After Hasbro’s Star Wars panel this past Friday at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with the popular toy company’s Brand Manager Jing Houle and Product Designer Chris Reiff about all the recent Star Wars action figure news.
Mike Celestino, Laughing Place: Starting off with The Acolyte, the first wave of Black Series figures had six characters in it. Now you’ve announced Vernestra Rwoh and Bazil and pipelined Kelnacca. I think a lot of people are wondering, where’s The Stranger?
Chris Reiff: That’s a strange question. [laughs] Patience. We can’t talk about anything we haven’t revealed, but you know we are clearly invested in the characters from that series. We talked a little bit today about how we [created The Stranger’s] helmet for that show [while] trying to maintain some entertainment lead there. Like I said, nothing to announce, but just stay tuned and be patient.
LP: Is it too late to include a lightwhip accessory with the Vernestra figure?
Jing Houle: I know! When we saw that in the show, that was amazing. That was really cool to watch. Yeah, at this moment, what you have with Vernestra is what you saw in the reveals, which we think is amazing– it’s her lightsaber, so I think that completes her in her own way in that package.
Reiff: Well, and the outfit we released is not the outfit she’s wearing when she does that, so there would be a little bit of an inconsistency. We wanted to give her a saber, because she’s a Jedi. She’s wearing it, but that’s not a saber you see her use in [the] content in the outfit that we’re releasing– her primary use there. So if we ever get around to doing that other figure, I would say there’s a high likelihood she has that [lightwhip] in that other figure, but it’s not something we currently have plans for.
LP: I don’t know if we’ve ever seen a lightwhip in a Star Wars action figure before.
Reiff: There might have been something in the 90s. There [were] a lot of figures in the 90s in the 3 ¾[-inch scale], but certainly not in Black Series. [laughs]
LP: My favorite announcement coming out of the panel today was The Armorer’s Forge from The Mandalorian. Tell me a little bit about how that came about and the development of that playset.
Houle: A lot of people are interested about that one.
Reiff: Well, it was a recurring scene and item. I mean, we saw that in many [different iterations]– the Armorer’s portable forge, moving around to different places as the Covert moved. And [senior product designer Emily Cantelupe] kept bringing that back up– ‘Hey, this is important. This is important.’ And sure enough… she was on it the first time we saw it. And then when we saw it move to a new environment– especially when you start seeing Grogu get his rondelle and Bo[-Katan Kryze] get her shoulder armor– I think for us, that really solidified, ‘This is a key scene.’
Houle: It was home base for a lot of the scenes, and what’s also great is we did the Shriek-Hawk four-pack; it goes so well with it. We did Bo with the new shoulder pauldron and it went so well with it. There’s just so many little pieces that just go so well with it, so we were like, ‘We should just do it.’ It just makes complete sense when you put it all together, [along with] all the puzzle pieces, so I’m really glad that the team– but Emily especially– fought so hard to make sure that playset is out.
LP: The other thing we got to see for the first time, which you had pipelined before, is the Blurrg with The Mandalorian two-pack. I loved hearing that the Blurrg is going to fit into the Vintage Collection Razor Crest. What was the process of designing that creature?
Reiff: The design of that creature, for us, started with the Razor Crest. And like I said on the panel today, that was something that was a fun moment [in the show]. It’s a creature that we thought we would probably get around to doing at some point when we were doing the Razor Crest. We knew it was on the horizon– we didn’t know when, but I worked with Lucasfilm to make sure we had the files, and scaled and double-checked and triple-checked that it would fit all the way through the Razor Crest development. And you’re seeing the payoff of that now– working with the team and then figuring out how to deliver all the articulation we wanted to really get those key moments for the Blurrg and then find the right figure for him, too.
Houle: Emily’s not here, [but] I’m sure she could speak your ear off [about] everything that went into it. I will say, seeing her work on it from a design perspective– it’s a creature; we’re doing creatures– and that was a really fun creature to do for sure. And it’s different: [humanoids] don’t have tails, for the most part… the chomping jaw, the fact that it needs to lift Mando up like we saw in some of the reveal imagery. The team kept all of that in mind: ‘How does it move?’ Everything about that, the detail that the team put into it to make sure that it really tells that full story in figure form, it’s amazing. I’ll be really excited when fans are able to play with it in their hands, pose it out, have it chomp [the] Mandalorian– all of the fun stuff. It’s a great designed figure.
Reiff: The Blurrg is the modern Tauntaun, in a lot of ways. [laughs]
LP: Congratulations on the HasLab Mos Eisley Cantina project funding.
Reiff: Well, congratulations to the fans. It’s a win for us to deliver stuff that fans want. Congrats to all the fans who backed that. It’s because of you guys that we continue to be able to do stuff like this.
Houle: Huge thank you to fans, seriously, from the bottom of our hearts. A lot of the fan community just rallied behind it. They were really having their own way of supporting the campaign. We saw it all– they had their own hashtags, their own ways to get all the community excited about it. We brought it with us [to Comic-Con]; we couldn’t wait. The minute it funded, it was like, ‘We’re putting it in our suitcase and we’re bringing it to the con with us.’
LP: I really like the decal sheet that comes along with it. What are some of your favorite little Easter Eggs that you included in there?
Reiff: I think the one that nobody could see from the image we released is that on one of the little tiny datapad computer screens, it says ‘May the Force be with you,’ but translated [into Aurebesh]. And it’s so small that you may or may not see it in the print resolution of the stickers, ultimately, but it’s in there in the file. And it’s one that you guys didn’t see– I don’t want to say I’m shocked, because I’m not. I was very proud how fast fans translated all of that, and even got some of the inside jokes– the number on Hondo Ohnaka’s ‘wanted’ poster being the first episode that he shows up in, cool stuff like that. Fans were all over it, and it makes me so happy.
LP: As excited as we were that it got funded, fans were also disappointed that the final tier did not get unlocked– the action figure of Arleil Schous. During the campaign you had clarified the possibility of that character being released separately. Is that something that’s still on the table?
Reiff: I mean, there’s no plans for it, but we did a lot of work to get him ready for the campaign, so some of the work is already done. If we ever would decide to do that figure and we had a slot that he made sense in, some of the work is there.
Houle: Yeah, so no plans to discuss, but anything is possible.
LP: Lastly, could you each highlight one of the announcements from today’s presentation that we haven’t talked about yet? Which of these upcoming items really excites you?
Houle: The Imperial Armored Commando. I know [product designer Eric Franer] was geeking out about it, in the best way– I love Eric. But he was like, ‘I love this figure. It is such a cool figure. So cool.’ And I could see like ten of those flanking [Moff Gideon], at attention, ready for battle, or something along those lines. That one was one of my favorites for sure. I [also] like the cute ones, of course. I like IG-12 and Grogu. I love all of those. I have a little soft spot– I think both my girls when they were younger remind me of Grogu, so every time I see [him] I think of my family. But other than that, I’m all for a good action scene when they look really cool, and those guys showed up so cool in season 3 [of The Mandalorian]. It’s one of my favorites.
Reiff: Jing took mine– the Imperial Commando. [laughs] But I’m gonna cheat a little bit, and I’m gonna say that– while I’m not gonna expound on them– the pipeline [reveals] of Baylan [Skoll] and Shin [Hati, from Ahsoka] for [the Vintage Collection]. Those make me very excited, so I’m glad we could tell you guys that’s coming. I can’t wait until we can tell you more about how that’s coming.
Houle: Just know that we listen, and sometimes it takes time to do things. We saw how much fans really wanted those, and they kept coming up in conversation. We were biting our fingernails to be able to tell you about some of those plans, so we’re extra excited. That’s why they got their own page [during the reveals].
Reiff: And that’s why we do pipeline, because sometimes it’s stuff we really want you guys to know is coming but we’re not ready to show you yet. I think it’s a good thing– it’s a good dialogue with fans, and it’s our way to give back.
Be sure to visit the official Hasbro Pulse website to pre-order many of the company’s announced Star Wars products from San Diego Comic-Con 2024.