Hasbro's crowdsourced Jabba Sail Barge

True, but delivery to the US and Canada should be EXCLUDED from the shipping locations list. The inclusion of the US and Canada caused several fans to believe the ebay site was fake because it contradicted Hasbro's official announcement. The official launch date also brought the whole thing closer to actually being an April fool's joke.

However, a member from the German lichtgeschwindigkeit.de forum got a confirmation from Hasbro that the website was legit. So it seems that this is a temporary stand-in to start the set-up of the new ebay account which will be revised on March 31st. Hasbro confirmed that the US and Canada would definitely NOT be delivered again. They would delay the European supply in order to process complaints regarding the already sent items. In other words, Hasbro is going to use the additional amount of about 1200 barges for replacement and spare parts for the barges which got broken during transport in the US and Canada first. Then everything that's left would be offered overseas. So you can imagine that the amount of barges which can be obtained through the Hasbropulse ebay site will be very small.
 
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I tried to order one. One part said that it was shipping to the US, another one said it wasn't. In the end they cancelled my order so I guess I'm out of luck.
 
It explicitely stated that orders with a US or Canadian shipping address would be cancelled immediately. These countries had their chance. However, seeing that only 400 were provided to cater the rest of the world is ridiculous. They could have sold several thousands overseas. All this setup and tension - for literally nothing. The whole thing was a JOKE. And I honestly feel very sorry for all the fans who did not get a barge. :(
 
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Again this is just another reason why a large company crowd sourcing any item is absurd. They could have just made it an exclusive of some kind (which it would have been given the price even if it was mass produced) and made so much money off of it.

I think it's an amazing piece and if I still collected the figures I would have jumped on this but it never sat right with me that Hasbro couldn't see the bigger picture enough to realize that making it a Kick Starter item only available to United States collectors was a HUGE oversight on their part. The fact that they had to course correct and make only a limited number available to fans overseas was just plain stupid and proves my point.

Hasbro could have easily afforded to make this like they do their other toys, sold it at a premium because of it's size and detailing but mass produced it which would have significantly dropped production costs and could have even dropped the final price tag for collectors.
 
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Yep. For the record: I love the barge and her execution but she was not on my want-list because I don't have the space to display her, so I did not participate in the campaign. However, I am a figure collector and followed the campaign with tension because I knew how much the fans wanted this ship. I was very happy for them when I learned that the project was successful.

What made the matter the worst experience ever was not the price point. IMO the price was OK for such a detailed and HUGE beast. Limiting the item to 1 per customer - no argument there. It is and will be an exclusive item.

The advertising was catastrophic: No-one except the fan sites knew about it. It was like Hasbro were pretty much unsure of the success of their own creation and as if they were looking for a reason to kill TVC completely.

However, what did make the matter THE worst was the fact that they virtually excluded the fans outside the US and Canada in the first place. Of course, they said they were working on a way to send the barges to fans overseas. By all means, they did and you have to credit them for doing so. Granted, ebay is a weird choice, but it worked. BUT - ONLY 400 FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD??? That's ridiculous even if you consider the steep price and the financial risk involved. Offering a complete 1.000 wouldn't have hurt and would have shed a much better light on Hasbro; they would have definitely sold the excess overtime. They could have taken pre-orders and made another run for the rest of the world without undermining their policies. Those who did not use MyUS or another service but relied on the ebay auction must be extremely disappointed.

Ah well, now they can say that their first Haslab project was a major success and move on.
 
I still don't understand why they needed the money from collectors upfront? They're a massive company. It's not like they didn't have the start up capital.

Honestly kids aren't buying the toys like they are with other properties. Though I suspect that action figures don't have the same appeal to kids like they did in my generation. The ones who are keeping Star Wars a viable market in the toy aisles are mostly adult collectors who have the disposable income to be able to afford an exclusive like this. Which makes me think why wouldn't they make it available to more people? The more they made the less the production costs. The less it would have cost collectors. I don't get it.
 
Psab keel said:
I still don't understand why they needed the money from collectors upfront? They're a massive company. It's not like they didn't have the start up capital.
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Maybe they wanted to make sure those who ordered had the means to obtain such a huge and costly item and to prevent people from pushing up the numbers just for fun to make the project a success.
 
I suppose so, but again children can't afford a piece like this so it is essentially only for collectors who have the money to spend.

Regardless it's a gorgeous piece and the kid inside me would love to own one if I only had the space to display it.
 
Me too. What I was looking forward the most were all those beautiful pictures of the barge which would pop up all over the web. There are fantastic installations and setups of the fans, one of the most amazing ones showing it lit up with LED lights (she looks like a real party barge with them). There are so many professional gallery pictures available that can be downloaded, printed and framed. Of course a poster cannot replace the original but it is better than nothing (and does not require as much space ;) ). In addition, the pictures can be used as a guide for custom-built barges as well. :)
 
I agree. Since I stopped collecting the figures years ago I still find myself checking the toy aisles just to see what is available and I enjoy remembering the thrill of the hunt. The same goes for seeing the pictures online of all the cool stuff they are releasing. Back in high school (yes high school and yes this clearly means I was a huge nerd lol) I made a cardboard sail barge diorama for my Return of the Jedi figures along with Sarlacc pit and Skiff - all of which paled in comparison to this beauty.

There are times when I want to start collecting again, and an item like this tempts me to, but I have to limit myself to props and costumes because those hobbies are expensive enough. lol
 
That's true! I remember when I was little I was turning my entire bedroom into a gigantic Hoth playset. I used the "local infrastructure" like furniture, cardboard and lots of cotton wool. Needless to say it did not turn out the way I imagined because I only had one figure each (something like "army building" was totally unheard by me :D ) but it was better than nothing and I and my friends had a lot of fun playing. I was the one who was into Star Wars whereas the others were into MotU (I never understood why because the Kenner figs looked much better IMO).

Fortunately we are all very creative and have the means and knowledge to build something from scratch. My main weapons of choice are SketchUp and cardboard, so in essence, the sky is the limit, and if I want to have a barge I'll build one myself. :)

Right now I'm re-organising my collections and looking at what has already been made I think that now it is all about improvement (making and having the most definite version of a character). The current state of technology is breath-taking and what's offered is absoutely fantastic - from a technical standpoint. If you compare the new ones to their 1996+ counterparts you'll be able to tell pretty quickly which figure will stay and which one will go.

What's now a bit weird is the Fox takeover. I also collect NECA's Aliens and Predators - now they are all DISNEY figures... Still waiting for a Bambiburster! :D LOL!
 
Psab keel said:
I agree. Since I stopped collecting the figures years ago I still find myself checking the toy aisles just to see what is available and I enjoy remembering the thrill of the hunt. The same goes for seeing the pictures online of all the cool stuff they are releasing. Back in high school (yes high school and yes this clearly means I was a huge nerd lol) I made a cardboard sail barge diorama for my Return of the Jedi figures along with Sarlacc pit and Skiff - all of which paled in comparison to this beauty.

There are times when I want to start collecting again, and an item like this tempts me to, but I have to limit myself to props and costumes because those hobbies are expensive enough. lol
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I get that feeling too, quickly followed by remembering why i quit...hasbro's lying (we don't short pack) and the scum that were scalpers.
 
I had two brand new figures when I was growing up in the 1980's. Teebo and Wicket which I got for my birthday and a few used figures that were gifted to me by my cousins. So naturally when the Power of the Force (2) line came out in 1995 I bought every figure I could get my hands on and I collected all the way up until Episode I came out. I got the first wave of figures and just a handful more and the line just blew up. I didn't want all the podracer figures or the senators and all that crap and being a completist I just couldn't justify the money spent. I sold them all off only to collect the Vintage collection figures a few years down the road along with all the aliens from Jabba's court as I planned to make a detailed and accurate 3 3/4 scale diorama of Jabba's Throne Room. Alas that was never meant to be and I sold them all.

I've been tempted to restart but again I can't justify it when I've already got too little space in my house plus my prop and costume hobbies which are expensive enough. Though seeing the sail barge being released along with some of the skiff guard figures and other rare Jabba henchmen characters I'd been missing from my collection sure does sound enticing.
 
I'm not a completists but collect the ones I like best. After the Disney takeover and the begin of the horrid distribution I concentrated on getting three major areas covered: Bespin encounter, Bounty hunters and Jabba's palace. The latter was a walk in the park since I have a ton of palace aliens (including the first ones). So far I have all core ingredients except for the denizens (still kicking my butt for skipping them when they were available ;) ). I also have a lot of Ewoks which would look good in an Endor dio.

Right now my ambitions as a collector are not very high any more because of the high prices here in Germany. In Germany an average 5-POA-figure costs 15 $, a TVC figure 25 $. Army building is out of the question. There are very few figures I still really want (the new Stormie is on top of my list) but the rest depends on availability. If I can get it - fine, if not - it doesn't matter much to me any longer. If you look at it carefully you realize that after 2015 the hobby is not fun any more. You need to check the stores constantly in order not to miss a figure. The whole process of getting something is turning into stress. Pre-ordering prevents you from carefully planning your orders to save shipping costs. And seeing all these peg-warmers hanging around shows how much resources are wasted. This is insane.

I'm looking forward to the palette for Episode IX and I am quite sure it will be another overload of humans in boring outifts no-one wants to buy.
 
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