Collection Diary 08-09-05

All the fury of collecting... Unleashed!

With the end of the original Star Wars theatrical films, Hasbro seems to be wising up to what it's going to take to keep children and collectors buying. Unfortunately, that is going to take it's toll on one of the best lines they've produced so far...
Star Wars Unleashed figures were thought at one time to be a dead project. Cancelled. Fortunately, with a bit of retooling of the package the line came back strong and has been a hit ever since!

The Star Wars collectibles modern era started with Bend'Ems in 1993 and so is now officially 12 years old. After a decade plus, many die-hard collectors are running out of space for new acquisitions. There's also the issue of Hasbro releasing goods that the veteran collectors have seen before in one form or another.

With that in mind, Hasbro has decided to change up the Unleashed series from 8 inch statues to two inch statues. This, in my opinion, is about as wise as "New Coke". Quitting at the top may work for some music groups, but in the world of toys, it's dubious.

Above is the next-to-last wave of the Unleashed figures which I found today at Target. Amazon.com has cancelled all of their preorders for the set, so if you haven't found yours yet, I recommend you get to hunting. The 'removable helmet' Unleashed Vader is up to $375, and I can see this one getting almost that high due to high demand and scarcity of product. Good Luck!