I am really excited to watch the shelf-life of this product unfold. Will it disappear quickly? Will it linger? Will it be a regional thing? Will it come in an assortment of previously-released "Vintage" styled vehicles at the same price? No one knows at this point, but the result will have big implications for the future of the vehicle assortment...
Vehicles have never really been my thing and I don't really put them out on display, so I can be a bystander here more or less. I am surprised the pricing of this thing comes up so often in the discussion so far. 80 bucks might be more than you've ever paid for a mid-sized vehicle before, but it's still only the cost of 6 "Vintage" line action figures, so it's not beyond reason. And it has the incredible level of detailing so far above what the Disney-era/post-Chinese manufacture vehicles have had...I am floored by the separate rubber treads (when was the last time you saw something like that?) I mean, just the three kyber crates are $30 worth of engineering and plastic these days...
My advice would be if you want to see vehicles like this in the future, you need to get serious about recalibrating your pricepoint expectations and supporting the Hovertank at retail at $80. If you love it but wait for clearance anyway, you'll be telling Hasbro to not bother developing high-end "collector's" toys anymore. After the death of the 6" TIE fighter (a piece no one asked for, no one bought, and no one has since asked for a line-continuation of) Hasbro really seems to be listening and trying to give the fans exactly the toy they are asking for.
Like I said though, as a student of all of this, I can't wait to see how the history of this toy shakes out.