As I’ve argued elsewhere, the “Black” name should not be shared with the 3¾” line, because it’s needlessly confusing to fans of both scales.
However, I’m not a big fan of the packaging, either. I don’t mind the box format as opposed to the more traditional card – it seems like it will be re-usable and a good way to store the figures when not on display. I also like that the packaging highlights all the accessories; hopefully those extra accessories are a feature Hasbro sticks to on this line. The text on the back of the box that describes each character is a bit glib, but hardly a deal-breaker.
Yet, while there are some good ideas here, the whole effect doesn’t quite work. The light gray SWB logo and graphics are hardly eye-popping on the shelf, which seems like a waste since you already have the black to make a nice contrast with.
What’s really odd is the choice of orange as the secondary color. The “stripes” of orange on the inside of the package are presumably intended to evoke the lights of the Carbon Freezing Chamber in The Empire Strikes Back, but those lights are arguably as much red as orange. The shape of the lights on the packaging more closely resemble those of the Emperor’s Throne Room, which were white.
In the Nemo Eight’s SDCC interview with Hasbro’s Star Wars team, the designers said one of the inspirations for the “black” theme was the text at the beginning of each movie, which scrolls over the blackness of space. Great idea, but why not use that memorable bright yellow of the text as the secondary color, then? I find seeing “Star Wars” in stencilled yellow conjures up the power and immediacy of the beginning of the films, the words appearing at the same moment the soundtrack blasts its opening notes.
I decided to try my hand at a mock-up via Photoshop. I used the yellow of the scrolls for the logo (and renamed the line “Star Wars Legends”). I added an actual photo of Luke rather than that faded gray image, which I thought was a nice nod to the photos on the vintage packaging, and I changed the lights from orange to the white of the Emperor’s Throne Room. I think this look is more noticeable on the shelf, and more evocative of the movies.