For all intents and purposes, Hasbro’s Indy line is dead. Why? Too much product too soon, their case assortments left a lot to be desired, and front loading the line with 2nd- and 3rd-tier characters. The “too much product” thing makes me wonder if Hasbro had learned its lesson from the TPM debacle. Apparently not.

The biggest mistake they made in my opinion is heavily marketing the line to kids. That’s fine for Star Wars, where you can’t swing a dead cat and not hit somebody not familiar with it in some way. Not so fine for a franchise whose newest movie is released almost 20 years after the last one. Most likely, kids today haven’t seen the original movies, but they know who Indy is. And that’s it. I remember Sallah, and Marion, and Short Round and Mola Ram, Toht, Vogel, Belloq, and that German mechanic. So I might be more inclined to invest in the line. A lot of people my age would. They also might be more inclined to sink money into high-end collectibles, which are trickling out at a glacial rate from Sideshow right now.

When you’re dealing with nostalgia, market to the grown folks, not the kids. But they’re gonna try to snag the kids anyway. Lucas and Spielberg tried and look where it got them. Lucas is still trying with the new Clone Wars cartoons. This is the brick wall I’m seeing for any franchise born in the 70’s or 80’s whose creators are saying, “why don’t we make a new movie after _____ years?” The next possible victim: Ghostbusters 3.

Obi-Wan went the way of Indy: cancelled. I got to buy a new microwave soon.

I’m not liking what I did to Rhianwyn’s boots. They still look like clown shoes. So I’ll either find some way to redo the whole thing or find something else that fits, or do both at the same time.

Hot Toys is going to bring out the King of Pop Michael Jackson. Looks like it’s from the post-Beat It days. Personally I prefer his Billie Jean/Thriller look.

Speaking of Hot Toys, I don’t own a one of them. But I can’t deny that the Iron Man Mark II is gorgeous to behold, regardless if it’s simply a repaint of the Mark III suit or not. I simply don’t have the money for that kind of artistry. Bah.

The boot mods are done. I can’t say that I hate them, but I’m not crazy about them, either. Crudely done, as I really had no idea what I was doing. I knew that I had to shorten the sole and move the toe in. Which is basically what I did. After doing it, I’m thinking it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to make my own boots. With the dearth of female-sized boots for my purposes, it might be unavoidable.

Back to work.

A couple of pic of my first bash, WIP:

She’s still a ways from being complete. The boots I got need to be altered, along with a set of bracers. I want to repaint the sword and the scabbard, but they’re both made of metal and I don’t know what kind of paint to use. Another thing about the sword: the one she’s holding is from DiD Aragorn. The scabbard is longer than Sideshow Aragorn’s, but the DiD sword is shorter. She’ll need grasping hands to better grip that sword, too. The bulkiness of the clothes is bugging me a bit, not sure what to do about that.

Yesterday or thereabouts, I canceled Indy, and I’ll soon cancel Obi-Wan. I hate to drop Obi-Wan, but I can’t justify ordering it anymore. Yeah, I’d like to get him, and maybe I will some time down the road. My focus has changed. It doesn’t mean I won’t ever order another boxed figure again. I am going to snag Vader next year. If I do order other boxed figures, it’ll be with the intent of using the parts for some bash. Something might slip through and be left pristine. But nowadays I’m looking at my current collection and thinking, “how can I use that part/weapon/piece of clothing in a bash”?

Nothing is safe.

My ANH Luke review…with pictures!