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

[Rob]

We're officially past 1800

And that was like 25 in the last two hours or so.  A good little surge compared to the last day or two.

[Jesse James]

You, sir, have failed this hobby. 

So I hear. 🤔

I hear whole sites just aren’t doing enough and only one is really trying.  Hell I hear some sites are acting like TVC coming back isn’t even a big deal!

I also hear some sites act like they single handedly accomplished it too...  or even had any impact.🤷‍♂️

[Brian]

I noticed today that Retroblasting (a YouTube channel I really enjoy) posted a video with his opinions on the whole thing today. He isn't overly positive about it (although agreeing that it looks amazing), but isn't a fan basically of a big Corp like Hasbro "crowdfunding" it. Anyways I see this afternoon that it has caused quite a hubbub over at JTA (surprise, surprise).

As a side note, between reading the comments there and on the video itself, it really shows how divided fandom is these days. So much dislike or even hate coming from both sides of things. No wonder things can't get done sometimes.

[Rob]

I've been watching that Youtube video you just mentioned, and I'm only 6 or 7 minutes in, but I'm not finding his argument to be very convincing. 

In my mind Hasbro isn't perfect, but still knows infinitely more about the risks and costs and rewards of producing various toys in various scales than any of us do and if they're moving back towards more collector focused products, that's great.  The Sail Barge never happened, and if they need to mitigate their risk to be willing to produce something we all want, I don't see any problem with it.

If that's what it takes to get it done, and it's reserved for special cases like this, I don't have any problem with it and I don't know why anyone else does.

[Brian]

I agree completely. I don’t have any problem with them doing something like this for items that are either too large (like this), or even single figures that would just be dead weight at retail (like an Imperial Dignitary for instance). There is no way something like this would come to retail. A $500 gigantic shelf hog? Doubtful. This is perfect for something like this.

[Rob]

I'm still watching... his whole argument seems to be, Matty Collector sucked, $500 is a lot of money, and Hasbro sucks.

I don't think he's making any real points here... he's just kind of dissenting, which he's certainly entitled to do, but whatever.

I also love how he wraps up by bitching about the Falcon they're mass producing for the new movie... but also complaining about the price, and the quality they're putting into the barge.

That's Hasbro's WHOLE POINT - that manufacturing being what it is these days, for the $100 price point you get crap... but a mass market toy that's $500 won't move at all, so they're between a rock and a hard place.  To me HasLab is an out-of-the-box swing at actually producing something collectors want.

[CHEWIE]

I had never heard of that YouTube channel until JTA front paged it to complain about it.

I agree the community is very divided right now.  Seems like there is so much hostility between collectors too.  I guess as I've gotten older, I shrug my shoulders a lot more than I used to. 

I was much more passionate about things (not just Star Wars) 5-10 years ago.  I guess kids, stress at work, and gray hair have taken a toll on me.

[Nicklab]

I can appreciate where the guy from Retroblasting is coming from.  At least in the sense that the concept of crowdfunding does seem misplaced in this particular endeavor.  Hasbro has definitely adopted the CONCEPT of crowdfunding in this campaign:  a goal and a timeline, and promoting it through social media and associated online platforms.  But the reality is that this is more of a pre-order in terms of practice.  Hasbro just has a target number that they've made public before they're prepared to fulfill those preorders.

Is it cool that Hasbro wants a $2.5 million commitment from collectors in light of the fact that Hasbro had over $5 billion in revenue last year?  That's debatable.  Hasbro is a business, not a charity.  And they stand to make at least $1 million in profit if they adhere to standard corporate profit models.  It's not like we're talking about artists who used kickstarters to further a musical project.

There are some other business considerations to keep in mind.  First, what if Hasbro just took it upon themselves to produce and market this piece without the HasLab outreach?  I think the collector response would be overwhelmingly positive about the toy itself.  But inevitably the conversation would shift to the price:  it's too expensive, what retailer has the best price, what sales can I take advantage of, when does it go on clearance, etc.  Because we had these conversations on public forums about plenty of other big vehicles in the past.  Most recently I can remember it happening with the 6" TBS First Order TIE Fighter and the ROGUE ONE AT-ACT.  There was that initial sticker shock followed by people waiting for sales and clearances.  No doubt Hasbro knows that and so do retailers.  That doesn't do Hasbro or the retailers any good.

And speaking of the retailers?  They seem to have gotten the shaft on these recent vehicles.  The retailers pay wholesale for these items and then have to put them on shelves.  And items like the TBS TIE Fighter and RO AT-ACT took up a lot of shelf space.  That shelf space translates to merchandise/money.  The TIE Fighter was a $160 that didn't move so fast.  The AT-ACT was initially $299 and also did not move so fast.  A $500 item?  I'm thinking that based on the price alone:  it would not move so fast.  Once the Targets, WalMarts and TRU's of the world get stuck with something this big, are they really going to want to slash its price in order to free up the shelf space?

There's also the mechanics of the shelving. Those shelf sections are typically 4 feet wide.  The Khetanna is reportedly over 4 feet in length.  So how big is the box?  How much shelf space would this take up?  And this vehicle isn't exactly supported by current media.

Putting the Sail Barge out to wider retail considering what we've seen in the past just does not seem to work for the retailers.  And I would bet that Hasbro approached a number of retailers about the Sail Barge as a wide release as well as an exclusive.  My guess is that the retailers said no, and it was because of the price point and the shelf space.  And I think that's why we're talking about why Hasbro is offering up the Sail Barge via HasLab.

[Rob]

Good points. Also if Hasbro just made the sail barge the old fashioned way and it bombed, the cost to them wouldn’t just be the loss on the barge, but the opportunity cost of not using the resources that went into it to make something safer and profitable. 

I keep saying it, but it my mind this is an inventive idea on their part to give collectors something they’ve been asking for for decades and I think we should be far more complimentary (as most of us seem to be) and far far less whiny (as a few of us seem to be) about it.  But you certainly can’t please everyone.

[GrandMoffNick]

Whereas I get crowdfunding seems odd from a large company, I think with the large vehicle/playset market being what it's been this thing never has a shot of seeing the light of day otherwise.

Hasbro had the balls to take the guff for crowdfunding and give us a shot at this. I'm imagining Target laughing in the face of Hasbro as they explain shelf space needed and cost.

[Darby]

Nick makes a lot of great points.

I think this is the best and probably only way Hasbro could present an item like this, in today's market. A $500 toy with no feature except its outrageous size, in a shrinking world of big box retail, is a non starter. Online only? Maybe. Amazon isn't worried about shelf space. But the price remains. And the price is an important factor. The market simply won't support a large SW item north of $100 right now. I don't know if it supports one above $50. I'm still shocked Hasbro is even attempting this, but there's a need to engage legacy collectors in a full scale way that I think represents a larger concern Hasbro's part: new collectors aren't developing or sticking around. The market is too crowded, and the windows of opportunity too short, for any of this to catch on.

[Nicklab]

I keep saying it, but it my mind this is an inventive idea on their part to give collectors something they’ve been asking for for decades and I think we should be far more complimentary (as most of us seem to be) and far far less whiny (as a few of us seem to be) about it.  But you certainly can’t please everyone.

It's absolutely a creative way of conducting outreach to hardcore fans.  I appreciate Hasbro trying to find a way to make this possible.  I think it was a labor of love for people like Steve Evans who seems genuinely enthusiastic, and it also looks like it might be a grand finale for someone like Mark Boudreaux who has been designing the vehicles since the very beginning.

The goal of the campaign gives Hasbro a benchmark that serves them in a number of ways.  First, to see what the market will bear in terms of price.  It also gives them a clearer picture of how many adult collectors in the U.S. can really take the plunge on a project like this.  And if they don't meet the goal number?  The potential lack of fan interest gives Hasbro an out without taking a huge risk.

The continued point of concern for me and a lot of people seems to be the price.  Because the escalation in pricing for very large vehicles seems like it's gotten to a breaking point.  There seemed to be a standard for a long time as you can see here:

1999 - EPISODE I - Naboo Royal Starship - $99.99
1999 - EPISODE I - Fambaa & Gungan Warrior - $75.00
2002 - SAGA - Imperial Shuttle - $99.99
2004 - OTC - Millennium Falcon - $49.99
2006 - THE SAGA COLLECTION - Imperial Shuttle - $59.99
2008 - CLONE WARS - AT-TE - $99.99
2008 - LEGACY COLLECTION - Millennium Falcon - $159.99
2009 - CLONE WARS - Clone Turbo Tank - $99.99
2010 - CLONE WARS SOTDS - AT-AT - $99.99
2011 - CLONE WARS - Republic Attack Shuttle - $79.99
2012 - VINTAGE COLLECTION - Millennium Falcon - $249.99
2012 - DISCOVER THE FORCE - MTT - $129.99
2012 - VINTAGE COLLECTION - AT-AT - $149.99
2013 - VINTAGE COLLECTION - Republic Gunship - $119.99
2015 - THE FORCE AWAKENS - Millennium Falcon - $149.99
2015 - BLACK SERIES - First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter - $179.99
2016 - ROGUE ONE - AT-ACT - $299.99

The trend in terms of pricing just doesn't seem to be with us.  Especially from 2012 on.  And 2012 is coincidentally the year that Disney purchased the franchise.  It does make you wonder.

[Rob]

While maybe it varied, when that Falcon was in stores here in 2012, it was $329.99.

[Mister Skeezler]

Was the 2012 Falcon a re-release of the BMF?

[Muftak]

Yes, the TRU exclusive version in the Vintage style box: