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Sentinel_Primal wrote:So apparently Zavvi's cancelling a bunch of European orders for Victory Saber... Really wondering if Deathsaurus got lucky with timing so that most of the poor fulfillment wouldn't impact him, or if Hasbro told affiliates to wait to cancel or something

Could this be related to that shipment that fell into the ocean?

King Kuuga wrote:

Sentinel_Primal wrote:So apparently Zavvi's cancelling a bunch of European orders for Victory Saber... Really wondering if Deathsaurus got lucky with timing so that most of the poor fulfillment wouldn't impact him, or if Hasbro told affiliates to wait to cancel or something

Could this be related to that shipment that fell into the ocean?

I have no idea, but from what I'm seeing, a lot of the emails are just saying Zavvi oversold pre-orders and don't have enough stock to actually fill the orders that were placed

Immortal Starscream wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Has anyone put together a complete list of problems people have encountered with Victory Saber? I know there is at least two other issues in addition to the Dec 9th news story with the chrome wear and one of lion head eyes missing.

idk. I did contact hasbro about mine, they set up a ticket and are working on options now it seems, though I imagine I wont hear back again until after the holidays. ticket status is "Agent Follow up" current response is:

"Hi Haslab backer,

Thank you for reaching out about the Transformers Victory Saber HasLab. We understand your frustration and are investigating as quickly as possible. We will be back in touch with you shortly regarding the remedy and next steps.

Kind regards,

Elizabeth Leary
Senior Manager - Hasbro Global Consumer Care"

I emailed Hasbro on my missing V-Lock Cannon handle on Dec 9, no reply yet, I just called Hasbro today to get an update. The lady (Anna) emailed back, the standard discalimer is up to 90 days for followup.

King Kuuga wrote:

Sentinel_Primal wrote:So apparently Zavvi's cancelling a bunch of European orders for Victory Saber... Really wondering if Deathsaurus got lucky with timing so that most of the poor fulfillment wouldn't impact him, or if Hasbro told affiliates to wait to cancel or something

Could this be related to that shipment that fell into the ocean?

Likely not as it is not the first time Hasbro did that to zavvi.

Zavvi cancelled a lot of day 1 preorders on me for the the very first hasbro online con thing due to hasbro short supplying them then (Green Ranger, Prime Vehicon/War Breakdown and a few other things -which if preordered on the very first day of availability shouldnt be able to be understocked). Hasbro never restocked or even supplied some of those items later on despite having them for sale and even later on sale in the States. Zavvi/Hasbro just arent a good combo with it mainly looking to be Hasbros fault.

blackeyedprime wrote:

King Kuuga wrote:

Sentinel_Primal wrote:So apparently Zavvi's cancelling a bunch of European orders for Victory Saber... Really wondering if Deathsaurus got lucky with timing so that most of the poor fulfillment wouldn't impact him, or if Hasbro told affiliates to wait to cancel or something

Could this be related to that shipment that fell into the ocean?

Likely not as it is not the first time Hasbro did that to zavvi.

Zavvi cancelled a lot of day 1 preorders on me for the the very first hasbro online con thing due to hasbro short supplying them then (Green Ranger, Prime Vehicon/War Breakdown and a few other things -which if preordered on the very first day of availability shouldnt be able to be understocked). Hasbro never restocked or even supplied some of those items later on despite having them for sale and even later on sale in the States. Zavvi/Hasbro just arent a good combo with it mainly looking to be Hasbros fault.

It's stupid/weird. Victory Saber is a HasLab, with every order supposedly accounted for. And with the # of Deathsaurus backed, the demand for Victory Saber might arguably be even more in the after-market on eBay and such. Hasbro/Zavvi should be able to fulfill those orders unless that Taiwan port incident is the sole cause. Zavvi must HATE dealing with Hasbro...

cloudballoon wrote:

blackeyedprime wrote:

King Kuuga wrote:

Sentinel_Primal wrote:So apparently Zavvi's cancelling a bunch of European orders for Victory Saber... Really wondering if Deathsaurus got lucky with timing so that most of the poor fulfillment wouldn't impact him, or if Hasbro told affiliates to wait to cancel or something

Could this be related to that shipment that fell into the ocean?

Likely not as it is not the first time Hasbro did that to zavvi.

Zavvi cancelled a lot of day 1 preorders on me for the the very first hasbro online con thing due to hasbro short supplying them then (Green Ranger, Prime Vehicon/War Breakdown and a few other things -which if preordered on the very first day of availability shouldnt be able to be understocked). Hasbro never restocked or even supplied some of those items later on despite having them for sale and even later on sale in the States. Zavvi/Hasbro just arent a good combo with it mainly looking to be Hasbros fault.

It's stupid/weird. Victory Saber is a HasLab, with every order supposedly accounted for. And with the # of Deathsaurus backed, the demand for Victory Saber might arguably be even more in the after-market on eBay and such. Hasbro/Zavvi should be able to fulfill those orders unless that Taiwan port incident is the sole cause. Zavvi must HATE dealing with Hasbro...

I've heard it's related to Zavvi themselves not giving Hasbro the proper numbers for backers and just hoping they'd have enough/enough people would cancel. Especially cause it's not every order through Zavvi getting cancelled, just a portion of them. It's also not unlike what Amazon does with their exclusives where they oversell their pre-orders and hope enough people cancel so they can fill the orders remaining with none left over

Sentinel_Primal wrote:So apparently Zavvi's cancelling a bunch of European orders for Victory Saber... Really wondering if Deathsaurus got lucky with timing so that most of the poor fulfillment wouldn't impact him, or if Hasbro told affiliates to wait to cancel or something

Oh that's poopy :/ I wanted to order through Zavvi as well at first, but had already had a few nergative experiences with them in the past and didn't wanna risk it with a Haslab project. So I went with Robotkingdom instead for both VS and DS, and I'm glad I did as it turns out

Opened up my copy for Christmas, and I really lucked out. Only qc issue mine has is the filled in slot, but everything else is nice and solid. Only issue is the sticker... It's not awful, but I think I would have preferred LEGO quality stickers, and not needing to wrap it around the part

Maximum firepower!

Omegatron. wrote:Maximum firepower!

20221229_122107.jpg

Putting blast effects on the antennii... that's gutsy.

While many are happy with their Haslab Victory Saber, it hasn't been all peachy for everyone. Fans still have no response from Hasbro regarding replacement parts for the widespread flaw where a peg hole was filled and several European orders were unfufilled by the 3rd party retailers accepting orders. BUT, for those lacking a Victory Saber and wanting one at an ok price, Robot Kingdom ordered some for their own store and it is currently in stock. While the default price is $199.90 USD, this item doesn't ship to the US or Canada, but it should be available to the Europeans who got their order cancelled. And any American wanting in on this price can always use a forwarding service which many Transformers fans routinely use for country exclusives. While the price is not a huge margin over the original price, the fact that Robot Kingdom is Hong Kong based means the shipping will be pricey. Still, it's an option we wanted to share with you in case it helped.

Here is the listing: https://www.robotkingdom.com/transforme ... 000re.html

Hopefully some of those fans in Taiwan can grab one of these.

So either Robot Kingdom ordered more than the preorders they received or they somehow received the ones from Zavvi. It sucks that so many people got what should've been guaranteed preorders cancelled but at least they might be able to still get the set.

I really think that the Haslabs should be made to order preorders to unlock what they unlock but then they also make a run of figures beyond that so that others can still purchase them. Maybe have it so that the preorders through the Haslab system are cheaper by like $20 or so or something. It just really sucks that people who missed out for whatever real world reason can't get the figure without paying aftermarket prices. For instance and going on as if the Engine of Vengeance campaign actually funded, I like many others were being affected by a hurricane. I would've liked to have backed it but I wasn't able to. I happened to be affected by the bad job market for both Galactus and the Sentinel and now don't have either. It just sucks sometimes but again, I hope that those who's orders were cancelled can still somehow get them.

I figured that us not getting replies for problems with Victory Saber might have had something to do with the time of year. I would imagine they've been bombarded with more than quite a few questions. It's always slow around this time when I have to contact them about anything.

The problem with mine is that the port for the thigh tab on one of Victory Leo's legs was broken before being put in the packaging. So when I go to move the leg outward, it moves at the transformation hinge/hip cannon instead of at the actual outward hip joint. I've tightened up the transformation hinge with some water based polyurethane so that things work mostly as intended but still, my piece is broken and I'd like a replacement. Everything else was fine though.

On a side note I just got the upgrade kit for Victory Saber from Ebay in today. The filler pieces for the cannons fit well two of the many pieces were a little too snug though. The thigh fillers for Victory Leo went in fine. Nothing has or will fall out as they're sized very well for where they all need to go. The new arms for Saber work well too. The color match is pretty spot on. The ball socket for the fists work fine as do the elbows and the bicep swivel. Again, nothing is loose. The forearm hinges are fine and lock into place when closed. The forearms are now a little wider than the stock arms but this did not affect any mode. The arms even still lock into place for jet mode. Just for those who were curious about the set and/or didn't want to get the DNA kit as it doesn't have forearm covers for Saber nor fillers for Victory Leo's thighs. Although I just feel like those shouldn't have been an issue to begin with. Those things and better outward shoulder articulation for Star Saber should've been included in even if it meant that the set was $200 instead. There's no excuse for that in a figure that's made to order at what is essentially a made up price point. Ultimately these are mostly very minor problems overall but still, they shouldn't exist on this kind of figure.

They ordered more. Robot Kingdom ordered 750 more.

william-james88 wrote:They ordered more. Robot Kingdom ordered 750 more.

So Robot Kingdom sell Victory Saber for 200$US.

WHY?

That's just 20$ more than what Hasbro Pulse charged. I don't think they got a group order deal at all. Factor in import taxes and shipping and they may barely make 2$ of profit for each VS sets. Why bother going through all that trouble for peanuts? They should have sold each sets for 250$ or 300$ to make it worth their while, no matter how long it would take to sell them.

Maybe they just don't want to store those sets for long because storage cost money after all. So they decided to do a clearance sale right from the start to fix their mistake. Maybe once they only have a dozen or so units in stock, they will increase the price to at least turn some profit.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:They ordered more. Robot Kingdom ordered 750 more.

So Robot Kingdom sell Victory Saber for 200$US.

WHY?

That's just 20$ more than what Hasbro Pulse charged. I don't think they got a group order deal at all. Factor in import taxes and shipping and they may barely make 2$ of profit for each VS sets. Why bother going through all that trouble for peanuts? They should have sold each sets for 250$ or 300$ to make it worth their while, no matter how long it would take to sell them.

Maybe they just don't want to store those sets for long because storage cost money after all. So they decided to do a clearance sale right from the start to fix their mistake. Maybe once they only have a dozen or so units in stock, they will increase the price to at least turn some profit.

RobotKingdom is known for having cheap prices in general. It's the higher shipping costs that they make back their money from.

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:They ordered more. Robot Kingdom ordered 750 more.

So Robot Kingdom sell Victory Saber for 200$US.

WHY?

That's just 20$ more than what Hasbro Pulse charged. I don't think they got a group order deal at all. Factor in import taxes and shipping and they may barely make 2$ of profit for each VS sets. Why bother going through all that trouble for peanuts? They should have sold each sets for 250$ or 300$ to make it worth their while, no matter how long it would take to sell them.

Maybe they just don't want to store those sets for long because storage cost money after all. So they decided to do a clearance sale right from the start to fix their mistake. Maybe once they only have a dozen or so units in stock, they will increase the price to at least turn some profit.

RobotKingdom is known for having cheap prices in general. It's the higher shipping costs that they make back their money from.

Lucky for locals then since they get free shipping.

So, having messed with Victory Saber more, I find myself generally underwhelmed by the package in general.

The main problem is Star Saber himself. He's just.... boring? Like, I do not have fun messing with him at all. SS Crosshairs has stood beside him for a month, and has been far more fun to fiddle with, pose, and photograph. Star Saber... just doesn't do much in hand, isn't really fun to look at or play with.

Victory Leo is the star of the set, but despite how much i enjoy him, he cannot overcome the boring of Star Saber, and Victory Saber isn't doing much for me anymore now too, since it's mostly Star Saber and the main guy i like is just heels and wings.

I want to like this set more, but the spark has fizzled out. It's just a boring set.

I hate saying that, because I was excited for this. But, it's just not living up to the hype after the initial rush.

If anything, it makes me happier that I did not back Unicron; if I felt this way after spending over $600, I'd be super depressed.

It really hit home taking the below photo. Of these figures, Galaxy Shuttle is the far more fun figure; Star Saber and Minerva just feel equally mediocre.

I am hoping Deathsaurus returns the magic, he looks so damn cool.

Oh also, no idea what all the fuss is with the V-lock, mine goes right where it needs to easy peasy and stays there nicely.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I want to like this set more, but the spark has fizzled out. It's just a boring set.

The good news is you should be able to make your money back easily enough!

Grahf_ wrote:So either Robot Kingdom ordered more than the preorders they received or they somehow received the ones from Zavvi. It sucks that so many people got what should've been guaranteed preorders cancelled but at least they might be able to still get the set.

I really think that the Haslabs should be made to order preorders to unlock what they unlock but then they also make a run of figures beyond that so that others can still purchase them. Maybe have it so that the preorders through the Haslab system are cheaper by like $20 or so or something. It just really sucks that people who missed out for whatever real world reason can't get the figure without paying aftermarket prices. For instance and going on as if the Engine of Vengeance campaign actually funded, I like many others were being affected by a hurricane. I would've liked to have backed it but I wasn't able to. I happened to be affected by the bad job market for both Galactus and the Sentinel and now don't have either. It just sucks sometimes but again, I hope that those who's orders were cancelled can still somehow get them.

I figured that us not getting replies for problems with Victory Saber might have had something to do with the time of year. I would imagine they've been bombarded with more than quite a few questions. It's always slow around this time when I have to contact them about anything.

The problem with mine is that the port for the thigh tab on one of Victory Leo's legs was broken before being put in the packaging. So when I go to move the leg outward, it moves at the transformation hinge/hip cannon instead of at the actual outward hip joint. I've tightened up the transformation hinge with some water based polyurethane so that things work mostly as intended but still, my piece is broken and I'd like a replacement. Everything else was fine though.

On a side note I just got the upgrade kit for Victory Saber from Ebay in today. The filler pieces for the cannons fit well two of the many pieces were a little too snug though. The thigh fillers for Victory Leo went in fine. Nothing has or will fall out as they're sized very well for where they all need to go. The new arms for Saber work well too. The color match is pretty spot on. The ball socket for the fists work fine as do the elbows and the bicep swivel. Again, nothing is loose. The forearm hinges are fine and lock into place when closed. The forearms are now a little wider than the stock arms but this did not affect any mode. The arms even still lock into place for jet mode. Just for those who were curious about the set and/or didn't want to get the DNA kit as it doesn't have forearm covers for Saber nor fillers for Victory Leo's thighs. Although I just feel like those shouldn't have been an issue to begin with. Those things and better outward shoulder articulation for Star Saber should've been included in even if it meant that the set was $200 instead. There's no excuse for that in a figure that's made to order at what is essentially a made up price point. Ultimately these are mostly very minor problems overall but still, they shouldn't exist on this kind of figure.

morphobots wrote:Hopefully some of those fans in Taiwan can grab one of these.

This is another good argument for a limited run instead of purely made-to-order deal recent HasLab projects have had: safety in redundancy. In case there's QC issues or a whole shipment is ruined because of unforseen circumstances, they have something to fall back to and satisfy the unlucky backers instead of just replacing them with other products they didn't order in the first place (or maybe already did and now have two of them).

Honestly, this is one of the main reasons I haven't bought any of the past HasLab Transformers in the secondary market (well, that and the price, especially for Unicron); if there's something broken, missing or misassembled with mine, I have no idea how to replace it or if it's even possible.

We thank Mkall for reaching out to us to let us know of what Hasbro is offering in terms of options to those contacting them regarding issues with their Victory Sabers. It seems you either get a refund or another Victory figure but in either case, what you received must be returned in full. And if you pick a new replacement Victory Saber, there will be a delay of several months. Here is what one of the responses were:

We are currently offering you two options to resolve the matter – 1) returning the product for a full refund or 2) returning the product for a replacement at no cost to you (to be delivered in 2023, exact date to be confirmed). Details for both options are outlined below:

Process to Return for a Full Refund

1) Reply to this email expressing your request for a refund with photos containing the following:
• Your HasLab Transformers Victory Saber, including all accessories (.jpeg or .gif)
• As well as a note containing your Hasbro Pulse order number and Consumer Care incident number
• Your complete mailing address & phone number

2) Once this information has been received and verified, our team will issue a pre-paid Postal Service shipping label to return the Victory Saber. The item, including ALL accessories, is required to process your refund:
• 8.5-inch VStar Figure
• 5-inch Saber figure
• 1-inch Brainmaster figure
• Victory Leo figure
• Holi figure
• Fire Figure
• All accessories (weapons, stands, etc.)


Process to Return for a Product Replacement

If you wish to proceed with a full replacement product, please reply to this email confirming that decision.

In the coming months, we will reach out to you to provide the estimated shipping date of this HasLab Transformers Victory Saber replacement product, and the next steps on returning your HasLab Transformers Victory Saber.

There’s 26,211 Victory Sabers right now. If less than 15% backers replace their figure there will be 30,000 Victory Sabers. If these were a regular release in stores I doubt people would be as sensitive to issues. That would be funny if they end up with more victory sabers made then say the ark or something like it

I got the same email. I wonder where the shipping destination will be? The email is from the US, but I live in Canada. They might have me shipped to Montreal, Quebec.

It's still a poopy decision to go for the replacement (instead of Hasbro shipping me the missing V-Lock Cannon handle). Guess I'll reopen my Victory Saber & Deathsaurus at the same time...