2018 HasLab - TVC Jabba's Sail Barge (The Khetanna)

[CHEWIE]

Wow, you're right.  There's even a sink!  Wow.

I do feel it's pretty likely this was fleshed out years ago like Darth_Anton mentioned.  I could swear there were really strong rumors around 6-7 years ago that it was in development?   Perhaps the whole Disney merger just stopped everything as Hasbro's Star Wars business model changed, and now they are back in a positition to try this out again... it just sucks that the price is so high!  If they could find a way to make it for $300-$350, I feel it would be much more attainable to get the 5000 backers... and also I can't help but wonder, if this had come out 5 years ago, how much cheaper it could have been?

Now, if this doesn't hit the 5000 goal, I wonder what they will do.  I'd hate to see it fall short and then just cancel the whole idea. 

How much was the Mattel Castle Grayskull, like $300 from what I recall?  How many backers did it need?  I seem to recall right after it was green lighted, places like BBTS had it for pre-order.  Curious to how all that works behind the scenes...

[Nicklab]

I am shocked and amazed that Hasbro is doing this.  But the crowd sourcing angle does give them an out in case the interest isn't there. 

The numbers they're talking about required a commitment of $2.5 million from collectors in order to move this project forward.  As I write this, there are 500+ backers, so this thing has got 10% of the backers required for it to move into production, and another 40+ days to get the rest of the backers.

I'm not sure if I can do this.  I would like to.  And I've been selling off a bunch of extra stuff from my collection.  But $500?  That's still pretty steep.

[Pete_Fett]

That's definitely a good sign - 10% in one day. I was hopeful that it would hit that much this weekend as hitting that 10% milestone could be considered a good indicator as to whether or not this makes it.

Hopefully at some point they work it out where Canadians and other collectors around the world can back it as well.

[GrandMoffNick]

I see this hitting 1500 backers by next weekend. Then a slow rise until a final big bump as last week of March hits. 5000? No clue

[Brian]

I definitely did not expect this news, very cool. I REALLY want to get into this too. I have nowhere to put it, but I don't really care. An all new Original Trilogy era ship done in the BMF style? Right up my alley. I don't know if I can afford it, and I definitely would have to sell something else of significance to offset the cost if I did. So cool though.

[Diddly]

This is so cool... and such a shame I'll probably never own it. $500 is a lot of dough, especially in that short amount of time. There's also the space issue.

[Dave]

Hasbro has absolutely knocked it out of the park with this!!!  Not the sail barge, but the business model.  While I like the sail barge, I'm more pumped that they've recognized the death of retail and how distribution sucks.  Take the retailers mostly out of the mix on large, collector focused, high dollar items and go straight to the consumers.

We don't need full on prototypes to make this a reality either.  If they can come up with some sketches that people could vote on with $$$ and we get a new one of these every 18 months, how awesome would that be?!?!  The Ghost, Death Star, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon, EE, or other online retailers would pick up a handful of these too.

Sign me up!

[darth broem 2]

I want this so bad. I would have to sell some stuff from my collection before the deadline. Kind of how Luke had to sell his speeder to get off Tatooine
I hope it gets backed because I now have dreams of a Death Star and a Star Destroyer. But not sure how I would get the funds for those. I could see them trying to create a $800 Death Star now. 

[Dave]

This business model opens so many doors for Hasbro and Star Wars toys.  No more having to force too many vehicles and assortments in to retail trying to hit the magic numbers of the $20 impulse buy, the $40 birthday gift, the $150 "big Christmas gift".  I'm sure they'll still need to do some of that buy they will also have other direct to customer options and can choose to hit different (higher) price points.

They could also potentially re-engage with their old contractors at BossFightStudio or others.  Those guys could pitch ideas through Haslab's kickstarters and share in the revenue.

This could also open up big new opportunities with figure assortments as well.  They could have the main figures from the latest movie (and a legacy hero collection) at retail and can then have direct to collectors via Haslab assortments (e.g Canto Bight casino assortment). 

I've been meaning to post on here about the latest wave of BossFightStudio Vitruvian HACKS I got a couple weeks ago.  Sure they're $25 each, but they are so, so much cooler than even your standard TBS 3.75" highly articulated figures.

Let's hope this new way of thinking opens the door for a lot of new possibilities.

[Pete_Fett]

I doubt any retailer would jump in solely to bolster the backer count, but I’m sure that there have already been discussions between Hasbro and retailers to the particulars of “if we get 5000 collectors to crowd source fund the manufacturing process, then we will be able to mass produce units for you at a cost of $XXX each”, with XXX being less than 500.

That’s got to be why there is the disclaimer that items available from HasbroLab may be sold elsewhere at a later date.

This experiment by Hasbro is purely aimed at removing their risk from undertaking such an endeavor. So clearly 5000 collectors is the magic number for the manufacturing of any designed item. I’d also be willing to bet that if they started another one of these for an item that hasn’t even been sketched yet then the required number of backers would go up as well.

I would love to see their next item be small and possibly even have tiers. Like a single figure, for example Sim Aloo. Commit to $15 and you’ll get him on a TVC carback in a white mailer. Commit to $45 for one and you’ll get him on a TVC cardback in a box with TVC carded re-releases of the Legacy collection Imperial Dignitaries (similar to the 4LOM and Zuckass double pack).

[Darby]

I'd love to see what they can do with individual figures - Dorme! - and future vehicles. Something like the Resistance Bomber probably makes more sense here, and certainly the AT-M6. Going back to the figures, it could quickly become the default for getting obscure figures / unusual figures like Grumgar or something. That's good because retail doesn't seem to be the place for aliens/obscurity anymore.

[Brian]

Been thinking about this a lot this morning (and trying to figure out how to afford it), and just how cool this concept could be. Not just for the Barge, which is great, but potential future releases that some have mentioned. You could see a Death Star, Ewok Village, Dagobah, Poe's X-Wing, or even smaller items. It also makes me realize that this program might "force" people to become more and more specialized in their collections. I already don't know where I would put the barge for sure, let alone if we start getting things like this every 18 months or so. It may force things to "OT only", OT Vintage Collection only, etc. the majority of us only have so much room. All that being said, I'm so happy that this excitement is back in the Star Wars line. It seemed like that had been waning a little bit.

[Rob]

I slept on it... I'm doing it.  $500 kind of sucks, but I know I'd be more than $500 frustrated later on if this gets made and I don't have one in the collection.

[Mister Skeezler]

I slept on it... I'm doing it.  $500 kind of sucks, but I know I'd be more than $500 frustrated later on if this gets made and I don't have one in the collection.

Yeah, that's where I am this morning too

[Rob]

I can't stop looking at the high-res pics...  the Ithorian, the mini-rancor, the rancor claws on the partitions; the gamorrean head on the wall; the sink, grill, and frogs in the galley, it's all too much goodness. 

Yeah, and while it's obviously a vehicle, it's pretty much a play set too.

This thing should make a lot of people happy, if they can't stomach the cost.