I miss the days when it was easy to find toys on the toy aisle... now it's just exclusives, pre-orders and scalpers :(

Michael French takes a stand, because the Haslab Sentinel can't! :)

The prototyping costs for a company like Hasbro are very small. They already have engineers on staff. They all have CAD. They have 3D printers in their office. I've worked as an engineer for 25 years and I'm telling you, prototyping plastic parts is easy, quick and cheap in 2021.

To all those "just tighten the screw" comments, it's not a fix. As soon as you move the knee, the screw loosens. "Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey", basic mechanics. Then you have re-tighten the METAL screw against the PLASTIC knee joint. Over time, the metal wins, plastic strips out or cracks. Analog Toys and Retroblasting aren't attacking fans that bought the Sentinel, they're commenting on a glaring design flaw that should never have existed in the first place.

The more I watch your channel, the more I wish people would watch your channel. Thank you Michael.

The shift from toys made for kids to toys made for adult collectors is the core problem. There should be vintage Kenner style Razorcrests and other such simpler, fun toys in every retail toy department shelf. Hasbro has lost its way.

As someone who's worked 6 years in a prototyping department for a toy company. 300 to 400% markup on all toys is the norm. Just keep that in mind every time you spend 20 to 30 bucks just for one action figure.

I’m glad you touched on the fact that these are unnecessarily exclusive products. Typically “exclusive” convention items or store exclusives have different paint, packaging, or accessories, but the basic product is something that can be found by the masses. They have essentially tricked everyone into spending more than what they would be comfortable spending by taunting them with the “act now this is your only chance! See what happened with the barge?” And they are right. I would love to have a Barge, but I will probably never be able to afford one. I love X-Men and I’ve always wanted a highly detailed large sentinel, but I had to put it on a credit card AND I don’t really even have room for it. So I had no choice but to jump on it. Countless people are saying “man I wasn’t collecting when the sentinel was available (a 6 week period?) and now I can’t afford one in the aftermarket.” Sure Hasbro is rewarding 21,000 people who bought them but what about everyone else in the future? Why retire a hugely successful product when they could sell them forever and ever and probably clear tens of thousands of more sales? Once the design and tooling is made, the cost of reproducing these in the future isn’t that much. It’s especially strange from a company who obviously loves repainting existing molds dozens of times.

You touch on the thing that annoys me most about Haslab. Setting aside the size of the company, if they wanted to produce a boxed set of the most obscure, one-shot villains in the Marvel Universe then I'd say "ok, use the KS model to make sure people actually want it". But the things they're offering are things that consumers have been saying we want for *decades*. No one who collects Marvel figures doesn't want Galactus. No one with a room full of Kenner Star Wars wouldn't want a sail barge. Just make the products and sell them, it's not rocket science. When I think back about how Mego was able to simultaneously put out Marvel, DC, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek and Starsky & Hutch toys without a problem I wonder how things have fallen so far.

Michael: "So you knew HasLab was bad & did it anyway. And where did that lead you? Back to me..."

This has been a trend for a long time. You used to be able to find merchandise in stores, then you had to pre-order, then you had to pre-order (or it'd sell out) before you even could see the final licensor approved item, then collectible companies started doing payment plans on the pre-orders so you're in the hole months in advance. This isn't a surprise. Their argument would be if it went ot retail the risk would he higher and thus the cost would have to be higher. These are guaranteed sales. I don't like it, but people do it, so they will totally take advantage of it until the market collapses and people downsize... it's inevitable really. The pandemic and rising cost of living has made many reconsider their priorities... it'll only get worse until the bottom falls out of this ever bloated collectible market.

The most incredible thing about this Retroblasting post was how eloquently and passionately Michael could speak unscripted about such a niche but largely unspoken subject. It could so easily of been twenty-six minutes of waffle, but it was a layered and well crafted argument - well played! Hasbro! Take note! Hopefully this may be a wakeup call for both them and elements of the collecting community.

I'm not a HasLab backer, I just don't have the room and the money to do so. I'm a simple 3.75 scale collector, but I'm also done with Hasbro since I don't see the price reflected on the quality and availability of their products.

I am Chinese and have a lot of friends who work at these Chinese factories for big American toy companies. They do not understand why the West pay so much for this stuff that costs maybe a dollar or two each for them to manufacture in China. I don't know if R&D justifies the costs, but the markup is sometimes in the 4 figures on some of these toys.

Love your channel Michael. Please keep speaking out for the real fans - not the fanboys and "marketing specialist" that keep making excuses. You have been speaking truth since day one and these shills act like they suffer from "battered wife syndrome" and just keep on making excuses for the multibillion $ company that keeps abusing them.

Michael French: Sentinel of truth. Protector of collectors' wallets. Eternally vigilant against the excesses of the giant toy and media conglomerates. And unlike plastic Sentinels, Michael's knees actually function, allowing him to stand for truth, justice and the American way.

Remember how good the Sentinel that was in 3"3/4 scale? Even came with a Wolverine figure.

This reminds me of companies that promise to donate one dollar for every dollar spent. It's like...dude, you're a billion dollar corporation, JUST DONATE IT. Don't rely on us.

This is 100% on point, Michael.. why this isn't obvious and you therefore have to make a video about, I'll never know. Good work.

I got one and I won't even be opening the box. This was my first and last Haslab backing.. and their complete lack of addressing has probably cured me of buying Marvel Legends completely. Another great vid!

I now try to say jumbo machinder every day I can.

The knees were done like that on purpose as a tribute to the original 90s Toy Biz Sentinel's fall down action feature!

Haslab drove me to selling my entire collection. I just cant kep up. Its too expensive and too stressful.

I completely agree with you, but the problem is that people want it, so most are gonna take the abuse and then moan about it. Or will resell their broken piece of junk for 1200 dollar on ebay... I try to look away, cause I'm mainly a Vintage collector, but this kinda stuff you just can't explain to any "normal" person that isn't into the extreme collecting world...

The preorders thing drives me insane. Like how the fuck does a PRE-order sell out? The whole idea of pre-order is so you know how many you need to produce. That should be the absolute base line starting point for fucks sake. Makes me so angry. =/

All they have to do is produce things we want, and distribute them so that we can pick them up off the shelves.

Multi-billion dollar corporations have no business e-begging.

The 90’s Toy Biz Sentinel, while limited in articulation, is a superior product. Not only can it stand, but it can fire limb missiles, recline grappling hooks, and explode. Got it on sale for $25 with my lawncutting money as a kid. Been happy with it since. Great points, Retroblasting!

It's the same thing as the video game market. Pre-paying is a disincentive to the seller creating a quality product because they already have your money 🤷🏻‍♂️

I love the RetroBlasting video when Michael delivered the Sail Barge to Australia. That was such a kind gesture on his part and a big reason why I respect this channel so much.

The biggest shame with HasLab is the Unicron they did. I'm not a huge Transformers fan but I love Unicron's design and I'd totally pick a up a Unicron if they released one at retail.

It’s seems like a lot of companies are doing this. That’s what all the pre-orders for everything are about. Get the money up front, No risk for the companies. I ordered thunder cats a year ago and still not ready, meanwhile they announce and set up pre orders for all kinds of other lines.

I'm glad that I did 2 things 1) Never backed any HasLab figure/play set. 2) Stop buy Hasbro products. I lost interest in TransFormers figures because of what Hasbro is doing, plus I got into Gunpla model kits a few years ago. The latest figure I got that was not Hasbro was Noble Six from the Halo Spartan Collection and I would say that I made a good purchase.

After hearing Tony talk about why Hasbro or Super 7 etc wants to do backers and pre-order a year in advance just blew my mind.

20:42 "a robot... a giant robot... a jumbo machinder of the Marvel persuasion" Haha! Thanks for the logic, huge wit and warm heart, Michael.

I watched your “Has-BROs” video when it first came out but I didn’t follow Hasbro or Haslab too closely at the time. After following the situation with the Haslab Sentinel’s knees and reading a lot of the comments I can now appreciate just how spot on that video was. These guys are something else.

Hasbro shouldn't require the money until the product ships.

To me, the worst part are the channels that compel people to back these projects. Bunch of enablers.

Michael has some good points when it comes to his not wanting to support Haslab. The question I have is this: would a retailer be willing to acquire a vehicle the size/price of the sailbarge as an exclusive? I always thought that answer being, 'NO' is the reason Haslab was created? To bypass that issue w retail(ers).

good stuff, sir...also, where does one find a button down with epaulets, these days? Or is it a repro?

What I find insane is the people paying 3 times the price for these items after the fact on eBay. A Sentinel going for over $900 is nuts.

That Fortnite car is now shooting up in value online, with prices going as high as $100 on eBay.

I can totally understand backing a small independant project like Valaverse Action Force but why the hell would a multi-billion dollar company like Hasbro need to crowd fund anything? Surely they could release this stuff for a reasonable price at retail and it'd still do well.

Funny you mention Playmobil, the other Day i was visiting a toy store and i walked through the Playmobil section. I tell you, i was amazed by the amount of playsets and toys they have to offer, and for reasonable prices. I don't like Playmobil figures but i also found myself regretting i wasn't a Playmobil collecter...

I am so glad I watched this! Thanks for changing my mind!

The sad part it's that neither the consumer or hasbro will learn. It's like a vicious cycle. I guess it's a good example of a monopoly.

Hasbro is killing the collector base

I am dumbfounded how far Hasbro has fallen, and how they grovel for money yet bitch and moan how much materials cost to make toys; and they’re flush with cash! Hasbro needs to call it a day, and I can’t believe this is the company that gave us G.I. Joe back in the day.

great video, and what makes me most infuriated with Hasbro, Mattel and etc is the difficulty of finding products to buy in stores, thus leaving us in the hands of Ebay scalpers

Once again Hasbro has found themselves on their knees literally, but that’s par for the course at this point and deservingly so.

As always there is good logic in what you say. Good points one by one.👍

Hasbro did recently gloss over the fact that the Razorcrest was pushed back to 2022. So, they're sitting on your $$ an additional few months...

I never backed any Haslab projects, but the current one for Star Saber from Transformers has my interest, since the character is Ultra obscure in the west since he's from one of the anime shows I do agree with alot of the video however, is they do Haslabs for obscure characters/brands I can see why they have them as projects rather than regular retail/retail exclusives. Star Saber being a large figure as well as a obscure character would mean he wouldn't make the profit at retail to justify him. anyway Love your stuff Michael

Maybe my memory is faulty, but didn't my Matchbox Vehicle Voltron have ratcheted joints in the shoulders? In 1984? I mean, that was an expensive toy back then, but at least they knew to engineer the shoulders right... No excuses for Hasbro.

Bravo, sir! So much truth in your video!

Fwoosh made a video about the Knee, there is one easy accessible screw under a round piece of plastic that you can tighten and the knee SHOULD work fine after that (i mean it is a sample size of one, so no guarantee that it fixes it for everyone). I agree it is an issue that shouldn't exist in the first place but worse it is super bad PR, but at least it sounds like an easy problem to fix. I've never done a Kickstarter, period. That $20 car though... wtf... If that was a Star Wars Black Series X-Wing it would be $125 or so.

It just shocks me a $400 action figure didn't even have good QC.

By the time you get the sentinel it’s worth double to triple

RetroBlasting vs ToyGuru debate. Would love to see Michael rip Scott's shill ass.

As a model builder loose joints are a ez fix but seeing a super expensive figure coming with joints so loose they are basically non existent that’s horrible

Totally hear you about the Hasbro gouging. Here in Canada we pay $40 for a 6inch Star Wars Black Series figure. In the same aisle Mattel charges 15$ for a 5.5 inch He-Man action figure. There is no reason for the SW figures to be the as expensive as they are. Come to think of it TVC 4inch line is actually $5 more than the He-Man action figures. It makes no sense.

You may have some good points, but the fact that these HasLab items keep selling for 2x or 3x original price means no one has made a mistake, unless maybe they paid a reseller. If buyers start loosing money, then things may change. Otherwise it's pointless to try and discourage people.

I understand taking a preorder to make sure there is interest and to make sure everyone who wants one is able to get it. Then you pay when it ships. HasLab doesn't do that. This is pathetic on Hasbro's part.

Well.. all i can say is this video aged extremely well considering the eov haslab

The acerbic delivery is lovely. Michael, you are the man. More sarcasm please 😅😎

I’ve fallen off from (conventional) toy collecting, but a Mask reissue/relaunch done right would tempt me.

And this is why I follow this channel

i've gotten smarter i started making my own joes from other toy lines like fortnight

I was curious when this one came up on my home screen, and thought it might be interesting to find out your thoughts on the wobbly-knee in 2021. I am 100% confident I can state I am glad I did. Without showering you with gracious compliments on your delivery, your message was lucid and more important in 2022 then a year ago when you made it. I stopped the insanity upon discovering the game rules, and decided the entertainment factor in the hobby was victim of corporate greed while I remain loyal. This compromise was the bridge too far for me. Upon the arrival of my Galactus, any sort of allegiance will have diminished beyond tolerable. Don't bite the hand that feeds.

I am interested in the victory saber toy from haslab. Would that be a good buy?

Came for the quality analysis and acerbic delivery, stayed for the quality analysis and acerbic delivery. Thank you for taking the time to say exactly what folks need to hear.

nice video. I jus started collecting Star Wars the Vintage Collection figures again and I never knew about Haslab stuff, and I've been very skeptical of it since I've learned of it. The prices for figures and vehicles are CRAZY expensive. It should not cost that much for a damn piece of plastic lmao I remember before Disney bought Star Wars and mainly during the Prequel Era when I was a kid, the figures were only like 5-6 bucks lol shit is like double the price and rising. I only collect 3.75 inch figures.

"allowing product to sell out before demand is met is inexcusable." - on pre-orders. Exactly. This has been driving me nuts with Transformers lately. It makes no sense, pre-orders should help the company to know how many to make not to be unavailable after 5 minutes of product becoming available.

It’s sad that most people are gonna miss the entire point of your video!

I would 100% agree with Michael here IF these HASLAB items were going to be on the shelf at Target or online afterwards. So far, the Sentinel or the Sail Barge have not and they are in essence "made to order". So this is why I see these items as more of a collector item pre-order that will retain their values just like Mythic Legions or Super7 items (and in some cases NECA - as it can seem when you never see them in stores).

I've noticed this now with "In Stock" items from places like Mattel Creations. I ordered "In stock, ships in 4 to 5 days" figures about 45 days ago. I requested a cancellation 7 days ago and they replied saying: "sorry but it looks like your order has shipped, its too late to cancel. Here's the tracking #". Only thing, the tracking just shows a "request for shipping" being created after they sent me the "sorry" message. Nothing shipped or picked up. Another week has gone by with nothing but a created tracking #. It seems there is a strategy to holding money without delivering goods for as long as possible. Alienating customers doesn't seem to matter to them in the slightest.

To quote Stallone when Willis didnt turn up to work for Expendables "he's greedy lazy!" Hasbro is Bruce Willis.

It doesn't help that many toy reviewers call these crowd funding. I always tell them it's pre-orders.

What you say makes a lot of sense I've come to those conclusions myself When I considered Any kickstar From whatever company is offering But I also came to the realization that if I wanted a specific item that no retail store is willing to put on the shelf because of the price range and size of the product and they didn't want to take a chance on it sitting on the shelves or not selling as much at all then It's pretty obvious that the only reason why Hasbro made it a kickstarter It's to get it into the hands of the people that were willing to buy it.

“Layup” is the best term for these Marvel Legends HasLab products, because that is absolutely what the Sentinel and Galactus are. Those would have flown off of the shelves.

I had to subscribe, you touched on some very interesting points that never occurred to me.

Thank you for taking the time to explain all the red tape and incentive devices that are in play with these companies. And yes, i.too dig the Lancia B type car and a Wheel Jack would be rad!

Never bought into an Haslab. I'm afraid that Hasbro will never lose those IPs, in fact they will continue to buy up more and more IPs because they dominate the market undisputed. Nothing will change this because people will keep on buying.

Haslab released a Skystriker for 229 dollars. Comes with Ace and some co-pilot named after the original name on the plane. Extra features include different decals, a stand, two service vehicles, and bonus things like Scarlett in light blue, same mold as Ace, and two crew men with landing light batons. I think there's also black or white wings, special mounts from the toons. I'd just want the jet and Ace. -13 per figure is 52 total. Two service vehicles, lets say 15 each, -30, a stand? 10 for it? -10. -92 dollars? Price is a little better but on ebay, you could probably get a Skystriker, repolabels, and an ace for way less. I picked up a Python Patrol conquest for $50 dollars that's intact and has everything. My Omega Supreme was 150 and that's way more plastic than this Skystriker.

Michael is on the right side of history.

Thank you for your insight.

I know this is an old video, but I agree wholeheartedly. But I’m curious what you think of McFarlane’s Kickstarter for the Spawn figure that came out in 2022

Gotta say, I do move the figs from time to time but I blasted out laughing at that. This guy is gold

Hasbro asking for people to back their toys is such bull. . . Even more bull is the frickin price points on these laslab projects. 400$ for a 100$ sentinel toy

Superb video Michael, bravo.

I love my Sentinel but every one of your criticisms are correct

Another excellent video and a great companion piece to Analog Toys’ video. I find it funny that they announced the Transformer Victory Saber to save their reputation after this debacle.

What are your thoughts on the McFarlane spawn Kickstarters?

HAS your money, BRO. 1000% agree with everything said. I haven't swallowed their bull either. The only thing about this "business model" of theirs that is attractive to me is the pre-order where I have my hand on it already. I was at Target yesterday where a reseller had his wife on the phone having her cleaning the shelves. The new NECA TMNT Chrome Dome was on the shelf. 3 in the box, sitting right there. Dude made his wife buy all 3 of them and was even rude to her. I am absolutely sick of these stupid people. I wasted gas to drive down there to find something in particular, to which I was unable to locate because of people like this. I asked if he was a reseller. She stuttered and couldn't admit to it and I knew she was full of it. "My husband is a collector. He opens one and keeps one in the box". Cool, so why are you buying 3 of them? That fact alone is what makes the pre-order so attractive to me. However, Hasbro is already overpriced. Every year the toy companies complain about how prices of plastics is always going up. It's just fluff to expand their profit margin. How else do you explain that $20 Fortnite toy? How else do you explain the dollar store having articulated 3.3/4" figures at $1 each? Don't piss on my leg Hasbro and try to convince me that it's raining. These $450 products only cost them probably around $50 to produce on each piece when everything is said and done. It's molded plastic, a few screws, paint and stickers. Again, a softball shaped amount of plastic, a package of screws, a sticker sheet and a few dabs of paint. Yeah, they pay the engineer, the sculptor, the merchandising artist, etc. as well, but at $450 a piece? "Oh guys, we don't make any money on these products actually." Bull. There's a hefty profit margin in there already. We're not dumb consumers. The shameful thing is the interest accrual under the guise of crowd funding. I'm not drinking that Kool-Aid either. What it boils down to is there is an idiot born every minute and if they see said shiny object they want, they don't care how it shows up on their doorstep. Nobody wants to see how their hamburger winds up on their plate. They don't care that their Nestle chocolate bar made it to them using child labor. They simple don't care except how the toy gets into their hands. Don't care otherwise. Maybe the lack of figures on the store shelf is an artificial problem created to shift the demand to a solely online marketplace where these companies have more control over the distribution? Abusing the crowd fund model and take your money to accrue the insane interest. I would wager that at some point in the next 10 years that Hasbro will even pull out of retail altogether. With middle men out of the way, they have no one to answer to or cut a check to. I bet you the prices will rise because "We made this very difficult decision to pull out of retail because we wanted to fix things by making sure our fabulous products went directly to you the consumer. This decision hurt us financially but it was what we had to do in order to survive. Retail was just suffocating our business model. That meant having to produce smaller quantities of the toys you want most, which means higher production costs for us, etc. That made plastic prices rise again cos companies produce less plastics now. Our new 5" Boba Fett action figure is $75 because tooling costs are insane in today's marketplace and combined with plastic production, we're lucky if we make a dollar off each piece. We have babies to feed too, guys." Meanwhile, they post their yearly profits with a jump going from an 11bn company to a 60bn company. Same thing the video game industry tried to do. Abuse the pay to play market with popular titles on mobile apps. "You guys have phones, right?!?" Luckily those asshats were boo'd and nothing became of it. I could argue that this video is you spitting in the wind as well. However, this is that boo'ing that Hasbro needs to hear loud and clear. The can smirk and give us the finger, but as long as you open your wallet up, they not only have you over the barrel, but they're not bringing any lube either. They won't finish you off, but keep you breathing long enough until the wallet replenishes. Economics, the science of greed. "The grabbing hands grab all they can. All for themselves, after all it's a competitive world."

Spot on assessment sir - collectors are like domestic violence victims, keep going back to those who abuse them, I never understood Haslab for all of the reasons you stated, let’s hope they go back to their role as providing toys to children (with just enough for an adult collector to pick one up)

I never realized why Haslam was wrong until you explained it! Thanks Michael!

Speaking of nice toys without hefty prices, I picked up Robby the Robot at Walmart. Fifteen bucks. Lights up, talks and walks. If it were a SW or Marvel IP it would be $60+ .

This is why I love this channel , no ass kissing !

In terms of kickstarters, what does it matter if you pay now, or when the item is released? If you want something, you’re going to have to pay for it. I honestly couldn’t care less what a company does with the money they make from their products. If paying upfront guarantees me the item that I want, then I have no problem with that. I can pay for it, and then just wait for it to show up. That being said, the knee issue shouldn’t have happened, and I’ll have to wait to see what mine is like, and if need be I’ll tighten the screws so it stands. Will that keep me from buying other haslabs?, hell no, I’ve backed galactus and am waiting to back the rancor. These items are cool as shit, and will be awesome on my shelves.

Well, I am not so sure that they know that all of the products will actually sell. There have been Haslabs that have failed before, and the current Rancor looks to be another one to fail.