ATTN HASBRO:  You Need To SHOW Thanks To The Vintage Collection Fans

I would like to share a text conversation between Mr. Nomadscout and myself the Sunday night before the close of the Razor Crest campaign. At the time of this conversation, the campaign was around 20,000 backers if memory serves:





We were WAY off. As we now know, the campaign reached a record shattering 28,802 backers. Wow. And per Mr. Nomadscount’s instructions, we have to take our victory lap. So here it is:

WE TOLD YOU SO!

The success of this campaign is a clear a validation of Bantha Skull's (and our readers') beliefs with respect to the 3.75” market. As we asserted in our “angry” rebuttal to the first Fan First Friday Q&A, it is in Hasbro’s interest to invest in the 3.75” market. It is NOT a market that dried up of its own volition. It’s a market that was abused and dispirited by a multitude of forces. Moreover, reinvigorating that market would be a new and distinct revenue stream from The Black Series. At no point are we advocating to divert resources from TBS at all. We’re saying Hasbro should take on some additional risk and invest more into The Vintage Collection because such a risk will result in reward.

28,000 backers making a $10,000,000+ up front payment is all the argument we need to make. The Vintage Collection can carry its own water as a viable line if the right product choices are made. But Hasbro didn’t really have to take much risk here, did they? The collectors are staking this endeavor for the most part.

Hasbro needs to SHOW thanks for this, and they need to do it soon. Since the Crest’s success, we’ve had three live stream events (two Mando Mondays and one Fan First Friday). The totality of the Vintage Collection product revealed has been one repacked figure. Granted, we are happy with this choice, but it it presents bad optics for the Brand Team if that is all they can reveal on the immediate heels of the Crest's overwhelming success. If you recall, the lone reveal of the repacked Luke Skywalker figure for the first Fan First Friday on 5/1/20 was essentially the genesis of the community-wide crusade for more Vintage Collection.

We know some of you aren't too fond of this, but at Bantha Skull we also to give Hasbro the benefit of the doubt. We understand that there is no way Hasbro could have added new product to reveal in response to the Crest in that short time frame. These things take time to plan, and it isn't reasonable to expect that they could pivot that quickly. So we're are NOT calling out Hasbro for the lack of reveals in the wake of the campaign so far.

We also hate the sense of entitlement that is shown by the collector community at times. Hasbro doesn’t owe any of us anything. They are free to make whatever product they feel is in their best financial interest as a company. All we are entitled to is our choice of whether or not we purchase their product. That’s it.

But in this specific instance…Hasbro owes us! The Community stepped up to the plate and delivered a massive sum of cash for a 3.75” product. So while that can't instantly translate into all new product reveals, we assert that Hasbro needs to show some form appreciation quickly lest the natives get (even more) restless.

What do I mean by “show”? I don't mean platitudes. It has to be something tangible. Hasbro needs to say that they're going to take some of that $10,000,000 windfall and reinvest it right back into specific \ Vintage Collection product. A new figure must be added to the budget as a direct result of this. None of this “if this figure is added, something else needs to come out” malarky. NO! 28,000 backers will hear none of that. The overwhelming success of the Crest campaign should allow us to put an extra figure on the board, without losing something else in its place.

WE WANT PAZ VIZSLA!

As a general note to the community: You should blame Walmart and Target for what you find on Walmart and Target shelves, but feel free to blame Hasbro for what’s within the SKU.

Hasbro, we know that you can’t make retailers take a product. So we know you can’t force Paz Vizsla onto the big boxes. But you could put it on Hasbro Pulse as the first ever 100% Pulse Exclusive figure.

The fans have taken on all of the meaningful financial risk for the Razor Crest. Return the favor and take a much smaller risk on one new figure. The community will do our part to make sure it sells out in record time.

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