Star Wars toy collectors over the years have had several “Holy Grails” to be made; the dream items that would have been too impractical to mass-produce back in the ’80s. The Imperial Shuttle was one, as was Jabba’s Skiff. But the one big-ticket item that has always been requested–and it turns out, the toy sculptors have also really wanted to make–was Jabba’s Sail Barge, known in-canon as The Khetanna. And now it’s coming. Maybe.
Because Hasbro wants to make the vehicle to scale with 3-3/4″ figures, this is something too huge and expensive for retail. So if you want it made, you and 4,999 other fans have to pre-order it at the not-cheap price of $500. It’s part of a new Hasbro initiative called HasLab, which, if this is successful, aims to develop other fan-dream projects that might be too big or risky for the likes of Walmart to buy into.
The toy is being designed from actual Lucasfilm archive blueprints, with some creative interpreting like a new cockpit, a prison cell with a Hammerhead skeleton inside, a kitchen, and a trophy room. The sails will be cloth, and a Jabba figure will be included.
This isn’t the first major toy like this to be crowd-funded; Mattel successfully got fans to pre-buy a $300 Castle Grayskull for its Masters of the Universe Classics line, but failed to get enough support for a more expensive Ghostbusters Ecto-1. Both lines, however, were entirely mail-order subscription exclusives at the time, while Star Wars is pretty consistently the top action figure property in the world, and in every store up to and including your local grocery. (Unfortunately for international fans, the Sail Barge is only available to U.S. and U.S. territory addresses.)
The pre-order lasts until end of day on April 3, and as of this writing, 30 minutes after the official unveiling, it already has 91 backers, and more by the time you’ll read this. (You can add your pledge HERE). Safe to say, this is probably going to be a reality at last. It’s going to come with a 64-page booklet detailing its creation, and vintage-style packaging to resemble the old Kenner boxes.
Now, where are you going to actually put the thing? And who would win in a fight with the G.I. Joe aircraft carrier U.S.S. Flagg? Will there be a Death Star next? Give us some suggestions and thoughts in comments.
Images: Hasbro
More toys!
- DC Collectibles’ new Watchmen figures.
- All the Solo toys.
- Harry Potter wands you can use for laser tag.
