There's always a price point at which you lose market viability, though if the rumored Commander price bump to $100 is real, I think they might be able to sort him out at that price point. I would also jump on a HasLab PmOp/Ginrai in a heartbeat. Ginrai is probably my favorite Transformers character. I really want to see him done well. (And then buy a second God Fire Guts repaint)
One thing that should be clear to Hasbro from this thread - it better be something with some wow factor. If there are any corners cut and no extras, it's going to struggle. It needs to do a lot for the price besides size. Ultimately I was underwhelmed with Unicron for the price. I'm not underwhelmed with the figure, but it really didn't feel like the value was there especially when the release version had some corners cut. I'd love to see some exceptional retro style packaging this time (or whatever style is appropriate). But something more than a cardboard box.
Oh, it's RetroBlasting...given he's one of those "Hasbro shouldn't do crowdfunding and should just release these at retail despite the possibility of financial ruin for the respective brands" kind of guy I can imagine how that video goes. As for Star Saber, he's always been a popular yet still obscure character in Transformers media, which has always left him a bit of question mark for Hasbro. So this is a great outlet to finally prove his viability in the Generations line. And just like with Unicron who was likely instrumental in us getting more stuff like Studio Series 86, Star Saber's success can open the floodgates on a lot more fun Japanese G1 characters finally getting their Generations due, too.
Not really, he's about the same, and if there are I can't see Hasbro making two new Ginrais just for that. That's assuming that the WFC style sticks for a long time.
I'm still split on the practicality of the Crowdfunded idea, but I see more pros then cons, but if you attack it on the "I WANT TO BUY IT AT RETAIL FOR 90 PERCENT OFF OR IT IS STUPID" Or a company should take a risk that is too much for the fans, then you aren't attacking the right things
It's likely only slightly different from how the Takara Selects were done. Those preorders were often so far out front it's almost certainly because they were limiting production to meet demand with enough left over to cover a few bases. But as time went on, they took fewer chances. The last couple were just UW style repaints of PotP teams. They must not have been seeing a ROI that made it worth offering preorders unless there was enough support up front. Enter HasLab. Now they can offer it and if the demand isn't there they have no justification to push forward with the project.
It's not going anywhere. It's making money hand over fist and they've shown they're willing to repack figures from previous lines to help keep popular names in the rotation.
While it's true we don't know exactly how long WFC will last, I'm not sure it's really relevant to Star Saber, who as far as we know is going to be shown in like a month. We also don't really have any clue how combiners are going to work going forward, considering WFC doesn't have any and the only one leakers have hinted at seems to be a Menasor with a commander as the main bot.
I honesty do not see how a good Star Saber toy could fail at Retail regardless of how obscure the character is. It is a Optimus Prime/Gundam looking Robot with an inner Robot that Transforms into a futuristic Jet, and power ups to become a bigger Jet or Robot. Unless Children these days don't give a fuck to toys anymore, or it is too expensive, there is no way that it would fail... I know for a fact that Children of my time Dig stuff like this a lot; we literally went Batshit Crazy the first time we saw the Megazord.
Just thought of a cool special feature they could do for Star Saber. The forehead opens up and shows the combination thingie Wheeljack, Perceptor, & Minerva installed to let him combine with Victory Leo.
It's likely that if he's properly sized and sufficiently detailed he'd be priced out of market viability. Even at the most basic level he's essentially a voyager sized robot that armors up into a robot taller than Jetfire.
As it stands, we can tell that this style will persist through the next trilogy (allegedly "Legacy", 2022-2024).
Huh. Looks like the listing for Ravage just went up on Pulse and he's $52.99 instead of $45. I wonder if it's just a placeholder date or what.
$52.99 fits with the new price ranges, which puts him at roughly the same cost as a Voyager and a Deluxe. I wonder if the tooling/accessories for this guy are what put him over the top of a standard Deluxe figure. But the last time we saw G1 Ravage with chromed weapons it was in a $20 pack with Laserbeak at Walmart, right? Regardless, I want this set. So it's the price I'm willing to pay. Especially when X9 costs....more than that.
