PopCult Rudy Panucci on Pop Culture

Toy Fair 2017: Star Wars’ 40th Anniversary

The PopCult Toybox

sw40-002Your PopCulteer is unable to attend the 2017 International Toy Fair in New York, which begins this weekend, but that won’t stop us from covering as much as we can from here. All week long we plan to bring you previews of what to expect on toy shelves this year.

40 Years of Star Wars

While there are a world of toys based on various Star Wars properties coming out this year, I09 was given a sneak preview of what Hasbro has in the pipeline to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Star Wars franchise.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Star Wars toys we can expect this year, but there’s plenty here to get excited about.

Hasbro plans to mark the anniversary with an extensive line of new toys and merchandise to tie into the 40th anniversary. It all starts this spring, with a new range of 3.75-inch Black Series figurines and a new anniversary edition of Star Wars Monopoly.

sw40-001

 

The 3 3/4″ figures in the new Titanium series will retail for $15 each, and are all based on the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope. These are static diecast figurines rather than poseable action figures, and each of the six (Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo) also feature accessories like FX pieces for their weapons, as well as their own special backdrops. The backdrops include two different inserts, a backdrop from the movies (seen above), and also character art that can be connected to other Titanium series figure stands to complete the full scene(below).

qmdl1ygvaue3bucysqqn

 

ogavqvedw0ehbv97karaThe new 40th anniversary edition of Star Wars Monopoly will retail for $30, and features six special tokens based on A New Hope: Luke’s X-Wing helmet; his sandspeeder; a Stormtrooper helmet; R2-D2; the Death Star; and the Millennium Falcon.

The game also sports a newly designed board featuring classic Star Wars poster art and scenes from the original movie. The spaces on the board have been replaced with locations form the movie, such as the Cantina, Alderran and The Death Star.

 

fodbqzzzwdlzjpia2xaj

 

Later this year we can expect even more 40th-anniversary toys. The 6-inch Black Series figures will be expaned with a line of static figurines called the “Centerpiece” range(below).  This is in addition to loads of merchandise based on The Last Jedi and some very expensive role-playing items.

 

bjk3sisnyua3rd499m1i

 

It looks like Hasbro is aiming their 40th anniversary collections squarely toward adults, with neat little items that will look cool on a shelf, but that don’t have much in the way of play value. I would imagine that the cooler stuff, with poseable figures and extra play features will manifest itself in the toys for The Last Jedi.

Check PopCult for more Toy Fair preview news all week long.