By
Dave
Maybe. If it's backed by 5,000 people by 11:59 PM on April 3rd.
You don’t have five hundred bucks to spend on a friggin’
toy.
And even if you did, you certainly don’t have anywhere to
put a four foot long, seventeen inch high, fifteen inch wide, fourteen pound mass
of plastic and paint.
Trust me – I know. I’m in the same barge. Er, boat.
Obviously I speak of the Black Series, which is the six
inch scale line of figures (and a few vehicles) that collectors gleefully
abandoned the classic 3.75” scale for due to many reasons that are probably
suitable for an entire podcast episode.
I’ll contact the crew and record that soon.
The Khetanna is part of the Vintage Collection – that glorious
3.75” scale line that I’ve been collecting basically since I was one year old.
The scale that allows for all of the vehicles and playsets that the galaxy far,
far away presented and demands. Or at least, it did until the toy industry
started chugging downhill even more rapidly around ten years ago. Production
prices shot up, kids stopped wanting toys, and dozens of evergreen movie franchises
with annual releases dominated licensing and toy production, putting an end to
the slow roll out of beloved and obscure characters that dominated most of my
toy collecting life.
Also suitable for a podcast, that one is.
I’m in the third – and longest – cycle of collecting Star
Wars right now. The first was the original Kenner toy line. I loved it, but as
I’ve related many times it was replaced by GI Joe: A Real American Hero. The second
was Kenner’s revival in 1995, which continued until around 2002 when Attack of the Clones came out. While I
never stopped completely after that, I did sell of a huge amount of that stuff
years later to pay for car repairs or something.
The third started in 2007 with the thirtieth anniversary
style of figures and has continued through today. I could get deeper into that,
but again – this is not the time or place.
What this is the time for is a look at Jabba’s Sail Barge
and my reasons why anyone who might be even remotely interested in such a thing
should buy it. I know I’m not going to convince many – if any – but I have to. Because
this massive, incredible toy is essentially the culmination of forty years of
collecting Star Wars toys.
Let’s start with its pedigree. The Khetanna is following
in the footsteps of two of the greatest toys ever made – Hasbro’s “Big”
Millennium Falcon and “Big” AT-AT. The former is my favorite toy I own or ever
have owned. The latter isn’t as beloved by me, but is technically an even better toy given all of the action
features and the competence of the execution.
The lead designer for this amazing toy is none other than
Mark Boudreaux, who has been designing Star Wars toys since the beginning and
has worked on every 3.75” scale Millennium Falcon ever made, including that
wonderful BMF. He knows his stuff and has a deep devotion to both Star Wars and
toys.
The Khetanna is that most magical of toy combos – a vehicle
and a playset. Depicting one of the
most important and memorable locales from the Original Trilogy, this massive
toy has a full deck, sails, interior chambers, and all kinds of detailing and
goodies inside. Like the Big AT-AT before it, it features a command
bay/cockpit/whatever that almost has too
much detail (a ridiculous concept):
This is an incredible plastic landscape that will be able
to display a huge number of your figures. Never mind having a shelf for it, it is a shelf. This is the sort of
diorama/background that we as toy fans dream of.
Think about it – this is where a diminutive diplomat from
the peaceful planet of Alderaan valiantly assassinated the galaxy’s most
notorious criminal overlord. From a certain point of view this could be seen as
the most significant event of the entire Star Wars saga. Sure, the demise of
the Jedi Order and the death of Palpatine were big, but if you look at the
continuity and the context, Jabba technically had far more power and influence
than either of those entities. That fat, crafty slug was running the game while
Sheev was still washing his dresses on Naboo.
What I’m saying is that this playset is absolutely
essential.
“But wait, Dave,” you might be thinking, “As we all know,
every great playset has a jail cell. But I don’t remember Jabba’s barge having
a jail cell.”
IT
DOES NOW, MOTHERSCRATCHER:
JAIL CELL.
Not only that, it includes two exclusive figures. One of
them is a no-brainer – Jabba the Hutt himself. This is an all-new sculpt of the
vile intergalactic gangster made especially to interact with this vessel.
The other is an addition to the Vintage/30th
Anniversary style that we’ve been wanting for years now – Yak Face!
It’s interesting to note that his card says “Yak Face” in
true vintage style rather than his EU name Saelt-Marae. Yak Face was one of
Jabba’s trusted – as trusted as criminals can be (and he’s respected in his
hood like a G) – lieutenants or informants or whatever. In new canon he might
be a shoe salesman. We may never know. If the Disney-era books don’t improve I’ll
certainly never find out.
So it’s time to bottom line this thing.
For $499.99 (plus tax) you get this massive vehicle the
likes of which may never be produced again. You get the two figures, Jabba and
Yak Face. Oh, and this price includes the
shipping. That’s bonkers because this thing is going to cost probably
around a hundred bucks to ship some places and at least forty for others. So
add that value in, as well.
More than all of that, you’re showing your support for
HasLab, which to me is the most exciting idea in the history of modern toys.
I skipped over it until now, but the whole reason the
Khetanna is even a possibility is Hasbro’s daring new venture that will produce
specialty, collector-demanded items based on a Kickstarter model. Don’t; think
of it like MattyCollector, where you were obligated to buy things sight unseen.
With HasLab, they will be sharing every product every step of the way and you’ll
know exactly what you’re getting.
HasLab could potentially be a source for all of the weird
and obscure characters that no longer make it to retail. And not just from Star
Wars, but from every property that Hasbro produces – Transformers, Marvel, and
even GI Joe.
I’m not usually a fan of “Support this thing if you want
to see more things” tactic, but I feel like Hasbro is completely in the right
on this one. Retailers haven’t been interested in this category of big box toy
in years. And now that Toys R Us is going away, there’s even less of a venue
for this sort of item. If Hasbro discovers that there is a market for
direct-to-consumer products, we could reap the rewards for years to come.
Maybe this appeals to you. Maybe it doesn’t. But either
way, at least go to the HasLab site and check out the
amazingly in-depth production diaries they have. If nothing else, they’re
providing a fascinating and somewhat unprecedented look into the Hasbro toy
process.
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