1. You wisely pointed out in an August 6 post that Hasbro has already given us 7 Republic Gunships to date.

With this new Haslab Gunship, I feel like Hasbro didn't even try to come up with something that hasn't been done before (ahem Barge, Razorcrest), and just threw out a refresh of something we already have multiples of.

Do you feel like this Haslab is just a lazy offering? I've been watching the backer counter, it looks pretty slow compared to other backed projects.

--Chris

I don't think Hasbro is lazy, but I do think the timing is potentially too soon. More below. Hasbro is playing the game on hard mode.

I assume (this is speculation) Hasbro talked to a small group of fans who saw the $700 price tag on the 2013 Republic Gunship and said "you should make that again." Hasbro (I assume) said "Well, it'd cost $200-$400 or whatever to reissue it, so let's just make an all new one." Hasbro probably listened to a group of fans, probably looked at data that supported their idea, and probably wants to engage a younger fan who hasn't "made it" in the world yet. The prequels are newer today than the original trilogy was in 2008 when we got the then-expensive Big Millennium Falcon. The Barge's success came after a lot of collectors were in their 40s (or 50s.) If you saw the prequels before you were a tween, you might be in your 30s.

The funny thing is some people told me Want a Star Wars Republic Gunship This Month? You Have Choices made it obvious that the HasLab was the better buy, and they'll get a new one. Others said it means the 2002-2013 ones are the better buy. I really just wanted to put into perspective what was out there, in case it doesn't succeed or if a fan only had $200-$250 to spend. It was meant to be informative and it was my intent for people to read it and make up their own minds. I'm not here to support or not support a thing, times are rough and you should spend your money in a way that makes sense to you. No matter the outcome of this campaign, you can have a 3 3/4-inch scale Gunship. And before you say "it's too small" I should note that the Slave I we have is too small, but the one I had as a kid in the 20th century was tiny. I lived, you'll live too.

The choice of figures is conservative, but consider if the Gunship crowdfund fails. How angry are fans going to be? I have no doubt there are Agen Kolar superfans, but they can go on eBay right now and pick one up. I'll stump for officially licensed versions of figures that don't exist, but if the Gunship out and out flops? You can get a Coleman, an Agen, and a Saesee Tiin plus some pilots. It won't be lost to the ages. It's there, now. I can't tell you a figure from Geonosis that would make sense to include in this crowdfund that would make me happy. I'm actually really happy with the 225+ Attack of the Clones figures I've bought and most of what I would want would be separatist aliens or Outlander Club people.

Each of these HasLab crowdfunds faces challenges. The Sail Barge was what fans demanded, and was amazing. But asking fans to spend that much money on faith is a challenge. The Razor Crest dodged a bullet (or laser blast) and came out at a perfect time. The show was hot, speculators wanted to invest, and even a basic Mando and Grogu figure was in demand by the normies - people wanted it! The Ghost worked out as a 10th Anniversary Rebels item and an Ahsoka item, but was expensive and now that we have it... it's not very impressive as a toy. ( The Cantina struggled and it might have been because Hasbro waited so long that inflation and fan age, plus a shortened funding period, probably poured a little cold water on it. A friend not only skipped it but started selling off his Cantina figures when he realized he didn't want to spend $400 to keep the collection going. He made some nice money.

For me personally, I've bought so many Clone Troopers that it's a part of the saga I am more or less no longer interested in. I got everything up to one of the TVC 4-packs which I may or may not go back and buy - I just don't care. I've got hundreds of different Clones, plus duplicates, and I find that yet another Phase I Clone* can't make me as happy as a Greedo or a Carson Teva. It's not bad - Hasbro did a nice job. I just don't want any more of it. I'm full, I've got heartburn, I would prefer no more helpings of Clone on the cob for me, thank you.

Hasbro might have had a better time doing this in five years. It's a shame there's no "new media" ship right now that would be a slam-dunk thanks to a weirdly diminished emphasis on vehicles on Disney+. Hasbro faces a lot of challenges, but the Barge created a ton of new ones. There are fans out there that think the best possible HasLab would be Sandcrawler 3.0... and man, I do not agree despite loving Jawas and droids. The Cantina was widely requested, as is the Death Star(s), but after that? Good luck to us all.

* - But there are always exceptions. If Hasbro included a Retro Collection 6-pack of Kenner-style Agen Kolar, Saesee Tiin, Coleman Trebor, 2 Clone Pilots, and let's say a plain white Phase I clone? I'd buy the $450 ship. I haven't actually played with a super-articulated Clone in a couple of years - I just look at them and go "Hm, yeah, I have that." I'll pick up a ship and maybe a simpler figure, but I have no interest in building out some ornate desert termite mound diorama.

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2. [Recently] the Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi Black Series SDCC exclusive went up to order on Hasbro Pulse and it sold out in a couple of minutes leaving many fans frustrated and angry that they missed out on such a great product. It seems that many thousand more units could have been sold had they produced them, What is the point of putting in all the hard work and creating such a fantastic product to only be sold to a very small fraction of the fans/customers at a convention. And according to the eBay prices many seemed to have been bought by scalpers and not fans. What is the point of convention exclusives if it angers the customers and misses out on sales? Thank you.
--mark

Unfortunately for fans, the point of convention exclusives is to make a special item for a convention, and that does not necessarily mean guaranteed availability after the show. If you could sell out the entire run at the show, that's what a company would typically want. That's the goal.

The good news is that tooling costs a lot of money. With very few exceptions, Hasbro's SDCC exclusives tend to share tooling with a mainline release. In the case of Anakin and Obi-Wan, individually boxed figures will be coming to stores shortly. They're not the two-pack versions, and you don't get the extra diorama bits. But the characters will be present and at a lower price to boot.

Hasbro has different priorities for its exclusives. Sometimes they run more, sometimes they want to keep it limited. This particular 2-pack was in and out of stock a few times, so I assume they probably had a limited quantity and they want to keep it limited/encourage people to buy other versions of the figures. I'd personally hope that they reopen it ($110 for $50 worth of figures plus a couple of diorama elements is a lot!) It's possible that recent SDCC items for The Black Series not necessarily selling through caused them to tighten up the run, which for business reasons makes a lot of sense. It's bad for fans, but Hasbro can always reevaluate and rerun if they so choose.

I don't know how many Hasbro made or sold, but if they sold through it I would surmise they are very happy with the financial results. Sadly we've been dealing with this dance with convention exclusives for years, and the only way anyone wins is if they don't play... or wait it out. The very first 2013 Boba Fett exclusive has been bouncing up and down, with some selling below $200 this year. I know this may not make you happy today but if you're in this for the long haul and can wait, you might be able to get it when people dump their collections in a few years. Goodness knows I've bought some good stuff this way.

What advice would I give me in your position?

Hasbro's item was $110, plus tax and shipping. Tickets to SDCC, and hotels, or flights, aren't free. eBay prices tend to spike right after the con, but frequently decline within a few months to a couple of years as people forget they even wanted the item when something new comes along. You may never have a crack at this set for $110 again, but you may well see it for $175 or $150 if you're willing to be vigilant and patient for a little while. If you can get 99% of your toys at or under SRP, you grit your teeth and pay for this one. There's always a chance it could get another run but I would not plan for that.

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FIN

Collector angst (and ennui) are real... but avoidable. Obviously I got hit with it when it came to the Cantina last year, as we were worried we wouldn't get the stretch goal figures we paid for - and indeed, we didn't. I didn't get to go to SDCC so I didn't get to buy all the exclusives I wanted in person. But, I'm also not as worried about it now. Maybe we'll have chances later, and maybe not. I come from the future to tell you that almost every Hasbro toy will be available again to you later. It might be eBay at a higher price. It might be eBay later when you have more money and people are dumping their collections. But there are very few items that, as long as they get made, you can't own.

"But what about the Gunship?" you ask. Well, it still might fund. We don't know. You can buy an old Gunship too. It's not as good, but it exists, and it can be purchased by you at any time. If 2.0 doesn't get made, I feel for everybody who misses out and especially the hard-working design team. But also, there are dozens of toys you don't get, and more that you don't even know where up for consideration. This is just one more, and you were lucky enough to get to see what may have been. (The downside is, of course, a few of you will slowly be driven mad by this. I'm still hunting Vlix after discovering it existed way back in December of 1989, and the fact that I remember should tell you a lot. An original, or a new official release from Hasbro would be welcome because I don't want to spend $20,000 and the bootlegs are not of a quality that is necessarily play-safe.)

"But what about Anakin and Obi-Wan?" I have slightly less compassion here only because Hasbro has a few versions of those guys on the market, and will undoubtedly make newer, even better versions in the years to come. (Unlike Jabba's entourage, hero Jedi characters get done and re-done many times over as the toy technology improves.) In 10-15 years, I assume Hasbro will have even better figures on the market and you'll be able to pick up the SDCC set more cheaply. Prices will go up and down, and you may have to pay over retail. But right now hype is real, people are panicky, and prices will likely settle down after Hasbro ships all of its units and people get it in hand. People fall out of love with purchases all the time. That is when you pounce. At some point I'm sure they'll do $45 electronic lightsaber versions. I'm surprised that they haven't yet done so.

Every now and again you might have to buy something on eBay for an inflated price. Or, decide it's not worth it. I've had a few items where I was tempted to pay up... but I waited, and it usually works out. Granted, sometimes it doesn't - a few items in short supply for The Black Series combined with higher prices on exclusives I didn't particularly want changed the math real quick. As the reader points out, it makes fans angry, and sometimes angry fans just quit. Seeing a $28 Jawa and a $28 remold of Cad Bane, or $200 of Christmas guys I don't really want, or Carbonized guys... eventually you go from "I can skip that one... those 12... ok maybe I can not spend $500 this year... or just skip the entire thing." You may want to quit. And it's OK if you do.

This is one of the things that stinks about the whole "collectible" aspect. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kenner toys weren't really collectible as an investment. They were things you could collect, but you probably didn't collect them all because a) you didn't see them all, and b) you're not rich. Today it's a whole weird little adult investment thing too, and if it were just toys for kids? We wouldn't have this problem. Also, a good chunk of you wouldn't be interested. It is entirely possible that you will never be satisfied with your collection until you quit. As a wise man once said, that is the price of love.

--Adam Pawlus

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