I still think this funds. Never underestimate the fence-sitters. 

Also, it would not be ideal timing for me personally to take a $200 USD Credit Card hit, so I know it's coming 😀 

I don't know if these campaigns are too long, but I do know the conversation and speculation at this point in the campaign are absolutely dire.

Y'know what would be sweet? If this doesn't fund as Hasbro just went, "We did y'all a solid and a great deal of you scoffed, so we'll go ahead and produce everything that has been pledged and that'll be that." Peoples' heads would explode, as it'd be the most awesome and exclusive Legend to date. Yeah, yeah, it'll never happen and it's silly, but it's baffling that this hasn't funded yet when it's just a little more expensive than a full BaF wave.

Let's just hope those fence-sitter and retailer surge is enough to drag this over the line, but it certainly feels like a tall order.

I don't think it's baffling that this hasn't funded. It's a big freakin' Giant Man for 200 bucks plus whatever other fees are applicable. It's not out of the realm of possibility that the number of people who really want such a thing at such a price is smaller than 10k. Especially given all of the criticisms we've seen about the size of the figure here and that there's still a pretty decent ToyBiz figure in some collections out there. I think most agree that the price is fine, but it's not like it's some incredible bargain either. I'm confronted with luxury goods on a daily basis that I think are fairly priced, but I still don't pull the trigger on for one reason or another. Admittedly, I'm not as plugged into the larger Marvel Legends community as a lot of people here, but in my bubble I'm not seeing much negativity towards the project, but I also don't see a ton of enthusiasm either. It seems most view it as something that would be nice to have, but isn't a thing they have to have. And yet, I still think there's room for optimism on the project, but it's obviously no slam dunk.

Posted by: @misfit

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I don't think it's baffling that this hasn't funded. It's a big freakin' Giant Man for 200 bucks plus whatever other fees are applicable. It's not out of the realm of possibility that the number of people who really want such a thing at such a price is smaller than 10k. Especially given all of the criticisms we've seen about the size of the figure here and that there's still a pretty decent ToyBiz figure in some collections out there. I think most agree that the price is fine, but it's not like it's some incredible bargain either. I'm confronted with luxury goods on a daily basis that I think are fairly priced, but I still don't pull the trigger on for one reason or another. Admittedly, I'm not as plugged into the larger Marvel Legends community as a lot of people here, but in my bubble I'm not seeing much negativity towards the project, but I also don't see a ton of enthusiasm either. It seems most view it as something that would be nice to have, but isn't a thing they have to have. And yet, I still think there's room for optimism on the project, but it's obviously no slam dunk.

Well said. I've gotta admit, I'm not exactly clamoring for it either, but I definitely dig the price point and the chance to be able to upgrade the go-to Pym on my shelves. I'll live without it, but I definitely think it'd be awesome if it were to fund. I think the fact that there just aren't any additional figures added to the mix is what's killing it. Sure, it'd bring the price up, BUT if you made them two highly desired figures, more people would've definitely jumped on.......or tried to nosedive it. $250 still would've been a helluva steal for Giant-Man and two highly sought after Avengers villains, like comic-accurate Acts of Vengeance Mandarin and Titania.

Opinion: Why Toy Influencers Are Just As Unbearable As Other Influencers 

My biggest surprise is that I can't tell that the lower price of this Haslab matters to anybody.  I mean it matters, but I can't tell that it's much of a bump, or that it would even be significantly lower if it were $400 instead of $200.  When I saw the lower price I thought it was a shoe-in and might even fund more quickly than Sentinel or Galactus, but nope.  Nitpicks seem to rule over price.

Engine of Vengeance:  "TOO EXPENSIVE, AND YOU'RE HOLDING FIGURES HOSTAGE IN THE TIERS!"

Giant-Man, presumably answering those complaints:  "DON'T CARE ABOUT PRICE, AND WHY AREN'T YOU HOLDING FIGURES HOSTAGE IN THE TIERS?!?!?!" 

If this fails the lesson I expect them to take is we have no idea what these people want, and there's nothing else likely to fund--so let's take a break from Marvel Haslabs for a while, shall we?

But I think it will fund.  Not sure about that Skrull head though, which is a shame because I hate zombie-related action figures.  Not a fan of displaying gross dead bodies.

I think there are essentially three types of influencers:

The wrestling heel type who pivot to negative. And I think this is about a third.

Then you have the guys who are way too invested in their own comments sections and always end up trying to play amateur mediator. This is your Shartimus and Mega Jay Retro and sometimes Pixel Dan and I think they'd identify as mediators so I don't think there's any harm in naming them. I see two problems with those though:

They either end up repeating some of the worst feedback from their comment sections (because it's a high volume perspective in their comments) or otherwise dance around trying NOT to repeat some of those comments, to a point where they avoid some meaningful questions in interviews.

They also tend to overpromise on behalf of the toy companies or overstate company lines to disgruntled fans and this starts false rumors.

I think this hurts Super7 a lot because these interviews are often their only meaningful communication outlet.

Take Brian Flynn's comments on vac metal Silverhawks. PD and Shartimus essentially invented the line that Silverhawks Ultimates couldn't or would never be vac metal.

Look back at Flynn's interviews. He says "these aren't that version" repeatedly, that they wanted something that pairs with Thundercats, and that their research into vac metal hadn't panned out. He never says that it could never be done or that Super7 wouldn't do it. He gets asked both of those questions repeatedly and he dodges them every time and then the interviewer interprets that dodge.

But that turns into "Brian Flynn/Dan Yun/etc. are liars" when all they did was refuse to answer a question directly and the interviewer interpreted for them incorrectly. And you can't reasonably expect people to correct interviewers about things they don't want to talk about because then they'd have to talk about those things.

Finally, you have guys like Dan Larson, Tox Anxiety, Thew, GDL, Tydirium Hangar, etc. And I think they're just GENERALLY expressing their own opinions as entertainment and aren't particularly swayed to be negative or positive because the facts or the takes aren't the traffic driver: the traffic driver is essentially just the banter and wordplay and personal enthusiasm. And it's a lot like late night talk show monologues: if they talk about something, it's because it's something they see people talking about. But the talk is the product, not the take.

@enigmaticclarity I don't know what their take-away will be should this not fund, but I think it should simply be that the number of collectors of Marvel Legends out there that want to spend a lot of money on big, extravagant, additions to their collections are small in number and their wants are particular. The Sentinel and Galactus are big characters that can't exist at a smaller scale in a satisfying manner and they may be the exception, not the rule, when it comes to such items. A big Giant Man is nice, but essential? Probably not for most collectors and I think, in general, your typical Marvel Legends collector is more price-conscious than some other fanbases out there. Marvel Legends are usually among the cheaper offerings available, and compared with Gi Joe and Star Wars, is still a young line. Your hardcore GI Joe collector is used to spending big money on vintage figures and vehicles while a typical Legends collector can assemble the collection they want at very little markup even if they're arriving late.

It's also quite possible that the other take-away is that marketing worked with past HasLabs. I think we can all agree that the figure stretch goals on past releases was part of the base price, but the perceived value of those stretch goals might have outweighed the real cost buyers were forced to pay upfront. And even though people love to complain about a figure or character being locked behind some other exclusive, those complaints might be more bluster than anything and they're still willing to pay that price, but be grumpy about it. Maybe Hasbro just needs to find that balance. Would Giant Man be as profitable for the company as it is currently if there were two figures as stretch goals and the base price was $225? Would it have to go up to $250? There might be a happy medium there that generates more enthusiasm. The counter to that is it creates more negative reactions and you get another EoV, but I think that would be avoided if the base price didn't feel so outlandish from the start.

In the end, I think it's more that a big Sentinel is more important to your average Legends collector than a big Giant Man, but I'd be shocked to see Hasbro abandon Marvel Haslabs if this one fails. I appreciate their approach to this campaign which is just "Here's a big, cool, figure. It costs this much, and we need this many people to buy it to hit our revenue goals. Have at it!" Unfortunately for them, I don't care one bit about Giant Man. I thought he was neat enough back in 2006 to spend an extra 12 bucks or so on figures I didn't want to assemble the BAF, but that's as far as I was willing to go on the character. I don't know what they could do to get me in, but I'm probably not the consumer they should be going after. They need to target the completists and near completists and figure out what they have to have and then try to figure out how to bring them onboard with whatever's next.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best, and if this campaign doesn't fund I think it is simply that not enough folks were interested - not that there was anything inherently wrong with the campaign or the execution or the price or that doing it differently would have massively changed the result. It will just be that not enough people wanted this Giant Man. 

For me an interesting question will be if it is close on the last day, do they do what they did with the Rancor and pull the plug despite it missing by only 10% or so (I am convinced that would have funded if given another few days once it got so close), or do they extend it? 

Posted by: @fac

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For me an interesting question will be if it is close on the last day, do they do what they did with the Rancor and pull the plug despite it missing by only 10% or so (I am convinced that would have funded if given another few days once it got so close), or do they extend it? 

I'm skeptical that Rancor "only" missed by 10%. I personally backed Rancor at the last minute, knowing it wasn't going to succeed, and knowing if it did fund, I could cancel my order. Just in case Hasbro offered some kind of bonus or benefit to the people who backed the failed project. I'll do the same for Giant Man if it doesn't fund. It skews the final numbers of how it close but there's some non-zero chance I get a coupon or something for my "loyalty"

I just measured my Ikea Detolf display. The shelves support a 15" figure.

Imagine a $249 two-pack of 15" Giant Man plus 15" Goliath with actual action figures as tiers. It's still over 2x the size of regular figures and is easier to display.

Lots of people saying Engine of Vengeance (EOV) failed and/or caused issues due to paywalling highly sought after figures behind the failed HasLab.

I might be misinterpreting what people are saying about EOV and the concept of including figures in haslabs but here's my EOV failed:

• Of all the properties Marvel has, they pick an esoteric property like Ghost Rider to do a Haslab

• They pick a modern Ghost Rider instead of a "classic" 90's Ghost Rider. Most collectors are aged so that the 90s is their nostalgia.

• They make a Dodge Charger but don't bother paying extra for the license, so it can't have the branding and can't appeal to car collectors who might have bought it in spite of not being Ghost Rider fans.

• They do an early bird, that fails, with a key accessory (character head). EVERYONE hates early birds. It exists  to reduce the stress on the corporation and the employees. There's no financial reason they can't include any calculated early bird specials even if it funds past the early bird point. They still get the same money, at the same time (funds after project closes). It's marketing FOMO charades. They later backtracked and decided to offer it anyway, destroying their credibility.

• They include some amazing figures and then tell us they won't offer them ever again if it doesn't fund. They again use marketing FOMO to try to get it to fund, and to avoid destroying whatever credibility they had left, now they cornered themselves into never offering them again. Even though we want them far more than the stupid modern era Ghost Rider car.

• They then blame "woke culture" for not being able to produce the figures separately. Which is complete horsepoop. Maybe Target and Walmart wouldn't allow them on their store, but BBTS and EE would. Certainly Hasbro Pulse would. If Disney would allow them to use the license to make the as part of the Haslab, then they also would allow them to sell separately or in a 4-pack on Hasbro Pulse.

The EOV was a horrible idea with terrible execution and if their takeaway was "we shouldn't include figures in Haslabs" then they're ignorant or once again being disingenuous to try to maximize profits.

The only figure I wanted from the Engine of Vengeance Haslab was Mephisto.

They also said these figures would never come out in "these forms". Leaving the door open to a repaint. Quite notably many people pointed out that that the Mephisto color scheme wasn't very classic. Even still ... perhaps even sleazier to pull the bait and switch with a $400 dollar leader.