I remember a year or two after ROTS came out Walmart had half an aisle dedicated to just Star Wars and those 3 3/4 figures. Nowadays if I happen to peek in there it's just a couple of Black Series figures nobody's bought in months.
>>11224210Looking for *The Face*
>>11224210Engineering is at peak now but selection was far better back then.
>>11224210>Were the 2000s prequel era the best for Star Wars toys?Probably. But it was because Star Wars was popular, not much to do with the quality of the toys themselves, imo. 1993-2005 was one big, sustained push to keep Star Wars front and center in the minds of kids and the wider culture.>laserdisc/vhs releases>EU novels, comics, video games>SotE>special editions>episodes 1/2/3>clone warsI used to go a huge toy store in London as a kid in the 90s: probably a quarter of one whole floor there was Star Wars potf2 stuff, rows and rows of it. And it was always swarming with kids, for years.
>>11224210I think so, in the sense that the output:quality ratio was at its most favorable. The lines had problems even then, though.Really the biggest difference is that toy lines and licensed toy lines in particular were much, much bigger in 2002 than they could have ever hoped to be in 2022.
>>11224210Early 00s lines Legacy/Saga collectionPros>Great variety of figures. Ranging from staples like the main heroes, to scene specific moments like Luke building his Lightsaber in a cave on Tattooine (deleted scene) and Willrow Hood, AKA "Ice Cream Maker Guy" who was an extra running in the background with an actual ice cream maker during the evacuation of Cloud City (This is also where the carry case that characters like The Client in Mandalorian use, gets its design from).>Easy availability for most (I'm in Aus and could buy figures from the local supermarket)>Good prices and value, lots of accessories, plenty of paint apps>Articulation started getting really abundantYou could still get vehicles that were large, well-painted, had electronics like lights and sound at retail for mostly reasonable prices.Cons>A lot of re-use, Pilot bodies, generic troopers, Jedi robes got used for dozens of characters, which meant we did get a lot of lesser known characters, it sometimes led to in-accurate sculpts, or feeling like you were buying the same figures over and over just with new heads or different paint, and if there was an issue with a mould like a loose joint or something, it carried over to each figure using the body>sculpts got REALLY wonky. Luke especially always looked weird, but a lot of human characters suffered from looking gaunt, with really pale plastic and sunked eyes/cheeks. Female characters almost always had toothpick arms with bulbous elbows.Over all it was a good time. I think how high it got was the main reason why the return of basic 5POA figures felt like such a downgrade. We went from great figures with character variation, to 5POA figures that had ramrod straight limbs (no character posing), garbage sculpts (Han looked like Dana Carvey), fuck all paint that was slapped on without attention to detail, and almost no accessories unless it was a blaster or Lightsaber.
>>11224210Actually cool shit like different-race Jedi, robots, unique aliens, and ships that weren't poor-man's versions of OT ones?
>>11227250Is that the Luke that came with the weather vane(sp)?
>>11227573The first one did. the top right one is the same figure mould, but didn't come with the weathervane.
>>11224210when disney bought sw in 2014ish the figure quality went to shit instantly. Most the stuff till then was atleast looking at, I haven't bought a modern figure for like 7 years now.
>>11235508With the exception of what I can find on deep discount, I haven't really either. The last figure I bought at full price was a TVC style Kylo Ren when the first sequel came out.
>>11224210>>11227250Toys produced during Episode 2 went through a weird phase. Like, the blue star box packaging looked cheap in my opinion. Then, the figures had weird gimmicks to them that were either a hit or miss. Honestly, I skipped anything that was made during then. It wasn't until after Episode 3 was when SW was turning out stuff better in high gear from 2008-2013.
>>11224210I have a deep dive question for everyone.Do you remember some chick (big nose, curly hair, large sweater puppies) who acted as the Star Wars 'social media expert' during the late 2000s? Anyone know what she's up to?Seems like she disappeared after Disney bought SW.
>>11235590I actually wonder which is looked back on more negatively, the roided POTF2 era or the gimmick-hobbled Episode 2 era.Probably the former because even the latter era still had a few great figures. The gimmicky figures were mostly AotC characters but the OT stuff was still fairly solid, I got R1-G4 and the Ewok Glider from that era.
>>11235590>>11235663The aotc/Saga era was absolutely based. There was lots of experimentation which led to lots of interesting toys with tons of great features. We had some highly detailed pre posed figures in dynamic poses with relatively minimal articulation, essentially giving us a "what if McFarlane made Star Wars." We got blast effects for some guns, a great addition for the shelf and toy photos, in a time when it had barely happened at all. Jedi figures with magnets in their hands and metal lightsabers, so if you held the hand an inch away from the saber it would move a little, and go a little further and snap into the hand like magic. Holy fucking based. Magnets also showed up for cutting off limbs and jangos head. We had figures with twirling lightsaber blades and a gear on the back to spin them, awesome. Practically ever jango or boba Fett released had at least one but sometimes multiple gimmicks that were features out of his gauntlets and armor. Large and varied accessories including environmental pieces and creature pack ins. I could go on and on. Not every single choice worked, but there was so much variety and a ton of it did, created figures that either displayed well, played well, or sometimes even both. It was a stellar era for SW toys and one I'd gladly return to in a heartbeat.
>>11235663>>11237625Personally I prefer the POTF2 line, but I also admit that the Power of the Jedi line was great in that the sculpts and proportions were improved, along with increased articulation, but not to the extreme of the AOTC line. Similarly I'm not a big fan of the extreme gimmick stuff. Though Jango with a magnet in his neck so you can slice his head off is delightfully macabre.That said, I am also appreciative of the fact that the Star Wars line has been around so long that we have so many stylistic incarnations of most of the characters. You want a Vader? how would you like that served, vintage? 90s EXTREME!? With tons of gimmicks? Realistically? Abstract? With a soft goods cape? Rubber? Clip on plastic shell?
>>11235663>but the OT stuff was still fairly solidI say that and then I realize I forgot all about this thing
>>11237796Ahahahah wtf. What's the name? I want to buy this
>>11238357Throne Room Duel Luke Skywalker
>>11237625>>11237707AOTC did go in interesting directions with gimmicks but it's strange that some weren't advertised on the packaging. Maul in two, decapitated Boba, and Degoba Darth (remove mask to see Luke) were never shown to do those things on the package (avoid parent backlash?)
>>11235663>roided POTF2 eraI prefer this, never minded the muscled look because it was only really apparent with a few figures, and it was corrected with succeeding waves. POTJ and Episode 1 lines were similarly good imo, besides all the bargain bin no-name character toys they did for 1. The episode 2/saga era had too many breakable gimmicks and weird faces/sculpts like >>11237796
>>11241977I actually prefer the long lightsabers POTF2 had initially and I wish they'd made one for Jedi Luke.
>>11242066I wish certain Star Wars collectors didn't have such a gigantic stick up their ass about reproduction weapons. Maybe then you could get a version with the long saber.
>>11243743I would just buy a repro of it if there were one.Would it even be considered "repro" if it's an accessory that never existed in the first place?
>>11235663POTF2 is pure SOVL
>>11244013>Would it even be considered "repro" if it's an accessory that never existed in the first place?Not really, I just meant that there's less incentive for repro makers to make extra stuff when they're constantly getting screamed at for the stuff they do make. Could you imagine if Star Wars figures got upgrade kits the same way Transformers do? Shit would be rad.
>>11244154Not that I dislike The Vintage Collection, or the Legacy/Saga stuff that came before it, but I do miss when Hasbro would get weird with the line for a while.
>>11244521I miss when toys were made to be played with like this
>>11244804Same. I think a lot of Hasbro's issues would be solved if they just went back to making actual toys again, instead of "adult collectables".
