Yeah, I'm very curious to see how this new marketing strategy plays out. At the end of the day, I think SF will proceed with plans that appeal both to them and to the greatest number of their customers.

I agree with the concept. It just makes sense by purchasing a limited quantity of each hilt they guarantee a sell out or limited quantity on hand.

If they run out of the hilt quickly they simply order more and post it as "SINCE THIS WAS SO POPULAR" we are releasing another limited run -

I think that in the off chance that the Juggernaut doesn't sell well (which is highly unlikely) SF should keep it, purely because US seems to be the only other company that makes a duel ready Malgus saber (which doesn't look nearly as nice and is way too big IMO). That way they can snag some customers who's search for a Malgus saber would have ended with US.

Gyarados66 wrote:
The activation box kills it for me though. The US one has smoothed corners, the SF not so much.

I snagged the weathered quick ship Juggernaut on Sunday night, and I should have it in my hands tomorrow, at which point I'll be taking tons of pictures obviously. This will be my first saber with a box, so I'll see how it feels. I do like that the Juggernaut is much more accurate to the overall design than the Malice, both in scale and details. So hopefully there'll be a nice new Juggernaut review section on the forums this weekend, and I'll get to help drive pre-orders in the meantime.

Actually, thinking about it more, any pre-release quick ships like the ones for the Juggernaut suddenly became a lot more important from a marketing standpoint, as those few models for the official site images will be out in the wild during pre-order periods. There's a lot of potential for driving pre-order sales with a few early models getting consumer use. Guess I better make this look really good. O_O

Hake Felflame wrote:
While this could be true, it doesn't change the limited time/money available to purchase one (or more) of these sabers. No matter how good of a review you (or anyone else) gives on any one of these sabers, it still doesn't Change the fact that the average customer may not be able to afford one (let alone more than one) saber within this month. The chances of them selling all 100 of the more desired type of saber are great, but that isn't enough time or quantity to decided whether or not the saber will be successful. If you create a great, desired design like the Reborn or Juggernaut, then limit the preorder time to a month, you'll probably sell out. But That doesn't mean the saber will sell in the long run. It just means you manipulated the market, possibly killing off less desirable designs like the Exile or Silver Knight (not saying that I desire them less, just saying that The Revan sabers are probably a higher priority to most).

I just want all five of the sabers because I like the designs, but that isn't a possibility since I only have a month to order them and I can't afford one right now. Then there will be some process used to decided whether or not the design is worth keeping. If they sell out of all designs, does that mean they should keep them all? Without the short-term demand, some of these sabers may not sell. Some of them may sell due to the unavailability of the other preorders. In the end, some sabers may be "successful" and some may "fail," though the sample size and time was so small, the data was skewed. But maybe they are just trying to boost temporary sales. Maybe they are just trying to hype up certain sabers.

All I know is that I literally can't wait for your review!

That's a good way 2 call it. What u wrote hit on a lot of points.