Yesterday Hasbro held a livestream showcasing some upcoming products from The Black Series & Vintage Collection lines. I should note that all the reveals will be going up for pre-order at 6 pm in the UK. What was a nice surprise for me was how there were more reveals for the Black Series than there was for the Vintage Collection which is usually the other way round.
Here’s a list of the reveals:
- Black Series Reveals
- Battlefront II Battle Damaged General Grievous Game Stop USA Exclusive
- Old Republic Darth Malgus – Fall 2023
- New Mandalorian new sculpt, soft goods cape – Spring 2024
- Black Series Wicket – Fall 2023
- Black Series Chewbacca – Fall 2023
- Black Series Phase 2 Clone Trooper
- Black Series Magnaguard new sculpt
- Black Series Ahsoka Tano Padawan
- Axe Woves Role Play Helmet – Fall 2023
- Vintage Collection Reveals
- Luke with Grogu pack Target Exclusive Fall 2023
- Vintage Collection Ewoks cartoon colors 2-pack with collector coins. Fan Channel Exclusive – Spring 2024
- Obi-Wan Kenobi Grand Inquisitor
There were also some pipeline reveals and I’ll talk about those later on. Like with most Star Wars Livestreams we saw our fair share of re-use figures most obviously with Battle Damaged General Grievous who has painted scuff marks on the head, arms, and legs which is a little disappointing that they weren’t sculpted in. It’s great for those who missed the previous releases. We also get re-releases of Wicket & Chewbacca from ROTJ in the mainline which is great if you are not interested in getting the 40th-anniversary ROTJ releases.
I don’t know much about Darth Malagus but I have to say he looks fantastic and really menacing. The detailing is incredible and I love the removable mask. This figure is a must-have for me. Also, I’m really excited about the Book of Boba Fett Mandalorian figure as it looks to be greatly upgraded from the previous releases and the soft goods cape looks tremendous. I love that they have included a new accessory with the knife and a place on his belt to store the hilt for the dark saber.
The Mark II Clone Trooper looks fantastic on the updated body with a removable helmet which they don’t really do for standard reg clones. I haven’t got any regs so this is a must-have for me!
I’m really stoked to see Clone Wars Ashoka in the line at long last and she does look fantastic and very accurate to her Clone Wars look. I am a bit disappointed that she has sold out already in most places so I’ll have to put a reminder on for when she’s in stock again. The Magnaguard looks very impressive and I like that you can get a really good look at it as you didn’t see them all too often. I really like the clean look of them with some signs of wear which shows they can take a lot of damage. They certainly aren’t ordinary standard droids. The soft goods robe looks really good and if it was made of plastic it would really hinder the articulation of the figure. It would be a great army builder as well to flank General Grievous.
They are releasing the Axe Woves helmet as the next roleplay item which does look similar to the other Mandalorian helmets they have released and if you collect these things it will certainly make a great addition to your collection.
They revealed a few Vintage Collection releases as well with a Luke & Grogu two-pack which they have also released in The Black Series. The Ewok Vintage Collection two-pack looks really fun even though I don’t collect them and it’s nice to see more Obi-Wan figures in the Vintage Collection line with the Grand Inquisitor.
At the end of the live stream they had some pipeline reveals, one for the main line and one for the archive line. Here’s a list of them.
- Main Line
- Paz Vizsla
- R4 Astromech
- Anakin Skywalker (Kid)
- Padmé Amidala
- Carson Teva (Black Series Helmet)
- Archive Line
- Bo Katan
- Luke X-Wing
- New Hope Darth Vader
- Imperial Storm Trooper
I’m surprised that they are releasing Paz Vizsla, I’m guessing it will be from the latter part of The Mandalorian where he uses a shield and knife. It’s great to see another astromech droid in the line and I am curious to see if it’s a completely new mold akin to the upcoming R2-D2. It’s great seeing more characters from The Phantom Menace with Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala. Especially Padme as we have only had one figure of her so far in the line. Carson Teva is certainly becoming a fan favorite and I’m glad to see they are doing a prop replica of his helmet, but I would love to see a Black Series figure!
I do find the Archive line announcements a bit odd especially with X-Wing Luke and Bo Katan. As Bo is still widely available and X-Wing Luke has already been released in the Archive line a few years ago. I don’t think it really needs a release and I much prefer the snow speeder suits if they released Snow Speeder Luke Skywalker as that’s an amazing figure. I would love love to see some of the Solo troopers in the line like the Mud Trooper & Range Trooper. How about some sequel trilogy characters or Rebels as they are extremely hard to get hold of now on the secondary market.
A New Hope Darth Vader & Storm Trooper are very welcome additions for new collectors who have missed out on them and don’t want to pay scalper prices on the secondary market.
