Do we know if Dark Side Toys' orders are getting placed and being reflected real time on Hasbro's site, or are they going to do a bulk buy on the last day based on their total orders with a big uptick?  I would be kind of surprised if it was real time.

It's possible that they are. Hasbro did not officially come out and say that Dark Side Toys was authorized to sell the Sail Barge in the UK. So like I said in my earlier post, all Dark Side Toys could be doing is taking pre-orders on their website and then having someone who lives in the US or Canada, on their behalf, placing an order for a Sail Barge.

Then if the 5000 backers is reached, that individual would take receipt of all Sail Barges that Dark Side Toys took pre-orders for. That person would then pack them up (probably in a shipping crate) and have them shipped to the UK. The value would be declared for the total shipment and Dark Side would have to pay the duty tax/fee before taking receipt of the shipment. I'm sure they looked into what it would cost duty wise to have two Sail Barges shipped from the US to the UK. (I say two because I believe the rate of tax/fee changes if you cross either 500GBP or 600GBP in value)

So now you have for over-head: (1) the cost to ship the crate across the Atlantic; and (2) the duty charged to take receipt. Then Dark Side would be responsible for shipping them throughout the UK and to the rest of the EU (which thanks to changes coming due to Brexit probably have their own challenges).

Considering that they want $835 for each Sail Barge, that extra $335 can easily account for the additional fees, duty, taxes, shipping costs, etc... plus giving them a modest amount for their time & effort.

So, yeah, I think their orders are being reflected in near-real-time.

Barge Backer Update: 2767

Not much of a surge, especially given its the weekend.   

Unfortunately no, and considering the mark-up, I'm not surprised.

We're now at a point where the required backer rate for the remaining time is 147.5 backers/day - three days ago it was 128 backers/day.

I thought for sure with the Dark Side Toys announcement we'd at least hit 3000 this weekend.

For this to have been a viable offering, Hasbro would have had to leverage their own European distribution channels to try and keep the mark-up minimal. But I think the European collectors were hoping/thinking it would be in the 360GBP and 405EUR range, not 599GBP which equates to $835USD - that's kind of insane.

There will be a blip from this offering, but not a significant one that would push this closer to catching up to the needed backers/day run-rate it currently needs - which is now up to 128 backers/day.

I see a lot of people over on JTA treating that picture of Mark Boudreaux holding up the outer shipping box along with the dimensions of the outer and inner boxes as gospel that Hasbro has a plan for this to succeed no matter what. I'm sure dimensions and weight of the shipping carton were VERY MUCH on the minds of team before HasLab was even launched because those two numbers are definitely part of consideration when it comes to shipping costs. Never mind the fact that it's March and the east coast has been blustery cold and there's good ole Mark smiling on a sunny day wearing a T-Shirt. 

I've been noticing random surges in orders. I check in a few times a day, sometimes it'll tick up 3 or 4, yesterday I noticed a surge of about 40 or more over the course of a few hours. I am worried, though. Seems like we'll be lucky to get to 4K. Hope I'm wrong.

You're not wrong. At the current pace, we won't even make 4000 by the 3rd of April.

The number of backers per day has been steadily on a decline. Two weeks ago a sustained run-rate of 80 backers per day was needed to meeting the goal. Now the number is approaching 106 backers a day needed. The reality is between 50 and 60 backers per day. The numbers just aren't there.

It's a shame, it really is.

I listened to the recorded interviews and I'm shocked no one thought to ask Hasbro how these figures were making their way to WalMart - mixed in with the regular assortments or having their own dedicated cases which means all of a sudden you'll walk into a WM and find 12 Ach-to Rey's on the pegs.

My hope is they're going to the solid-case route so at least there will be a fighting chance of finding these.

Pete-do you have a PayPal credit card or just using the PayPal credit feature? You can "borrow" the money now with the chance the transaction may never happen?

Sorry for the delay in my response. I just have the PayPal Credit feature - I could have gotten a credit card to use against that available credit line, but I opted to not go that route because I do not like to carry a lot of credit-card debt month-to-month. So it's more like a line of credit than a credit card. I hope that makes sense.

I did get a notice from PayPal that there was an authorization issued for the amount, but my current balance is still $0, but my available credit has been reduced by the pledge amount. My payback period of 6 months won't start until the charge is actually processed on the 3rd of April.

So if it makes it (which I hope it does) the clock starts for me April 3rd. If it fails to reach 5000 backers then the authorization will be released and I'll never have had to give Paypal anything for this. It's not like I got charged and then Hasbro is going to issue a refund.

To me this made the most sense for a couple of reasons:
1) I get 6 months to spread the cost of my two sail barges out
2) I keep a credit card for emergencies like home/car repair, medical expenses, etc... if I had used my credit card it would have reduced my available credit on that card by $1067, which kinda stinks and defeats the purpose of having the card for emergencies, so instead I used my PayPal credit line which I have SOLELY for picking up big items for my collection.

I hope that helps answer any questions you have Nick - if you have any others, feel free to reach out.

I’m willing to bet Aphra will be the peg warmer.

Most likely because most people are going to have the reaction of "who is this?"

I had to read up on her on Wookiepedia when she "won" the fan's choice poll.

I thought there was supposed to be a smaller vehicle w/figure in the assortment with the Wampa & Luke and there was also going to be a mid-size vehicle line in that $30 price point. Any word on those items?