HasLab’s second Marvel Legends crowdfunding effort in 12 months has succeeded at the last minute! The 24″ tall Giant-Man campaign blew past its funding goal by 3,000+ backers. In comparison, the Ghost Rider Engine of Vengeance campaign flopped hard!
Hasbro needed 10,000 backers to put down $199.99 each to fully fund the supersized version of Hank Pym’s alter ego. Considering the previous large-scale Marvel Legends figures had succeeded in the past, I had expected this one to at least hit the first funding goal.
Things were iffy for a bit. Giant-Man was short a few thousand backers just a couple of days ago. We saw numbers inch up every Friday as people got their paychecks.
In contrast, Hasbro’s Star Wars Ghost campaign blew past all of its goals with no problem in September. The Vintage Series ship had a price tag of $499.99 and required 8K backers. When the crowdfunder ended, $21,768 people supported the ship from Dave Filoni’s Rebels series.
So, why wasn’t Giant-Man an instant success meeting all the stretch goals?
The most likely answer is the simplest. Not enough people care about Marvel’s Hank Pym / Giant-Man. Unlike Galactus and the Sentinels, Giant-Man isn’t one of those bankable characters with mainstream appeal that will have people clamoring for a large-scale figure, especially with a $199 price tag.
Our friend Scott Neitlich over at Spector Creative had the same thought.
Another issue is the lack of stretch goals and accessories. Marvel Legends Giant-Man came with swappable faces and alternate white antennas. Not exactly thrilling.
Things didn’t get interesting until the two stretch goals were met. 12k would have given us a Marvel Zombies head, and 14k included a Skrull portrait. Still, even those two things were essential, and I felt they should be had for $199.99.
The price could be another factor. Giant-Man is 4x the size of the standard Marvel Legends figure, but it’s 8x the price. That’s not much of a deal. I know it’s not a solid criticism, considering the Sentinel was $350 and somewhat shorter. However, that figure came with far better features and more details.
Luckily, Giant-Man didn’t turn into a laughable failure like we saw with the Star Wars Rancor debacle. Out of the gate, the entire thing was underwhelming. However, Hasbro didn’t try any last-minute add-ons like we saw with the Rancor. Maybe the company knew that made it look desperate.
[Source: HasLab]
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