REACTION:  Boba Fett’s Throne Room

While the livestream on Wednesday started off as a snoozer, with a bunch of Sixer junk followed by TVC imagery of not new figures that were already pipeline reveals from yesteryear, it got MIGHTY interesting at about the halfway point. Weighing in at a surprising $230 and touted as the largest TVC playset so far, we were treated to the HasbroPulse exclusive Boba Fett's Throne Room, sourced from The Book of Boba Fett. There was a lot to unpack there, and collectors had a a day to get their affairs in order before pre-orders opened on Pulse at 1PM ET yesterday. Even in Europe, where apparently HasbroPulse will be expanding into several EU countries in the near future, (or so the Germans would have us believe). But those places are more than a 20 minute drive from my house, so it's something I can't pay too much attention to.

So what to make of this? Here are five thoughts on this set:

1. I didn't hear it myself, but I was told that one of the questions during the fan Q&A yesterday asked if the playset was meant to be a HasLab, and the answer was that it was not, and always intended to be Pulse. This is fascinating information, because it seems from the Livestream that Hasbro created this "new class of Pulse exclusives," with this being the first item in this new expression. My gut would have told me that this product started as a HasLab project, and then evolved into something else. It certainly seems, at least in some respects, to be a product that has greater potential viability outside of the HasLab "dream product" category. It's a playset that has been desired for almost 40 years, and then got a major shot in the arm by being featured in the current season of The Book of Boba Fett. So I would have imagined that it started life as a HasLab, but that it had wide enough appeal to be something more accessible to the public. But the costs and size were probably still too much for a retail partner to risk taking on, so maybe it fell into the in-between state, and this new class was born. It will be interesting to see if this Pulse exclusive expression is intended to spread across all Hasbro brands, or if it's geared towards Star Wars. I suspect the former, which sucks, because like HasLab, that would mean TVC will launch an exciting new channel, only to be pushed aside while collectors wait for non-TVC products to get their turn.

2. To build on that first thought, I would wonder if Hasbro actually attempted at any point to shop this around to Amazon, Walmart, or Target. It's (probably) in a big box and at over $200, certainly still a tough sell for those retail partners to foot the bill for the Throne Room. If someone did agree to take it on, that likely would have meant the production run would have been larger, while MSRP would have been lower - and then clearanced out at some point. The first two are good, but the last is bad. Being stuck with thousands of these things on clearance probably would have been bad news for the retailer, and therefore another blow to the long-term health of TVC. So being a Pulse exclusive seems like Hasbro had enough faith in the success of the product (even if retailers did not) that they could bypass HasLab and go to Pulse.

3. $229. That's an enormous amount of money for a non-HasLab playset. But at this point, while we may not like it, and while it may sadly drive some collectors away, inflation coupled with the huge costs associated with the continued global logistics crisis is real, and it's not going anywhere soon. I saw one of our reader comments yesterday who basically wrote (paraphrasing), "Spend the money now, because if you don't, you'll wish you did once the aftermarket prices triple." And if you think about it, the size, tooling costs, paint applications, sculpting detail, massive accessory count, and spectacular deluxe figure seem to not be far off if using the recent $50 playsets as comparison. At 1/4 the size, with a few (or zero) accessories, simple (or almost no) paint applications, and a repainted pack-in figure, this set doesn't seem to be so outrageous. But perhaps most importantly, it's a pulse exclusive, so will undoubtedly be manufactured in much smaller quantities than these other sets - which also drives up the price. So while all of us may have had a negative reaction upon first learning the price, I got over it pretty quickly and then didn't give it another thought.

4. Great move by Hasbro to include Bib Fortuna instead of the more retail-friendly Boba Fett himself. It is a bit odd that this is called "Boba Fett's Throne Room", and Boba is nowhere to be found, but as this was kept in house at Pulse, it doesn't have to appeal to the general public or the casual buyer who might be confused. It may not be HasLab, but it is still geared towards hardcore collectors, so we certainly didn't need another version of Boba Fett, and this was probably the only way we we could reasonably expect to get Fortuna. But technically, this really should be "Bib Fortuna's Throne Room," and sourced to The Mandalorian.

5. It's interesting that the Livestream and the official photos seem to almost completely ignore the fact that this set is compatible with the Jabba / Dais set from 2010. This confirmation needed to be pulled from the Brand Team's clenched fists during one of the Q&A's. This is huge information, and suddenly triggers multiple purchase opportunities from a large number of collectors. You might want one for ROTJ as well as TBOBF. Some of our more, uh, detail-oriented readers correctly pointed out that this set is definitely sculpted with details specific to TBOBF, and lack other important details that are specific to ROTJ. That's fair, but I strongly suggest that this not stop you from buying at least one. DO NOT SLEEP ON THIS SET! This is a live pre-order on HasbroPulse that could sell out any minute, and then you'll be left paying huge premiums on the secondary market. This isn't a HasLab with a guaranteed 45 day window. It's also highly unlikely to ever go on clearance. If you're an OT fan, you had better be picking up at least one, because this is the closest you're ever going to get to Jabba's Palace. While collectors each have their own HasLab wishlists, it seems like the conventional wisdom was that the Death Star, Cantina, and Jabba's Palace were the top 3 most requested wants. Well, here's one of them, and it's not even HasLab. And while it doesn't physically connect with the carbon block "Adventure Set" from a couple of years ago, Emily explained that the aesthetics are the same and they compliment each other. So unless we somehow get a droid torture room, prison block, or entrance gate, this is the Jabba's Palace playset you were looking for.

---

comments powered by Disqus