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How do?

No. It’s not Rian Johnson.

Nor is it Kathleen Kennedy.

In fact, it’s none of the Things already talked to death here and elsewhere.

Simply put, Star Wars makes most of its money through merchandising. And a significant part of that are Toy sales. From the original ,’Early Bird’ Boxes from Kenner through to Clone Wars, toys were where the real money was made.

But recently, Toy sales have entered a steady decline

Now, the article linked to (Bloomberg, because I think we can reasonably expect that to be factual) points to changes in how kids play. The accepted wisdom is that actual physical toys are falling because Digital.

And there’s certainly something to that. But when it comes to Star Wars, that doesn’t factor in grognards like myself. I’m a little of 38, and still love my Star Wars toys. But, whilst I’ve got a complete set of The Force Awakens 3.75”, the same isn’t true for Rogue One, The Last Jedi or Solo. Simply put, that’s because the toys are crappy.

To help illustrate, here’s a very quick, non-comprehensive look at the various incarnations.

First? Luke Skywalker, X-Wing Pilot from the original Kenner range.



Appeared very early in the range. It’s, well, it’s perfunctory. Nothing wrong with it, and it certainly looks how it should. And this sculpt was the only X-Wing uniformed pilot until 1997’s relaunch, when it became this one.



Well, this range bulked things up a bit, but interestingly used the same ship moulds as the original. The figures had marginally more accessories, but retained the same ‘straight limbed’ action of their predecessors. Details are much better though - even if the helmet looks to be a real skull crusher!

This was really the golden age of Star Wars toys. The range continue to develop under a number of guises. Power of the Force, Power of the Jedi, The Vintage Collection, and various others.

Speaking of the Vintage Collection? Contrast and compare the previous to this one....



Its a BEAUTY!

Far more articulation. Better range of accessories. And the same price bracket (adjusted, natch) as it’s predecessors. For me and many collectors, this was the pinnacle range. Toys still robust enough to stand up to all but the most enthusiastic kid, lots to appeal to adult collectors. You should also check out the Falcon from this era. Just......wow.

But then.....I honestly do not know what happened. Now of course this isn’t Luke, but Poe.



What the gak, Hasbro! What the actual gak! Sure, the body is decently detailed - but where’s the articulation dudes? Why is the helmet not removable? And what’s with the solid yellow band for a visor? WHAT HAST THOU WROUGHT!!!!! And the price? £11. To add insult to injury, the version of Poe that came with the X-Wing had a removable helmet. And a clear visor. Otherwise. Same body and limb sculpt. Shame the X-Wing itself was a bit poo - bendy, floppy guns, and an inexplicable ‘condom’ that goes on the front.

And the other Resistance Pilots were much the same - moulded on helmets, solid yellow visors. Ever so disappointing. All £11 each.

Now I’m a Star Wars mentalist, but even I waited for the sales rack to pick these ones up (there were some better figures in the range to be fair)

The Last Jedi range did improve a bit. Compare Resistance Gunner Paige (probably my favourite)



Separate helmet, breath mask links up with it, natty pistol, excellent sculpt detail. Only downside is there’s no pistol holster, unusual for pilots in this range. But again, £11.

That’s a helluva price for a kid’s treat. And whilst collectors will cunningly await the sales rack or bargain bin, the kids will have frothed on to the next big thing.

Why? Why turn their back on the similarly priced and well received Vintage Collection style? Sure, they offer The Black Series now, shame they’re difficult to come by - and even more expensive. If we hadn’t had The Vintage Collection, that’d be one thing. But knowing The Black Series is just gouging me - charging more for the quality once not at a premium, again that’s puts me and others off.

And this? This is the real problem with Star Wars.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Of course, with the lacklustre sales for TFA, retailers proved reticent to stock the following ranges.

Me? I want a TLJ A-Wing, because it’s the greatest ship ever. Shame I can’t find them locally! And that goes for later waves for each movie.

Lack of visibility, lack of sales.

Is it just me or are 'the original' Star Wars Fans aiming at young and younger portions of their fanbase to hate on? The kids seem fine with the toys.

Awesome!

Another STAR WARS Thread AND another "How do?" MDG thread - WOO HOO!!!

In reality, are there really any/many 'problems' with Star Wars that weren't kind of always there, right from the start?

Well, the age kids stop playing with toys keeps getting lower and lower so there is very little market for action figures anymore.

It’s the collectors though.

When I’m not enthused enough to rush out and spend my disposable income, you’ve done something wrong as a Toy producer.

If the drop in quality was matched by a cheaper price point? Well, ok. That’s different. But they didn’t. And that was pretty insulting to me as a collector - I felt taken for granted. And I know I’m not the only one - especially when they simply relabelled the nicer range to Black Series and cranked up the price!


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As an example of how deep collector’s pockets can be, Google Haslab’s Sail Barge.

The sheer quality of that piece is staggering. But again, Hasbro played a blinder by ensuring that, erm, only the US could order it. *slow clap*

I’d have gone for it if the various plans to import it didn’t strike me as well ropey and prone to failure. Seriously. £500 without batting an eyelid, plus the cost of getting a specially made shelf to display it.

Yeah, some toys are obviously marketed to collectors or kids. Since the recent decline in Kids toy sales is plummeting (goodbye Toy-R-Us), SW toys SHOULD be marketed to collectors, but some seem to still have the quality of kids toys.

Add to that, most "collectors" are older fans who may or may not like the Disney SW and Lucasfilm is clearly in a place to lose money in this particular market

-

What about the Black Series figures? Sold on the toy aisle but clearly aimed at adult collectors.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
EDIT: Whoops covered in OP. Except they are not at all difficult to come by, at least in the US. But I do see that they are largely still hanging on the pegs like other SW toys. I see it as a perfect storm of undesirable characters and kids losing interest in action figures.

Also - TLJ A-Wings are not hard to find here, either. Maybe distribution is part of the problem?

It’s the design that sells the toys - and feel what you may about the plot etc, the design element of Star Wars remains its strong suit. And if a toy reflects that design well, it should sell.

Consider.

I paid around £20 to go see The Last Jedi, and £15 for the Blu-ray. That’s pretty good going. But the figures? Well, I’ve got Paige, Rose, Jedi Master Luke, X-Wing Poe (with removable helmet). All £11 each. I spent more on merchandise than I did on the film. But because I struggled to find them, I’ve not bought more (again, I want the X-Wing, and the Rathar/Bala Tik set). And I struggle to find them because despite being higher quality than their TFA counterparts, store’s just don’t have the interest to stock them.

Now there is a way back, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work, better sculpts and better sales prices to do that.

Seriously. Fool that I am, I complete TFA line. That’s 30 or so individual figures - including some duplicates here and there from boxed sets (in order to get Maz Kanata, I also got another BB8, Finn and Rey). Yes, I even bought Constable ‘Not Appearing In This Film’ Zuvo, now a veteran Peg Warmer for full price.

But I’ve been strung through that, hence my own purchases have dipped, preferring only to shell out for my very favourite sculpts, as when and I can find them. The drop in quality has all but killed my completist weirdo nature.

I see your point and it's a good one to some extent. I really like the look of Luke and Rey's costumes in TLJ, for example.

It doesn't help that even within the line there is varying quality. There is a Rey fig, for example, with a very prefunctory paintjob on the head and then there is another one, virtually the same in all other respects (I think she has white dust on her boots) with a better paintjob. WTF? Also, there are like four different Rose Tico sculpts. I have trouble believing kids would want one - and by the looks of the toy aisles locally, they don't.

Aren't you headed over here Stateside soon? Or did that already come and go? Hit up the WalMarts and Targets when you get here/next time around.

And the ships?

First, the greatest Millenium Falcon Toy ever made. Seriously, I restored one and it’s beautiful.



Four seater cockpit! Movie accurate detailing! Light up Dejarrik! Escape shuttle from the EU!

Wasn’t an especially cheap toy. £120ish when it was first released. But I’d say it was good value.

For The Force Awakens? For around the same price?


And it had a pop out Nerf gun. For some reason. It has basically no appeal to a collector, because it’s expensive, and a significant step backward from the Legacy Collection take.

That Nerf Gun?


Pricey for parents. Basically no interest to collectors.

If I were going to buy a Rey fig, I think I would just get the SH Figarts one Bandai makes. I wouldn't be collecting a whole line, of course, so the 80USD price tag wouldn't be such a drag.

Furthermore, Rebels was well received.

So where’s my 3.75” Ghost? Sure, they did the Phantom 1 - but that was about it.

@OP, sorry, but Star Wars peaked with the Clone Wars TV show. It's pointless to get anything that's not related to that.

Rebels is superior, because it’s Season 3 doesn’t contain episodes that, chronologically, happen before Season 1 :p

Actually the £11 is pretty close to what inflation from 1977 would put a £1.99 figure at (£1.85 or so) base on https://www.officialdata.org/1977-GBP-in-2018

Still feels like a rip off, given what the immediately preceding lines offered in terms of quality.

I had the original Millenium Falcon and it was impressive.

This is a pretty good view of the back, you put a figure pretty much on his back in the chair for firing the guns which seemed correct.
The AT-AT I had was even better with the jaw guns cycling in and out and lighting with the "muppet handle" for swinging the head around.

I had the "Imperial troop carrier" that talked. (One could only guess what the 2 "prisoner immobilization units" would do.
The thing took a "C" battery, that was playing with power.

My pride and joy was the Slave 1, that was a really good toy for back then.

My friend had the X-wing, DV (advanced) Tie-Fighter, Snow Speeder, AT-ST and the land speeder.
I remember saving up the proof of purchase for the Bobba-Fett figure, it was the only way to get him initially.

The toys were pretty impressive and I hate to say would play better, styling we may be able to argue a little but for what they did, they are superior.

I'd be happy to buy micromachines for TLJ and Solo, if only they'd sell some.

You know ... if demand for physical toys are going down in favor of digital entertainment ...

... then why in the past three years have we only gotten BattlefrontI/II and Lego SW video games?

 Easy E wrote:
Well, the age kids stop playing with toys keeps getting lower and lower so there is very little market for action figures anymore.

I have a buddy on FB I played WoW with. Every time a Star Wars movie comes out he goes apeshit over the toys. He buys the Black Series toys and spends a lot of time and effort tracking them down. He is a bit fanatical. I know he is probably in the minority of SW fans, but a minority of a fanbase that big is going to buy a lot of toys. I'm not so sure they are directly targeting kids. They definitely know their fans.

The Black Series figures are definitely aimed at adults and both Hasbro and the retailers know very well, from the ground up really, that adult collectors are very important customers when it comes to the toy aisles. Even so, these figs - or at least a subset of them - are not getting purchased.

Well, who knows?

Me, I still crave a return to the glory days of Rogue Squadron. Now that was a Star Fighter game. Each ship handled very differently. A-Wings were suitably nippy, and in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing, deadly. Y-Wings were brilliantly lumbering and steadfast. TIE Fighters were great fun.

BF2’s take is better than its immediate predecessor. But still pale imitations of Rogue Squadron (one of the sequels came with a co-op of the original!)

In fact, that’s another thing. Distinct lack of vehicles. Where’s my massive new At-At thing? You wanna put a Nerf gun in something, how about it’s dorsal Cannon?

See, one of the great joys of the Kenner era, and indeed continuing into the Hasbro run, was anyone was fair game for getting a figure. Flashed in the background! Have a figure. Droid just about visible if you squint! Have a figure.

Those collections let us have the full shilling. Some might just want the core characters. Others prefer the ‘blink and you’ll miss them’ ones (me!). Others yet go full on completist.

And I want the same thing for the ships. They’re what Star Wars is famed for! And don’t fill them with crappy gimmicks. They detract from the design, and worse, often bear no correlation to what we see on screen. By all means, battery powered light and sound, yes. Hell, I’m even impressed by the Solo Falcon, which has motion sensitive tech - shame its bloody tiny, and said motion tech is the only thing going for it (the cockpit only sits one figure!). Nice gimmick, piss poor overall execution.

But no. After decades of providing ever higher quality, Hasbro took a dump on their collectors with overpriced tat.

Even the original Kenner run kept on improving, when it was a genuine license to print money.

Compare!

Original run ‘Walrus Man’ aka Ponda Baba. Background character.



Original run Nikto

[img]
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/f0/f1/5af0f17dc4d6d8272262212f8e4d33a1.jpg[/img]

From a very basic figure, when they were still getting a feel, to one with a fake fur kilt and frankly amazing detail for someone in the film for all of a few seconds.

Through POTF2 to Legacy, the trend was for ever improved figures - better sculpts, more articulation, better and more numerous accessories.

Then....







Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Manchu wrote:
The Black Series figures are definitely aimed at adults and both Hasbro and the retailers know very well, from the ground up really, that adult collectors are very important customers when it comes to the toy aisles. Even so, these figs - or at least a subset of them - are not getting purchased.

I don’t do Black Series.

For one, they’re Hens Teeth round my way. Damned difficult to find, and never the ones you want, because they’ve been scalped.

And I really object to the sudden premium being charged for what was, prior to TFA, just the standard the figures were at.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Now, consider Solo.

It underperformed.

And to date, I’ve not seen a single Solo Toy or piece of merchandise in my town. Which means I’m just not buying them.

The merchandise looks better. Check out this range trooper



But I’ve never seen it in the wild - and I dunno why, but I’m squiffy about buying Star Wars toys online.

And if I get one, I’ll get more. Not completist more, but enough to have the cooler ones in my collection. That’s money the film is also failing to make. And as covered earlier, is the merchandising that really made Star Wars such a juggernaut.

 Manchu wrote:
The Black Series figures are definitely aimed at adults

Those are the same as Marvel Legends ($19.99 MSRP), right?

They are spendy, but my youngest absolutely loves those toys, is very careful with them. He wants ALL of the Iron Mans.

Anyhow, they're *great* toys.

I picked up Cable and Deadpool for the Hasbro ML figures. Cuz I’m a big fan of the characters. Hasbro is a trash toy company though. Kenner made awesome SW toys, but Toybiz was where the Marvel stuff was at. TB ML figures were amazing. Quality, paint, $8/figure, with a free comic. That was ten years ago. Hasbro, when they took it over, raised the price $3/figure, dropped quality and tossed out the comics. And they’ve just been getting worse ever since. Honestly, Hasbro is probably half the reason Toys R Us went under; they had such a huge share of the market, and they made gak toys. The other reason, of course, was online sellers.

Actually, 99% of the reason TRU died was due to corporate raiders taking it over

I would argue that the over reliance on fan service and Disney's inability to create new memorable moments with Star Wars (with a few exceptions) to be the real problems with the universe, but to each their own.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Actually, 99% of the reason TRU died was due to corporate raiders taking it over

This is correct. Overall, their business was still profitable. The sale was highly leveraged and saddled them with $5 billion (?) in debt. Pretty hard to reinvest in the business and do the things you have to do as a B&M retailer AND make payments on 5 bil.

At least Canadian stores survived. TRU was my first real summer job, so I'm a little sentimental about the place.

I was a kid during the run of TCW, got my parents to buy me dozens. DESPISED Toys with pure articulation. Always hated TCW battle droids for their legs and bendy arms. Kids love detail more then most people realise. Any of them that see what I used to get for my tenner compared to theirs is probably feeling pretty screwed over.