SDCC 2022: Our Exclusive Interview with Hasbro's Star Wars Team on Boba Fett Reveals

Hasbro revealed a number of new Boba Fett action figures at their San Diego Comic-Con Star Wars panel on July 22. Afterwards we spoke to the Hasbro team to find out more about their design process during the unofficial “Year of Boba Fett” as Hasbro Global Marketing Director Patrick Schneider put it in an exclusive interview with Boba Fett Fan Club.

One of the biggest reveals was that The Vintage Collection line is adding a Fett figure based on his “Book of Boba Fett” Tusken robes appearance. That figure includes a blaster, rifle and Gaffi stick, and comes as a set with a 3.75”-scale “The Book of Boba Fett” Slave I.

While the tooling on Boba Fett’s Starship is the same as the “The Empire Strikes Back” version released in 2020, there are a number of changes to the deco that make the ship match its condition after sitting in Jabba’s Palace for years.

“There’s new rust on it, there’s new weathering, there’s extra color variations in the reds and greens and stuff that we didn’t capture in the previous version because we were matching a different version of the ship,” Chris Reiff, associate principal product designer of Hasbro’s Star Wars line, said in our interview.

The team paid special attention to the ship’s details, with even the color around the engines changing from orange to blue.

“It’s such an iconic vehicle and obviously plays a central role in ‘The Book of Boba Fett.’ So getting a screen-accurate version out there was important,” Schneider said.

Schneider told us that while the figure will probably make an appearance in the Vintage Collection mainline eventually, for now, you’ll have to buy the ship to get it.

The Hasbro team also mentioned the box art features Vintage Collection Fennec Shand (sold separately) and Boba as they sneak into Jabba’s Palace to retrieve Slave I. The ship also comes with a clear stand featuring the Mythosaur skull logo just as it did in the 2020 version.

The Vintage Collection “The Book of Boba Fett” Boba Fett’s Starship with included figure will be available for pre-order at Hasbro Pulse at 5pm Eastern tomorrow, July 23. (Update: now available.)

A new Fett is also coming to the Black Series Credit Collection, which takes a piece of concept art from the end credits of “The Mandalorian” and turns it into a 6″ figure.

“I think we all lost our minds when [Boba Fett] showed up [in ‘The Mandalorian’],” Reiff said during the panel.

The art that inspired the new Credit Collection Boba was created by Brian Matyas for “The Mandalorian” and features a glimpse at the back of Boba Fett’s head as he overlooks the Dune Sea.

The team applied the warm tones of Matyas’ art to the new figure.

“It’s a more artful approach to the characters. And it’s really fun to translate that,” Reiff told BFFC about the new Credit Collection figure.

The figure has a brown soft goods robe and includes a new, full-size triangular New Republic credit.

The Black Series Credit Collection Boba Fett is a Walmart-exclusive available for pre-order at 5 PM Eastern on Saturday, July 23 and is scheduled to be released in Spring 2023. (Update: now available.)

In addition to the two Boba Fett figures announced at Hasbro’s panel today, a Return of the Jedi 40th Anniversary Black Series Boba Fett figure was also revealed to be in the pipeline, although it was too early to show the figure.

Hasbro’s convention-exclusive “War of the Bounty Hunters” Boba Fett Black Series figure aka Boba Fett (In Disguise) – has been a huge draw for fans who wanted to take a closer look at the company’s booth. While Hasbro Black Series Product Designer Eric Franer wasn’t at the panel Friday, Reiff said that Franer was a big part of the reason the figure came to be.

“Eric is super into the comic stuff and is really kind of as big a fan as anybody. So when Eric says he wants to do a figure like that and it’s a publishing thing, it lines up, we all take that with a lot of weight,” Reiff said.

The all-black figure features gloss, semi-gloss and matte finishes and uses the older Empire Strikes Back sculpt to remain faithful to when the War of the Bounty Hunters Alpha #1 comic falls in the timeline. The figure comes with Boba’s blaster, jetpack as well as an ax with a brand new sculpt. The figure has been available for pre-order off and on since Wednesday night for convention attendees who grabbed a QR code from their booth.

One of the big changes coming to Hasbro’s products is plastic-free packaging. After previously announcing that the entire Star Wars line would be plastic-free, Hasbro said yesterday that The Vintage Collection, Retro Collection and Black Series anniversary line would continue to utilize the iconic plastic blisters used on carded figures.

That was happy news for many TVC collectors, especially after social media posts showed quality control issues with some of the newly released, plastic-free Vintage Collection Deluxe “Tatooine” Boba Fett figure.

Schneider said that the decision to package that particular world-building figure set without plastic packaging was actually in the works before Hasbro’s plastic-free announcement, and was instead made to showcase the diorama-style product photographs.

“The diorama shots are so rich and so beautiful and iconic. So we wanted to bring that there,” Schneider said.

He added that Hasbro has utilized closed-box packaging for years for Vintage Collection playsets, vehicles and more, and that quality assurance is and will continue to be a high priority.

“That’s a key part of this shift to closed box packaging to make sure that the product inside accurately represents the characters, which is what we try to do in all of our products,” he said.

All in all, Schneider said that he’s enjoyed the unofficial Year of Boba Fett and is looking forward to future appearances of the galaxy’s most feared bounty hunter.

“Boba Fett built up this fan base over forty-some years based on five lines of dialogue in the movies and then, obviously, [there was] a rich history in publishing. But it’s just been so cool seeing him back on the screen. I hope to see more of him.”