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The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/Jagosyo on 2024-03-09 06:09:41.
This is my first hobbydrama post and it’s recounting some drama that happened slightly before I joined the hobby. So I hope you will bear with me regarding sourcing. I like history, I like learning new things, I don’t actually enjoy hunting for drama that much.
First, some context.
Star Wars action figures have a long and storied history which I won’t recount much of here. What you mainly need to know is the license originally went to Kenner and played a significant part in making them a relative giant in the toy industry. Producing 3.75 inch figures (1/18 scale) that became an industry standard, many a child in the ancient years of 1977-1985 enjoyed the wonders of Star Wars through Kenner toys.
But what does one do when they are no longer a child and longs for the nostalgia of yesteryear? They pay exorbitant amounts for unopened figures and convince themselves plastic in a box is display art of course! Discontinued in 1985 to lagging sales and renewed in 1995 to capitalize on movie remasters, a new line of Star Wars figures coming from Kenner (Now owned since 1991 by Hasbro) appeared. They actually looked good and not like questionably carved lumps of plastic! Incredible. The golden age of Star Wars Action Figure collecting had arrived.
We now skip ahead a few years in our tale. It is a dark time for the galaxy. Kenner’s headquarters were closed in the year 2000 and their product lines merged into Hasbro. George Lucas releases his well-regarded prequel masterpieces and Star Wars toys line an entire isle in Toys R Us. George Lucas’s prequel masterpieces turn out to be not so well-regarded and Toys R Us closes because some asshole decided to dump debt onto them and then declare bankruptcy. The mighty isles of Star Wars toys eventually fall silent.
But what’s this? A New Hope on the horizon?! Disney purchases Star Wars?! Sequel movies are being made?! They’ll be good?! This can only mean one thing. More Star Wars Action Figures.
You now have the context to begin our story. You see Star Wars collecting had become a big thing, and it makes up a reasonable (in times, perhaps the majority) of sales of figures. The most die-hard of these adult collectors have been collecting a long time and have large, sealed in-box collections of figured taking up space on their walls. They obviously want to continue expanding this collection of matching boxes, and Hasbro wants money so a compromise is made in the Senate.
Hasbro releases not one, not two, but three Star Wars action figures lines. The first two, Retro and Vintage, are 3.75 inch and styled after the original 1977 line and the 1995 line respectively. The third, 2013’s Black Series, are about 6 inches (1/12 scale) and more expensive. We are interested in the third.
I can’t really say what the original plans for the Black Series line was, because that’s ancient history I wasn’t around for. The initial few years of the figures were… Not good. Bad sculpts, horrific faces, over production of expensive figures for a unproven block of sequels meant the line struggled. Star Wars mania meant the line didn’t die.
By the release of Rise of Skywalker things were looking grim for Star Wars, but had improved for Black Series. It was still expensive, but new improvements in action figure technology meant the faces looked good now. Whatever the line had originally been intended to be, it was now squarely aimed at adult collectors looking for Star Wars characters to display on the shelves and rising prices mostly excluded anyone but that market.
Oh, also there were life-size replicas of helmets and lightsabers under the Black Series logo, nobody sane knows why. We’re not talking about it*
This finally brings us to our tale, if you are unaware, Hasbro actually makes a number of nostalgia bait toy lines aimed at adult collectors now. They sell these through retailers and the Hasbro Pulse site, where you can also find The HASLAB. Haslab is basically a crowd funded effort to get particularly high-budget items into the hands of collectors that Hasbro might not otherwise be willing to make. Basically it’s a bit like Kickstarter, buyers will make a pledge for a product and if that product meets a certain number of pledges, Hasbro will make it for everyone who pledged (and paid of course). Additionally, meeting certain pledge thresholds means Hasbro can afford producing some extras to go along with your expensive piece of plastic. All in all, it’s a good system that lets people get things they wouldn’t otherwise, like a 27 inch, $575 Unicron.
In 2021, the Black Series got their turn. The very first Haslab Black Series and oh boy is it a doozy, The Rancor. For the low price of $350, a 1/12 scale rancor could be yours! If enough backers are met, you could also get some fabulous additions! A Gamorrean Guard! A bunch of…skulls and cardboard! Salacious Crumb! Luke Skywalker! We’ve had three of those figures released before!
…Now if you are a Star Wars fan, you may perhaps be wondering about some notable, shall we say, absences from that list of figures. Malakili would be later added to the base funding line of the Rancor after some very negative feedback, but that negative feedback was in large part centered around one other character.
The unfortunate ill-fated dancer at Jabba’s Palace has a rather interesting toy history. She’s only appeared in 1/18 scale twice, once as a mail-away that a lot of people missed and made her one of the more valuable figures for a while and once as a Wal-mart exclusive alongside Jabba himself. She’s never appeared in 1/12 scale. Why? Well probably because she’s a female side character with a few seconds screen time. Traditionally those aren’t terrible popular with kids. You also kind of need Jabba to go along with her, which raises the price on buying them together instead of say, Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia. Also, possibly, Lucasfilm didn’t want to deal with moms complaining about little Jimmy seeing a half-naked lady from his favorite Star Wars movie on the toy isle. Who knows?
THE FANS KNOW! You see this isn’t the only snub for a scantly clad Star Wars lady. Slave Leia, AKA Jabba’s slave outfit, AKA Huttslayer Leia, AKA that poster you had on your wall has had exactly one Star Wars Black Series release in the product’s first year and it is an abomination
Why would Hasbro do this? Why would they not make a beloved cultural icon for young teenage men everywhere with the new photo-real facepainting technology? Why would they not include Oola in the Rancor’s backer rewards? There’s only one possible option. Conspiracy! Disney, Hasbro and Lucasfilm were conspiring to keep scantly clad female Star Wars characters out of the hands of adult collectors because of the unfortunate implications of sex slavery in GEORGE LUCAS’S STAR WARS!
Meanwhile, Yakface (Not his real name), a prominent leaker and source of news of shipping data for Star Wars products, mostly Black Series and Vintage Collection, posts a funny slogan on his twitter which is preserved on reddit here. This accidentally sparked a rallying cry for wrongfully deprived adult collectors of their scantily clad female action figures. No Oola. No Moolah. They would not be denied by woke Disney, Hasbro and Lucasfilm. NO OOLA NO MOOLAH!
Yeah so the Rancor didn’t get funded.
If you clicked the link up earlier you might have noticed, 500 backers off. There was anger, there was finger pointing, there were ragebait videos. There was a Megathread
It wasn’t really Yakface’s fault. He got pointed at as a scapegoat by a few people, but generally most people agree it was a mix of poor backing rewards (Nobody wanted cardboard murals), bad communication (Yakface did more promotional work on the Rancor’s funding stages and the addition of Malakili than Hasbro’s socials did) and an expensive price point for a relatively young toy line (Most adults with Star Wars money collect Vintage Collection).
As for a supposed ban on Slave Leia and Oola, both have been featured as merchandise in Disney’s parks.
Haslab has been a relatively successful program. Funding about 75% of their projects. Notably, the only other Black Series item, the Third Sister Lightsaber Replica* has not been funded.
Well, that’s the sad tale of the Rancor. Never to grace our non-existent shelf space with his glorious girth. The only prototype that exists probably sits on some executives table or some Hasbro museum somewhere. Which would make for an excellent heist movie, but not a very good funding reward.
Disclaimers:
I don’t care how you wish to display your figures, in box, out of box, it’s your figure! Do what you want.
I would’ve paid $350 for the Rancor, fortunately for my wallet I missed it.
I’d like scantily clad women for my Star Wars collection.
Please reline the Replica Helmets and Lightsabers to something less confusing Hasbro, thank you*
*I lied.