The Force is strong thus far with the first offering from Hasbro’s new HasLab crowdfunding platform.
With less approximately eight days left until the timer runs out at just before midnight on April 3rd, prospective buyers have placed 3,750 pre-orders at $500 a pop for the roughly four-foot long Khetanna toy.
That’s 75% of the 5,000 goal required to push the Khetanna, an inclusive Jabba the Hutt figure, and an exclusive Power of the Force-carded Yak Face* figure with coin figure into production.
You can Back The Barge right now at HasLab.
Casual Star Wars fans may recognize this shoe-shaped ship with dual red sails as Jabba’s Sail Barge, the pleasure vessel that Tatooine’s most vile gangster would ultimately meet his demise in during the first act of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
Here’s a refresher:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAnkFVaKnec
Jabba’s Sail Barge has never been made available by then-Kenner or now Hasbro for the iconic 3.75″ action figure line. Fans have been asking about it for decades, yet its large size and lack of potential interest from kids have made it too risky an endeavor to pursue at retail where shelf space for toys is highly competitive.
Imagine how many cool Star Wars figures you can fit on that thing! Per Hasbro there’s roughly 2.5 square feet of floor space.
The advent of crowdfunding has provided Hasbro with a new platform to get some of their dream projects such as the Barge into the hands of the collectors willing to pay for them. By requiring collectors to pay up-front for all the lofty production costs, the risk of retail failure and heavy clearance is abolished and these projects can finally spring to life.
Hasbro intends to deliver around one Star Wars project via HasLab per year. Projects could come as frequently as quarterly with other popular lines such as Marvel, Transformers, My Little Pony and G.I. Joe being considered as well.
Keep up-to-date with all the Jabba’s Sail Barge breaking news, cool what-if images, and even statistical projections for the final week in the Rebelscum forums.
*Yak Face will be available at retail on a Return of the Jedi card in early 2019. The POTF card is exclusive to the HasLab Barge.
