All Photos Courtesy Hasbro
Hasbro’s Star Wars Celebration panel debuted some of the new figures for 2017 and 2018, including a brand-new Thrawn and a surprising fan poll winner from the Expanded Universe. However, the biggest and coolest news has to be the return of the beloved Vintage Collection.
Hasbro introduced some of the latest Black Series collectors figures. These include two San Diego Comic-Con Exclusives: a 15cm Luke Skywalker and landspeeder, which was already previewed earlier this week, and a 15cm Thrawn, who’s sporting a saucy eyebrow. It’s actually the first figure of Thrawn in this scale (there’s already a smaller Rebels version), and as well as a normal release later this year there’ll be an exclusive version of Thrawn at San Diego Comic-Con, including the figure and a bunch of accessories from his office as seen in Star Wars Rebels. Yes, there’s even the holy grail from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade!
Speaking of saucily-eyebrowed Imperial officers, releasing alongside Thrawn this Fall is a 15cm Grand Moff Tarkin, complete with aforementioned eyebrow and an an interrogation droid. It’s the first time Tarkin’s had an action figure in five years, full stop, which is kind of insane for such a big character in the Star Wars galaxy.
Then, you’ve got Jaina Solo, who was the winner of a fan poll for a new Black Series figure last year. This is a pretty big deal, since she’s an Expanded Universe character who was basically retconned out of existence at this point. Created by Timothy Zahn in the 1994 EU novel The Last Command, she was a Jedi Master of the New Jedi Order and the daughter of Han and Leia Organa Solo (along with her twin, Jacen, and younger brother Anakin Solo). However, in the established canon, Ben Solo is their only known child, so seeing a figure version of the daughter they “officially” never had is kind of special.
Of course, then you’ve got the real big deal: The return of The Vintage Collection. The Vintage Collection was a line of collector-focused, 10cm super articulated action figures that were basically cancelled in 2012, outside of a few retailer exclusives especially made for The Force Awakens and Rogue One. Since that cancellation, Hasbro’s focused on two kinds of Star Wars figures: the more basic 10cm figures for kids and casual fans (with simplistic five points of articulation), and the 15cm Black Series figures, like the ones you see above. This meant fans who’d gotten used 10cm high-quality super articulated figures for a decade of Star War toy collecting were finding themselves in the situation of having to switch over to the 6″ series if they wanted to have the better detailed, more poseable figures… paying double the price, and starting their collections over from scratch.
The Vintage Collection’s return is a very big deal for hardcore Star Wars toy fans, and a nice gesture from Hasbro to return to a style of Star Wars toys that’s practically been gone for half a decade now. At the panel, Hasbro announced that Rey is the first figure in the revived series (you can see what she looks like in the above video from FLYGUY), and they’re holding a fan poll to determine the next one. You can expect the Vintage Collection in Spring 2018.
Additional reporting by James Whitbrook.