A First Hand Account Of HasLabs And Accessibility

I've long been a big proponent of accessibility for the Star Wars line, and it's something with which I feel Hasbro, combined with their retail partners, has fallen short. Accessibility, in this context, simply means access, and doesn't refer to the computer science definition. When any toy line has a history of more than a year, new fans need affordable access to earlier figures if you hope to grow the hobby beyond that year one customer base.

The current McFarlane Batman '66 line is a classic example. New fans can easily acquire D-list villains like King Tut and Egghead, but God help them if they want the basic versions of Batman, Robin and the Joker. It's going to set them back $150. That is such a massive barrier to onboarding new fans. Side note: I believe McFarlane is reissuing some of those figures. This is why I was a huge advocate for the old Fan Channel waves (despite the rampant consternation in the community). In order for the Vintage Collection to acquire new fans, which it desperately needs, those fans need affordable access to figures like Death Star II Luke and Hoth Leia.

Next let's look at HasLab, and my anecdotal evidence of how it can create new fans. Like many of us, I also collected G.I. Joe as a kid. And as with Star Wars, it was the vehicles that set their hooks the deepest. Destro and Snake Eyes pulled me in, but the H.I.S.S. tank locked me in for good. My top 5 Joe vehicles from my childhood were:

• 1A. Rattler
• 1B. H.I.S.S. Tank
• 3. Cobra Fang
• 4. Skystriker
• 5. Dragonfly

The two bolded entries have been made as G.I. Joe Classified HasLab projects. This started pulling me into the line. HasLabs were creating a new G.I. Joe Classified fan. I collected the vintage Joe line from late '82 through '85 (when I was in 8th grade, and probably too old to still be playing with toys). After backing the Dragonfly, I immediately started looking for Classified figures of the characters I had as a kid. So many of my favorites came out in '85. One of which was the Cobra Eel. I knew the Eel was somewhat new to the Classified line. It was then that I learned it was an Amazon exclusive, which had long sold out during its preorder window. If I wanted one it was going to cost me $60+ on the secondary market. I was immediately turned off.

As quickly as the H.I.S.S. and Dragonfly HasLabs pulled me into the G.I. Joe classified line, the lack of convenient access to a figure I wanted pushed me away. A fan was created and lost almost at the same time. There has to be a market lesson for Hasbro to learn here. I'm sure the Barge campaign could have created new fans, but the utter lack of affordable access to the figures that would populate it compelled them to keep the sides boarded up, and let the Khetanna represent a monolithic TVC collection. A collection that was unnecessarily abridged by inaction on Hasbro's part.

I have no doubt that the Ghost HasLab has pulled in new fans to the Vintage Collection. If those fans have any collector instincts at all, they're going to look for some of their other favorite characters in the Vintage Collection. I have to imagine those fans will want core PT heroes and villains, and to a slightly lesser extent, the core OT characters. For the most part, those figures will either be expensive, woefully outdated, or both. This is why I'm passionate about #MakeTheMains, but further, once finally updated, those figures need to be in frequent rotation, just like during the vintage Kenner era.

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