Hasbro Pulse

I would like to discuss something that has been on my mind for a while, in fact, some of the points I will bring up here were mentioned by me before when I spoke about HasLab previously, i.e. that HasLab is – among other things – primarily a profit margin protection scheme, guaranteeing that something will never ever be submitted to the free market mechanism of supply and demand and thus will never see any discounts or mark downs. But today’s article is based on something UK etailer Kapow Toys wrote on X (still a very silly name, what is Elon Musk thinking?) earlier this week. They complain bitterly about Hasbro in a lengthy post. Click through to learn what Kapow Toys has to say and for a discussion about Pulse!

Collectors among themselves

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JTA regular Oofa informed me that Hasbro seems to have pulled all the Selfie Series pages from Hasbro Pulse, both in Europe and in the US. When you go to Hasbro Pulse all you can find is a barebones FAQ and one of the questions is “Can I Order Hasbro Selfie Series?” and a tight lipped reply that merely states that Hasbro is no longer accepting new orders.

This is yet another major embarrassment for Hasbro, since they had only introduced the Selfie Series 2.0 recently and talked about it at length at one of the recent livestreams where they highlighted all the improvements and new options you have. But it seems not enough people were willing to pay the price or wanted a vanity figure of themselves. This is yet more bad news for Hasbro who have generated almost nothing but bad press in the past 12 months with revenue nosediving, their stock price in free fall – it is currently at $41.11, which is the lowest it’s been in the past decade – Star Wars and Marvel toy sales circling the drain and a controversy about Dungeons & Dragons when Hasbro tried to monetize the license (basically the ruleset) that created a massive fan backlash and resulted in a PR disaster for the company and hilarious backpedaling shortly thereafter. Add the, never officially acknowledged, not even once, massive failure that were the pfp boxes for their action figure lines and the hasty return to traditional boxes with plastic windows and trays.

And now the Selfie Series is dead. Before that Hasbro’s “Starting Lineup” figures failed. But it’s not over yet, a terrible Q4/2023 is still upcoming, Hasbro already issued a warning with their last earnings call. One wonders how long Chris Cocks can remain as CEO of the Pewtucket toy company. His “operational excellence” is maybe not as excellent as he thinks it is.

Did you ever order a Selfie figure for yourself? Do you know anyone who did?

Thanks again to Oofa for the heads-up!

Another one bites the dust – Hasbro Pulse website screenshot

Here are all the newly revealed Black Series figures from the Hasbro PulseCon livestream!

• Baylan Skoll
• Shin Hati

These are the only new figures revealed! Just two. But at least good ones.

Outside the US Hasbro will release a wave of archive figures for more casual fans, so these will not be sold in the US:

• X-Wing Luke
• Darth Vader
• Bo-Katan
• Stormtrooper

There will  be two new premium roleplay items!

• Ezra’s/Sabine’s lightsaber
• Captain Rex’s helmet

And there were also some pipeline reveals!

• Darth Vader (A New Hope)
• The Mandalorian
• Phase I Clone Trooper
• Mandalorian Night Owl

The pipeline reveals are targeted at more casual collectors!

The new items will be available in spring 2024, pre-orders go live today at 4 pm ET for Pulse Premium members and 5 pm ET for the plebs!

Click through for a few photos and a very interesting factoid about the popularity of The Black Series vs The Vintage Collection, because there was an online poll during the stream….

The Ahsoka MVPs are coming to the Black Series!

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The Hasbro Pulse Con Star Wars panel had several goodies for Black Series fans. One major focus was Andor and we get a few surprising, but very welcome figures from the show in The Black Series! Another focus was the upcoming 2023 40th anniversary Return of the Jedi line and finally, the Black Series pipeline reveals offer one or two surprises as well, that will probably be welcomed by collectors! So click through for all the details!

Finally in the Black Series line-up: Mon Mothma

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To no one’s surprise after the accidental leak on Hasbro’s very own HasLab page a few days ago, the brand new Reva Force FX lightsaber HasLab was also revealed at the Hasbro panel! Price is $499.99, the campaign ends on July 11th. 5,000 backers are required to make the lightsaber a reality. There will be NO tiers!

I would say this could be do-able, since there are quite a few cosplayers and lightsaber collectors out there. But we will see how much momentum the campaign will have after the weekend is over! $499.99 for a saber that won’t even let you fly around like a helicopter is still a lot of money after all!

Will it allow you to fly like a helicopter?

You can back your Reva lightsaber on the HasLab page!

Are you interested in the new Star Wars HasLab or is it nothing for you? Let us know in the comments!

Hasbro Pulse has eliminated their FREE shipping policy if you spent a certain amount of money. You must now be a Hasbro Pulse Premium member in order to reap the benefits of FREE shipping. This could be bad for their bottom line. We have multiple confirmed reports. Special thanks to JTA readers Greg R. and Anthony K. for the most recent confirmation reports.

Now that was one hell of a night. We had lots of fun here on JTA in the comments section and watched with awe as the Rancor backer count on HasLab literally exploded in the last few hours. For the longest time it seemed as if the final number would be something like 7,800, far short of the funding goal, but when midnight came it was 8,534!

But then the most mysterious thing happened… once the deadline ended the backer number collapsed. Literally. It went from 8,534 to a little more than 7,500 and then just barely over 7,000 and as of now, 17 minutes after the deadline it’s not even 5,000 backers anymore. One reason could be that HasLab is cancelling orders now, since the funding goal was not met before the deadline ended. Whatever the reason for this gigantic collapse is after the deadline ended one thing is clear, the Rancor won’t reach the required 9,000 backers anymore!

And the only people to blame for this are working at Hasbro and Lucasfilm. They miscalculated, they hoped a Haslab with nonsensical tiers consisting of repacks, cheap bones, cardboard and a Rancor centerpiece that is not remotely as impressive as the barge or the Razor Crest would make collectors pay $350 for it. But it didn’t! The only hope is that Hasbro (and their partner Lucasfilm who has total control over everything) learn from their mistakes. Maybe collectors are finally fed up with a toyline that mostly consists of repaints, repacks, kitbashes and exclusives these days. The mainline is still strong, but far too few figures are released in it, most figures these days are exclusives, repaints and repacks to the point that even the HasLab Rancor had several of them as tiers. Click through for more!

“He’s dead Jim!” (quote from Hasbro’s favorite franchise)

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Tune in today at 11 AM Eastern for the latest Hasbro Pulse Fan First Friday featuring the unveiling of the painted model Rancor and the final two stretch goals revealed. Click through and join the discussion and leave your thoughts on the latest reveals. 

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Hasbro just officially announced the brand new Black Series Rancor HasLab! We knew about this for months ever since Patrick’s slip of the tongue, but now we have all the details!

Price: $350
Size: 44.45 cm / 17.5 in tall, 30.48 cm / 12 in wide, much more with arms outstretched
Technical details: 45 points of articulation (including fingers) and 900 paint apps

Minimum number of backers is 9,000 by December 6th, more tiers will be made available at 11,000 and 13,500 with tiers 3 and 4 not having any goal lines yet. No stretch goals for any of the tiers have been revealed yet. As of now the Rancor comes without any extra figures, but that will certainly change once the tiers have been unlocked!

You can (if you happen to live in the US, Canada or UK, that is) back your Rancor now! Head over to the HasLab site to order Jabba’s favorite pet!

Hasbro will also partner with retailers in certain select markets to make the Rancor available in other parts of the world. No specifics were given, my guess is that several European core markets may get access to the Rancor.

Will you back the Rancor or ignore the latest Star Wars HasLab?

Hasbro revealed several new things for the Black Series in their Star Wars Pulse Con panel. Mandalorian fans have more figures to look forward to and Original Trilogy fans get a few more figures in the pipeline.

Mandalorian figures:

• Mandalorian Maldo Kreist build-up pack with Grogu and Ice Spider
• Migs Mayfeld Trooper Disguise
• Boba Fett Nomad Outfit
• Cobb Vanth Deluxe

There will also be three all new exclusive Galaxy Edge sets!

• First Order Pack with Hux, AT-AT Driver, Mouse Droid and an Imperial Astromech
• Droid Depot Pack with a KX-series droid, BB unit, Battle Droid and Babu Frik
• Creature Pack with two Kowakian Monkey Lizards, Mynok, two Porgs and Bogling

Three figures were revealed for the pipeline, so expect them much later in 2022!

• Figrin Dan
• Leia in her Ewok Village outfit
• Republic Security Droid (Mandalorian)

Check back later for updates!

Hasbro’s next Star Wars Livestream starts in under an hour, today at 11 AM eastern. Join the Livestream on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel, and then head back here after to discuss as we break down all of today’s announcements. 

You can also click here to watch live and discuss!

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The leaked Black Series and Vintage Collection sets have now been officially revealed as exclusive Hasbro Pulse Con sets! Prices have also been revealed. And the Black Series will get yet another exclusive not revealed earlier today on Instagram: Dave Filoni’s Trapper Wolf character from The Mandalorian! Click through for a short discussion!

UPDATE: More photos added!

More exclusives

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Hasbro’s next Livestream is officially set for Wednesday, June 9th at 11 AM on Hasbro Pulse’s YouTube channel. 

Join the Patrick, Chris, and Eric from the Hasbro Star Wars team as they kickoff 2021’s I Am Your Father’s Day celebration with some new reveals and upcoming pre-orders!

There will be a Hasbro Pulse Fan Fest on April 9th. You will be able to watch livestreams of various panels, among them Marvel, Transformers and GI Joe. Star Wars will also have a panel of course. The Star Wars panelists will be Patrick, Eric and Chris. New product will be revealed so let’s start speculating what it might be! All the revealed products will be available for pre-order later that day at 5 pm EST, Hasbro Pulse Premium members do get early access for select pre-orders after the end of each panel – but NOT for any revealed Star Wars items.
You will be able to watch the livestream on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel, starting time will be 11 am EST / 4 pm GMT / 5 pm CET.

It’s the final Mando Monday and Hasbro has a couple new reveals today. Take a look! These will be up for preorder on Hasbropulse at 4pm EST today.

Force FX Darksaber – $250

Boba Fett Helmet – $119

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The Vintage Collection Fives is up at Pulse! Thanks to all those that wrote in to alert us!

Hasbro Pulse live-streamed another Star Wars Fan First Friday this morning. All reveals go on sale at 1 PM Eastern. Here are today’s reveals:

• The Vintage Collection – Zutton
• The Black Series – Asajj Ventress (TCW)
• The Black Series – Hunter (TCW)
• The Black Series – Crosshair (TCW)

Click through for some more photos!

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Hasbro Pulse JUST ANNOUNCED 4th and 5th tier UNLOCKS for the HasLab Razor Crest. The fits is a display stand for the vehicle. The second is a carded TVC Offworld Jawa Elder with SOFT-GOODS! See Instagram for more!

“Unlock #4 (15k backers needed) gives backers a Hasbro Star Wars The Mandalorian Display Stand. Display the Razor Crest on your shelves with this slightly tilted stand to make it look like the ship is in flight! Unlock #5 (17k backers needed) gives backers a Star Wars The Vintage Collection Offworld Jawa Elder (Arvala-7) with exclusive Kukri knife, necklace, open mudhorn egg, and card back you can only receive with the HasLab Razor Crest. (Final product may vary in color or detail.) See more images on HasbroPulse.com! You only have until 11:59PM ET on November 9, 2020 to back this project. This is the way.”

Today’s Fan First Friday concentrated on the HasLab Razor Crest development. The most interesting tidbits:

• The Child’s pram will come vac metalized – a HasLab exclusive
• Patrick quote: “Carbonite blocks would be an interesting item for the future”
• At least 1 more unlock is forthcoming and will be announced next week (carbonite blocks?)

Most of the video concentrated on showing off the in-hand gray model prototype. You can see the entire video here. No other new announcements were made.

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The Hascon exclusives went live a few minutes ago for premium members. I was able to secure the Vintage Collection ARC Trooper 3-pack. How did you fare? They were still available as of writing this post.  Did you like how the process worked this time with the captcha? Let us know if you got what you wanted or if you came up a little short!

Hasbro Pulse has the Power Droid in stock. And they also restocked TBS6 [P3] Obi-Wan Kenobi (Jedi Knight) (AOTC). Special thanks to friends Alientek and Russ T. for the alerts!

Hasbro Pulse revealed via their Social Media pages a new The Black Series exclusive Heroes of Endor set.

This will be available exclusively on Hasbro Pulse (US & Canada only). This premium set inspired by the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi includes 4 figures: Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, and Paploo, plus a Speeder Bike and 6 accessories.

Hasbro Pulse updated their blog to notify Hasbro Pulse Premium members that they’ll be able to order exclusive a day early on September 23rd at 12 PM. Click HERE for more information!

The first-ever Hasbro PulseCon is happening on September 25 & 26, 2020 exclusively on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube Channel. 

This 2-day virtual event gives you, the fans, access to your favorite Hasbro brands, reveals, entertainment, & more. Click here for more details.

So, what do you think Hasbro will reveal tomorrow during Fan First Friday? Will the HasLab be revealed? Will Hasbro announce they’re completing the Kenner 96 in one fell swoop. Are we getting ou long-awaited Death Star? Will they make the Tantive IV? Will we get more cantina aliens and Jabba’s Palace aliens since Hasbro treats them terribly in the modern line? Or will it be another The Black Series 6″ show loaded with everything 3.75″ collectors want in 6″ scale instead?