The Energon Pub

[AllNewSuperRobot]

The S7 Thundertank is the biggest middle finger to collectors to date!

Ten times the price of their regular figures and with zero added figures/accessories.

[o.supreme]

I only backed Victory Saber because it was the perfect storm of having available funds, being something I really wanted,and having available space.

Unicron I only marginally wanted. it was awesome, but I had neither the funds, nor the space. The rest are franchises I don't collect..

I hope VS proved that smaller ticket Haslabs are viable, and in demand.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

So I just saw an update on that Mattel Eternia Castle Grayskull, and I feel this is critical for future Haslabs: Mattel is actually offering Paypal Credit as an option to pay for that funding project. That is something we have said Haslabs have needed since the beginning, and now that Mattel is doing it, basically giving you a payment plan option, I really feel haslab needs to catch up and do that now

[King Kuuga]

I've been tracking the Engine of Vengeance, loosely, so it's time for an analysis by a non-Marvel Legends fan about what's happening with it.

Let's get this out of the way. It's losing backers. I think it peaked at around 5600, slipped down to 5160, 5060, and now at the time of writing it's sitting at 5016. I believe the drop began after their first week incentive of a Robbie Reyes figure didn't make it. Personally I think that was too ambitious of a goal, because to my knowledge the Proton Pack is the ONLY product that has been funded that quickly, so when EOV inevitably failed to meet that goal, and the Robbie figure wasn't happening anymore, suddenly you're looking at paying for the same for less product. That should have been a stretch goal IMO.

Also, I think it's too expensive. I have no basis for what a model car should cost, but it's twice the cost of Victory Saber and it doesn't need to transform, it just needs to roll and turn the wheels. I respect the level of detail and electronics but really if it was $100 cheaper I think we wouldn't be here.


So there's still a week and a half to go on the EOV and it's only halfway to its goal. There's always a big push in the last day or two. The only comparable projects that have been in this situation are Unicron himself as well as the ones from last winter, the GI Joe Skystriker and the Star Wars Rancor. Unicron would have failed without an extension, a luxury that has not been given to any other project so far, and it still limped across the finish line a day before the end. Rancor, infamously, fell just short of its goal (8533/9000) while the Skystriker soared past its goal in the last day (probably picking up a fair few burnt Rancor backers who were also Joe fans and had to choose between the two). In this case, the only thing competing with the Engine of Vengeance is Heroscape. I don't think there's enough overlap between those fandoms for them to eat into each other's sales, plus there's two weeks between the ends of their campaigns. So the EOV is failing on its own merits. I think it's going to be another Rancor, and the last minute surge will not be enough to push it past the goalpost. I don't want this thing to fail, I think it looks great, but it's certainly not promising.

If anyone wants it, here's my spreadsheet.

Haslab projects 2022.png

[Emerje]

Pretty sure the HISS Tank is the second fastest, it was blowing through goals faster than they could update the website.

Emerje

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Pretty sure the HISS Tank is the second fastest, it was blowing through goals faster than they could update the website.

Emerje

Sentinel was actually the fastest of the bunch I'm pretty sure (I don't remember the HISS tank funding period, I didn't watch close and didn't back it). It funded in 26 hours and hit all 3 original stretch goals within 6 days. they added the bonus 4th stretch goal halfway through the campaign and it funded too, not as quickly, but still funded with room to spare.

Proton Pack and HISS Tank both funded pretty fast too, both met their quick funding goal. EOV is the first to have an early goal and fail to hit it I believe. Reva's saber never had an early goal or a stretch ever revealed, for reference.

[Emerje]

Pretty sure the HISS Tank is the second fastest, it was blowing through goals faster than they could update the website.

Emerje

Sentinel was actually the fastest of the bunch I'm pretty sure (I don't remember the HISS tank funding period, I didn't watch close and didn't back it). It funded in 26 hours and hit all 3 original stretch goals within 6 days. they added the bonus 4th stretch goal halfway through the campaign and it funded too, not as quickly, but still funded with room to spare.

Proton Pack and HISS Tank both funded pretty fast too, both met their quick funding goal. EOV is the first to have an early goal and fail to hit it I believe. Reva's saber never had an early goal or a stretch ever revealed, for reference.

6/29 - Campaign launched
6/29 - Fully funded in less than eight hours (8K backers)
6/30 - First "upgrade" unlocked in less than 24 hours (10K backers)
7/2 - Second "upgrade" unlocked (12K backers)
7/6 - Third "upgrade" unlocked (14K backers)
7/11 - Fourth "upgrade" unlocked (16K backers)

It was remarkably fast, especially that first 24 hours.

Emerje

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Pretty sure the HISS Tank is the second fastest, it was blowing through goals faster than they could update the website.

Emerje

Sentinel was actually the fastest of the bunch I'm pretty sure (I don't remember the HISS tank funding period, I didn't watch close and didn't back it). It funded in 26 hours and hit all 3 original stretch goals within 6 days. they added the bonus 4th stretch goal halfway through the campaign and it funded too, not as quickly, but still funded with room to spare.

Proton Pack and HISS Tank both funded pretty fast too, both met their quick funding goal. EOV is the first to have an early goal and fail to hit it I believe. Reva's saber never had an early goal or a stretch ever revealed, for reference.

6/29 - Campaign launched
6/29 - Fully funded in less than eight hours (8K backers)
6/30 - First "upgrade" unlocked in less than 24 hours (10K backers)
7/2 - Second "upgrade" unlocked (12K backers)
7/6 - Third "upgrade" unlocked (14K backers)
7/11 - Fourth "upgrade" unlocked (16K backers)

It was remarkably fast, especially that first 24 hours.

Emerje

Ah, I stand corrected. Sentinel was 2nd fastest then.

[King Kuuga]

I've been tracking the Engine of Vengeance, loosely, so it's time for an analysis by a non-Marvel Legends fan about what's happening with it.

Let's get this out of the way. It's losing backers. I think it peaked at around 5600, slipped down to 5160, 5060, and now at the time of writing it's sitting at 5016.

It has lost 133 backers in the last six days, currently sitting at 4883.

I reaffirm my prediction that it's going to be Rancor 2.0, surging on the last day but falling just short of the needed 9000.

Meanwhile Heroscape is gaining backers but very slowly, up about 120 from the last check in. I'll be curious to see how this does after EOV ends.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I've been watching the VOE close too, it's been incredible how it keeps backsliding.

It's pretty bonkers that we may witness 3 failed Haslabs in a years time. I wonder if people are actually starting to tire of Haslab and maybe they have been doing too many

[King Kuuga]

I've been watching the VOE close too, it's been incredible how it keeps backsliding.

It's pretty bonkers that we may witness 3 failed Haslabs in a years time. I wonder if people are actually starting to tire of Haslab and maybe they have been doing too many

I think they're doing too many, overlapping too often, and I also think they're charging too much. The lightsaber that failed was $500. That's ridiculous, even if it was two $200 lightsabers slapped together. EOV is at least $100 more than it needs to be for what's included, even factoring in the low production run and Hasbro's margins. It's way more than Victory Saber. That's going to be the benchmark for a while.

[Emerje]

I reaffirm my prediction that it's going to be Rancor 2.0, surging on the last day but falling just short of the needed 9000.

I don't see that happening. Whenever the Rancor went backwards it quickly made up for it and got extremely close to funding in the end. EOV has been going backwards for so long I doubt it'll get anything close to a last day rally, at best it might pick up 400 backers, certainly not 4K! People have clearly given up on this project.

Heroscape is hard to predict, table top fans are kinda fickle.

Emerje

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Well, Deathsaurus is about to make both of the other current Haslabs look bad

[King Kuuga]

Well, Deathsaurus is about to make both of the other current Haslabs look bad

It's already passed Heroscape. I'm going to laugh if it passes EOV in a single day.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Well, Deathsaurus is about to make both of the other current Haslabs look bad

It's already passed Heroscape. I'm going to laugh if it passes EOV in a single day.

I definitely think it can

[Emerje]

Well, Deathsaurus is about to make both of the other current Haslabs look bad

It's already passed Heroscape. I'm going to laugh if it passes EOV in a single day.

I definitely think it can

It could potentially do that in the first 5 hours.

Emerje

[Emerje]

Well, Deathsaurus is about to make both of the other current Haslabs look bad

It's already passed Heroscape. I'm going to laugh if it passes EOV in a single day.

I definitely think it can

It could potentially do that in the first 5 hours.

Emerje

OK, it didn't do it in 5 hours, but it's currently 1K away from overtaking EOV.

Emerje

[blackeyedprime]

Another haslab I can skip at least there isn't a reach X amount and the figure will include both feet kinda thing that they went for with star saber.

[King Kuuga]

Deathsaurus has officially surpassed the Engine of Vengeance in less than 48 hours.

Haslab Deathsaurus vs EOV.png

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Deathsaurus has officially surpassed the Engine of Vengeance in less than 48 hours.

Haslab Deathsaurus vs EOV.png

It'll be real funny if Deathsaurus is the only haslab of the current 3 to fund

[King Kuuga]

Deathsaurus has officially surpassed the Engine of Vengeance in less than 48 hours.

Haslab Deathsaurus vs EOV.png

It'll be real funny if Deathsaurus is the only haslab of the current 3 to fund

Which will almost certainly be the case.

[King Kuuga]

I reaffirm my prediction that it's going to be Rancor 2.0, surging on the last day but falling just short of the needed 9000.

Time for me to eat some crow. The Engine of Vengeance is officially over, sitting at 5060 pledges out of 9000. It failed, yes, but it didn't come close to its goal like I thought it would. Instead it just lost backers, with small surges here and there but nowhere near enough to save it. I hope they revisit this in a more economical way down the road.

Meanwhile Deathsaurus is currently sitting at 5325 out of 11,000, just under 50%. After 4 and a half days. There's no early bird incentives so I expect it will slow down a bit, but should hopefully be fully funded by the end of November. If we're lucky, it'll be much sooner.

Lastly, Heroscape is crawling along with 3087 backers out of 8000 needed and 2 weeks to go. I don't think it's going to make it, but as I said before, it'll be interesting to watch.

[o.supreme]

So..With the Hero Scape campaign ending "Not Funded", I thought it would be time to update just with some fun overall Haslab stats. I am going to "assume" Deathsuarus will Fund at this point (not sure about the tiers...) But...

Total Haslabs to date: 16 (Cookie Monster for some reason is not listed on the Haslab Website)

Total Funded: 11
Total Not Funded: 5

Breakdown Funded/Not By Franchise:

Star Wars: 2/4 (50%)
Transformers 3/3 (100%)
Sesame Street 0/1 (0%)
Marvel 2/3 (66.6 %)
Table Top Games 1/2 (50%)
GI Joe 2/2 (100%)
Ghostbusters 1/1 (100%)

By Year:

2018 1/1 100%
2019 1/2 50%
2020 3/3 100%
2021 4/5 80%
2022 2/5 40%

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I think people are starting to let hasbro know that there is fandom crossover and that there are too many haslabs at once, and that they are starting to be too expensive for the product

[Emerje]

Pretty sure Cookie Monster was someone else's project that Hasbro was hosting so they probably used that as an excuse to remove it.

Emerje