No one saw this coming. A delightful surprise. My thoughts:
New Pulse Exclusive Expression
Patrick positioned this as a new Pulse assortment. The fact that this exists is a huge vote of confidence in TVC and shows the brand's continued success and growth. And it's also a risk. These need to sell, if not sellout, if we want to see more of them in the future. The ball is in our court. It's also great to finally see Pulse being utilized to get stuff out to us that otherwise might not.
HasLab
This is the same price as the GI Joe Skystriker HasLab. Was it originally planned as a late 2021 HasLab? Possibly. Now we KNOW we're getting it, but the wait will be long. At least those that need to save up can because...
Price
In addition to being a Pulse exclusive which adds $$, Patrick stated this was roughly 4x the size of the Nevarro Cantina, and this doesn't have cardboard parts and a straight repack to cut corners. That costs $50+. This price, especially since it contains a newly tooled figure, makes sense to me.
Also keep in mind that the price may be accounting for future cost-of-business increases over the next 12-18 months. I see a lot of GTFO comments on social from just a quick 2-minute skim. A premium line comes with a cost.
This is also large and should include free shipping from Pulse. If so then $30 of that price might as well be for shipping.
Size
Some of us had stated in another thread that the $50 price point was becoming too restrictive for decent play sets with all the rising costs. This answers that.
Also, at 10.5" deep is just barely fits into an IKEA bookcase with glass doors. I wonder if that was deliberate. If so, bravo.
Timing
A LEGO Jabba's Palace for BOBF has already leaked. I wonder how much of this is a Lucasfilm request. Also, this fits right into a discussion from the BOBF Wanted thread about new media being a priority from now on.
Fat Bib
What a wonderful inclusion because otherwise we never get this figure. He looks awesome despite his 60 seconds of screen time. And I was in the camp saying chill out about the staff being excluded from the ROTJ version because it belongs with this one. Vindication.
Duel of the Fates
Set it up for ROTJ or BOBF? Save up and buy TWO?
Questions & Other Thoughts
Does this mean the $50+ playsets are done? We don't know. I could see one being announced later this year. Unless retail performance was lagging and this is Hasbro pivoting to something else.
I can't see Hasbro releasing this next summer without a couple tie-in figures. Who will we get? Black Krrsantan and 8-D8 at minimum is my guess. I'd like the two main mod kids to go with this as well. Also, existing Jabba's Palace figures just went up in value. Again.
It would be nice of Hasbro to put out a repainted Barge Jabba with his exclusive-Dais accessories in a brown paper bag next summer. Just saying. Not everyone has an extra lying around.
Are strictly OT-environments/vehicles put out to pasture? The emphasis on new media went from negligible last year to a full-on blitz this year between Clone Wars, Mando, and BOBF.
Will the color match the Trophy wall play set? It would have been nice if Emily that at on-hand to place next to it, or if a promo shot included it. Granted I won't be displaying them on the same shelf in my current setup.
TBS got all repacks again, though the CW S7 Maul pipeline was a highly requested figure. I wonder if they deliberately loaded archive into this stream so the spotlight was on the Palace Throne. They did try to tie some of the Archive announcement into their Fett theme.
Will we still get a 2022 TVC HasLab this fall? I'm not so sure now. If we do it would seem like a ship is in order since larger play sets can now fall into this new "expression."
Hasbro found a way to get this out. How about a BLURRG?
This is one of those "must have" sets I think. But, on the other hand I have the Sail Barge which is already a fantastic way to display my Jabba related figures. Decisions, decisions. If I didn't have the Sail Barge I would definitely be up for this. As it is, I'm on the fence.
