What Might We See From The Haslab Marvel Legends Sentinel Project?

Jay Cochran - March 03, 2020

Hasbro announced at the New York Toy Fair last month, they would be launching a Marvel Legends based Haslab crowdfunding project sometime before San Diego Comic Con this year.

While not officially confirming what the figure would be, they all but said it would be some type of X-Men Sentinel.

For those not familiar, Sentinels are rather large mutant hunting robots that have been featured throughout the years in Marvel’s X-Men comic titles, movies, video games and cartoons. There have been many different versions of the Sentinel done throughout the years featuring different looks and designs. A typical Sentinel is said to stand about three stories tall.

For those not familiar with Haslab, it’s their in-house version of Kickstarter. They launched the program two years ago, and started off by doing a crowd-funded Star Wars 3.75” scale Jabba’s Sail Barge which was 49.35” long. Last year they continued the program with a huge Cookie Monster stuffed animal and a large 27” tall Transformers Unicorn from the original Transformers animated movie.

The Sail Barge required 5000 backers paying $499.99 each, and Unicron required 8,000 backers paying $574.99 each. The Cookie Monster failed to reach its funding goal and did not move forward, but the other two projects were seemingly successful and moved on to the production stage. The Sail Barge shipped out to people last year, and Unicorn should arrive at people’s front doors early next year.

While Hasbro has yet to give any specifics for how this year’s Haslab project will work, they did make indications recently that some changes were being made to how they were going to do it this time. In a video conference call with members of the toy media this week, they suggested that they would be including some type of add-on incentive option(s).

For a typical Kickstarter project, it’s not uncommon to offer different tiers at different price levels for being able to back a project. Basically the more you pay the more stuff you get.

What exactly Hasbro plans to do in regards to this remains unknown. My personal theory is that they may opt to include an additional figure as an add-on to the Sentinel. We know they are doing a Nimrod figure this year. They have confirmed that Nimrod will NOT be a Build-A-Figure, but would not confirm it was a simple deluxe figure, or say how it was being released. Nimrod himself while more human sized, is a type of Sentinel. So it seems like there would be a logical connection releasing him with the Sentinel. Keep in mind, this is only my own personal theory. Hasbro at this time has yet to give any indication that Nimrod would see release through Haslab. So don’t panic just yet if your not liking that idea.

As for the Sentinel itself, there are plenty of unknowns that we all patiently await answers too. The biggest three questions on my mind are, which Sentinel design will the figure be based on, how tall will it be and what will it cost?

For the design I hope it’s based on Master Mold himself. He is essentially the leader of the Sentinels and in the comics even ends up merging with Nimrod at one point. Like with other Sentinels, his appearance has changed over the years but generally he tends to be bigger than regular Sentinel and has a unique looking head. They could even make the head detachable, similar to what Toy Biz did back in the day for their 5" line.

He is sometime featured in a Sentinel creating like throne chair which could be another add on for the figure Hasbro could offer. See the one Wizkids did here.

For the size, I think it should stand around 36” tall or 3’. This would make the figure scale well with both 6” Marvel Legends as well as the previous 12” Sentinel figures Hasbro and Toy Biz has done for the line.

Iron Studios has done some Sentinel statues recently that are around 33” tall that I think look pretty good size wise.

As for cost. That’s a tough one. I personally would not want to see it cost much more than $300, and then I would hope it would have some nice features like tentacles that can extend from the arms and electronic features like lights and sounds. I honestly don’t know if that is a realistic price from a manufacturing standpoint, but if it was more than that it would defiantly be harder for my wallet to justify the purchase.

What are your thoughts. What do you want to see from Hasbro for a Haslab Marvel Legends Sentinel?

Comments...

Last 10 comments - ( Read All Posts )

EvilHayato - 2020-03-11 @ 1:19 am

25 minutes ago, RAMCAT said:
If its the same height as the current sentinel, I dont reallysee thepoint ofit being a haslab project

Well considering they have a hard time fathoming making those size BAFs anymore, it makes sense to "kickstart" the idea to see if its profitable as a standalone and in a controlled distribution process. most people want more sentinels and the ones from toybiz are expensive and are harder to find. The ones they made werent as good and most want a more realistic version, more like a good mix of both hasbro and toybiz versions. At least in my humble opinion.

RAMCAT - 2020-03-11 @ 12:54 am

If its the same height as the current sentinel, I dont reallysee thepoint ofit being a haslab project

Gigantor - 2020-03-10 @ 10:17 pm

48 minutes ago, EvilHayato said:
If they had the project be $300 that would make it very hard for people to want to army build unless you have fat stacks of cash to blow. If they can get it at a reasonable price, im fine with a size more like the toybiz and hasbro sentinels that are already around. Those sizes are reasonable and keeping them around 100 or so is reasonable. Anything larger, I feel will scare most collectors from funding it.

Smart $$ would be to keep it in the same 16 inch scale as the previous 2 Sentinels & keep the price point in the $125 range so people can army build at minimum a triad of them as they always hunt in 3s. Makes zero sense to make a 2 ft tall or bigger Sentinel & charge $250-$300 for it. Most anyone who loves Sentinels would get is 1 due to the price& the space that a 2 ft Sentinel would take up. I'd be priced out of even getting one at those prices & don't have the space for a 2 ft Sentinel.

EvilHayato - 2020-03-10 @ 9:27 pm

If they had the project be $300 that would make it very hard for people to want to army build unless you have fat stacks of cash to blow. If they can get it at a reasonable price, im fine with a size more like the toybiz and hasbro sentinels that are already around. Those sizes are reasonable and keeping them around 100 or so is reasonable. Anything larger, I feel will scare most collectors from funding it.

Gigantor - 2020-03-04 @ 10:46 pm

4 hours ago, mako said:
Some are sheep, some are shepherds.

Only 3 types of people in this world: Wolves/Sheep/Sheepdogs.

mako - 2020-03-04 @ 6:45 pm

3 hours ago, Jmacq1 said:
What might we see? Something certain posters are guaranteed to crap on sight-unseen.

Some are sheep, some are shepherds.

Jmacq1 - 2020-03-04 @ 5:14 pm

Heck, if we're gonna dream big on Galactus, Throw in Firelord, Nova (Frankie Raye), and Morg. If we're in super perfect world territory an updated/improved Terrax would be welcome too (at least one that's able to effectively wield his axe).

Honestly if the Sentinel does well, I would not be in the least bit surprised to see a "Definitive" Galactus become a HasLab project, probably sometime after the FF have hit the big screen and raised that team's profile.

Air-Walker - 2020-03-04 @ 4:12 pm

I preferred to seeGalactus. Galactus accompanied with a nice, big, cosmic,Galactusy chair andwith Air-walker and the Kirby-esque AlienPunisher Robot as pack-in figurespersonally.Sigh, one can continue to dream! However, a Byrne style Sentinel with an upgraded aesthetic similar to that Iron Studios statue might about do the trick. We'll see.

RAMCAT - 2020-03-04 @ 3:55 pm

Maybe it'll have some battle damaged pieces to switch out. And some features like the OG Sentinel toy

EUPHORICVIKING - 2020-03-04 @ 3:16 pm

1 hour ago, Benn said:
This is all basically the write-up for why Haslab exists. Haslab products aren'tmeant to sell to average collectors. The sail barge was over four-feet long, and Unicron is over two-feet tall, transforming into an almost three-foot diameter planet. Haslab is a vehicle for making spectacles that serve as the centerpiece to elite collections. They're not made to be affordable or have wide appeal. They're made to be awesome, and they're priced to facilitate the small-scale production necessary forsomething so awesome, but ultimatelycumbersome. The argument you're making is that Master Mold literally ticks all the qualification boxes for a Haslab project. Regular sentinels at digestible army-building price-points can,and have been, done at regular retail.
That's not to say that I think Master Mold is on the way, but I think people hoping for $100ishsentinels should probably brace themselves for disappointment. This will likely be an awesome, cumbersome, expensive sentinel.

I am right with you there. it will definitely be more than that. specially since it will be exclusive to Hasbro pulse. I am excited to see what's coming.

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