I'm getting a little irked at that "sales dropoff" line. Hasbro's overall Q4 sales were down, which -- as that encompasses holiday purchasing -- came as a surprise to them. Some of it was what's been going on with Toys 'R' Us, some due to a slack holiday season everywhere (not going to get into socio-economic or political commentary here), some was a Star Wars toy lag, yes. But I attribute that much more to Hasbro than Star Wars. They have, much to my irritation, mis-guessed what people will want for the last several years. Not thinking more people would want the 6" Black Series Revan? Thinking people -- kids or otherwise -- want build-your-own-lightsaber kits? Nerf-dart shooty things on their Star Wars vehicles? I've poked around a bit and a lot of their "play features" fall flat with kids and hurt desirability for collectors. There aren't as many people actually interested in the 6" or larger figures as someone thought. The basic 3-3/4" figures are more expensive than their simplicity and ease-of-play justify, and the 3-3/4" Black Series figures are a lot more scarce that what people want.
Thankfully, they've recognized that last point. Their Toy Fair booth had a bunch of new 3-3/4" high-detail, superarticulated figures, back on the "Vintage Collection" cardbacks.
Forces of Destiny also seems to be doing well -- with girls, boys, and adult collectors.
Their Black Series 1:1 stuff is doing well (I, personally, have bought three Amazon-exclusive Shadow Trooper helmets, one regular Stormtrooper helmet, the Poe Dameron helmet, and am planning on getting the riot baton and -- if it is worth it -- the Vader helmet).
Some of it is also on the people running the toy sections of places like WalMart or Target 1) having a clue and 2) giving a damn. My local Target is pretty good in some respects, though not in others. My local WalMart is so iffy. There are a bunch of Rogue One figures still rusting on the vine, and whoever runs the department seems to have an attitude of "we'll order more when this stuff is gone", so I've missed out on a lot of newer releases.
If Hasbro can find the right balance between satisfying adult nerds and collectors and appealing to younger people who want things to play with, they ought to be able to recover and do well. I like the new Falcon toy, but wish they were still doing either 1) more of the larger, more accurately scaled Legacy ships, like their X-Wing and Millennium Falcon... or release a line in 1:24 -- the scale of the old M.A.S.K. toy line -- that is big enough for detail and play value, but small enough for people and vehicles to be in scale with each other and still able to be easily played with. I think that's why the 6" stuff irritated me so much -- felt like a move in exactly the wrong direction to increase mass sales.
I do not think sales were hurt anywhere near as badly as the "negative nellies" on here like to echo back and forth, and only some of that due to attitudes about the films they were released to accompany. So try not to start declaiming the end of the world unless and until it actually happens. The forthcoming releases list on the cultTVman site makes me really happy, and I feel there will be more to come.
--Jonah