How Hasbro brings some of the greatest Star Wars idols to life Star Wars Celebration 2025
Blog Andrew Joseph 21 Apr , 2025 0
Hasbro reveals impressive new toys and collectibles in Star Wars Celebration 2025 New Mandala Characters and A long-term dashboard person's figure. They also exhibit many of these versions at the show.
IGN was able to take some photos of Hasbro's Star Wars Celebration exhibition and talk to designer Chris Reiff and Hasbro Marketing's Jing Houle about the thrill of designing toys based on these iconic characters. Check out the slide gallery below to take a closer look at these new toys, and then continue reading to learn what Reiff and Houle have to say, including why there is still some room for improvement with some of the biggest heroes of the Star Wars series.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor fans are undoubtedly pleased to see the new numbers included in this new Star Wars toy. Nightister Merrin is getting a new character (See it on Amazon), while series star Cal Kestis features three-piece packaging along with Turgle and Skoova Stev (Amazon). On top of that, the Cal comes with multiple swap heads, including a beard with a handlebar. According to Houle, this particular look is the top priority of this version.
“To be honest, we just wanted to have fun,” Haller told IGN. “This is one of my favorite packaging that I revealed in the panel. We actually started with the beard of the handlebar and the fish and added in the clean cut. Then we used a short beard. So for us, the main look was almost the handlebar, which was fun.”
As for Merlin, his crew can join CAL given the importance of Merlin to the greater Depraved Order/Survivor Legend. The challenge is to correctly portray her unique power abilities.
“It's hard without Merrin,” Reeve said. “So we're glad we finally were able to Merrin, but to take this power effect, the explosion of green comes there, all the details of that new outfit and the face tattoo with inkjet. It's just that there's some beautiful subtlety there. She's a really cool character. I know we know we know fans have invested and are able to build the world.”
This year's toy lineup includes two characters, which are certainly no stranger to Hasbro now – Han Solo and Chewbacca. (look he and Chewie On Amazon) But despite how many Han and Church characters we’ve seen over the years, Haller still believes there is room for improvement.
“I mean, we haven’t done it for a long time,” Haller said. “They need to update, so we gave them brand new tools so they have the latest pronunciations so that fans can really celebrate and appreciate… The classic characters are back in the latest technology and pronunciations we have. And, in general, we’ve made a lot of updates in general with the latest pronunciations. We’ve learned a lot from the long hair we’ve done.”
Houle continues, “And so, despite the long hair, having soft plastics so he can still pivot and move his head in a seamless way, that was really important to us. And we added articulation into Han too, but we didn't give him the thigh break because we didn't want to separate the red bars on his right side of the outside of the thigh. So we thought it was important to keep that clean. So we added articulation to the top of the boot instead.”
Based on the anime anthology episode Star Wars: Vision, any number in this lineup is more eye-catching than Ronin. True to the series, Ronin is a black and white figure with the only color coming from his red samurai sword. Since Ronin is the exclusive release of celebration, it is important to both Houle and Reiff, so their details are correct.
“I like us sticking to it,” Haller said. “And then from what we know about Japanese culture and stuff, the way the box is built, the quality of its appearance, the magnets that open up, the clean look, the watercolor, the accessories hidden on the box, that you not only see it. Everything. There’s a lot of attention, from packaging to engineering.”
“Even in Japanese with this exclusive packaging, we won't do that, but here, because we're in Japan, we want to really embrace all of this and do a special packaging, and that's just Japanese,” Reiff added.
Finally, Hasbro also offers some stuff for fans of the 1:1 ratio Black Helmet series, revealing an amazingly detailed Death Soldier helmet in the celebration group.
“This is a brand new tool helmet for the Black Series premium role-playing series,” Reiff said. “It seems like this is a straight standout from the movie, the scenery, the lighting details, you can poke a button on the side, you can control the lights of the chin and the lights of the ghost sensor. The helmet, which has a full detailed interior.”
For more information about Star Wars Celebration, find out Our Know About the Stories of Star Wars: Star Fighter and Check out the biggest news and moments of the celebration.
Jesse is a moderate feature worker at IGN. Let him pass Follow @jschedeen on the Blues.
