Continuing The Vintage Collection Vehicle Discussion

Yesterday we discussed what vehicles could succeed on their own merit HERE. Today I would like to pivot the discussion and question whether or not there are vehicles for which Hasbro could build a market. I need to once gain revisit the G.I. Joe episode of The Toys the Made Us, which heavily features legendary comic book writer Larry Hama. In the show, he discusses the "secret" about the vintage G.I. Joe line, which was that the action figures were basically loss leaders to sell the higher profit "big ticket" items. Is there opportunity for Hasbro to attempt the same thing today? Now, I don't think the concept of "loss leader" would fly in a collector line, but maybe Hasbro could be justified in assuming additional risk of a higher figure tooling budget if it offered the promise of moving a higher profit vehicle.

The one that comes to mind is Luke's X-34 Landspeeder. If Hasbro tooled up a new Luke Skywalker, Ben Kenobi, C-3PO and R2-D2, could it be used to move a $75 Landspeeder? I know some of your wigs flew off when I suggested that price point, but if the Imperial Troop Transport was $70 three years ago, a properly scaled Landspeeder would definitely be in that price range, and scale is the key. For any new Landspeeder, Luke and Ben would need to fit in the cockpit without looking like two fat guys in a Smart Car:


Yet, that's exactly what the current figures look like in the vintage Kenner Landspeeder mold:


Between the Razor Crest, the recent Speeder Bike (yes, I really like it), and what looks like an amazing upcoming N1, I have high faith that the current talent as Hasbro could blow a Lanbdspeeder sculpt out of the water. One of the things that has really hurt some of Hasbro's recent "big ticket" items is that the complimentary pieces are not available at the same time. Sales of the Carbon Freeze Chamber were definitely hampered by the lack of access to Bepsin Guards and Ugnaughts at the time of its release. In order for this figure and vehicle synergy to work, they all have to be available in the same window.

If Hasbro ever wanted to revisit the "Ultimate Battle Pack" concept, a Landspeeder would even lend itself to that as a secondary release (perhaps as an exclusive). They could include the aforementioned four figures, the elusive moisture vaporator from the lead-in image, and perhaps R5-A1 (a.k.a. the roadblock droid).

What says you? Would you be down for this in the same way that Tony is down for rock climbing, or is $75 for an upgrade to a vehicle you likely already own just a bridge to far even if all the complimentary pieces were available (and everything was engineered to interact together)?

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