Haslab RazorCrest

Controversy has arisen like the Sith themselves over the most recent crowdfunding campaign by Hasbro; namely their Haslab Vintage Collection RazorCrest.

Originally intended to be a Disney Parks exclusive toy, the Vintage Collection RazorCrest was rushed into the Haslab domain when their intended project, a Dagobah swamp playset, received less than enthusiastic reviews at an early showing.

Initially fans were presented only with Gray Scale CAD renderings of the RazorCrest, and not actual images of the finalized prototype.

Before the Hasbro marketing team could blink, they had collected 9.8 million credits from twenty eight thousand backers to fund their latest idea.

The excitement throughout fandom would soon cease, however, as the shadow of the dark side was revealed.

During The Mandalorian Season Two Episode Six, Chapter Fourteen (The Tragedy), We find Din Djarin and Grogu on the Jedi homeworld of Tython, being attacked by remnant Imperial forces.

The defining moment of the episode sees the RazorCrest destroyed by a single blast from a turbolaser, with Din left speechless as his ship is vaporized in front of him.

Like Din Djarin, Backers of the Haslab RazorCrest were also left speechless, and quite frankly confused about the whole matter.

Many wanted to know why Hasbro would go to such lengths to release the RazorCrest, only to see it get destroyed within weeks of starting the campaign?

Many fans were angry, seeing it as nothing more than an expensive marketing strategy to keep fans buying toys from The Mandalorian.

For those of you who are not aware, toys for Star Wars are planned anywhere from eighteen months to three years in advance of their release, and the design team at Hasbro often works closely with the staff at Lucasfilm on their development and production.

The RazorCrest is no exception, so it stands to reason that Hasbro could have known that the iconic ship would soon meet it’s demise, a fact that did not sit well with many backers, which in turn caused them to withdraw their support.

Unlike the Millennium Falcon , the RazorCrest is a fairly new ship to the Star Wars universe, and seeing it destroyed so soon had a negative effect upon fans.

This was even more true with those who backed the Haslab project, having paid nearly four hundred dollars up front to secure their toy, and ensure it’s production goals were met.

Now it seems that Hasbro may have made an error in how they chose to release it. To be fair, any time a new concept for a toy is proposed, there are many considerations that must be reviewed.

Among these are production costs, and marketing. If it is approved to move forward, then an in house prototype is created, usually by 3D printing, and further analysis is made, along with revisions to the proof of concept model.

If it gets approved for production, then contacts have to be made for the tooling to be designed and produced, along with the actual production facilities,as well as the design and production of the packaging.

A production schedule is created, and a shipping date is given. All of which happen years before you actually see a toy on store shelves.

Like any other industry, there are financial risks involved with sales, and over the past eight years alone Hasbro has incurred an estimated five hundred million dollars in losses due to poor sales of their Star Wars brand toys.

One of the things that their marketing team would point out is that the bulk of their sales are from adult collectors and fans, rather than from parents buying toys for their kids.

This is one reason why Haslab was created, in order to give fans the toys that they really want, which would otherwise not get produced.

They began two years ago with Jabba’s Sail Barge, which saw nine thousand backers paying five hundred dollars each for the massive collectible.

Hasbro cashed in with five million dollars on that project, and I would guess that half of that was counted towards profit.

This time around Hasbro had three times as many backers for the RazorCrest, with almost double the money for a ship that has only been in existence for one tenth as long as the Sail Barge.

Clearly, the project revealed where the hearts and minds of Star Wars fans is at. That is, until they saw their new toy vaporized on screen! So what happens next?

Undoubtedly the project will move forward, and backers should still receive their product by fall 2021, barring any unforeseen circumstances that would interfere with production.

That being said, there are tens of thousands of fans out there like myself who will miss out on their chance to own the RazorCrest, simply due to cost. That is the downside to crowdfunding.

Not everyone can afford the total cost up front, and not everyone can afford to pay within the limited timeframe provided.

Whether Hasbro did or did not know about the ship’s demise is irrelevant in my opinion, as true fans of the show are still going to collect what they want, when they can.

The real issue here is the availability of the toy, and what could Haslab do differently? Given the lead time, I think that what is needed is a separate website that is financed in part, by an annual membership fee from collectors.

This would provide an opportunity for the design and marketing team to present fans with opportunities to provide feedback and input on future projects.

It could also provide them with a secure portal to set up a payment system for future Haslab projects. Doing so would ensure the projects still get funded, while allowing more fans to take part, and be able to share in the fun of having their own special toy for their collection.

It would also help to deter scalpers who are making money off of the current project, by offering it for twice the retail cost on the secondary market.

Even if we don’t see Din Djarin in another model of the RazorCrest , the ship will go down in history as one of the most iconic within the Star Wars universe.

And if you didn’t get in on the Haslab project, don’t fret, as there are always plans for 3D printed models like the one that I own online.

Here’s a link you can check out by Fine_Engineer with his free plans for the RazorCrest : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4607202