Star Wars Black 6″ Series 2 Figure Revealed at Entertainment Earth

Hasbro 2013 Star Wars Black Series logo

Over the next few weeks, Entertainment Earth will be taking us through the design process, from start to finish, of a figure from the second series of Star Wars Black. Here’s the link to bookmark. And the figure is…Greedo!

This basically confirms we will not be getting pure A-listers in the early series, but will get a mix of major and minor characters. What do you think? Good idea or bad idea? Is Hasbro risking a situation like Joey the Ball, Patron saint of figures we got instead of figures we really wanted? (Not that I don’t want Greedo, but if I get a Greedo and no Han Solo in his A New Hope getup, the seas will run red with the blood of my enemies I’ll be very sad.)

Previous

Disco Lando

Next

Punching your problems away

16 Comments

  1. Hello there! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering which blog
    platform are you using for this site? I’m getting fed up of WordPress because I’ve
    had issues with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform.
    I would be fantastic if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.

  2. Thanks for the terrific write-up! Very informative.

    Is it possible to perform a guest weblog?

  3. _RZ_

    I think it's a bad move, and a further sign this new(ish) Hasbro Star Wars team isn't learning from the mistakes of the past.

    The title of the line kind of says it all, doesn't it? Trying to imply "luxury" with "The Black Series" is the first thing. Calling luxury items "The Black Edition/Series/Line" has been a trend in various goods like high-end clothing and jewelry for several years now- from AmerExp to Lexus; it's a common PR gimmick used when you increase prices or change policy, and want your customers to think they're getting "more luxury high-end value for their money." Mom & Dad will know what "Black Series" implies, especially at 20-30 bucks a figure: the best of the best.

    Second, using that name across both 6-inch and 3.75-inch lines. It makes it so someone looking for one or the other will have such a frustrating time in a month or two. Third, making a Fett/Carbonite the SDCC exclusive… that's leaving a lot of money on the table versus a regular release- fans who would have spend $100 on figures at BBTS or EE or retail(getting a Fett as well as a few others) are putting that $100 into the pocket of someone else for waiting on a line. I don't hate show exclusives, I just hate it when something that would sell boatloads at retail is made a limited exclusive, while something obviously uninteresting to fans is produced en mass…

    I bet this time next year, we're swimming in Darth Mauls, Greedos, X-Wing Lukes, and ROTS Anakins, while Vader, Fett, R2-D2s, and C-3P0s nowhere to be found.

    The best way to do this would be one of each "main" character in their 1977 looks (since these have tended to be the more popular looks over the last decade) and then move on to random assortments from the other films, with no more than 2-3 prequel characters a year. Skip the variants, chase, 1-new-per-case games of Hasbro lines the last few years; make Evergreen cases of your best sellers available for order and make it clear to buyers what is in there. Offer them on HTS individually and keep them in stock. If this line is to continue beyond this year, and make *new* SW fans out of the 15-30yo crowd (who they actively are courting with a 6" line) they have to avoid the mistakes of 1999-2004: *Keep the main SW cast in print and on shelves at all times.* Make the clone variations exclusives.

    And if you need one figure to "use" another, do the more important one first. Greedo is a good example of one; he's kind of useless unless you're a hardcore Greedo fan, or you have a 77 style Han Solo. More people tend to buy a B or C-List character like Greedo when they already have the A-listers like Han. Who buys a Bucky toy without a Captain America figure, you know?

    The problem with doing SW in this scale is, the "backgrounders" aren't as feasible, and they're a big part of the fun, at least to me. A $30 Han Solo of any type will be an easy sell. A $30 "Greedo's brother from that bad 1997 comic no one liked or read even back then"- not so much.

    Just for reference, I'm a hardcore 3.75-inch guy, but unlike many, have zero issues with this line being made or sold. It looks cool, but I want them in-hand to make that call, and I've been out of the 6-inch game many, many years now. Despite being not that interested, I'm going to cherry-pick and get the usual suspects: R2, Threepio, Fett, Vader, vanilla Stormtrooper, maybe cinnabon Leia, old Ben, or Han & Chewie… the same classic figures, just like the vast majority of casual SW fans.

    I'm not critical because it's 6-inch; I'm critical because in their communication with fans, 2013's releases feel like 2002 all over again: confusing marketing, a new line with a scale change, and the most desirable items are exclusives or very difficult to obtain- a perfect storm of crap, which if handled the way it was in 2002, will kill another generation of potential fans off, making a bleak outlook for Star Wars toys for many years afterwards, much like today…

    • dayraven

      you do know that fett is getting a none-deluxe release in wave 4 right? so for show exclusivity, the only thing exclusive at this point is han in carbonite, which is a TOUGH sell on a good day as a stand alone toy.

      R2 is already a solo packed character for wave 1… but what logic would they possibly neglect to release C3P0?

      this does qualify as a luxury line, both in terms of price tag, and the piece we're receiving. no other star wars line has had this articulation, scale, unique sculpt, and packout. the 3.75 " scale i admit is less rational by term, but the 6 inchers totally qualify.

      you're logic also doesn't hold water here RZ… if you release the most popular characters at once, in their "preferred" looks, A) how do you keep stock available for purchase? peg space costs money B) how do you keep interest past 3 or 4 waves? you're moving towards progressively less popular characters/iterations as the line proceeds, AND you pull the double whammy of destroying any chance of new customers being able to get into the line and get "their" version of a popular character. not every potential customer will be lined up at TRU in the wee hours punching the doors to get in and buy hoth uniform han on day 1 of release. saving some characters/decos until later in the line not only provides buy incentive for the repeat customer, but provides a jump in point for new customers. remember the horse w/ the dangling carrot analogy? if you actually give the horse the carrot, he stops walking.

      i can't help but read your post as the ill-informed knee jerk of a person who hasn't read the posts/seen the photos about this line since it's inception. you're just flatly incorrect and ignorant on a lot of points you make about releases and execution of the line thusfar. i will openly admit that i have idea how successful the line will be over the long haul, but at least i know who's in the first four waves.

    • Let's be fair here – it's not as if other companies haven't blown this sort of thing before. Mezco did it twice, with Joey the Ball and the alien from Hellboy. Now, both of those licenses were a lot smaller and shakier than Star Wars, of course, but the hitch here is that this is a $20-a-figure collector's line. Even if they sell pretty well, by series four or five Hasbro may decide it's just not doing well enough and pull the plug. At 16 figures, there could be some major gaps at that point.

      Do I think that will happen? No, as I've argued. However, Phil Reed does, and his opinion is not to be dismissed. That said, Hasbro is not Mezco, and I think they'll support this line more than Mezco was in a position to support theirs.

      As it happens, I have more issues with X-Wing Luke than Greedo. I'd rather this line get more iconic versions of characters out first before we start getting alternate versions (I'd accept either Tatooine Luke or black-garbed Jedi Luke as a more iconic version). My main issue with X-Wing Luke is that it's pretty damned unlikely we'll ever get an in-scale X-Wing, and if we did it would either be kinda crappy or cost a fortune, so why make this figure so early on?

      Greedo's a separate character and probably one of the best-known aliens from the saga, plus he's Original Trilogy, so I don't mind his presence in the wave…so long as I eventually get my Jedi/Tatooine Luke, my ANH Han, my Chewbacca, my Vader, my Ben Kenobi, my Stormtrooper, my Yoda, my ANH Leia and my C3P0. If I don't get all of those, then I may look back at Greedo with less charitable eyes.

    • _RZ_

      If the ESB Luke comes this fall, and you know it's coming, then why would anyone get an X-Wing Luke? Because the ESB is the one everyone wants.

      My list is pretty much the same as yours just add a dash of Lando. I just don't have faith right now that you'll get all of those in the next 5-6 years. It sounds crazy I know. They haven't done any full cast within 3-5 years of each other to any movie in the main line in since 2005, and based on character selection alone it seems like it's the same mentality over there with this line, so this is where that crazyman skepticism comes from.

    • _RZ_

      I'm coming from the spot of a Star Wars collector, not a specific scale- I collect or have in the past almost every major scale. $30 is nowhere near a luxury item in Star Wars land first off, when it comes down to brass tacks, and secondly anything Han Carbonite has been a popular item for over a decade.

      I'm basing a lot of what I'm saying on what I've seen and read that is confirmed. I don't pay attention to the rumor mills about "what's coming next" until I see them released en mass. If the site where that list originated is where I think it is, they're only right 50% of the time. Again in SW Land a lot of stuff is announced that doesn't come out, or comes out very very limited, especially in the last three years. There's some stuff that's made it into target or Walmart SKU systems and still never came out. There's SKU issues with SW at retail for years that leaves stores with the same figures for years with no reorders. Not saying they won't do a Threepio, just that it's not going to be this year.

      As for character choice and a long lasting line, how many do you *really, actually* want? In all honesty how many of these will you really buy? Most people pick a movie, or get the ones they like… which historically has been the "main looks" as well as Vader, Fett, the droids. Once you get beyond the main characters and cool characters from the original three movies, you're getting into rough territory, and I just think the casual fan will tune out after they get stuff like Fett and the Empire Strikes Back outfits. With the superheroes there's not so much of an issue- with say Batman or Iron Man there's at least 5 distinct looks you'd want to own. With what's announced and rumored, there looks to be a pattern of mixed movie waves (ROTJ Leia with ESB Luke, in essence why not ESB Leia & Luke?) How many 6" Lukes do you *really* want to buy? How many Obi Wans and Anakins will crowd the pegs?

      I'm also basing it on past history of performance. Historically Star Wars fans en mass have rejected any scales other than 3.75 and 12-inch to a lesser extent. This has been the case since the 80's with Micro Collection to the 90's with Galoob and then on into the 2000's with Unleashed. This line is very much aimed outside of the traditional SW fans and more towards movie and comic fans, this much is obvious with the scale change. I think this is a really good thing, because I think they're cool- but it's way too late in the game at this point, this should have been done 5-8 years ago. The last similar scale thing was Unleashed, which aped another style that was mega popular a few years before at the time- McFarlane's Statue-style figures. And they were highly demanded as well, just like this line, and a similar retail price, about $20-30 each with inflation if i remember. And they tanked, only gaining popularity much later after there were clearances. Greedo's been a peg-warmer character since the 80's pretty much. In my early days of collecting as a teen you would always see 12-backs at comic shops for $5 while Vaders or others would be a nice clip more. In the 90's Greedo warmed. I can't think of a Greedo release in ten years that hasn't sat a bit off the top of my head.

      Again I'm skeptical but as I said before I'll probably be buying them too. I think that you may be assuming because I collect 3.75 that I'm on this "just because"- I have no vendetta against a scale 🙂 How many I get I don't know. I'm just not anywhere near expecting to get the robust line like I think some people are. I'm basing my skepticism on past history, because the situation is very similar as it was in 2002, and that was a rough period to collect Star Wars.

    • After trying (and ultimately failing) to be a completist on MOTUC, I've decided to be a cherry picker on this line and only buy characters I owned as a kid. As a result, the only figure I'm planning to get from wave 1 is R2D2. I'll be getting Greedo, though.

  4. I'm totally on board for Greedo, but at only 8 figures a year (6 of which will be OT) I'm pretty darn shocked they went with him so early.

  5. Harrig

    I'm not so sure – Greedo is a pretty nice design, and it could be worse, it could be Jar Jar…

    • Zach S.

      Ugh…I just threw up…

    • Misterbigbo

      I was hoping now that Lucas is away from the helm that Jar Jar would simply disappear. Kinda felt like he kept that stupid character around just to piss people off.

    • ridureyu

      It's not like Jar Jar had any real presence after Episode I. He really just appeared so he wouldn't suffer Disappearing Character Syndrome…

    • You clearly haven't watched the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series. He was unfortunately present in quite a few episodes.

    • ridureyu

      I thought we were talking about the movies. If we're going to discuss cartoon spinoffs, I think the Ewoks cartoon has way more to answer for.

    • Harrig

      …friends together, friends forever…

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén