Why The Walmart Exclusive TBS 3.75" Line Wave 1 Is The Worst Wave Ever!

I just had to type up my two cents on the potentially grim future of The Black Series 3.75" line at Walmart. It's starting off gaspingly bad. And it makes me wonder if my championing for its health has completely fallen on Hasbro's deaf ears. Whomever planned this as the startup wave for Walmart needs a quick shake. It's time to wake up and pay attention to the collectors you've designed this line for because we want it to succeed as much as you and Walmart do. But packing decade old sculpts and recent re-releases is a perfect recipe for major storm damage disaster. (more....)

As you all know, JTA has been working hard behind the scenes since April culling together a bunch of information surrounding the fate of the super-articulated 3.75” line(s). Many were reluctant to believe that our favorite format of Star Wars action figures would be relegated to a store exclusive, but that’s what happened to The Black Series 3.75” line. Still, as bittersweet as this news may have been, it is more important to focus on the fact that Hasbro is still going to be making them. Then the first wave was announced. Confident that Hasbro wouldn’t regress a decade back in their product catalog to pull figures, I was CERTAIN that the wrong figure was accidentally chosen for the PRESS RELEASE images. I was sure Hasbro wouldn’t take a variation of the 2005 Revenge Of The Sith 500th Darth Vader, a figure that must have been released two dozen times by now (as low as $6.99 mind you), and release it in a premium, highly priced collectors’ line. But that’s exactly what happened. As I found the first wave in Walmart yesterday, I shook my head in disbelief. What’s worse, there are more problems here than Walmart realizes, and it frustrates me once again how Hasbro has sold them a bridge. Sure, The Black Series 3.75” line has WONDERFUL potential. The upcoming figures are incredible choices. But these wonderful choices SHOULD HAVE been the inaugural wave. And if they absolutely had to release 500th Darth Vader, TVC’s Luke Skywalker (Lightsaber Construction) and another VOTC-like Chewbacca again, they should have done so ONLY with new figures shipping alongside them.

But, no, that’s not what happened. What happened instead is a pattern we have witnessed by Hasbro countless times, even despite collectors pleading with Hasbro to break this chain and think outside of the box. I can’t tell you how many times I, my friend Big Kev, and my good friend James Burns from Jedi News (and other times with other people) talked intently with Hasbro where they had even WRITTEN DOWN our suggestions for The Vintage Collection figures and how they need a desperate re-release. They even agreed they were wise choices. I physically witnessed Hasbro write down in a notebook (with sewn in pages) Emperor’s Royal Guard, Ponda Baba, MagnaGuard, Darth Sidious, C-3PO (that’s now moot) and many, many others. To date, only C-3PO has been released from our suggestion box. So where is the defect? Wouldn’t it have behooved Hasbro to offer a retailer taking a chance on a line that is hanging on by the skin of its teeth characters that collectors are pining to add to their collections? How could the Emperor’s Royal Guard not be offered, but a 500th Darth Vader instead? It’s maddening to say the least. Heck, even another re-release of the TVC Gamorrean Guard would have been a wiser choice. For $12.83, it’s nearly criminal to not offer the TVC action figures that never made a widespread appearance at retail. The Phantom Menace 3D debacle essentially killed The Vintage Collection (and why the last wave ended up being an online exclusive). All of the awesome figures towards the end of that collection would have made awesome choices for the Walmart exclusive wave first. Most importantly, collectors today have very little dispsosable income to pay premium prices for figures we have dozens of in a toy box somewhere within the home. This is utterly a bad move on Hasbro's part.

Even the cancelled Republic Trooper and AT-ST Driver from the basic The Black Series 3.75” line would have been sublime first choices. Even the other two TRUE SA figures (Luke Jedi and Chewbacca) didn’t need to see re-release this soon. Heck, we just got a new Chewbacca in the second to last wave of The Black Series [Phase II] line. And this same Luke was just released in Jabba’s Rancor Pit. What is the current Hasbro Marketing Team doing? Are they asleep at the wheel?! OK, you get it. We’ll move long now. More importantly, I have done my due diligence and have purchased all three figures in the first wave.... begrudgingly. I am desperate to see this line succeed, and if I have to give away a “premium” 500th Darth Vader to a niece or nephew, then so be it. I certainly don’t want it, but it’s more important that this line doesn’t gridlock at wave 1, which I pray it doesn’t. I hope many of you bite the bullet and follow suit too. I also am worried about the thieves that will be buying these and replacing them with 5POA figures. (I bet these same thieves include the most vocal whiners about hating 5POA and will somehow feel entitled to acquire SA figures by any means necessary, but that's another article) You see how many factors are working against Walmart’s exclusive 3.75” TBS line? It’s frightening. I don’t want to be pessimistic, but it’s already off to a horrible start. I also don’t care for the packaging. For me, it just brings the 3.75” one step closer to death. They look like “Mini Me” versions of the 6” line now as if that's the line that Hasbro feels should reign supremely. 3.75” SA lines led the hobby, now it’s imitating the new 6” line as it it’s trying to be like it. Man oh man everything is so backwards anymore. Please support this line long enough to get it off the ground. We need to see SA 3.75” continue. And we need to prove to Hasbro that we’ll buy them.... for more important things down the road.... I hope wave 2 is already in the works and gets shipped irrespective of wave 1, but let's hope better offerings are in store in the near future.

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