromise on that. And honestly,
00:08:43
Speaker
we just couldn't, we can't make them work in mainline just the same way we couldn't make that grievous work. We are able to get them out at those higher SRPs, but that goes a huge one, honestly. And you know, it just is what it is. And again, it's not something we want to compromise on. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Mark, back to you.
00:09:01
Speaker
First, I want to compliment everybody on getting a memo of wearing a black shirt of mine. It's Star Wars. So my question is, in regard to the Ranker Has Lab, are there any lessons, if any, that you guys learned through that being a Star Wars one that didn't make you when the others have? And will we ever see the Ranker again, if you can say that?
00:09:25
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, certainly. Yes, absolutely. We learned lessons from that that has allowed the whole goal of it and Star Wars launched the first one with the barge several years ago. It's all about, you
Handling New Star Wars Content and Future Plans
00:09:35
Speaker
know, allowing the community to decide if those dream projects get developed. And I'll say I backed, you know, a couple. I really wanted those in my house.
00:09:43
Speaker
My wife probably didn't, but that's okay. And we really appreciated the fans who supported it and wanted to make it happen. And our hearts broke for ourselves and for them. Ultimately, the community decided that this particular project and this particular configuration with
00:10:00
Speaker
Literally, the next day, I think we had a regroup to see what lessons there were. I will say, we've also been reading online as we always do. From these conversations, it's helpful so that we're drawing the right conclusions about what didn't work and improve for the future, and not just drawing blanket conclusions about higher arching things. Thank you. Absolutely. Lacy, back to you.
00:10:28
Speaker
Man, this is a good group. We're vibing on questions. We all have similar questions, so I can keep going. Great line. Yeah, so going back to the rancor, which I love rancors. Huge fan favorite creature for me.
00:10:42
Speaker
Unfortunately, it didn't go through, which is really sad. However, we did get a new rank or with the book of Boba Fett. So I was kind of curious, do you guys obviously watch these properties? And I know, Patrick, you've mentioned with Luke Skywalker with the force awakens, you had no idea he was showing up. So like you had to make that figure later. How do you guys handle when you watch a property and something like that rank or shows up and you're like,
00:11:05
Speaker
This is a rank or that they actually ride. Like, how do you handle those new things that pop up and like, where do you go from there with planning future stuff? Cause I know a lot of people have critiqued like, Oh, why does this figure come out so much later than when we saw it? Yeah, no, absolutely. I, and I forget at this point, if we've said it in this session or another one, but.
00:11:24
Speaker
You know, I honestly wouldn't have it any other way. Like everyone who experienced, you know, Luke at the end of episode seven or the child grove who appearing, that took the world by storm because no one knew what was coming. And so we trust Lucasfilm, you know, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, obviously, for the Mandalorian, implicitly, like they've proven it out. And if it means we don't get product later, that's something we're happy to do to have just the strength of that impact as Star Wars fans.
00:11:49
Speaker
So how did we feel when we saw the rank we're in in the book of Boba Fett? Obviously, as a fan, it was amazing. And so I think we're always evaluating what we'll do in the future based on what we see on screen. But yeah, we do see some of those things at the same time, and that's the way it should be. Awesome. Thanks. Absolutely. Thank you. All righty. Back to you, Eric. I'm going to hand this one over to the other half of the podcast, my brother Dave here. Sounds good.
00:12:15
Speaker
Alright, good morning. So with pre-orders officially launching for Omega and Echo later today, that completes the core Bad Batch team for the Black Series. Does the work that has gone into producing those figures make it likely that we'll see them soon in the Vintage Collection?
00:12:31
Speaker
So I can say that the Vintage Collection team has been watching the Bad Batch and just as excited about it as the Black Series team. For us, we obviously are always building a balance across the line of which contents to address first. We can't make any announcements about specific characters today, but there could be a potential future for the Bad Batch. Love to hear it. Thank you. Absolutely. Awesome.
Distribution Challenges and Exclusive Releases
00:12:57
Speaker
And we will finish out round two with Chris.
00:13:01
Speaker
There's always a lot of discussions about what makes a deluxe figure a deluxe figure. And I was hoping you could talk about the Black Series dark trooper a little bit. What makes that particular figure a deluxe figure? Is it taller than other figures? Yeah, so I think for that one, and again, it's not a one size fits all. It's not just always size or always decorate.
00:13:24
Speaker
And again, I go back to Grievous. We had waited a long time to do that. If we didn't have our deluxe line, we wouldn't be doing the dark trooper. It's as simple as that. And it's because of his size. We see it in the Mandalorian. He's just too big for us to be able to do in mainline. So that is the key determinant for him. Gotcha. Thank you.
00:13:42
Speaker
Absolutely. Thank you. All righty. Back to the top with Dan. This question is kind of an asteroid about the rank bar. Is there any chance you guys would consider offering the film has left exclusive rank or again in a different format? It's pretty close to getting funders at eighty eight thousand five hundred thirty three backers. And what turned off what what turned some people off is the choice to repack figures and the bonus tears and the price seemed a bit high. I hate to see you guys waste all that time and money on that product and not get it out there.
00:14:13
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, again, I really wanted that for my house. Again, it might not have been a unanimous opinion with my household. But again, we've drawn lessons from that. I don't have anything to share as to whether we would explore that again. But again, we've drawn lessons for the future, and we're excited to apply those for future projects. Cool. Absolutely. All righty, Mark, back to you.
00:14:40
Speaker
Yeah, hi. I'm gonna go back to something private talk for like, 10, 12 years, which is distribution. It seems to continue to be a problem, especially with a lot of us that are on, you know, Instagram, Twitter, we all follow each other, put pictures out there. And some of us are finding the mecca in toy aisles, and some of us are finding absolutely nothing. And I know a lot of that isn't your control, it's stores control, it's that and the other. Well, my question specifically is when it comes to with the
00:15:08
Speaker
Walgreens, those exclusives, why don't they ever have them also online for more than like 30 seconds? Like they're announced it'll be out in 2022 say okay it's it's normal and then
00:15:21
Speaker
It's wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, and then Target cancels like half the time. You got to reorder it again and it's not in stock. They only offer like very few in store. I mean, we want to manage like, oh, we only got one case of that, but order it online. And some of us still like the old fashioned, front and out hunting for the card we want, the figure we want. And it seems like as time goes on, we're seeing them less and less on the pegs. In regards to Star Wars, of course.
00:15:45
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think we were making some progress here kind of over the latter part of the teen years before the pandemic hit. We shared in the past things like we moved to less waves to make sure that retail could work through all of those waves. We've shared in the past distribution globally. We've set up summits to kind of discuss these issues and work through them. I think the pandemic kind of
00:16:12
Speaker
hit a snag for us and we've been working through those new curve balls. Obviously, we wouldn't be able to get these products out without our retail partners and so we do serve
00:16:24
Speaker
items in the line without them. We're also sharing learnings with them as well. And again, I forget if I mentioned it here in a previous one, but we scheduled time with Emily actually to share some kind of learning she had heard from the community with our internal team. So when those new issues pop up, we're certainly trying to address them. It seems like there's more of them given the state of the world. But again, we're hopeful as things return to normal, we'll be able to improve these issues as well.
00:16:52
Speaker
Okay. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. And now a word from our sponsors. And now back to the show. Lacey. Playing off Mark's question, because we're just like clearly on the same wavelength today. One of the coolest things about being a Star Wars fan is definitely the going to the stores looking for merchandise, Triple Force Friday, those kinds of events. Obviously, those were kind of coincide with the movies.
00:17:22
Speaker
And I know Disney and Lucasfilm have kind of pivoted more into the streaming service and Disney Plus with the Mandalorian just like taking over everything, you know, it's everywhere. Are there any plans to do any type of release events at the same time of shows and not just movies because those have kind of taken over as the important content for Lucasfilm?
00:17:42
Speaker
Yeah, we can't comment on any future plans. But of course, you know, we did this, I'm getting my ears mixed up at this point, I think it was in 2020 with Mando Mondays. And we,
Playset Evolution and Community Influence
00:17:52
Speaker
we had a lot of fun with that program. And it was cool, you know, you mentioned triple force Friday and force Friday and force Friday do before that, those were kind of singular events. Like, I know I love, you know, those are fun, because they're in the moment, but then they pass and you're like, Oh, what's next? I love Mando
00:18:08
Speaker
month long period of excitement and news and kind of keeping up with the show and seeing things in the show and then seeing them released in product. So that was a lot of fun. You know, I think it certainly can provide a model for the future. And yeah, we're excited to see what comes from that. So if anything, it would probably be more on the Mando Monday side than the Triple Force Friday, which is a one and done type thing. I wouldn't necessarily draw that conclusion. You know, both certainly serve their purpose on, you know, provide learnings for the future. Okay, cool. Thanks. Absolutely. Thank you.
00:18:37
Speaker
Eric or Eric's brother, whichever one. Eric and Dave. Back to me this time. There we go. We absolutely love the shift in recent years going back to playsets, kind of that Kenner vibe going all the way back to the 70s and 80s. What led to that focus now in the past couple of years and can we expect to see more released and announced as the year goes on?
00:19:02
Speaker
Thank you. We love the playset world too. I would give a credit in this question to the amazing designer that came before me on The Vintage Collection, which was Sam Smith. And some of the awesome playsets that really brought these back into the line.
00:19:19
Speaker
I would say as well that I think some of the inspiration for the Star Wars team to bring this world of playsets and world building, some of that inspiration comes from the fans. You guys are creating incredible shelf dioramas at home, awesome setups for photography. That lights up our imaginations too. That totally inspires us. We want to be in on the fun of that as well and setting up that world building just like you guys are. It's just a really community, inspires toys, inspires community type of circular fun.
00:19:49
Speaker
awesome yeah I that I mean kudos again I know you know we've it's we've probably heard it ad nauseam at this point but that uh that throne room playset yesterday was was was definitely worth the the little bit of hype that that was going into the the event so yeah kudos thank you so much awesome all right Chris round three bring us home
00:20:11
Speaker
Youth Pipeline revealed the Han Solo for the Black Series from The Force Awakens and the Princess Leia Boosh figure. Will Han have his
Pre-order Timing and Global Shipping Challenges
00:20:21
Speaker
gray hair and will Leia have the correct height this time around?
00:20:28
Speaker
Right, so we are very glad that you guys have anticipation for these pipeline reveals. I would say that after chatting with the team, sometimes the pipeline reveal, it's just a little bit too far out for us to start to confirm details like that. So unfortunately, we don't have answers today, but keep up the anticipation and we can't wait to share them. Thank you.
00:20:49
Speaker
All righty, round four. Dan, kick us off. Do you know what happened to the Walgreens exclusive, Black Series, Clone Trooper, 212th Battalion figure? It never hit stores and when you check with the distribution or the managers and stuff and the stores are saying it's discontinued.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yes, it's I looked into this. It's definitely not discontinued again. I know I think we revealed it last summer. I think announced it was coming later in the year, then announced it was coming earlier this year. And again, that's never our goal, right? It's just not good to like kind of keep pushing things back.
00:21:20
Speaker
which I think gets to an earlier question about kind of the longer gap we're trying to set more reasonable expectations. I did confirm it is still coming. Obviously we produced the figure. We want to get that out to fans who are excited for it. It will be coming a bit later this year. And I know that's kind of the same update. And so at this point, I do want to say sometime in 2022 is our expectation. And I know that's a year after it was announced.
00:21:46
Speaker
It's not our goal for this to happen, but I also don't want to say it's going to be out in a couple months and then have to come back in a couple months with another update. So we're fairly confident it'll be out at some point this year. Okay, thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. All right, back to you, Mark. I guess it's sort of a follow-up, but a new question on one I asked earlier about the pre-orders in a long time and where they're staying now.
00:22:09
Speaker
right now. But a lot of our readers, when I ask for any questions, it's probably like 30% of them are the exact same question. If you know it's 2023, why even announce it right now?
00:22:21
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's a good question. Why not wait a little bit longer instead of having such a long gap? Yeah, no, it's interesting. And, you know, I think we refer to the fans and we refer to the community and it's obviously not a monologue. There's lots of different opinions. I know we hear and read a lot a desire for greater transparency. And so we did pipeline reveals a year ago and
00:22:41
Speaker
And as soon as basically we have, there's obviously a development process, right? And so we reached a point where we have a version of the product that's representative of the final one that's good enough to share with the community. And so once we hit that point, we don't want to hold it back because we want to be transparent with you all and with the fans. So at that point, that's when we reveal it. We also know when we reveal it, fans want to lock it in. They don't want to be worried about when they're going to be able to get it. So that's why we have this larger gap.
00:23:12
Speaker
Again, as hopefully the state of the world gets back to normal, we should see that gap shrink to what it's been more before the past couple of years. Thank you. Absolutely. Lacey, back to you.
00:23:27
Speaker
Awesome. So with a lot of exclusives and across different distributors, I know people have brought up questions here about things either being delayed or not showing up. This is actually a question of the opposite kind of problem is that things are showing up super early for some fans and not for others. Are there any plans to fix that? Because as an example, the Ray Lightsaber, some people got it this past fall and then people that ordered through you guys haven't even seen it yet.
00:23:54
Speaker
Yeah, no. And again, I'm sorry, it's a similar answer. I think basically, no, no, it's fine. Yeah, it's a good question. In the past, it was a pretty straightforward process, right? Like the product would all arrive, you know, there was a certain ramp up, but it would all arrive generally at the same time.
00:24:12
Speaker
we're just not seeing that now. And this is not just Hasbro, this is across kind of the entire industry, not just the toy industry, it's everywhere. That there's just a lot of unpredictable shipping issues and curveballs. Again, that's not the goal either. We want the community to have kind of a unified positive experience. So we're working on things like that. That's why we moved at one point to revealing, but not pre-ordering. We got some
00:24:38
Speaker
There were some difficulties with that, so we've pivoted back. But we're always trying new things to make the experience more positive. We'll continue doing so, but feedback like this is helpful in doing that. I appreciate the honesty. Thank you so much. Absolutely. I appreciate the question. I think it's Dave up now if I've got the cadence right. Yes. Yeah. All right. Returning to the idea of world building. We've seen some incredible large-scale vehicles recently in the vintage collection.
00:25:04
Speaker
With the most recent, of course, being the anti-comeric X-Wing. With so many Toyota smaller scale vehicles like speeders, swoop bikes, and the like, are there any plans to include things like that in the line?
00:25:17
Speaker
Thank you. Yeah, I think that we definitely, we can't share news today about any specific releases, but the team has definitely been watching the vehicles coming about in the new content. And, you know, there were obviously some great ones in the recent show, the things that we were thinking about and paying attention to, and can't announce any current plans, but, you know, this type of stuff will always be a part of the Star Wars world. Yeah, a trip to MOS Vespa would be awesome.
00:25:46
Speaker
Freetown, right? Freetown. Yep. Right. No, I think I'm getting them mixed. No, Mos Pelgo and- Pelgo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No many bosses. The newly named Mos Vespa. There we go. This is the next Vespa gag. Yep. Alrighty. Chris, back to you.
00:26:03
Speaker
I've almost run out of questions because everybody else already asked the same questions, basically, but I have one more here. I'm not sure if you can talk about it, but back in October of last year, there were five Black Series holiday figures that popped up on the secondary market and people from buying them off of eBay. Is there anything you can comment on when we're going to see those figures in the US? Yeah, as always, we can't comment on anything we haven't revealed, but I
00:26:32
Speaker
would release in the future, we would do so in the lead up and during the holidays. Got you. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. All right. Back to the top. Last round. Let's kick it off with Dan. Making Mandalorian figures, particularly ones with brokers like printing monies. Why is the vast majority of those exclusives and not general releases? Because it's a really popular figure and it seems like it's limited when they're exclusives.
00:27:02
Speaker
And then why not make more obscure figures that are exclusives to the stores?
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think, and I'm trying to think through the line over the past few years, but I think the main variants have been mainline items. If you think about Mando and his kind of iconic look at the start of the show, and then with his Beskar armor, I think both of those have been mainline in both Vintage Collection and Black Series. But that said, we want to get the other variants out there for the fans in the community that want them, because we know that kind of those details of, you know, in the Black Series is
00:27:34
Speaker
muddy look on Arbala 7 or his, you know, snow frosted look are
Balancing Star Wars Content Releases
00:27:39
Speaker
important for those scene-specific displays. We also don't want, you know, mainline to be half-mandalorian variants, because we know that kind of it's, you know, it's not everyone who wants those differences. So we want to get those variants out there, and honestly, exclusives are the way to do it. Again, without making mainline half-mandalorian figures, we wouldn't be able to get those variants out there. And so exclusives give us a great way to do that.
00:28:02
Speaker
Thanks. Absolutely. Thank you. Mark. My final question is one that I had myself and a few readers had as well is, and I don't know if you could speak on or not.
00:28:13
Speaker
is it too much for you guys with the Disney machine going as fast as it is with, you know, the Mandalorian, the Book of Elba Fett, the original trilogy stuff, the Avengers Collection, all these additional shows and things coming up, is it getting to be like, okay, I want to make everything, but I just can't, I have to cut off some line because there's no way possible. We can make these people right now. I think absolutely not. First of all,
00:28:36
Speaker
just as a Star Wars fan, just Disney and Lucasfilm out there listening, definitely not too much, like keep the Star Wars content coming because it's been amazing. And I would say it's not a new situation, right? If I think about, you know, the Vintage Collection launched in 2010, the Black Series in 2013, you know, just taking the Black Series as an example, there was, you know, there was sort
00:28:57
Speaker
certainly new movies launching in 2015, but we had a whole back catalog of characters to do. And so we've always had that balance, right? I think about 2016, for example, we certainly took care of some characters from The Force Awakens, but also then peppered in some characters from Rebels, from classic, slowly building out that back catalog.
00:29:17
Speaker
We're at a point in both lines where I think we've done most of the main characters. Certainly there's some background characters that still need to be done from classics. And so it's a matter of balancing that with the new entertainment sources. So I think we like the challenge. We like getting out as much as possible. And we're excited to continue doing that in the future. Great. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Lacy.
00:29:39
Speaker
So first of all, I think you were onto something by doing the Mandalorian line and it's just Mandalorians with every reason. There we go. My last question, the throne room is just so awesome. People were talking about nonstop yesterday. There's just so many pieces and it's just, it looks so cool. How do you decide what pieces to include? Because there are so many detailed little pieces from like, you know, the set and little items and the meat that roasts on the spigots and all that stuff.
00:30:07
Speaker
Awesome, thank you so much. Yeah, picking the pieces is absolutely part of the fun. So I would say that, you know, as we look into the content, one of the things is going to become, you know, what pieces did the story revolve around and the characters interact with? You know, for example, when we did our Bespin freezing chamber, it's all about that area where the carbonite piece drops down inside. That was the moment that made you gasp in the movie. And so those elements that drive this story are some of the key areas of our play sets.
00:30:36
Speaker
And yeah, other than that, I would just say, what can your figures interact with? What can you pose with your figures is really fun. In this set, you know, it's like that Spachka bottle that, you know, Fennec Shand is like leaning on the throne with. And it's the, you know, the coin purse that changes hands so many times. And then just all those chalices that all of your part, you know, your denizens can all hold. So yeah, what lights up the story? What lights up the play? Awesome. Thank you.
00:31:03
Speaker
Eric, back to you. So Patrick, yesterday we learned a little bit about one of your big wants and that you've been patiently waiting for your Black Series Saw Gerrera figure and he was announced in the pipeline. So while we're discussing a dream booking event, Emily, if you could snap your fingers right now and your dream figure appeared in front of you, who would it be and what line would it be in?
00:31:31
Speaker
All right. I am a longtime lover of Kotor, Knights of the Old Republic and the video gaming world of Star Wars. So thinking about this one, I'm like, okay, who have I got? Who do I need? I would say that one of my favorite all-time droids is HK47, the sassy wise Kraken, you know, little bit evil droid from Kotor.
00:31:53
Speaker
Can't
Hasbro's Personal Fan Interests and Community Engagement
00:31:54
Speaker
wait to see that come back out again. And I want them in every scale, just every scale is HK47. I've got a little cluster of the three and three quarter ones already on my, I've got like five HK47s and a little like squad on my office desk. So I'd say let's go black series and I challenge the HK47s everywhere. Nice, yeah, he's ready to burn some meat bags. Meat bags. Awesome, alrighty, Chris, bring us home.
00:32:22
Speaker
I don't have any questions left anymore, but I do want to say thank you for coming out with the Boa Fest throne room playset. I've had the Power of the Force 2 cardboard backdrop in my collection for more than 20 years. Always been hoping that you guys would update that and now you're doing it. Shabbos Palace, one of my favorite scenes in all of Star Wars. So very, very happy and looks amazing. And so thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's a dream project and an ultimate location for your collection. So glad to bring it.
00:32:52
Speaker
Thanks. Awesome. Thank you guys so much. Again, we love doing these. It's just fun for us. And again, it's great to hear feedback from the community. We know it's valuable time out of your day, either the workday or maybe late hours for some. So we appreciate it and we look forward to doing it again soon.
00:33:09
Speaker
Thank you, dear listener, for hanging out with us today. Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you listen, and then tell your friends to do it. Thanks also to Joe Azari, the golden voice behind our intro. Our music is Game Boy Horror by the Zombie Dandies. Find more about them both on our show notes.
00:33:25
Speaker
Follow us on social media at AIC underscore podcast on Instagram and Twitter. Stop by and say hi. Show us your toy hauls and share your toy stories. Maybe we'll talk about it in a future episode.
00:33:49
Speaker
This has been a non-productive media presentation. Executive producer, Franca Blaui. This program and many others like it on the non-productive network is distributed under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial no derivatives license. Please share it, but ask before trying to change it or sell it. For more information, visit non-productive.com.