2021 HasLab - Black Series Rancor

[Dave]

I'll throw my hat in the ring if they're ever looking for a new Star Wars brand/product manager.   

[JediJman]

I'll throw my hat in the ring if they're ever looking for a new Star Wars brand/product manager.   

Ditto!

Frankly, I don't think the rancor is such a bad item to offer. Sure, I have a number of them from various previous lines, but the figure itself looks pretty cool to me. I even like most of the incentives they've offered. But it just comes down to price. I can't reconcile spending the same price on this as I would for 15 brand new Black Series figures. Including even one or two additional figures still makes it incredibly overpriced. Now, had they offered it at $200 or even $250 plus incentives, that might be a bit more tempting. And I would be hard pressed to turn this down if they decided to include Oola instead of the rancor keeper. But even this additional offering feels like it's not enough for the price.  Between that and the lazy approach to the incentives, I sort of just wanted to fail on principle. 

[Nicklab]

I bet if they announced an Oola in the mainline

I wish they would just give us a straight answer on Oola or similar figures.  Are they off-limits now or not?  There are so many rumors that Disney has said characters like Jabba Prisoner "Huttslayer" Leia or Oola are off limits but then the Marvel Legends team can sell Tigra, She-Hulk, or Hercules.

I guess bikini/speedo wearing characters are OK for figures if they are based on heroes but not OK if they are based on people held against their will by intergalactic crime lords?

I'm trying to figure out where they draw the line, too.  Is it because the comic characters are based on illustrations, and the Star Wars character likenesses are based on the appearance of the individual actors?  I feel like we're dealing with some nebulous territory.

The funny thing is, if the first release of the Black Series slave Leia hadn't been such a pegwarmer (like Han Solo and Greedo from the same wave), this might not have blown up into such a big deal.  I think the incident that kicked this all off was a news report from 2015.  I'm pretty sure the figure came out either in late 2013 or early 2014.  But because some Philly area father was embarrassed and had to explain this to his kid, we're dealing with the repercussions to this day.

[Diddly]

Someone at Hasbro really has to have a long discussion with the Star Wars team about whether or not they think it's alright to treat their customer base like we're a bunch of dummies who will buy anything with the Star Wars logo slapped onto it.  That's what I think this episode really boils down to.

To be fair, this is what Disney thinks of Star Wars fans, so perhaps they're just following orders?

[Nicklab]

Someone at Hasbro really has to have a long discussion with the Star Wars team about whether or not they think it's alright to treat their customer base like we're a bunch of dummies who will buy anything with the Star Wars logo slapped onto it.  That's what I think this episode really boils down to.

To be fair, this is what Disney thinks of Star Wars fans, so perhaps they're just following orders?

The number of Grogu items has just exploded.  While I love the character and the idea behind him, this seems almost tailor made for what was likely one of the main reasons that Disney bought the franchise - CRAZY LEVELS OF MERCHANDISING.  I think we all just need to be discerning customers.

As for the Rancor?  We're at 5163 with a little under 4 days to go.  Adding Malakili gave this thing a boost.  But I don't know if it's going to make it.

[Matt_Fury]

I'm pretty confident this will get backed.  There will be a last day surge to get it at least to 9,000.  It would be interesting if they got the Gamorrean Guard unlocked.

[Nicklab]

The Rancor actually shed some backers since this morning.  It's currently at 5.147.

It also looks like the Sky Stryker Haslab is struggling.  That's only got 6,000 backers, with a goal of 10,000.  Hasbro rolled out some more incentives for that campaign this morning.  And did they actually lower the price, too?  I thought it had been listed for $249, and it's now $229.

[Matt_Fury]

I'm surprised the Skystriker hasn't funded yet.  I think it's always been $230, but I'm not 100% sure.

I'm not a GI Joe collector so, similar to the Rancor, it was not on the table for me....but I am curious to see how it does.

[Jeff]

I'm surprised the Skystriker hasn't funded yet.  I think it's always been $230, but I'm not 100% sure.

Yes, Skystriker was always $230.  I think it's suffering from the "I've already got one" type syndrome. 

I personally think a 3.75" Star Wars Y-Wing HasLab would be very similar.  Lots of folks clamoring for an all-new, modern re-do but plenty of folks who will say "for $230, I am fine with what I have".  I think there is some of that here.  This version of the Skystriker is awesome, but plenty of folks are sitting on multiple versions of this thing already.

Oh, and let me add a quick ranking:

10/10 Releasing a "Cobra Commander hacks the Skystriker Haslab" campaign to get buzz
5/10  The tiniest bit of effort in marking your HasLab Project
1/10 The mimimum basic marketing effort
.
.
.
-100/10 "sorry we ****** up the Rancor project, here's a Malakili"

 

[Dave]

Did anyone here ever get an email from Hasbro about the change in the Rancor offering (bundled Malakili)?  How did you learn about it?

I don't think I ever got an email from Hasbro, or got an alert on my HasbroPulse app about the change.  I think it was a Yakface tweet where I first saw the information and then had to dig for it on the HasLab page.

My only reason for bringing this up was that I think the GI Joe team has done a much better job communicating changes to their offering and making fun promo tweets, etc.

If the Hasbro Star Wars team has done this and I didn't get the message, then WTF.  If I'm not their target audience or they can't find me, then double WTF.

[Matt_Fury]

They put an announcement on their facebook page Dave...that's how I found out about it.

[Nicklab]

I saw the news on Instagram.  As soon as Hasbro Pulse put it out a lot of the accounts I follow shared it, too.

[Dave]

Seems odd they wouldn't email us old fogies - those that have purchased previous HasLab items, those that have spent hundreds/thousands of dollars on HasbroPulse purchases, and those of us on their emailing list.

I don't spend much time on social media so I was surprised when I saw the news on Yakface without having the Hasbro team tell me directly.

[CorranHorn]

Seems odd they wouldn't email us old fogies - those that have purchased previous HasLab items, those that have spent hundreds/thousands of dollars on HasbroPulse purchases, and those of us on their emailing list.

I don't spend much time on social media so I was surprised when I saw the news on Yakface about having the Hasbro team tell me directly.

I am not surprised by this. The level of marketing and updates by the SW team for the Rancor and the Razor Crest has been nowhere as abundant as for the Skystriker, Unicron or the Marvel offerings. And none of those were as abundant as the Sail Barge.

[Matt_Fury]

Rancor is currently at 5,313 Skystriker is 6,709.

I'm still confident these will be backed.