The more I look at this Snowcat, the more I really want a HAVOC II. It got me thinking, how much extra cost is there really in just making some of them in OD green? I can only guess, but it feels like, say, 400 additional purchases would offset the cost of buying 400 units worth of different plastic. The mold's done. The electronics are the same regardless.
Clearly they're not, but on a purely hypothetical basis, it seems if they will neither repeat the HasLab nor reissue a stripped down version at retail, there's nothing stopping them from offering different color options in the original offering. They'd for sure get at least some amount of additional orders at what seems to me minimum extra expense.
Am I missing something obvious?
I've been wondering a lot about the fact that every HasLab so far is of a vehicle that has legitimate ARAH (or ARAH-adjacent) color variants.
The HISS has at least three more colorways (blue, red, and white). There's other potential ones depending on how specific you want to get with what qualifies as a 'new' color scheme (for instance, black and gold?).
The Dragonfly has the 'Tiger Fly' TF repaint, and the Locust variation (lighter color than the v1). There was also the Street Fighter repaint, but I don't think they'd do that one at all.
The Rattler had the 'Tiger Rat' TF repaint. The Thunderbolt (more realistic?) repaint. And a red version for some reason I can't remember.
The SnowCat had the 'Tiger Cat' TF repaint. The blue Street Fighter one (that they won't do, I'm sure). Two arctic camo pattern ones (that they won't do because it's too close to this one). The HAVOC II, and the Cobra-blue Basilisk.
Granted, one could argue this is largely coincidental in the fact that MOST Joe vehicles were repainted throughout the line. But it's still worth noting that there isn't a single vehicle yet that doesn't have multiple color schemes Joe collectors are very likely to be interested in buying. Hell, 3/4 of the HasLabs have TF recolors, and TF is a pretty popular sub-line.
Anyway, just dreaming. But you've got to think that, for the long term strategizing, this is at least on the Joe team's mind. The question is -- does that become a Hasbro Pulse pre-order, a special retail item, or a whole new HasLab? If we get a Tiger Rat for 60-80 bucks less than the HasLab two or three years from now - are people going to be super pissed? Probably. But if it's the same price as the HasLab are people going to freak out because the tooling is already paid for and it shouldn't cost as much this time? Also probably.
Maybe Hasbro really does avoid the issue by just not re-doing the HasLabs and letting them be a one-off piece of tooling. But that seems very unHasbrolike.
