Spotted Online – 6″ Star Wars Black Action Figures Already Failing?
When the line was announced earlier this year I attracted some complaints with my “Five Reasons Why Hasbro’s “Star Wars Black†Will Fail” post, but now that photos of the produced toys are appearing online it seems fans are already complaining . . . and that’s complaints based on photos, so what will happen when everyone actually gets the toys?
I first ran across the grumbles in this post by Poe Ghostal, and after some online searching I came across the Rebel Scum forum thread where fan comments are popping up fast and strong. Now of course the announcement photos from Hasbro were going to be far superior to the actually-produced action figures, but I never once thought fans would be quite so upset about the toys . . . and before the toys are even in stores!
I haven’t been the greatest supporter of this line, but I find it unfair to swing opinion quite that quickly just because the actual toys don’t match the prototype/announcement photos. We had to have known that Hasbro would do all they could to make those prototypes look stunning and that mass-produced action figures would never look as cool as hand-crafted prototypes. So I’ll still give the figures a shot; maybe that Boba Fett will be mine when I’m at SDCC in a few weeks.
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I looked at some of those pictures- I think Darth Maul still looks pretty decent (he’s the only one from the first series I’m contemplating) but the Sandtrooper and Luke don’t look half bad either. I think the biggest issues with this line are:
#1 Hasbro seems to be billing this line as an ultra collectors line. Unfortunately, in a period where NECA consistently puts out amazing figures for around $15-16 and other companies are truly raising the bar on what”collectors” lines mean, it’s tough to meet expectations.
#2 The price still seems a bit high on these for what you’re getting.
#3 We already have plenty of sculpts and statues of these characters to compare things too. The Vintage collection featured some amazingly fantastic sculpts in the 1/18th scale that are tough to compete with and we’ve seen plenty of higher end collectibles. It’s not like MOTUC where the only other versions of most figures available are just older toys. I think that really (and perhaps unfairly) raise’s people’s expectations.
I am honestly bored with Star Wars. I would love to see them do something creative and release a super deformed line of Star Wars figures.
I believe its a little harsh to judge the toy on these pictures.
Hasbro’s pack shot photographers are not known for their great work. Just ask any transformers fan. Mistransformed over shopped shots are the norm and don’t often well represent the product.
I don’t want that to take away from the skill of the hasbro photographers. With product photography, to get it right, you need time and I doubt they have it. Wouldn’t be surprised if they get a box full of product one day and have to have it all shot and shopped by the next….. of course things aren’t going to turn out that great.
Plus they may only get the brief of “these will only be used as catalog reference photo’s”…… not “these will be poured over by fans”. When it comes to a collector line, time and effort in the photography is a must but can get expensive. They put this effort into the original release shots and more than likely just look at the newest imagery as simply reference shots.
or….. the product is rubbish
I’m still super excited about the sandtrooper and hope the line will be quality. The points above are very valid. Time will tell.
While I’m here, Thanks for the great site. Always good for a read!