2018 HasLab - TVC Jabba's Sail Barge (The Khetanna)

[Rob]

I was just thinking... what if Hasbro announced that they would only take exactly 5,000 orders and not a a single one over that.

I bet people who are waiting for the last minute would race to get their orders in and this thing would make pretty quickly. 

[McMetal]

I think you're onto something there, Rob. Fiendishly brilliant!

[Phrubruh]

I was just thinking... what if Hasbro announced that they would only take exactly 5,000 orders and not a a single one over that.

I bet people who are waiting for the last minute would race to get their orders in and this thing would make pretty quickly.

Why?

[GrandMoffNick]

Yeah I feel like there's an over estimation on how many people are just waiting until the last minute. I hope I'm wrong

[JediJman]

Why?

I think his point is that those waiting feel like they could still get their orders in at the 11th hour.  Posting a finite amount might spur some of those people to order sooner, rather than risk not getting an order in if there is a surge to 5,000.  I think that might work once we're North of 4500, but not sure that someone waiting will feel a lot of pressure with the orders still below 4k.

I wonder if there's any chance Hasbro comes back and says "Look, we really want to make this happen for people, so we're going to produce this thing even if it only gets to 4,000."  It's not their desired goal, but getting 4k orders for a $500 item still has to be considered some kind of win, right?  You'd think they would take the hit just to make this avenue available for future concepts.  If it doesn't go through, I think you have that many more people who will be skeptical to sign up the next time. 

[GrandMoffNick]

But will it change whether on 4/4 we will be at 5000 or not?

I think there are X people buying this. There may be a variance Y of people who look at it at 4900 and buy one as to not be left out but I think that number is small

[JediJman]

But will it change whether on 4/4 we will be at 5000 or not?

I personally don't think there are that many people holding out, but I don't have anything to back that up.  As we near 4,000 and just a week left, I find it hard to believe there's 20% more people out there about to jump on it, but who knows.  If I was an Amazon or someone with a lot of money sitting around, I would be tempted to snatch up some extras.  I can only imagine what a MIB sealed version of the Khetanna would go for 10-20 years from now. 

[Rob]

Why?

It's not obvious?

Hell we've got at least two people in this very thread holding out who'd probably toss their hats in right away to make sure they don't get left out in the cold.  I'd imagine a lot of people would feel the same way, which would lead to an immediate surge, which would lead to other people being convinced that it was going to make and they'd better not be left out either.

It would be like a snowball rolling down hill.

[Rob]

I wonder if there's any chance Hasbro comes back and says "Look, we really want to make this happen for people, so we're going to produce this thing even if it only gets to 4,000." 

You can stop wondering.  I keep harping on this, but if their TOS said it only gets produced if it hits 5,000, then the only way it gets produced at 4,999 or less is if everyone buying re-agrees to an updated TOS.  It's not impossible, but it would be a logistical headache to make that happen.  Getting it to 5k 'buying' some for HTS is still the only viable way I've heard floated to make it happen - from a legal standpoint.

[GrandMoffNick]

But why are you so convinced there are so many "don't want to get left out" people? I still think all it would do is make the final total of people buying this be known sooner rather than later

[Pete_Fett]

Yeah - without the shortfall being covered by a retailer (such as HTS, Amazon, Target, etc...) if there are only 4999 backers at midnight on April 4th, that's it, the item does not get made.

I do find it highly unlikely we will end up in a situation where there will be less than say 20-30 backers to go though. Anything less than that, I'm sure HTS can afford to step in, pick up the remaining units and bring 5-10 of them to events like SDCC or the next SWC and unload them pretty easily. And I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there is a contingency plan in place if they do get that close. Better to do that and maybe even eat $5k - $10k worth of product vs. having it end up a failure with less than 20 backers to go.

The good thing about this is that it does show viability for the concept at this point - here's hoping that they already have a lower price-point item on deck.

[Rob]

But why are you so convinced there are so many "don't want to get left out" people? I still think all it would do is make the final total of people buying this be known sooner rather than later

Basic human psychology.  FOMO is strong... people on the fence would jump in.

[GrandMoffNick]

$500 is a lot of money......

I put 100 people because of FOMO.  Of course I'm pulling that out of my butt. You're more optimistic than me

[JediJman]

I wonder if there's any chance Hasbro comes back and says "Look, we really want to make this happen for people, so we're going to produce this thing even if it only gets to 4,000." 

You can stop wondering.  I keep harping on this, but if their TOS said it only gets produced if it hits 5,000, then the only way it gets produced at 4,999 or less is if everyone buying re-agrees to an updated TOS.  It's not impossible, but it would be a logistical headache to make that happen.  Getting it to 5k 'buying' some for HTS is still the only viable way I've heard floated to make it happen - from a legal standpoint.

I think that'd be pretty simple to work around.  An email notice with an updated agreement/option to back out would be enough to cover it.  I have a hard time believing anyone would complain if they're going out of their way to make it happen.

[Rob]

I think that'd be pretty simple to work around.  An email notice with an updated agreement/option to back out would be enough to cover it.  I have a hard time believing anyone would complain if they're going out of their way to make it happen.

That could be viable, but with 7 days left I'm not so sure.  Usually that kind of thing is accompanied by a requirement that you actively accept the new terms to stay in the agreement.  But I'm not 100% sure if they could just email everyone saying the deal has changed, cancel if you want.

And while you're absolutely right that it's unlikely anyone would complain, that's now how corporate legal departments operate.  They assume people will complain, and complain with lawyers, and head off every possibility.

Also, 3 minutes of reading through that Rebelscum thread should tell you all you need to know about whether or not there are enough crazy idiots in this hobby to find a few who would make a stink just because they could.