News

Jabba’s Sail Barge will be the coolest Star Wars toy of all time

Hasbro’s first attempt at crowdsourcing a prestige collectible toy has paid off

Apr 5, 2018, 3:22 PM UTC

Interior shot showing Jabba’s personal quarters.

Hasbro/Disney

Charlie Hall is Polygon’s tabletop editor. In 12-plus years as a journalist & photographer, he has covered simulation, strategy, and spacefaring games, as well as public policy.

Way back in February, toy maker Hasbro surprised many when it announced a bold new crowdsourcing campaign. It’s called HasLab, and its goal is to help bring “dream products” to market for collectors. HasLab’s first project succeeded earlier this week, pre-selling 8,810 units of Jabba the Hutt’s sail barge from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.

It’s a remarkable moment, with one of the world’s largest manufacturers of toys stealing a page from Kickstarter’s crowdfunding book to bring a prestige piece to life.

“We could not have done this without you,” Hasbro said on the campaign website. “Now it is our turn to get to work making this dream product a reality.”

Cut-away cross section of Jabba’s Sail Barge.

The deck gun of Jabba’s Sail Barge, as seen in Return of the Jedi.

A smaller point-defense weapon, as seen in Return of the Jedi.

An interior shot of the armory on Jabba’s Sail barge.

A forward canopy comes away to reveal a detailed two-man cockpit area.

The box will be massive, measuring 14 inches by 50 inches by 15 inches.

Jabba’s Sail Barge with the red sails removed.

Another cut-away of Jabba’s quarters. There’s a rancor sculpture on the back wall.

A mock-up of the vintage packaging for Yak Face.

1/12

Jabba’s Sail Barge will include Jabba as well as Yak Face. Both will come in vintage packaging.

Hasbro/Disney

Jabba’s sail barge will be 49.35 inches long and stand more than 17 inches high. It will include exterior weapons, cloth sails, louvered windows and a scale Jabba figure. Another character, Yak Face, was added to the kit during the campaign as an extra incentive. It’s still not clear if the product will ultimately make it to retail.

The campaign’s success comes at an inflection point for the retail toy industry. The Toys R Us bankruptcy loomed large in Hasbro’s annual investor relations call, and the closure of all of its U.S. locations represents a colossal loss of shelf space for Hasbro. The company is also recovering from soft holiday sales of toys brought to market for Disney’s blockbuster film Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Meanwhile, competition is heating up in the back of the toy aisle, with games originally funded on Kickstarter taking up more and more shelf space at big-box retailers. In some locations, they appear to dwarf the selection of Hasbro’s own titles, and their growth shows no sign of slowing down. In light of the changing toy and game industry, this kind of direct-to-consumer strategy looks like an excellent move.

A special 64-page making-of booklet is already on its way to backers. You can preview the first six pages here. The toy, called the Khetanna in Star Wars lore, is expected to ship out to backers by Feb. 28, 2019.

See More: