My One Realistic Wish For The Next HasLab That Might Limit Its Appeal

If you listened to the most recent Vintage Collection Podcast where I was Victoria's guest along with Mr. Miko, this article is going to be a bit redundant. In that podcast we talk all things HasLab past, present and future. I land on something that I feel the Barge has, but the Razor Crest and Ghost lack. Before we get to that, let me reiterate that my dream HasLab will never happen. This article is about a potential realistic projcet.

Both the Crest and Ghost expand my collection. They push my collection into new arenas. I had smattering of Mandalorian figures, but the Crest transformed that into a focus collection. The Ghost will entirely create my Rebels display. There's certainly value in that, and it's exciting to grow our collections. The Barge, on the other hand, elevated my existing collection. I already had dozens of figures from Jabba's menagerie. The Barge gave them a home. It took a ramshackle display and organized it. I wish the next HasLab would return to that notion of elevating a collection of figures we already own, but there's a rub.

While the broad strokes I describe above are good for long term collectors like me, and mostly likely you reading this, they're terrible for new collectors, many of whom are needed to make a HasLab a success. I think this operated to the detriment of the Barge. New collectors realized they would have to pay $20 to $30 for many of the figures to populate the Khetanna on top of the $500 for the vehicle itself, and it became too much for some. It gets back to the accessibility issue that I drone on and on about. It's hard to grow new fans if they can't easily get their hands on the figures/items they need to become a fan.

Back to the idea of elevating our existing collections, there are two HasLabs that come to mind immediately. They are the Death Star and the Cantina. Most long term collectors have some sort of display already dedicated to those two environments. My personal Death Star display is somewhat pathetic. It's just "these guys all go together" on the same shelf. My cantina display is a little more organized with the POTF2 cardboard backdrop, the plastic bar pieces, and the mini diorama pieces that have come with previous cantina alien figures. Nevertheless, it could be greatly upgraded with a HasLab quality "play set". In either case, for them to be successful, Hasbro needs to ensure that new collectors can get all the figures they need to populate them.

Ultimately, this is easier for the Death Star because it would require less overall figures to bring to market, since many of them are army builders. Aside from the individual officers from the briefing scene, merely having Stormtroopers, Imperial Navy Commanders and Death Star Gunners (with a new dang helmet) available would allow new collectors to have a well populated Death Star.

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