Hasbro has announced a most intriguing assortment in the form of Star Wars: Droids commemorative action figures. The Target-exclusive lineup specifically consists of a lone offering from the 6” scale Black Series in Boba Fett ($26.49), and three from the 3 ¾” Vintage Collection with the eponymous droids, C-3PO and R2-D2, along with yet another Boba Fett (each $15.99)—because, you know, it’s Boba Fett. Indeed, Disney+ series The Mandalorian effectively reintroduced the shady-but-beloved bounty hunter into the post-OT canon, which will soon manifest with spinoff The Book of Boba Fett, fueling any excuse for more of him. However, the figures further strengthen the franchise’s embrace of things rendered apocryphal in the Disney era, notably with Disney+ having recently made those TV movies and cartoons available to stream. Check out the lineup of Star Wars: Droids figures just below. As you can see, the figures brandish an eccentric, Easter-egg-evocative color palette that accurate reproduces the aesthetics of the Droids cartoon; something that might not make them everyone’s cup of tea. However, it’s a delightfully eccentric lineup that will not only hit a heretofore untapped aspect of Star Wars nostalgia, but potentially become embraced by completists and those who are simply curious. Yet, the wave’s status as Target exclusives cement their status as esoteric offerings. This is a double-edged sword, since retail exclusives—specifically for Walmart and Target—have become the bane of collectors, especially with unstable and inconsistent distribution of the pandemic-era supply chain. In fact, some derisively dismiss these kind of releases as “ebay exclusives,” since they tend to become fodder for scalpers. However, Target is putting them up for preorder—as little comfort as that may be for those inevitably left disappointed by the typically-instant sell-outs. On another note, fans who recall the mid-to-late-1980s-era sight of toy pegs filled with those pastel-blue Droids cardbacks possess a unique memory, since they represent the twilight era of Star Wars’ classic period. They, along with the green-carded Ewoks line, would stand as the franchise’s last proper figure line until a massive 1995 relaunch, which rode momentum from the THX remastered releases of the Original Trilogy—and the imminent Special Editions—along with hype for the then-gestating Prequel Trilogy. Historically, with the OT movies in the immediate rearview mirror, toy company Kenner (a now-nixed subsidiary of current branding Hasbro,) continued adding to its unprecedentedly-deep character pool of 3 ¾” action figures, first with 1985 line “Power of the Force,” which—diverging from the iconic original silver-framed black cardbacks—mostly consisted of rereleases along with the occasional missed movie character, notably Sebastian Shaw’s Anakin Skywalker. However, to further lure fans from potential burnout, Kenner started to include collector’s coins with the figures; a practice that continued with the Star Wars: Droids and Star Wars: Ewoks lines. While those lines mostly showcased uniquely-tooled figures from the shows, the ride aboard the proverbial White Witch racer wouldn’t last long, since it all came to a stop, per the fate of their respective shows, in 1986. Thusly, even the inclusion of the coins—a first for Star Wars figures since 2007—is a wonderfully specific throwback in an era of throwbacks. Nevertheless, fans of the certain cloned Mandalorian bounty hunter who—in the Legends lore—terrorized the Droids crew will have their fill of new live-action canonical material when The Book of Boba Fett arrives on Disney+ this December. As for the figures in question, Target revealed that preorders will go up on its website tomorrow, Sept. 24 at 9 AM ET / 6 AM PT.
