New York Toy Fair 2020: The Vintage Collection News

2/23/2020 Toy Fair Hasbro The Vintage Collection

This article is part of our New York Toy Fair 2020 coverage, you can find Hasbro and Disney press releases and press photos here: New York Toy Fair 2020.

The Vintage Collection @ New York Toy Fair 2020

Hasbro had 20 Vintage Collection 3.75" figures on display at New York Toy Fair 2020, there was a section for The Mandalorian, a section for the 40th Anniversary Of The Empire Strikes Back, another one which showed the latest wave and another one for new reveals.

What Was New?

There wasn't a lot of newness, but there was some.

• The Vintage Collection Gonk Droid (new)
• The Vintage Collection Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight) (repack)
• The Vintage Collection C-3PO (first look at the carded re-release)
• The Vintage Collection Luke Skywalker (Bespin) (first look at the carded re-release)
• The Vintage Collection Han Solo (Bespin) (first look at the carded re-release)
• The Vintage Collection Lando Calrissian (General) (first look at the carded re-release)

The Vintage Collection Gonk Droid has a new head and partially resculpted legs, the head can be taken off the figure to reveal the inner workings. Unfortunately there was no carded version of the figure on display.

The Vintage Collection Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight) is a re-release of the fantastic San Diego Comic Con figure from last year which was available in a 3-pack only. All the other figures had been announced previously.

The Vintage Collection Slave I vehicle will see a re-release of an improved version and it's already available for pre-order at Entertainment Earth. Instead of just re-releasing the previous ship, Hasbro went ahead and improved the displayability and look. It will include a display stand so that the ship can be posed in a flying position (this will save shelf space, plus it looks awesome). Hasbro also updated the paint deco on the ship to match the Empire Strikes Back Slave I better, and the packaging will feature different art than before. This is a great opportunity to add this ship to your collection, especially if you don't already own it (the original TVC Slave I goes for about $200+ on the seconardary market). Make sure to pick up the TVC Boba Fett to go with the ship if you don't already have it.

Here is a better look at the Empire Strikes Back re-releases with their carded versions behind them. Somebody in the Jedi Business Community group had asked if 3PO would be updated with the photo real face printing tech, and while we forgot to specifically check on that, this doesn't seem to be the case. 

Why Wasn't There More New Stuff?

Glad you asked, and there is more than just one reason. For one, Hasbro will reveal more figures more often. Instead of dumping all the information on us now, they will reveal more throughout the year. Of course there will be reveals at SDCC, Star Wars Celebration Anaheim and New York Comic Con later in 2020, but they also plan to reveal more figures for other special events where we don't have the information yet.

Besides Hasbro wanting to spread out their announcements, the reality is that Star Wars isn't the powerhouse anymore that it once was on retail shelves. We can blame Lucasfilm for less than stellar sequel movies, or a SOLO movie nobody seemed to care about, we can blame Lucasfilm for constant behind-the-scenes drama, we can blame Hasbro for spotty distribution, we can blame the bankruptcy of Toys'R'Us which drastically changed the toy industry as a whole, or we can blame the changing retail enviornment which can't keep up with online businesses, or we can blame the casual collector who doesn't support the line at retail and waits until it all ends up clearance, or let's just blame our kids because hey, they are so much more distracted nowadays with ipads and video games that they care less about figures. There are many reasons which we can blame the current situation on, and they all probably play a part why we are where we are at today. 

The Vintage Collection is not dead, far from it, it's in very good hands. The line is managed by people who are equally passionate about the line as us (this is not a statement to appease Hasbro, this is the experience we had covering Star Wars action figure news for the past 16 years and talking to the people who make the figures eye to eye). Just be a bit patient, cool stuff is coming, just not as much as us 3.75" fans would like. 

Let's talk about leaks. We are all excited about new figures coming, we all want to know as much about the figures as we can. Leaks are unavoidable, there will alway be one retailer which will try to get orders first, or one website to break the news first. This happens across every toy line out there, but just know that because of that, there was less of a surprise for you at this year's Toy Fair. How would you have felt if you had seen the Imperial Troop Transport from the Mandalorian at Toy Fair first? Or the next wave of Retro figures? Or all 40th Empire Black Series figures? Yeah, it would have been a different show. 

So that's it for The Vintage Collection from New York Toy Fair 2020. For updates about the show, and write-ups about The Black Series, the Retro Collection, the new Mission Fleet series etc... make sure to check the New York Toy Fair 2020 hub here on JediBusiness.com.