Hasbro Star Wars Black Series Rancor Haslab Campaign Launches

I wanted this badly, I didn't care about the stretch goals, I just want this massive figure in my collection. I didn't back it because of lack of funds, it's not that I thought it was over priced, it's that I just backed Galactus and Victory Saber and there's no room left on my credit cards. I also wanted to get the Skystriker but again no funds, I'm completely spent. There's just been too many high price items too close together / on top of each other and at Christmas time because of buying gifts I'm already strapped... I can't be like I'm sorry little Timmy, I had to get Rancor so Christmas has been cancelled this year. If they came back in February I could certainly swing it.

I think the fact that it got within 500 and hasbro didn't bother to extend the campaign suggests that the addition of Malakili made the 9000 threshold insufficiently profitable despite being the stated goal. The entire campaign has felt lackluster so its really not that much of a surprise that they let it go down the drain. Since it makes no sense to run 3 haslabs concurrently (and right around the holidays to boot), i feel like the star wars team had originally planned to do this rancor later (especially if rumors about one showing up in Boba fett are true.. no idea). Perhaps they had to accelerate their plans - why? to help hype up Hascon, to get ahead of a 2022 increase in costs, to boost Q4 profits, who knows.

I also wonder about the cost of the license. The bar for Haslab tiers has been set pretty high for collectors due to Sentinel and Galactus, and it seemed like the BS team was just unable to match that value. Not enough new tooling/new characters, even the last minute addition of Malakili didn't move the needle much as negative sentiment had already set in imo.

Then there is the price point.. I think there is certainly a lot of interest in a big Rancor figure, but many would prefer a lower price point and are willing to sacrifice articulation and paint apps to achieve that. With some more media presence, even something along the lines of the Mattel T-Rex seems feasible to me, after all Rancor is basically the Star Wars equivalent of a T-rex to begin with (although i don't know if they can run as fast). As it is, Rancor is indeed an awesome Star Wars monster, but he is just not as significant to Star Wars as Sentinels are to X-men or Galactus is to the wider marvel universe. TL;DR $350 is just more than many want to spend on a rancor, regardless of the tiers.

I also wonder if there was a little blowback from how the Sentinels turned out. Their release was too late to affect Galactus backing, but the fact that they all had defective ratchets in the knees, combined with Hasbro's "no exchange" policy for the Sentinels, may have given some 2nd thoughts about backing additionals haslabs. Certainly the BS team made a big point of talking about rancor's stability but it shows what happens when you get a defective haslab sent to you.

We can see the GI Joe haslab is also having trouble reaching its goal, so in the end it may just boil down to the stupidity of having 3 haslabs at once, competing with holiday spending on top of that. But i do think some of these other issues played roles in the failure of the Rancor Haslab.

As far as what hasbro will take away from this, its hard to say. my guess is they will focus on a ship next time, probably 1:18 scale, and tbh that might make more sense. But hopefully they will also go back to the drawing board to try and get fans a big Rancor at a price point both sides can live with.

This thing was overpriced from day one. I felt the Sentinel and Galactus were overpriced too but at least these had accurate colors, great articulation, great working lights. Bottom line though is that Hasbro didn't listen to its fans and what THEY wanted. I don't normally cheer for anyone to fail but in this case, use it as a teaching point. Why a multibillion $$ corporation needs to crowdsource anything makes no sense to me, but at the very least give the fans what they want. They wanted the Keeper, Oola, correct paints on the Rancor, and at a reasonable price. Now they can regroup, come back next year, and do better.

So should fans hold out for Oola? Hasbro coming in the last minute with the Rancor Keeper creates an interesting precedent. First it shows Hasbro has a lot more wiggle room than perhaps some including myself would have initially thought. When I say wiggle room I mean a larger cost to profit margin on this than expected. Throwing in the Rancor Keeper def will mean this project will be less profitable for them than it would have otherwise, but if another completely new figure made it so much more expensive they were going to loose money then I doubt they would be adding it. So should fans continue to hold off and see how much more Hasbro is willing to add when push comes to shove. At what point would they simply just pull the plug? IDK but would be interesting to see, and now that fans have made Hasbro blink, will this become a regular thing. If fans really thought they could have pressured Hasbro into giving them another Herald with Galactus would they have waited to back the project?????

Well then...

Apparently Hasbro is forgetting that their costumers are humans with other needs and cant afford every thing they release This is gonna be bad business for them if they dont remember to leave a healthy amount of time between projects and waves