Anyone else NOT care about the packaging?

[El Chuxter]

I'm not trying to be argumentative, negative, whatever. To me, a package is something that gets chucked into the recycling bin; I don't care how it's designed or what it looks like. Seriously, the packaging could be hot pink and show a picture of Miley Cyrus on the artwork, with the only text being, "The buyer of this figure is a dork!" If the figure's one I want, I couldn't care less.

I'm just curious about this. Hasbro, based on their remarks in the Q&A's, thinks this is the way to get lapsed collectors back, increase sales, yadda yadda, and the excitement from most collectors, even loose collectors, seems to back this up. If they're truly planning to release new versions of all 96 vintage figures, people seem to be truly excited about buying unnecessary updates (or, since the TVC line will include re-released figures, the same figures again) just for old-school cards.

I'll admit that I'd buy a new TVC Mon Mothma, for instance, but that'd be for the figure, since the first one sucks and an update is way overdue. I don't think any amount of vintage-style artwork is going to make her a hot seller with casual collectors. I can't see myself buying the 2009 Han and Luke in Stormtrooper disguise to get new cards.

Am I really the only person who will look at the packaging and think, "That's just like the card I threw away thirty years ago," before throwing it away?

[bigbarada]

I do care about the packaging; but I fully understand why many collectors wouldn't.

I'm just worried that Hasbro is too focused on rereleasing the original 96 on vintage cards, instead of giving us new figures. Because after a few months the novelty and nostalgia of the vintage cards will likely wear off and if collectors see nothing but pegs full of figures that they already own in some form, then sales are going to drop even further.

As a graphic designer, I have a real appreciation for the vintage style packaging and just packaging design in general; but I fear that Hasbro is going to be relying way too much on that to carry the line.

Also, the initial wave of ESB figures is not doing much to ease those concerns.

[pbarnard]

I'm not trying to be argumentative, negative, whatever. To me, a package is something that gets chucked into the recycling bin; I don't care how it's designed or what it looks like. Seriously, the packaging could be hot pink and show a picture of Miley Cyrus on the artwork, with the only text being, "The buyer of this figure is a dork!" If the figure's one I want, I couldn't care less.

Am I really the only person who will look at the packaging and think, "That's just like the card I threw away thirty years ago," before throwing it away?

You are not alone. Just include enough to keep them from being tampered with/easily repackaged by people who would STEAL.

[El Chuxter]

As a graphic designer, I have a real appreciation for the vintage style packaging and just packaging design in general...

I should clarify that I'm not trying to downplay the aesthetics of the original cards. They're some of the best action figure packaging I know of, second only to the vintage GIJoe: A Real American Hero line. Eye-catching, simple, even dignified. I just don't keep packaging, so it's a total non-issue.

It just occurred to me: if they truly plan to release all 96 within two years, this means we'll be seeing a re-release (or, much less likely, a resculpt) of Malakili, making him a pegwarmer in all four incarnations!

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

I'm an opener but I keep the cards. Packaging isn't a huge deal for me, but I like when it looks good, and the vintage cards look great. Even though I was born in 1989, the vintage look gives me a blast of nostalgia to the early days of my own collecting and fandom, when I would look to the vintage stuff and think it was cool (which I still do).

They didn't commit to releasing all 96 vintage cards . . . here was their answer from Jedi Temple Archives:

Q. The recent announcement of the AT-AT Commander figure at the UK Toy Fair and the Vintage Collection as a whole seems to indicate that completing the modern resculpts of the Kenner vintage line is a very real consideration for Hasbro's Star Wars team. Case in point, we also recently saw one of the remaining ewoks made in the form of Warok in the BATTLE ON ENDOR battle pack.

So at this time which characters from the Kenner vintage line does the Hasbro Star Wars team consider undone? Which of these character are a high priority to get done? And considering how few of these characters are left, would you care to speculate on how long it may be before all of the Kenner vintage figures are reproduced in modern form? We put together a special report right here talking about the figures that remain to be made. Can you comment on our own list of "yet to be made" figures?

A. We do not have a specific time frame to complete updated sculpts of all of the (actual) vintage Kenner figures. Systematically, we plan on getting to them but some like the Imperial Dignitary (Sate Pestage) keep getting pushed out indefinitely in favor of other more interesting characters. The time will come, however, probably within the next 3-4 years where we will deliberately want to wrap up all of the vintage resculpts to put some finality to it. However, that, in our opinion, is only one of the "update" milestones that should be looked at. Another equally valid update would be the issue of a modern-standard sculpt on a Vintage basic figure card. That is a much more ambitious plan, and since we will have released 30 or so high-quality figures of the original Kenner run on Vintage re-issue cards by the end of the year, with some more planned for 2011, it does beg the question of whether long-term there is a possibility of re-issuing vintage versions of the Kenner run. A lot of that depends on exactly how long the modern vintage line will run, and balancing core characters with obscure ones, and OTC vs. Prequel Trilogy, but if Vintage does have a long life this will be a fun checklist to try and complete. It's fun to speculate on what could happen...but whatever happens, we're glad you are here to tell us what you'd like to see.

This is yet another case of people reading too much into Hasbro's answers, bending reality to match their own perceptions.

Anyway, I do feel that some lost collectors will be enticed by the vintage look. How many, exactly, I don't know. But even from reading these boards, and noticing how people are planning to keep some carded and open some as well, gives me hope that this line will do well. I myself am planning on getting two rocket-firing Fetts - one to open and one to keep carded. I'm usually not tempted to do that, but if there are some other cool figures released this way, I could be persuaded to buy extras to keep carded.

[bigbarada]

They did however state that it was a possibility over the next few years; but the really notable thing about this is that Hasbro is the one who brought it up, not the collectors.

That being said, there's still absolutely no way that they could fit all 96 vintage figures into the lineup within the next 2 years while simultaneously including Prequel figures AND scaling back on the number of figures produced.

[JediTricks]

The switch to Vintage is a gamble that I think will work for about 3 to 6 months, and then when collectors realize that they've come back to a line that costs $8+ at retail, and is still horribly distributed and paced, they're going to get fed up and walk away again. But I think the gimmick itself will work for the collector base. Whether it'll help, hinder, or have no effect on the casual consumer base though, that I can't venture a guess.


I personally absolutely don't care about the packaging. I like it to look nice only so far as it'll keep the line flowing and not make the product inside look worse than it really is. I like the packaging to feel like it's working hard to both display the product in its best light while simultaneously protecting it. I like it to make it easier to find what I'm looking for on pegs.

But I've lost my taste for keeping the packaging around for its own merits (especially the Vintage-style cards, which have the ugliest cardbacks in the entire 33 years of SW collecting IMO). To me, they're just something to rip up and toss in the can, or tear open, examine the figure, and put back on card until I'm ready to put it in my collection - temporary storage.

I honestly don't think the Vintage-style packaging actually is very good at 3 of the big jobs I cited above. I think it displays the figure in a poor light, especially anything with a lot of accessories where it's all crammed into the coffin blister with nowhere to go, and the figure isn't posed so it's stuck looking boring. I think it doesn't do a good job protecting the product since it's all right next to the blister face instead of a little further back the way all the other modern packages have been. And I also don't think the packaging presents the product in a good light in terms of product value, with a tiny blister off to the side of a big card, it's reminding one that they're buying a tiny toy and a big expensive brand license for $8.

I guess that means I do care about the packaging, but not in a standard collector manner.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

They said TVC is going to run for at least two years; I assume they haven't planned much farther than fall 2011 at this point, and they want to see how well it does before committing to too long of a timeframe. In the event that they do try to upgrade every vintage figure, which I actually can't see happening due to things like Malakili, spirit Anakin, and the Ewoks, it will take longer than just two years, and for all we know, they could continue the TVC until 2018.

[Devo]

Nice vintage cards could entice me to buy non-essential figures in the coming year, rereleases I don't need etc so yeah good packaging matters and does have an effect.

[2-1B]

Anyway, I do feel that some lost collectors will be enticed by the vintage look.

Count me in on that.

But I also have to agree with what JT said, I'm not going to be buying these long-term...but it does tempt me to buy more than I have during each of the last 4 years.