All of us here, in this antiquated forum, are the outliers. 

Why Dooku?  Because he won a fan choice poll over on Instagram.

Instagram seems to be Hasbro's go-to source for "what do the fans want" these days.  Try as I might, Hasbro doesn't really care about us "forum folks" anymore. 

If I remember correctly, I think most of these "Fan Channel" waves have been primarily repacks/repaints

Yeah, for the most part the 'fan channel' waves have been photo-real repaints or straight repack waves.

I guess we should also note that in the past the "fan channel only" waves have made it to Target/Walmart because despite being tagged as "fan channel" by Hasbro, they used the same assortment number as the regular figures.  That is again the case here.  These figures all have assortment #F6878, which is the same assortment number for the Bunker Han/Weequay wave, the Jerjerrod/Tusken Fett wave, and the Krennic/Chopper wave. 

This whole fan channel thing could be nothing or it could be a sign that Target/Walmart don't want this stuff anymore.  There is good and bad in that.  I get 90% of my stuff from Pulse/Amazon so it's not going to change my habits as all.  BUT, without big retail, we may miss out on some exclusives or bigger things.  I guess we all just need patience to see how this plays out.

Did anyone else notice that (I think) every figure announcement for TVC and Black Series are listed as either fan channel or Pulse/Shop Disney exclusives? I don’t recall seeing that before, for every release.

They have done "fan channel" waves before so it's not new.  In fact, at this same London MCM panel/show last year was when Hasbro announced the "fan channel only" wave of Jabba Goons repacks - Yakface, Kithaba, Nikto, Wooof. 

It could be a portent of things to come in the basic figure line that these are all "fan channel" or it could just be the result of these being announced at a European convention where the notion of "retail" is markedly different than here in the USA.  Maybe they just picked all fan channel things to reveal based on the audience/location of the show?

Looking at the past five HasLab projects:

Project		Status
Black Series Reva (The Third Sister) Force FX Elite Lightsaber		FAIL
G.I. Joe Classified Series Cobra H.I.S.S.		Funded!
Marvel Legends HasLab Ghost Rider: Engine of Vengeance		FAIL
HEROSCAPE AGE OF ANNIHILATION: Vanguard Edition		50% with 13 hours left
Transformers Generations HasLab Deathsaurus		81% with 27 days left

With the Ghostbusters PKE Meter/Ghost Trap 2-pack hitting it's base funding goal this afternoon (after only ~70 hours), I thought I'd pull this up for an update.  After the rough patch above (3 fails out of 5 projects in 2022), HasLab has had a much better run in 2023 - 4/4 so far.

Project		Status
G.I. Joe Classified Series G.I. Joe Assault Copter Dragonfly (XH-1)		Funded! (248% of goal)
Star Wars The Vintage Collection The Ghost		Funded! (272% of goal)
Marvel Legends HasLab Giant-Man		Funded! (139% of goal)
Ghostbusters Plasma Series HasLab Two in the Box! Ghost Trap and P.K.E. Meter		Base Package Funded with 42 days left to hit tiers...

Note quite an apples to oranges comparison of course (BS6 in 2022, TVC in 2023; Modern Marvel character in 2022, Classic Marvel character in 2023) but nice to see HasLab have a bit more success this year. 

TPM Anakin
- Amazon -> https://amzn.to/49gOqZm #sponsoredlink
- EE -> https://ee.toys/1514EE #sponsoredlink

TPM Padme
- Amazon -> https://amzn.to/45XlpyO #sponsoredlink
- EE -> https://ee.toys/77OZDZ #sponsoredlink

Starting up a thread for this wave...  Reminder that this wave is intended for specialty shops and is "Fan Channel" (meaning no Target or Walmart). 

Also, this wave has a weird "case pack of 4".  Not sure if that is related to the "fan channel" nature of this wave or if this is a sign of things to come for the TVC basic figures?

 - 2024 VC130 Captain Cassian Andor {photo-real repaint w/new cardback}
 - 2024 VCxxx Finn (Starkiller Base) {photo-real repaint; 1st time on TVC card}
 - 2024 VCxxx Phase I Clone Trooper {VC269 clone sculpt with a Phase I helmet}
 - 2024 VCxxx Count Dooku {all-new!}

You can order the full case of 4 at EE here -> https://ee.toys/ISADPG #sponsoredlink

And the individual pre-order links:

2024 VC130 Captain Cassian Andor
- Amazon -> https://amzn.to/3tLKdMJ #sponsoredlink
- EE -> https://ee.toys/ISADPG #sponsoredlink

2024 VCxxx Finn (Starkiller Base) {photo-real repaint w/new cardback}
- Amazon -> https://amzn.to/49caap9 #sponsoredlink
- EE -> https://ee.toys/5A187C #sponsoredlink

2024 VCxxx Phase I Clone Trooper
- Amazon -> https://amzn.to/3QDMS4k #sponsoredlink
- EE -> https://ee.toys/JB56AS #sponsoredlink

2024 VCxxx Count Dooku
- Amazon -> https://amzn.to/3QedJCB #sponsoredlink
- EE -> https://ee.toys/T4T3UP #sponsoredlink

is this phase I clone the same thing from the 4-pack?

This new Clone is a kitbash of the new VC269 Clone Body (from Andor) with a Phase 1 helmet.

https://yakfaceforums.com/main/2023/10/28/mcm-london-2023-reveals/

I hear you.  Dooku looks good but is something I already have so I can't get super excited paying $17 for an upgrade.  That Phase 1 Clone looks to be suffering from BFH (big fat helmet) syndrome which is all too common these days with the removable helmets.  Hope it looks better in person.  Finn on a TVC card purely for the carded collectors?  I get what they are doing there, but that's a big pass from me. Just a lot of "meh" here.


The pipeline reveals were also good and bad.  Doing alternate versions of Ezra (Ahsoka), Kanan (Rebels S1), and Zeb (Rebels S1) allows them to stick to the "Rebels Season 3-4 versions are exclusive to HasLab" but also lets them get those guys out to people who did not back The Ghost. Fine, I guess.  I'll probaby end up picking those up if they are different enough from the Ghost Haslab versions. 

Not much to say on the nighttrooper set.  Another one that is limited by putting the one named/differnt leader guy in there.  I'd have probably bought 2-3 and now I'll just stick to one I guess since I don't need multiple Enochs.