What Concerns Me About The Vintage Collection LAAT/i Gunship HasLab Campaign

Click HERE to back the Vintage Collection LAAT/i Gunship HasLab campaign

First, let's talk about where the campaign stands. As of this writing, which is 8 PM ET Tuesday night, we're sitting at 3,807 backers, which is 44 for the day, and there's still four hours to go. This represents a three day trend of the trajectory curving upwards. We had 25 on Sunday and 42 on Monday (weekends are typically slower). The best performing day the previous week was 39 backers, so the campaign is starting to slightly bow skyward as we head into the home stretch next week. I'm a little worried about stating this out loud because I've been on an epic HasLab jinx streak lately, but we could hit the halfway mark before Monday morning.

I'm a firm believer that any crowdfunding campaign that hits 50% funding before the final 3 day sprint, has a shot. We could reach that mark with a week to spare. By way of comparison, Reva's lightsaber, which is the only organic Star Wars HasLab failure, only got to 28% backing, and it only needed 5,000 backers. So the Gunship is crushing Reva's Saber both in terms of percentage of backing and number of backers. I know that's like saying, "it sold better than Constable Zuvio", but I just want to contrast a campaign that had true disinterest to one that appears to have reluctant interest. And it's that mid-level enthusiasm the Gunship is showing that has me concerned about the bigger picture.

When the Ghost started showing up last year, some fans were horrified at the lack of paint applications, and rightfully so. I was certainly disappointed at how "plastic" it looked. Fast forward to the Cantina campaign last year, and many fans said they couldn't get over the apparent lack of wash on the walls. Once again, we said it looked to "plasticky". We said HasLabs needed to be special. The best of the best. Hasbro took in this feedback. They said we hear you, and they blew out the deco for the Gunship. Just take a look at a few of these photos from Mr. Stevie's Fan Expo Instagram post HERE:





It's incredible. It looks like it jumped off the screen. There are paint apps upon paint apps. There's no long, unbroken of "cast in color" stretches where all the panels blend into one another. It's broken up and gnarly, just like the "used universe" we've all come to love. And what has been the most common complaint? "It's too expensive." We can't have it both ways. If we want paint apps, we have to pay for it.

The only reason for the existence of adult collectible toys is profit. It's not your grandmother's insulin. Outside of perhaps Fabergé Eggs, they are the ultimate in unnecessary frivolities. If someone isn't making a buck, they wouldn't exist. I know I'll get called a "shill" for this by someone (and it's probably why I'll avoid the comments), but the pricing for HasLabs is largely formulaic. It's the product of an accountant's spreadsheet.

The production team determines Hasbro's cost at x number of units, and then the beancounters say at that cost, Hasbro has to charge y to make the required profit. If they just break even, they will quickly go out of business. If they can't make their desired profit, it's borderline actionable to invest those R&D dollars when they could be going to another Magic the Gathering set (which is almost like printing money).

Again, if we want paint apps, we have to pay for it, and I'm worried the message we're sending is that we'd rather pay less for more plastic fantastics. We bemoaned the near zero paint apps on the Streets of Mos Eisely, and the lack of wash of VC344 - Luke Skywalker, but if the Gunship fails to meet expectations, I fear the message it will send is that paint applications simply are not important to us (collectively). I'm not trying to be overly dramatic, but this is the slippery slope that eventually leads to this:


Look, I hate it when people say, "if you don't buy this thing you don't care about, it will cost you something you do care about." So please don't misconstrue this as me in anyway trying to pressure anyone into backing the Gunship. I'm just stating that if something underperforms, any company will naturally analyze the reasons why, and I'm worried about what those takeaways will be. If you want the Gunship and you love premium deco, but are protesting because you think it should cost $399, I implore you to reconsider. It may hurt, but sometimes we need to put our money where our mouths are.

Myself, I'm bothered about having paid $500 for an under-painted Ghost. I won't be upset at all paying $450 for this work of art Gunship. I just hope those on the fence realize that we're being offered an item of exceptional quality in the waning days of the campaign.

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