I am not a mint on card collector. Oh, I’ve got boxes in storage full of carded figures, but they’re all doubles that I got through buying Lots or full cases in order to get at a few figures I needed. But as a rule I don’t buy figures with the intent of keeping them unopened. The exception to that rule has been Hasbro’s Vintage Collection of Star Wars figures, started with the Original Trilogy Collection and now reborn in their current vintage styled line.
When Hasbro reintroduced the vintage style packaging, they decided to forgo the customized protective clamshell case that every VOTC figure came in. Generally, I consider this decision a win, as it cut the cost of the figures considerably. Toward the end of the VOTC line, I was paying around $12.99 for some of these, which is about five bucks a figure more than I’m paying for the current line. I’m certain there were other factors involved in the price drop, but not including the case had to help. Now sure, I’m buying the cases separately from Hasbro at added cost, but since I’m pretty much buying a second one of each of these figures to open, it works out in my favor. And at $1.50 a case, things still work out in my favor.
The protective cases come in packs of ten and arrive nested in this plain white mailer box. They share some similarities with the ones Hasbro used on the VOTC line, but there are some significant differences too, so even in these cases, the VOTC and VC lines will not look completely uniform when displayed together. The biggest and most obvious difference will be the lack of the printed foil insert on the current collection. It sure looks nice on the VOTC line, but it also obscures part of the card and the figure, so I’m pretty tempted to say I prefer the figures without them, but not enough that I’m going to go ripping them open to remove them.
As for the cases themselves, the ones you can buy from Hasbro still have the embossed Rebel and Imperial symbols on the top, and they still have the “Star Wars” logo embossed into the back. The biggest difference is in the depth of the bubble. Because the cases that Hasbro sells are designed to fit just about all carded Star Wars figures, they are much deeper than the ones Hasbro used for the VOTC collection. You don’t get the same economy of space, but they do a better job of protecting your figure since the VOTC figure bubbles were pressed right up against the surface of the case.
As mentioned, a box of ten of these sell for $14.99. It’s a pretty good deal as far as I’m concerned, but then again, I’m only buying enough for my Vintage Collection figures. I can imagine that for some of you who display hundreds of carded figures, this can get rather expensive. Also, I’ve heard that some people have had issues with getting a bad fitting case in their batch now and then, so that might be something to watch out for.
FigureFan Zero 