Couple of corrections. The V-lock cannon was tier one, the stand was tier 2, and the shield/micromasters were tier 3.
As for the rancor he was in the dungeon of Jabba's palace and Luke killed him with the entranceway gate for the creature. He was never on the sailbarge.

 

Any updates with the victory saber? Packaging leaks? Anything????

 

It has not been canceled.

 

Probably won't hear anything until Jan/Feb of next year. If they keep to the same schedule as Unicron.

 

Actually I heard the figure was in fact canceled and we are instead being issued a Star Saber NFT. All the cool kids are doing it!

 

That may be true, but the licensing fee is made up for by jacking up the prices of standard release figures. I don't think it's a per figure kind of license, but a yearly license.

 

They said something about monthly updates but I’m not counting on those updates being anything substantial… if they come lol.

 

Too early. I predict April, July then September 2022.

 

That is not funny!  

 

I prefer the Star Saber AFT.

 

The rancor was kept in the dungeon of jabbas Palace so technically under the surface of tatooine. Luke throws a rock at the controls to the dungeon gate bringing down the gate on top of him killing him. He was never on the barge in the film.


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I backed Victory Saber, but there's something I don't like about the haslab system.

matty collector sold $300 castle grayskulls through a preorder system in 2013, rather than saying buyers were "backing" a too-big-for-retail playset. When you bought it, you were buying the playset- not buying the playset and also paying for the toy to be produced, like it is with haslab projects.

Hasbro is perfectly capable of financing massive toys for online retail, they are the largest toy company on the planet. If Mattel, a far smaller company could do it in 2013, then Hasbro definitely can in 2021. "Backing" a project created by an international conglomerate is downright silly.

If the Rancor was a $250, online-only preorder, I think people would be more accepting of the paint. Instead, it's haslab, which results in it being compared to the far-superior sail barge.

 

There's far less bang for your buck with the rancor compared to the sail barge or even the razorcrest.

I was going to back it but decided against and after thinking about I also didn't back the tfs project either. Really think it's a ridiculous concept.

 

Maybe Hasbro has the sales figures to the previously released, non-giant Rancor figures and think that even an online Pulse exclusive/non-HasLab version of this Rancor would not sell enough to be profitable. This is a giant figure of a creature with literally less than 3 minutes of screen time, its not like Star Saber who may be obscure but at least had a whole show where he was the main character or Galactus, Sentinel, and Unicron who are iconic villians within their franchises that also have more than 1 appearance to their names.

Also making any HasLab project a widely available Pulse exclusive only creates downsides for Hasbro. What if Hasbro doesn't sell enough of the giant Rancors to make a profit? They just lost money on production and having to store these figures in a warehouse until they can be sold off. These are big figures so storing them takes up a lot of space which means even more money lost. Do they eventually put the extra stock on sale? That risks pissing off the people who bought it at full price so they become less likely to buy the next giant figure (which is very likely with how the Star Wars fandom is). All of these downsides just so a few people that need more than a month and a half to come up with the money for a figure can possibly buy it down the road. Making this a HasLab is the only way Hasbro nullifies any risk of this thing causing them to lose money. They tell customers how much it will cost and how many they need to sell to be profitable. If the figure doesn't get the minimum number of orders to be profitable Hasbro doesn't produce it, no one gets charged for it, and Hasbro doesn't lose any money. If they do get the minimum number of orders required then Hasbro makes exactly the number of figures ordered, the people who want the figure and can afford it get the Rancor, and Hasbro makes money. The only people who lose are the ones that want it and can't afford it which is how every thing in the world does and should work for non-necessities in life. I wanted Unicron but didn't have the space for it at the time so I didn't buy it. I am not going to whine that Hasbro should have sold it for a longer period until I could get a new place because that would make me act entitled to something I am not actually owed.

Finally for the people complaining about the paint job, really? It looks on par with every other Star Wars figure I have ever seen. Why do people keep thinking HasLab means these are high quality items? HasLab is for niche toys/collectibles that are of the same quality as the other merchandise of the line they are in. Unicron was a giant WfC figure with the same quality paint apps, and the same with Senitinel.

 

What makes you say that? The economy is far worse now than it was in 2013. Why should metrics from eight years ago be relevant now?

Also you’re right, Hasbro can and does produce large scale toys for retail, but you’re misconstruing the purpose of the Haslab backing system. It’s not to raise money (though that certainly helps) but to gauge commitment. With a niche character like Star Saber the question was never “can Hasbro make this” but rather “would it sell if it did?” By making it crowdfunded you have people voting with their money to say “yes we do want it, and yes we will buy it.” There’s even rumours that VS’s success will pave the way for more JG1 characters in the mainline, now that we basically have conclusive data on VS’s popularity.

There’s a lot more profit margin on a play set, and He-man is already a more collector-focused property. That’s like using Hot Toys as a metric for Transformers pricing and sales. The two circumstances aren’t comparable. Remember in 2013 we were still getting G1 MPs at retail.

 

PAINT MODEL SHOWN. FINAL PRODUCT MAY VARY. PENDING LICENSOR APPROVAL.

That last line is why Star Wars is a safer bet versus Transformers. They have to make it look like the movie and without those restrictions we get things like Unicron's maw.

 

It’s wild that the same people that are complaining about the Rancor being a HasLab are the same people that will prove Hasbro correct in doubting the retail viability of such a piece should it fail, ensuring that we will never see such a figure released at retail.

 

It's a company with billions in revenue and hundreds of millions in net income. It's not a "can" thing, it's a "won't" because of money.

 

I tend to think that many of the people complaining about figures being Haslab exclusives likely wouldn’t have bought the product if offered retail anyway. So those aren’t the people Hasbro/Haslab should be concerned with.