This is the latest in a series (of indefinite length and regularity) of blog posts memorializing cancelled toys. Our subject today is Hasbro's "Engine of Vengeance" HasLab campaign.
The third Marvel Legends HasLab, after the Sentinel and Galactus, the "Engine of Vengeance" set would have featured current Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes, as well as his hell-powered Dodge Charger.
Just like with previous campaigns, they attempted to entice backers with the promise of extra figures, starting with the Goblyn Queen at 10,000 backers.
And Daimon Hellstrom at 11,000:
Clearly they were aiming for figures they would never be able to make and sell at retail without upsetting lower-case-C-conservative fundamentalists, and they really went for it with the 12,000-backer unlock, Mephisto:
Sadly, the campaign did not even meet its minimum. And it's been apparent for several weeks now that it wasn't going to. The final count is just over half of what they needed (5,060 out of 9,000).
Surely there will be lots of discussion in the coming weeks about why the campaign failed (wasting money on licensing the car model from Dodge, loading it up with expensive electronics and pointless features, waiting until now when the character's popularity peaked about five years ago, trying to entice fans with bonus figures that look mid at best, etc.), but this could have been a good toy with some better effort put in.
Hopefully the next time they try a Marvel HasLab, they come up with a more desirable figure.
