Incredible! Hasbro Makes A U-Turn On Black Series Packaging!

4/6/2023 The Black Series

On August 20, 2019, Hasbro's then CEO Brian Goldner announced that the company would phase out plastic from new toy and game packaging across its portfolio of iconic brands like NERF, MY LITTLE PONY, MONOPOLY, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, POWER RANGERS and more. It took until San Diego Comic Con 2022 to find out for collectors what that meant for Hasbro's Star Wars action figure toy lines. 

At San Diego Comic Con 2022 it was announced that the Black Series 6" basic assortment would go plastic free, which meant that the plastic tray and window would get replaced with cardboard. However, it was also made clear that The Vintage Collection, the Retro Collection and Black Series specialty tribute figures for Kenner would stay unchanged and would continue using plastic. 

In the Fall of 2022, the initial batch of figures for the Black Series 6" line with plastic-free packaging hit the market. However, the closed boxes displayed on shelves without any visibility into the contents provoked the ire of many collectors who cherish collecting figures MIB while still preserving the figure's displayability. As a result, Hasbro received criticism for the change which never eased up and very likely resulted in less sales.

There have been multiple reports of collectors encountering empty boxes or boxes containing different figures, as well as missing accessories. So now after having tested the waters with plastic free packaging for about half a year Hasbro is reversing the descision and is going to reintroduce a window for the Black Series action figure line, here is the press release from 4/6/2023:

So there you have it, Hasbro is bringing back the window-style packaging for The Black Series so that the figures inside the packaging can be seen when on display!