2021 HasLab - Black Series Rancor

[CorranHorn]

The counter stopped at 832, they must have overloaded the system handling the CC hold removals. 

[Matt_Fury]

I’m surprised.  I thought this was going to make it.

[JediJman]

Well, I for one am glad it failed.  Sorry to those that were looking forward to it, but hopefully this sends a message about the pricing/value/marketing.  I don't pretend to know Hasbro's cost structure, but I simply can't believe that this thing costs that much to make.  It should have been $200ish or may $250 with some figures added in and I think it would have cleared without any problems.  Or if they had simply made Oola and Rancor Keeper incentives from the start, it would have more than cleared the initial backers.  Look how close they got despite so many of us BS collectors refusing to buy. 

I just hope that the message is interpreted as "Hey, this was cool, but we need better pricing and incentives to make it work" versus what I read above and in other forums with people saying "Haslab should only be for TVC, not Black Series."  I don't think this was remotely a TVC vs BS problem, it was just an overall value proposition problem combined with a rough time of year to be shelling out big bucks AND two other Haslab projects potentially stealing away interested buyers.  While they clearly could have done better, I do appreciate Hasbro's willingness to make really cool stuff like this through a backer program and hope we'll see more cool BS stuff in the future.

[Jeff]

The counter stopped at 832, they must have overloaded the system handling the CC hold removals. 

Or those 832 were the fake ones they added to the total along the way?  . 

I wonder if Patrick is getting his resume ready or at least updated.

I wonder when the Star Wars team will comment on it?  Gotta get that script all prepped up -

"We're really disappointed that this great expression of The Rancor from the entertainment just didn't resonate with the buyers fans."

[Rob]

It’d be much funnier if the 832 were the only actual orders and all the rest were the fudged ones.

[CorranHorn]

It’d be much funnier if the 832 were the only actual orders and all the rest were the fudged ones.

Wouldn’t that be a hoot?

JMan made some great points. I think it boils down to Hasbro’s hubris. This was going to be a tough hill to climb and they just piled on the hurdles.

[Nicklab]

The late rally was interesting to see.  But the FOMO backers weren't enough to get this across the goal line.  I'm not surprised.  Am I disappointed?  Sure.  But that disappointment is more about the Star Wars brand team and how they bungled this.  There were SO MANY failures along the way here.

1 - THE LEAK Leaking the campaign during the July 15 webcast

2 -DAMAGE CONTROL - PART 1 Playing catch-up with that leak with some lame graphic

3 - SHIPPING DELAYS / BRAND IS STRETCHED  Launching this Star Wars Haslab before the previous Star Wars Haslab was delivered

4 - THE PRICE  $349 for a Black Series item would be the single most expensive Black Series item ever.  Black Series collectors have had sticker shock with $150 vehicles

5 - UNINSPIRING STRETCH GOALS  Reissue figures (Gamorrean Guard, Salacious Crumb) as stretch goals instead of new figures like in other 6" scale Haslab campaigns in other IP's (looking at you Sentinel and Galactus)

6 - BASIC MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE FANBASE  Does Hasbro think that Black Series collectors want the same kinds of things as Vintage Collection fans - IE special packaging? (TVC fans have fervently wanted POTF carded figures)

7 - GREEDY STRETCH GOALS  Possibly influenced by the success of the Razor crest.  Did Hasbro think that a creature from a 40 year old movie would be as popular as the ship/home of one of the most popular characters in Star Wars today?

8 - POOR MARKETING  Hasbro had plenty of opportunities to promote this campaign, but their efforts fell flat.  They seemed uninspired and that no doubt affected fans

9 - DAMAGE CONTROL - PART 2  Malakili being offered was damage control - people could smell blood in the water.  Why could almost all Hasbro Star Wars collectors see this as such an obvious figure to package with the Rancor and the Hasbro team could not?

10 - UNFORTUNATE TRUTHS  Basic admission from a former Star Wars team manager that Oola is pretty much off the table now


I was never rooting against this.  Hasbro did all they could to make this campaign fail, and not succeed.  This is embarrassing for Hasbro as well as for Star Wars.  It diminishes the perception of the brand.  I suspect that there might be a shakeup in the Star Wars team after this, possible at the behest of Lucasfilm / Disney.

[Jeff]

8 - POOR MARKETING  Hasbro had plenty of opportunities to promote this campaign, but their efforts fell flat.  They seemed uninspired and that no doubt affected fans

I was really surprised to see NOTHING from the Hasbro social channels yesterday.  Like at least toss out a couple tweets or instagram posts reminding people its ending?  I guess they sent out a mid-afternoon email, but email is not where your Black Series buyer are (which is why all the Black Series fan poll stuff happens on Instagram).

It's like the Black Series team's whole plan was: 1. Announce Rancor, 2. Sit back and watch it sell itself, 3. Collect the money.

Ghostbusters got Adam Savage to review the pack and put out lots of videos on it.  It had a major motion picture to support it.  Skystriker got multiple developer videos, different looks at the features/figures, they paid the guy who does the current voice-over for Transformer's Starscream to help them shoot the "Cobra Hack" of the HasLab.  And Rancor got, "look how big it is! and all the paint apps!"

[Mister Skeezler]

That's that I guess.

[Matt_Fury]

Nick, you nailed it!  Jeff, you also have some great points.

I also think the Hasbro Star Wars team had a lot of hubris after the surprising success of the Razor Crest.  That had a basic goal of 6,000 at the same price point of the Rancor and they ended up selling nearly 5 times that amount!  They marketing team (which knows little to nothing about the Star Wars IP) think they can make any big item from Star Wars and it would sell.  If we're being honest, this would have sold if they were paying attention to what fans want....stretch goals 2 and 3 made absolutely no sense and were just lazy.  Now, I've said it before but it bears repeating, the stretch goals should not be a consideration if you are going to back a Haslab project, they are not guarantees.  That being said, Hasbro should look at stretch goals as something that will entice fans into backing the project.  Oola and the Rancor Keeper should have been no-brainers to the team as stretch goals.  I can understand not making Oola in a mainline release, she just wouldn't sell in high enough number to justify it.  However, Oola makes perfect sense for a Haslab project because of the collector focus of this item.

If there's some PC bull**** reason they aren't making Oola or Slave Leia, they need to be upfront about that with the fans.  It's time to put all the cards on the table on these issues.

I really hope that Hasbro does address the failure of the Rancor and are honest with the collecting community who are willing to fork over hard earned money to fund these projects.  Unfortunately, it looks like they are just trying to memory-hole this entire fiasco.

[Jeff]

The counter stopped at 832, they must have overloaded the system handling the CC hold removals. 

The Rancor is now listed as "Not Funded" in the past projects section.  The counter has been reset to 8533.

[Nicklab]

If there's some PC bull**** reason they aren't making Oola or Slave Leia, they need to be upfront about that with the fans.  It's time to put all the cards on the table on these issues.

I think we might have gotten the most public comment ever yesterday when former Star Wars team member Steve Evans said "at this point I don't think Oola can be made" in response to someone saying "No Oola, no Moolah" on Instagram.

Hasbro, Lucasfilm and Disney will NEVER publicly state their reasons why they won't produce Oola, Leia in the slave outfit or the Tonnika sisters.  They're already a point of concern because of said "pc considerations".  Star Wars is supposed to be for everybody, and the marketing of the past decade for Star Wars as a whole has attempted to draw in a lot more female fans - witness Forces of Destiny.  But in the era when the OT was produced these considerations weren't so much at the forefront. Publicly stating the reasons for not offering Oola, slave Leia or the Tonnikas just brings the unwanted attention that Hasbro, Lucasfilm and Disney were trying to avoid.  Not engaging in the discussion is the only way to manage this without it turning into a bigger issue that transcends action figure collectors.

I have seen so many collector media people trying to get to the bottom of the whole Tonnika sisters issue.  I've seen efforts to confront Hasbro about the likeness rights with one of the actors (who has since passed on), and grand exposes about the likeness rights with the other Tonnika sister.  In the first case I saw a Hasbro rep trying to bite his lip, and in the other situation I just had to roll my eyes over the confirmation bias in the interview.  None of these ever mentioned that the crew on the original Star Wars film referred to the Tonnika sisters as "Star Whores" on set, and the fact that this information was published in a now archived article on the official Star Wars website. 

These topics are just too toxic for anyone to engage from an official capacity, because the risk/reward balance is not in the favor of the brand or the licensees.  Selling 10,000 or 30,000 or 100,000 action figures doesn't compare to the potential damage that could befall the Star Wars IP if fans are driven away by a scandal that could be easily avoided.

[Jeff]

None of these ever mentioned that the crew on the original Star Wars film referred to the Tonnika sisters as "Star Whores" on set, and the fact that this information was published in a now archived article on the official Star Wars website. 

I loved that cantina article - so many great mug shots in there...

[Diddly]

Can't really add to what all has been said. Just a giant mishandled opportunity.

[Rob]

I think we might have gotten the most public comment ever yesterday when former Star Wars team member Steve Evans said "at this point I don't think Oola can be made" in response to someone saying "No Oola, no Moolah" on Instagram.

Hasbro, Lucasfilm and Disney will NEVER publicly state their reasons why they won't produce Oola, Leia in the slave outfit or the Tonnika sisters.  They're already a point of concern because of said "pc considerations".  Star Wars is supposed to be for everybody, and the marketing of the past decade for Star Wars as a whole has attempted to draw in a lot more female fans - witness Forces of Destiny.  But in the era when the OT was produced these considerations weren't so much at the forefront. Publicly stating the reasons for not offering Oola, slave Leia or the Tonnikas just brings the unwanted attention that Hasbro, Lucasfilm and Disney were trying to avoid.  Not engaging in the discussion is the only way to manage this without it turning into a bigger issue that transcends action figure collectors.

I have seen so many collector media people trying to get to the bottom of the whole Tonnika sisters issue.  I've seen efforts to confront Hasbro about the likeness rights with one of the actors (who has since passed on), and grand exposes about the likeness rights with the other Tonnika sister.  In the first case I saw a Hasbro rep trying to bite his lip, and in the other situation I just had to roll my eyes over the confirmation bias in the interview.  None of these ever mentioned that the crew on the original Star Wars film referred to the Tonnika sisters as "Star Whores" on set, and the fact that this information was published in a now archived article on the official Star Wars website. 

These topics are just too toxic for anyone to engage from an official capacity, because the risk/reward balance is not in the favor of the brand or the licensees.  Selling 10,000 or 30,000 or 100,000 action figures doesn't compare to the potential damage that could befall the Star Wars IP if fans are driven away by a scandal that could be easily avoided.

Just put Bounty Hunters or Space Traders or Arms Dealers or whatever on the packaging and that would be that.

Fans would be excited as hell.  No one would care. 

The idea that they can't make a toy of something because some doofuses made a joke in 1976 is as absurd now as it has been for the last 25 years.