Ok it now looks like their will be 2 failed HasLabs back to back. Unless there are huge international retailer orders that are going to be added last minute I just don't see the Rancor and Skystriker making it. I wonder how Hasbro will respond to this? Will they not do as many HasLabs in a single year as so far we have had 5 this year? This could mean the next Transformers HasLab is a few years off if that is the case.
IDK, the Skystriker isn't too far off, that one can probably make it. The Rancor is the questionable one to me, but if both fail it'll be 3 failed projects.
Rancor with just a little over 12 hrs and only 2k+ away from minimum goals, it's possible, but I also won't be surprised if it does fail. There's the international market which I'm sure hasn't had numbers added yet. The Skystriker however, I'm less enthused about making it. Only because GI Joe is primarily an American thing for the most part (despite many of their adventures being quite global) I know they have a presence in some other countries markets, but by and large, I'm not sure what the global appeal for them is like.
But the last time I checked 9000 - 5750= considerably more than 2k. You are right though that it’s still doable considering whatever 3rd party orders they have (I haven’t been paying enough attention to see what affiliates are selling this guy), and I tend to think it will succeed or else Haslab would have issued an extension by now. The brand damage is just too high if it fails.
Hasbro added some extra incentive for backing the Skystriker with the three Cobra figures and corresponding stickers, but it hasn't moved the needle too much after that last announcement. IMO This might have done better if the Skystiker was in scale with the Classified series. As for Rancor, my wife will be disappointed if this Haslab fails to reach its goal.
As of right now: Need 2757 to reach goal Need 3241 to reach goal. If these do fail it will mostly be Hasbro's/Haslab's own fault for having 3 campaigns running at the same time and during the height of the holiday season. They need to space these out better.
I wonder if Victory Saber would have gotten an added boost if it wasn't doing well... Glad we never had to worry about him failing this badly though.
I do not put too much stock in 3P retailer international orders anymore after the Victory Saber campaign. That was a Japanese character and the maximum number of possible Japanese backers was 7000 out of 27,000 total based on when TTMall orders opened and there were 7000 orders in the last dump. Star Wars and GI Joe are American IPs and they have not done well yet in the Pulse orders which include the US, UK, and Canada. The Skystriker may have been more successful if it was classified scale but it would be double in price to accommodate the size. The Rancor is most likely a victim of the decreasing Star Wars fandom and it feeling overpriced. Every other HasLab I could look at and justify the price but the Rancor seems $50 too expensive.
I think the worst factors regarding the apparent failure of both the Rancor and Skystriker are that there are 3 concurrent Haslabs campaigns, and that the were too close to the Holiday Season. I know a lot of people could not back all three big ticket items even if they had interest. Also, I guess no parent would be willing to sacrifice their children's gift budget for a very expensive collector's item, let alone 3. Something had to give.
Haven't paid attention to the GIJoe one, but the SW rancor keeper seems like a very unplanned, panicked addition. There is literally just a movie screenshot of the character. Not even a 3d render, just an extremely worried "here! We'll add this guy! Just please buy the rancor! We can't let this fail! I have a wife and 3 kids to feed!"
Compare the plastic volume and parts count of the $180 Victory Saber set and $230 Skystriker set and it makes no sense at all. This isn't SW, there is no licensing fee. That Skystriker could have retailed for $100, if they had any confidence enough fans were left alive to buy it in stores.
There is for Northrop Grumman, Hasbro pointed out during Pulsecon that they got the license from them and were able to add more details to the mold for the sake of accuracy. There’s a lot of subtle stuff that isn’t immediately noticeable due to lack of high resolution pictures from Hasbro themselves in addition to not posting all the updates consistently across their pages/sites. The entire top/bottom profile of the forward fuselage is contoured differently to match the F-14 more for example, in addition to added scribing on the flaps, details on the removable engines that weren’t on the 1983/2011 versions, et al. I won’t defend the price, across the board most fans thought it was expensive and I personally think the initial base offering sans stand should’ve been offered for $99.99 with the stand being a tier 1 unlock at 11,000 backers. 1 thing to be taken into account as well, Gijoe vehicles haven’t been sold in mass market stores since 2013 or so. Anything since has been a retailer exclusive. Walmart lately hasn’t gotten anything larger than a HISS Tank and they were the sole big brick & mortar store to not pick up the Skystriker in 2011. Maybe economies of scale plays into the price. The Skystriker is big, the tooling is all new as it was made from tearing apart vintage copies and 10,000 is a small production number by Hasbro. If it doesn’t get backed, I boil it down to the price, lack of outreach also factoring in the seeming lack of modern(2007-present) compatibility, with the seats and lack of consistent updating across the official Gijoe pages/sites Hasbro maintains.
FOMO is really starting to get those Rancor numbers up. Will it be enough? Who knows, but it's fun to watch regardless.
