On Friday Hasbro launched a crowdfunding campaign for one of the most requested big-budget X-Men toys ever—a large-scale version of the iconic mutant-hunting sentinel robot. The company was looking for 6,000 backers to pledge $350 each to get the 26.34-inch figure made. It was funded in a day.
It took Hasbro’s HasLab crowdfunding platform several months (and multiple time extensions) to make a massive version of Transformers villain Unicron, but Marvel’s Sentinel, the largest figure yet in the long-running Marvel Legends toy line, breezed past its $2.1 million funding goal in a little over 24 hours. Maybe it’s because fans have been craving a scale model of those terrifying pink-and-purple robots for decades. How many comic book covers and splash pages have these massive metal monsters graced over the years?
The previous tallest official sentinel toy stood at 15.75 inches, which is just pathetic. The new version, packed with lights and sounds and sporting a Wolverine-embracing tentacle, stands at 26.34 inches. The tentacle is 18 inches long, for those keeping track.
The new extra-large sentinel sports some 72 points of articulation. That’s a very mobile action figure. There are 20 points in each hand alone, which means we’re going to get flooded with images of sentinels giving double-birds when the figure ships in fall 2021.
In case a giant effing robot wasn’t enough, the figure also comes with a six-inch Bastion figure with an alternative Sentinel Prime head. Stretch goals for 7,000 and 8,000 backers have been achieved, unlocking a very cool Master Mold head and battle-damaged head and hand accessories. There’s a 9,000 backer goal remaining, which the campaign should achieve shortly after this post goes live.
It’s an incredibly impressive toy, the kind of figure whole collections are built around. I’d imagine there are collectors out there who’ve already pledged for multiples, so they can create the invading sentinel army of their dreams. Like-minded X-Men toy fans have until August 24 to get in on this business.