Interview: Hasbro's Star Wars Team Discusses Its Exciting Toy Announcements at Star Wars Celebration 2025 in Japan
This past weekend at Star Wars Celebration 2025 in Japan, I had the opportunity to speak with Hasbro’s product design manager Chris Reiff and brand development manager Jing Houle about the company’s announcements for The Black Series and The Vintage Collection lines of Star Wars toys.
Mike Celestino, Laughing Place: How does it feel to be here at Star Wars Celebration showing off all the latest Hasbro Star Wars stuff?
Chris Reiff: Well, it's amazing. I mean, being over here in Japan– this is the first time I've been here, so it's really cool to engage with a different group of fans. I mean, we've obviously got some familiar faces like you guys here, but a whole new batch of fans, too, and getting that different perspective is really amazing… a great opportunity.
Jing Houle: Yeah, I feel like we've met people from around the world that we don't get to talk to as often– obviously being here and the energy that they all bring still. It's a dream come true, honestly.
LP: Which toys are you guys most excited to have announced for The Black Series and The Vintage Collection at Celebration this year?
Houle: I am very excited about the [Black Series] Cal Kestis pack. It's one of my favorites. I felt like the team had so much fun with it, between introducing characters like Skoova Stev and Turgle into the pack, but also just the portraits of the handlebar mustache and the mullet haircut on Cal Kestis. It's one of my favorites that we were able to announce, so I think the fans agreed. They were chanting in our panel: “Turgle! Turgle!" So it was my favorite.
Reiff: Yeah, and I think my favorite is probably the [Vintage Collection] Bantha– just a great addition to our ‘Return to Tatooine’ program that we've been doing, and such an amazing update and then complicated in development in such a fun way too. It's not often that the team gets to dig in on something so niche; I mean we've got fur and soft goods and sculpting hard goods, deco, all that stuff coming together to make a beautiful product. It's really fun.
LP: Speaking of ‘Return to Tatooine,’ you have the HasLab Mos Eisley Cantina on display here. What has the general response been of people getting to see it in person?
Reiff: It's been great. I mean, it is a big model and this one has the very latest [updates]. We added a little bit of deco to the walls on the inside and on the facade wall too, just to amp up that detail. The cantina walls on the set were just stucco– there's not dirt and washes on them, so we leaned in on the real heavy texture that you have for those walls. So you still have all that, but we added just a little bit of subtle weathering on there just to play up some dirt and natural toning to the walls, and it's great to be able to show that here with an almost-finished cantina.
Houle: The response I've seen [has been] like, ‘Oh, you brought it!’ They were really excited to be able to see it in person, and I think it showed up really well. So again, thanks to Chris for making the extra stop to make sure it's amazing and can be brought over here to Celebration.
LP: Let's talk about Shadows of the Empire. I just got my Black Series Prince Xizor in the mail, and now you've announced Dash Rendar. What makes you go back and dig into the archive for these slightly more obscure Legends characters?
Reiff: Well, we're all nerds and fans ourselves, and I'm one of those people that went out and bought a game platform just to play that game when it came out, and read the book and bought all the toys back in the day. I did that too. The team looks at all that sort of stuff from history, and anniversaries, and fun new white-space opportunities for properties or parts of Star Wars that we haven't explored yet in Black Series and Vintage– all that stuff.
Houle: I would say the reaction that we've been getting from Prince Xizor [and] now Dash Rendar, we've had so many people come over and just been like, ‘That one's awesome; I really wanted that. I can't believe you actually did it.’ So for us the reaction from it– the fact that a lot of team members even at Hasbro [have] been pitching for it, so I think it was the time.
LP: From a fairly obscure character to some main characters, you've got new sculpts coming out for Han Solo and Chewbacca. They look amazing. Again, what makes it time to revisit Han and Chewie again, and what went into redesigning them?
Reiff: Well, they’re just classic characters. They're always popular. I mean Han and Chewie are icons of Star Wars. Looking to the future, we've got the 50th anniversary [of Star Wars] coming [in 2027], and we're certainly going to celebrate the 50th in [the year of] the 50th. I think that's a safe bet, but [we’re also] doing some of those core characters now that have been around and part of The Black Series for a long time and haven't seen a major update in a long time. So [it’s] great to lean in on those. With Chewbacca specifically, we had a lot of learnings recently on how we could do things better with Wookiees from Kelnacca and Krrsantan. There's great stuff that fed into how we do the softer fur on the head so that he can really articulate– just all the articulation improvements that we've been working on to really up the game on those two figures.
Houle: Yeah, I think it's always good to update some classic figures, especially with modern articulation and everything that we know now, like Chris just mentioned, Wookiees and how to make sure the plastic is soft enough you can still shift his head around. And we've been doing it– we did Luke and Leia not that long ago; now we're going out to Han and Chewie. I think it shows that we know how well these classic figures are still in demand among the fanbase, and even here in Japan we've heard a lot of people tell us that– they're like, ‘Original trilogy. We love it here. We love the Bantha, we love Han and Chewie.’ It's been a great reception.
LP: Going back to the Jedi - Survivor pack, I want to ask you about the alternate looks for Cal and how you guys zeroed in on which ones to include in that set.
Houle: For fun. [Laughs] Really for fun. I was telling Chris and some other folks that Cal's primary look in development was the handlebar mustache and mullet haircut, and then his crew cut– which is a very popular look for gamers– and the short beard was secondary in my head. [It’s] obviously still a very popular customization that the fans do, but I love that we get to have fun like they do in the game Jedi - Survivor and that we can bring that to life in toy form.
Reiff: Yeah, all the way down to all his different accessories. I mean, there's what? Four hilts for his light saber in there, the white blades, [etc.]. I mean, that game's so much about customization that being able to do a crazy variant of him with Turgle in there and Skoova Stev– it's one of the fun, break-frame, non-traditional sets that we can do every once in a while… and to be able to surprise fans with that at an event like this, I think that's really fun too.
LP: I've just recently started getting into collecting your helmets, and I want to ask you guys about the helmet that you announced here at Celebration, If you could just talk about that.
Reiff: Well, the new announcement for here– we did it up on the Live Stage just yesterday– was the Death Trooper helmet. Looking back to Rogue One when we saw that [movie] and that brand new trooper variant– super intimidating. We felt like it was the right time with the ties between Rogue One and Andor and all that energy coming back around and awareness of the movie. That helmet has been on our list to do for a while, and with that timing, it just made sense. So being able to lean in on the details and capture the presence that this helmet has.
Houle: It's a fully new sculpt from the team. It's so unique– it has a unique shape and, like you said, the presence of it when you turn it on– that green light, it just captures your attention immediately. There's so much detail in the sculpt; it's a lot more intricate and complex than we even realized. Eric, who worked on it, has talked about [how] ‘It's not just black– there's color of course, but even inside there's just dips and rivets that really make it stand out like it almost came straight from the movie.’ I love that we were able to bring it [to Celebration], because it's one thing to show it on camera, but then to do it on the Live Stage and bring it out here [to the booth] so fans can come by and take a look, [it] looks great.
LP: Lastly, I want to ask you guys about the Star Wars: Visions set, which is the convention exclusive in the Japanese language packaging. It's also available on Amazon in English packaging. Visions opens up the universe of Star Wars to so many more possibilities. Tell me about the first Visions set you guys have done and what makes you excited to be working with that part of this property.
Reiff: Well, Visions is now a big part of the Star Wars galaxy. And coming here to Celebration [Japan], that set just made so much sense. And we could lean in and do some stuff that was special with that, especially the grayscale and black-and-white version of him, the deluxe packaging, all that. It was the right thing to do here– [and] embracing of the culture and a brand new thing for fans with the wired cape, all of that premium note for The Black Series.
Houle: Yeah, I love how dedicated the team is to the details of creating a product and bringing it to life. We've talked about it a lot, but [we included the] wired cape because in the show, his cape is flowing and billowing in the background, and has all of these different looks about it. With the wired cape you can make those, right? It's strong enough to keep those positions, and knowing that this is what is important to the Japanese culture and anime, it's a very clean look. It has that whispery packaging, it has that metal open and closed, it looks very pristine, it's very premium. The extra accessories are in the top, so it's not shown immediately– it's like hidden and you open it and you can see it. It is a very well done pack and [includes] little things, too– the way in Arurebesh it says ‘Ronin’ on the inside. That's the same way that we wrote ‘The Duel’ in the first episode and that opening credit scene– the opening scene was the visual of the opening of the packaging too. So there's a lot of details that the team brought into this, and it came to life, and it's personally one of my favorites that we've done [for the] Black Series.
Reiff: I mean, even the subtleties of the Japanese-language exclusive. Coming here to Japan for Celebration, doing something that was very specific to Japan, which is not something we'd normally do– that's not part of our five language package, normally. But to be able to lean in and do something special for the convention and that release of it, it was really nice. It's a beautiful note for The Black Series.
Many of these newly announced Star Wars toys are already available for pre-order via the official Hasbro Pulse website. The full audio version of this interview can be heard in Episode 222 of Laughing Place’s Star Wars podcast “Who’s the Bossk?"