Welcome Pez preservers, Superheroes hounds, Movie Memorabilia moguls, Barbie Doll delighters, Jewelry junkies, Dinosaur diggers, Star Wars students, Die Cast Vehicle virtuosos, and anyone with a drawer or closet stuffed with stuff. Thanks for bringing your personal interests to CQ, your place to show and share with others your collecting passion.

You are proving many of my peers in the antique business totally wrong. First we heard from them that Ebay would be the death of the sellers’ market, lowering the value of collectibles as more and more items were uploaded for sale. Then came the crash of the Beanie Baby craze – and that we were assured, was the death of all collecting, as many novice collectors/ dealers were caught with vast quantities of the B-B’s, mass produced and declared retired.

The latest pronouncement from the antiques selling community is the lack of collecting by younger folks. That’s because they just want new stuff. Well, gentle readers, collecting is alive and growing and we are here because of your desire to learn and share information on collections, whether new, vintage or antique.

As a youngster I collected sports cards, Cracker Jack trinkets, Hoppy toy guns and a wrist watch, comic books, radio premiums, Lionel trains, and plastic models of cars, airplanes and navy ships. Young girls collected dolls, doll houses full of furniture, stuffed toys, trading cards, 45 records and figurines of dogs and horses. (gee, wish I had my stuff now).

Today my collections are useful or decorative, and sometimes considered over the top. Can you have too many ice buckets? Not me. Sill adding to my Depression glass Modern Tone, cobalt blue dish set? Sure, if the price is right and I don’t have the example already.

I’m accused by friends of having more flatware serving pieces than many good restaurants including a pastry server, cake server, asparagus tongs, sugar cube tongs, olive pincher, grape shears, and cheese shaver. But many were picked up on our antique hunting trips to the South and East coasts and considered souvenirs of those adventures. 

 We ignored each prophecy of the impending collapse of the collecting market, by selling antiques and collectibles on the web, and even with a down economy, collectibles still sell. Collecting is collecting and when the bug bites early, collections grow. So I salute your efforts in hunting for your next addition and hope your plan is to share your finds with the Collectors’ Quest community. And if you do upgrade or switch your collecting direction, you can now take advantage of the new feature on Collectors’ Quest and offer your extra items for sale on the CQ Marketplace. See the tab at the top.

It’s been a long time since I’ve bought a Happy Meal for myself, mostly because my appetite is far greater than one Happy Meal could possibly satisfy. McDonalds would have to create an Unbelievably Elated Meal, or a Comatose With Bliss Meal before my gargantuan hunger might be sated. Fortunately, living with a young child for the past 8 years has afforded me the vicarious joy from the REAL reason kids get Happy Meals : the toy inside.

Sure, I have some Simpsons Spooky Lightups, and a Monsters Inc. Randall that an ex-girlfriend once seduced me with, and I’ll never forget that lenticular Thundercats ring of my youth… so, I have a warm spot for the quick ‘n’ cheap entertainment of the Happy Meal Toy - or if you want to be snooty about it - the ‘Fast Food Premium’. This is why I’m especially excited that McDonalds is pairing up with Lucasfilm to release a set of 18 different action-feature-full Star Wars bobbleheads, to coincide with the release of The Clone Wars animated film.

I know what you’re thinking : aren’t I the guy who vehemently denies the very existence of anything that isn’t Original Trilogy? Why yes, that’s me, but here’s the thing - McDonalds hasn’t relegated this Clone Wars set to only Clone Wars characters. They’ve delved deep into Star Wars history to give us nine completely classic characters out of the total eighteen, and that’s a wonderful ratio for us oldschool fans. Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Boba Fett (!!!), the REAL Darth Vader, C-3PO, and even Wicket the Ewok are present, all perched atop signature vehicles from appropriate movies and scenes. Interestingly, these guys have all been done up in an ‘animated’ style to match the Clone Wars characters, and it works. It really works, against anything I might have believed before seeing them in person.

And get this : Han Solo’s head sculpt has a scar on his chin. Yes. Happy Meal toys officially have more accurate details than most Harrison Ford action figures made by the big manufacturers. This attention to detail, where it didn’t even need to exist, pretty much did it for me. I think I giggled. Of course, Han is perched in his trusty Millennium falcon, which also has pull-back action. You know the drill : place the toy on a flat, hard surface, drag it backwards, and let it go. Add this feature to the bobblehead feature and you have some pretty funky stuff goin’ on. And by ‘funky’, I mean ‘listening to Jamiroquai at full volume, cruising through space’ funky. Darth Vader has the ‘sound’ feature - one of my most favorite action features of all time - which plays both TIE Fighter blasting noises, and breathing noises.

Bobblehead fans need to get these - we’re not talking about cheap heads that kinda pop back and forth. This is the apex of bobble technology that scientists have been talking about! Seriously - it threatens to break the laws of thermodynamics. Both Chewbacca and the Stormtrooper are wind-ups that really walk - so, in addition to having appeal in in these other action-areas, wind-up enthusiasts will also be excited.

Arguably, the Yoda and R2-D2 toys are also ‘classic’, though they’re perched on Episode 1-3 vehicles, thus forever exiling them from the Classic Collection. In addition to these guys, there’s a General Grievous, Anakin Skywalker, young Obi-Wan Kenobi, Asajj Ventress, Padme Amidala, clone Captain Rex, and new padawan Ahsoka Tano. Many of these guys also have pullback action, while Yoda and R2 both play sounds, and anyone who comes with a lightsaber will also include a button to make said lightsaber ignite. It’s a genuinely neat mix of features among the group, and a huge variety to choose from - or be surprised by. It kinda makes me wonder why Hasbro can’t slap a few more voice chips and light-up features into their Star Wars stuff. For almost $8 a figure, they’d better start adding something.

These guys will be at your local McDonalds until the 11th of September. As with any fast food premiums, you can hunt them down one by one, or you can be ‘that guy’ at the counter and request to purchase a whole bunch individually. The counterfolk will usually oblige your toy-lust for a nominal fee.

I’ve taken some photographs of the whole line, which can be seen in our Community, along with a shot to show the scale of these. They’re unusually large for fast food toys, so will comfortably fit into the average bobblehead collection. Finally, The Office Season Three Box Set Bobblehead Dwight will have someone to talk to. He’s never been in better company.

We continue our look at the top ten most pricey and rare Star Wars action figures. Check out numbers 1 through 5 by clicking here!

6. Yak Face (Power of the Force, 1985)

Once all three original Star Wars movies were over, and all three accompanying lines of toys had been completed, Kenner continued the Star Wars series of action figures with 1985’s ‘Power of the Force’ line. This included 36 additional figures (22 of which we re-releases), and it addressed many auxiliary characters, as well as main characters in different outfits. Little did they know that every character who appeared in the background of a scene for a millisecond would eventually be getting a complex backstory and an action figure from Hasbro. Each POTF figure included a collectible coin, in addition to the usual accessories. While line was canceled due to declining sales, a 37th figure had already begun production.

This figure was ‘Yak Face’, who is also known in proper Star Wars canon as Saelt-Marae - who appeared for three seconds in Return of the Jedi. As companies are still wont to do when there’s a production oversight or a change in distribution plans, Kenner sent all of their Yak Face figures to Canada and Europe. In the days before the information superhighway, this was a big deal, as these were rendered nearly inaccessible (and were simply unheard of) by the average American kid. We were Yakless, or Faceless, or something.

As a result, a loose Yak Face will get you about $150 if you still have the staff that came with him (which only came with the Canadian edition), and a sealed Yak Face recently sold for $2250 at auction, which is the most respect that a guy named ‘Yak Face’ will ever get.

I have a personal connection to Yak Face, as I accidentally stood next to a life-sized statue of him during New York Comic Con, while a friend very vocally described our physical similarities. Within earshot of a very attractive girl. Dear Yak Face, I feel your pain.

7. Luke Skywalker as Stormtrooper (Power of the Force, 1985)

Another entry from the 1985 ‘POTF’ line, Luke as a Stormtrooper proved a little hard to find because of the fading interest that retailers had in the Star Wars line, without movies to back it up. When Luke was actually found, there was a special interest in him as he was the only figure in the POTF line that came from ‘A New Hope’, and not one of the sequels.

As a side note, this POTF line also included a mail-away Anakin, which came packed in a plastic baggie from Kenner, which is worth about $100 bucks.

8. Vlix

Vlix wasn’t officially from the main Star Wars line, but instead a character from the short-lived Droids cartoon. He’s worth including as he’s regarded as the rarest of all released Star Wars-related figures.

When the Droids line of toys was canceled, Kenner had already sculpted and molded Vlix, planning to include him in the next assortment. Instead of letting the expensive tooling go completely to waste, the molds were sold to a Brazilian company called Glasslite, who proceeded to make the figure - and distribute it only in Brazil. Those guys have all the luck - they have nuts, sexily waxed women, and all of our Vlix figures.

Even a loose Vlix will net you around $4000, and a carded Vlix will probably put you through college a few times. I can only wonder if some Brazilian grandmother is cleaning out her attic and putting Vlix out at a tag sale at this very moment…

9. Anakin-to-Darth Vader Hasbro Press Kit

… which I’m counting as one figure.

Numbers nine and ten in the countdown are the only two on the list that were made after 1990. In fact, the Anakin-to-Darth Vader was released very recently in 2005 - but ONLY to Hasbro’s media guests in their Toy Fair showrooms. I’m still kinda cheesed off that they didn’t give me one. I love me some Vader, and I’d even make an exception to having a young Anakin into my collection, but that Vader could have been the difference between living at home for a few years and paying off my college loans immediately.

The rare press kit included a figure of Anakin Skywalker on a circular base, which rotated into a figure a Darth Vader. The figure was packed along with various press materials, all in a handsome box. While the initial secondary market price of the kit was in the many-thousands, it’s now dipped below $400. And I still don’t have one.

So close to financial solvency, guys. Woulda made braving the sweat-storm of fanboy armpits almost worth it.

10. Freeze-frame Weequay (Power of the Force, 1990s)

The final figure in this list is the thoroughly unlovable Weequay, a skiff guard for Jabba the Hutt, and all-around gross-lookin’ guy. Weequays are a dime a dozen are are pretty worthless when they’re loose. so the big difference with THIS Weequay only comes into play in the packaging, making for another moment of Star Wars collecting completism insanity.

See, this ugly guy from the ‘Power of the Force 2’ line from the mid-90s included a ‘freeze frame’, which was a gimmicky projectable slide that was included with a handful of the figures. Think ‘family vacation photos’, except your family is really ugly and fights in space a lot. Only a handful of these ‘Freeze Frame’ Weequays were released before they were repackaged without the slide, on a much more common green  card with a shiny picture of his ugly mug. A sealed Weequay, on a US card (none of that tri-lingual foreign junk here), with the slide, will run about $400, and an opened ‘Quay is just about the saddest thing I ever did see.

There are a few more uncommon Star Wars figures out there, but none so rare and treasured as these guys - which are likely to pop up in any given attic or tag sale by folks who just want to clean out their attic and don’t give two damns about eBay or us nerds. Keep on hunting!

It’s Star Wars Week here at Collectors’ Quest, and as a longtime Star Wars collector, I’m psyched.

Because the universe of Star Wars toys is so ridiculously vast, I have to limit myself to those things concerning the Original Trilogy, as well as the occasional awesome alien, robot or Jedi. That’s it. You won’t find any Clone Troopers in my collection - no Jar Jars or Wattos, and no Anakins unless they’re bald, old or wearing big, black helmets. I follow a bastardized version of the old poison ivy credo - ‘Not original three, let it be.’ It’s saved me from both poverty and unsightly rashes.

While I don’t own anything especially rare, there’s a short list of action figures that most collectors know about and will keep their eyes open for at a tag sale. Keep in mind that we’re talking about the figures that are roughly 3.75” tall here - the scale that the Star Wars line was introduced in.

Before I count down the list (in no particular order), it’s important to note that I’m only including action figures that were produced and released to the public. The legendary ‘Rocket Firing Boba Fett’ which allegedly choked a 3-year old child with its projectile was never actually produced, though a handful of unpainted prototypes exist (which have gone for $16,000 of more). These were never sold in stores - and the unfortunately airway-obscuring projectile was actually fired from a Battlestar Galactica toy made by Mattel.

1. Blue Snaggletooth (1978)

‘Blue Snaggletooth’ was released in 1978 by Kenner as part of the very first Star Wars figure set, both as a Sears mail-away figure and with the Cantina Adventure Set. When Kenner created this figure, all the modelers had to go on was a black and white photo of the creature’s upper body from ‘A New Hope’, and as a result, the figure differed significantly from the actual character - which was red, barefoot, and a whole lot shorter. Upon realizing this, all figures of Snaggletooth (also known by his Christian name, Takeel) after 1978 were remodeled to appear more film-accurate. While not overwhelmingly rare, this figure fetches prices up to $100 when loose, and over $400 while still sealed.

Recently, Medicom’s fifth line of Star Wars Kubricks even paid tribute to this collecting phenomenon by including a secret, super-rare Blue Snaggletooth figure, which itself fetches prices over $100.

2. Vinyl-Caped Jawa (1978)

Usually regarded as the second-rarest produced figure, the Vinyl-Caped Jawa was the result of a running change in Kenner’s production. The Jawas were released as part of the original 12 Star Wars figures in 1978, though because they were relatively small (even compared to the 4-inch standard of the line), Kenner wanted to give the consumer more bang for their $1.99. In order to make the figure appear more complete and a comparable value when displayed with the rest of the line, they replaced the cheap-looking plastic cape with a sewn fabric cape, which adorned all future Jawas after that initial batch.

That would be that, but toy once profiteers saw that this original Jawa was increasing in value on the collectors’ market, the forgeries began. With little more than an average cloth-robed Jawa figure and a piece of cheap, brown vinyl, people started cobbling together their own ‘VC’ Jawas and passing them off as original. Fortunately, today we have the proper dissemination of information regarding this, and there are extremely detailed webpages detailing the minutae of each version of the Jawa, from how the tiny eyes were painted to mp3s of the sound that your fingernail makes when running across the vinyl. Yeah, Star Wars collectors are wacky. It’s probably the only non-geological item that’s analyzed with a scratch test.

A loose, authenticated Jawa can net you about $1000, while a sealed and authenticated Jawa will get you about $2000. Authentication is important for these figures especially, due to the high rate of forgery. Even unauthenticated figures get get a few hundred bucks. I swear that I played with one of these as a kid.

Of course, we can presuppose that the fake Jawa sellers are only operating in the spirit of the Jawas themselves, who tried pawning off broken droids to the Lars family on Tattooine. If the Jawas had access to the internet, and were real, and could read, they’d surely be giggling and shouting ‘UTINNI!’ at the whole debacle.

3-5. Telescoping Lightsaber Luke / Obi-Wan / Darth Vader (1978)

Right after Star Wars was released in 1977, kids were abuzz for action figures. Because Kenner wasn’t prepared for the popularity of the movie and the Christmas toy interest that it would produce, they instead sold boxed certificates which would entitle the bearer to a complete set of the first four Star Wars figures ever - an ‘Early Bird’ set that included Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and Luke. The box that the certificate was delivered in also functioned as a display base, but the glee of Christmas morning often caused this box to be torn wildly open, so very few exist intact today - and almost none of the mailed in certificates. All those happy, tearing hands finding coupons inside of otherwise potentially valuable boxes - a Christmas morning that sends shivers through the Star Wars collecting world. Forget about the joylessness of a coupon - that box was worth something!

This earliest figure of Luke had a unique feature that wouldn’t be repeated in later Lukes : his lightsaber would extend from his arm, and a tiny little plastic blade would then extend again from within that saber. This ‘double telescoping’ feature would be repeated in the first editions of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader. These tiny inner-blades proved to be very fragile and not really convincing as action features, so they were quickly phased out.

Of the three, Luke is the most common, and I distinctly recall playing with just such a Luke as a child, amid the piles of Micronauts and Star Wars guys that my uncle had collected. I also remember stepping on an X-Wing, my uncle freaking out, and chewing on the end of Luke’s rare telescoping lightsaber - well before I knew the potential investment in treating your Star Wars guys kindly, of course. It’s the kind of moment you relive in your head with great regret. A loose telescoping Luke will get you around $600, if it’s in great condition, and only about 15 sealed examples are known to exist.

‘DT’ Vaders and Obi-Wans very rarely even surface, and when they do, a sealed one will earn you about $7000 or more.

Stay tuned for the rest of the countdown!

So, as Toy Fair 2008 ends, I come to you with my report from the first day of the Big Event. On Saturday, February 16th, Hasbro hosted their ‘Collector Event’ in their rented showrooms near the Javits Center in NYC, and preceded that with a handful of powerpoint presentations at The Times Center regarding their upcoming and continuing toy lines. We got free popcorn and water, and afterwards, we even got a cookie. Which was delicious - even if it was printed with the Hasbro logo. If Hasbro tastes like sugar cookies and white chocolate, feed me more.

Sure, ToyFair hadn’t even really started yet, but Hasbro likes to get ‘the nerd herd’ out of the way. It goes something like this : they shuffle us into a maze of displays, we crowd like so many camera-wielding lambs to slaughter, and we struggle to get suitable shots for our own sites around the wide stance of that annoying guy from that Transformers fan site. Seriously, guy, you don’t need 15 shots of Optimus Prime’s nostrils. I’d just like one of his chassis, please. The difference between nerds and lambs, though, is that lambs have a sense of direction and are soft, whereas nerds depend entirely on their elbows to make their oblivious treks right smack into your nether regions.

Can you tell that I was more than a little perturbed by the claustrophobia of the showroom? To top it all off, one of the new American Gladiators was standing in the doorway to greet us. You know, pecs bigger than your head, glistening, making us all regret every decision we’ve ever made in our nerd-lives, called something like Kickface or Hemorrhage or something such. I’m much more of an American Gladiola.

But I digress. For the first half of the afternoon, no recording devices of any kind were allowed. We sat in a comfy theatre as toy planners and execs told us about Hasbro’s’ plans for 2008, all revolving around their “boys’ properties” of Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Hulk, Star Wars, G. I. Joe, Transformers, Marvel Comics, and Indiana Jones - all of which have a movie or TV show of some sort coming out this year. The great things about Hasbro’s properties is that Hasbro capitalizes off of them in as many ways possible - so while the Iron Man movie might be hot, they’ll use this momentum to delve into Iron Man comics and fan-favorite history stuff to make more products that collectors AND casual fans would love to see on a toy shelf for different (and still all valid) reasons. G. I. Joe fans will see classic stuff revisited, and Indiana Jones fans will see figures from ALL of the Indiana Jones movies - not just the new Crystal Skull one.

Now listen up, collectors - there’s a lot of dates I’m going to drop on you for when you can find these toys, and what you’ll be looking for.

- IRON MAN will see seven basic 6” scale figures, which will arrive on shelves on March 22nd, preceding the movie release, scheduled for May 2nd. Expect a ‘first appearance’ Mark I Armor, a Mark III armor, and Titanium Man, among other action-featured Iron Men - as well as a funky Iron Man roadster, ‘cause every hero needs a vehicle. Especially when they can fly. The movie’s designs are based on the comic cover artwork of Adi Granov, which is a great nod to the comics themselves. There will also be a beautiful, deluxe 12” figure, and at least two sets of Superhero Squad figures - which are 2” tall, kid-friendly, cartoonish plastic hunks of neatness. These will be Iron Man related, but not movie-centric at all - including Hulkbuster, First Appearance, Silver Centurion, War Machine, Unmasked and other neat armors. Keep an eye out for an additional Iron Man armor included with the Hulk Superhero Squad packs!

- THE INCREDIBLE HULK MOVIE will be the kind of movie that says, “You know what? We never made that Eric Bana one. Let’s start over & do it right!” The toys will drop on May 1st, and the movie is released on June 13th. The 6” scale movie toys seem to be a whole lotta very similar Hulks with action features, an Abomination figure (not shown at Toy Fair), and a few army guys - nothing incredible. What collectors SHOULD take note of is the ‘Marvel Legends’ style figures that’ll be coming out at this time also - again, not movie-centric, but very much related to Hulk comics. The first wave will include Savage She-Hulk (pictured at left), Wendigo (a more accurate one than the other Marvel Legends one), Absorbing Man (returning, after being impossible to find a few years back), and ‘The End’ Hulk. A second wave will come shortly after this, and if you collect all eight figures, you can build a genuinely huge Fin Fang Foom figure - the dragon that fans have been clamoring for for YEARS. I’m psyched. (One will also be able to get all 8 figures, along with Foom, in a ‘Collector’s Box’ at San Diego Comic Con this year). As mentioned earlier, there will also be at least two Superhero Squad packs, all comic related, including Green Scar, Silver Savage, and a few other Hulks.

- SPIDER-MAN is getting a new animated show on Saturday mornings, and Hasbro’s toys will release on March 1st, capitalizing on that great animated style that I recently wrote about. While there’s no new Spider-Man films on the immediate horizon, Hasbro will be releasing a ‘Spider-Man Classic’ line, which will feature comic characters that we haven’t seen yet, including Tarantula, which will drop on August 1st. All of these are 6” scaled, so everything is compatible with everything else, as Hasbro’s learned their lesson from the ill-fated 5” Spider-Man line of late last year that no one seems to be buying.

- MARVEL LEGENDS are going to have an odd year, with only 2 waves of single-packed figures this year, which run from 5 to 8 figures per wave. No figure or Build-a-Figure plans were revealed for these, but the year will also see eight 2-packs, which makes up for the figural absence otherwise. These will include Ultimate Nick Fury & Ultimate World War II Captain America, and Elektra & Ronin. Fans will note that these are all new, current characters that are important to current storylines, and even better, Marvel Legends will start coming with relevant accessories again, including alternate heads and hands. An Elektra with a Skrull head? YES PLEASE - but it all still means that we’re going to be shorted on buildable, huge figures.

Also planned for 2008 is a San Diego Comic Con exclusive 3-pack under the ‘Savage Land’ theme, which includes Shanna the She-Devil, Ka-Zar and Zabu. I hate the sound of the word ‘exclusive’, I hate that San Diego gets almost all of them, and I hate trying to find them for fair prices - but at least HasbroToyShop.com has offered these to online buyers in the past.

- SUPERHERO SQUAD will see, in addition to the aforementioned Hulk & Iron Man packs, twenty-four more 2-packs, and eight more 4-packs, which will include Hobgoblin, Psylocke, Shang Chi, Nighthawk, Carnage, Ares, and other figures that are so obscure it’s ridiculous and awesome. The new MIGHTY MUGGS line, which feature generic, cartoony, urban vinyl-styled bodies done up in different decos, will have 16 new marvel figures this year, including Thing, Doctor Doom, Hulk, Venom, Iron Man and a bunch of other good choices. SDCC will have an exclusive (shudder) Iron Man Movie figure.

- MARVEL UNLEASHED, a line of extra-sized, super-articulated, premium figures will see four more waves, starting with Iron Man. These can be equated to ‘a step up from regular action figures without breaking the bank’. MARVEL TRANSFORMERS will also begin, mixing Hasbro’s properties up into a myriad of neat things. They start off with an Iron Man and a Hulk that turn into vehicles, Transformers-style! And speaking of mixing properties, there are strong rumors of a Star Wars-scaled Marvel figure line… and who doesn’t want to see Darth Vader and Doctor Doom duke it out?

As big a nerd as I am, my knowledge of G. I. Joe and Transformers is next to nothing, so I regret that almost all of the information about these two properties went right over my head, not knowing many names or which toys have come before. I can mention that a second Transformers movie is starting to film (though no toys were shown), a kid-friendly Transformers cartoon is starting up (with a few figures shown), and a G. I. Joe movie has also started filming. I also went out after this presentation and bought my first three Joe figures. Note, please, that every company I’d talk to this weekend had their own 3.75″ scale line brewing, and ergo, everything would be compatible with the tiny Joes.

- INDIANA JONES promises to be a hot property, with Hasbro delving into every IJ movie, answering fan pleas that have echoed annoyingly for years. On May 1st, all of the toys are going to appear. We have an initial offering of seventeen 3.75” (or ‘Star Wars’) scale figures, with plans to expand the line into at least twenty-nine figures by the end of the year. There’s a lot of lost time to make up for, and they’re doing it well. Each figure will come with a ‘relic’ from one of the movies, amassing a great little treasure trove. There will also be a 12” line, more Adventure Heroes (much like the oft-mentioned Superhero Squad), a ‘Taters of the Lost Ark’ Mr. Potato Head, more Mighty Muggs, and even a classic mail-in program for every line. One can collect 4 proofs of purchase to earn an Adventure Heroes Indy on his horse, a 1/6th scaled Ark, or a 3.75” scale mystery figure that was not revealed to us due to its importance in the new movie.

And finally STAR WARS! As if there wasn’t already an information overload, there’s a ton of SW stuff coming. On July 26th, ‘The Legacy Collection’ will drop, which will include Stormtrooper helmet packaging and will include 30 figures. One week later, The Clone Wars Animated figures will happen, on Clone Trooper helmet packaging - so that fans can distinguish between the two. This will include 23 figures. All of these will include bonus parts to build a few Droids similar to R2-D2 and C-3PO.

These early offerings will include an ‘Episode Six Deleted Scene’ theme, with our classic Star Wars heroes in desert gear for the first time. Now, most exciting for me out of all of Toy Fair was catching a glimpse of Yarna D’Al Gargan (pictured above) - one of Jabba’s Palace dancers that was never made into a figure, and who was featured more prominently on the screen than 90% of every other Star Wars character ever made. The reason that she’s never been made is her semi-controversial feature of ‘having six breasts’, but FINALLY. Finally we can complete out Jabba’s Palace cardboard dioramas with Yarna.

Beyond these basic offerings, there will be comic 2-packs, with characters from throughout the non-canon history of the Star Wars comics, including Cade Skywalker, Darth Talon, Dengar & Fenn Shyshd. There will be four ‘Evolutions’ themed 3-packs, including a trio of Rebel Pilots from Episode 6, and a triple-pack of a Padme Amidala from each movie that she appeared in. And the line extends into even more Mighty Muggs and ‘Galactic Heroes’ - which are the same thing as ‘Adventure Heroes’ and ‘Superhero Squad’.

And, of course, Hasbro had a large Cloverfield Monster on display. For many people, including those who saw the movie, this is the first clear image that they’ve ever seen of The Monster. I’ll refrain from spoiling the movie for you by posting a picture here, but CLICK HERE if you’re curious and want to know more. It’s 14″ tall, touts 70 points of articulation, and comes with a handful of accessories. Itis currently available for purchase through Hasbro’s website and nowhere else.
The showrooms were packed with nerds who had no awareness of anyone who was standing around them, and I was inadvertently groped a handful of times. And I do mean ‘handful’. Hasbro, I love you, but you need bigger showrooms - especially when your sweatiest clientele will all be meeting there at once. I had a claustrophobic moment or two, which prevented me from seeing half of the showroom. You’ve shown me that I’m not elbowy enough to be a ‘reporter’, that toys turn grown men into animals, and that it’s going to be an expensive year. Stay tuned for more Toy Fair this weekend!

For now, CLICK HERE to see a full gallery of Hasbro images, and enjoy!