I've been tracking the Engine of Vengeance, loosely, so it's time for an analysis by a non-Marvel Legends fan about what's happening with it.
Let's get this out of the way. It's losing backers. I think it peaked at around 5600, slipped down to 5160, 5060, and now at the time of writing it's sitting at 5016. I believe the drop began after their first week incentive of a Robbie Reyes figure didn't make it. Personally I think that was too ambitious of a goal, because to my knowledge the Proton Pack is the ONLY product that has been funded that quickly, so when EOV inevitably failed to meet that goal, and the Robbie figure wasn't happening anymore, suddenly you're looking at paying for the same for less product. That should have been a stretch goal IMO.
Also, I think it's too expensive. I have no basis for what a model car should cost, but it's twice the cost of Victory Saber and it doesn't need to transform, it just needs to roll and turn the wheels. I respect the level of detail and electronics but really if it was $100 cheaper I think we wouldn't be here.
So there's still a week and a half to go on the EOV and it's only halfway to its goal. There's always a big push in the last day or two. The only comparable projects that have been in this situation are Unicron himself as well as the ones from last winter, the GI Joe Skystriker and the Star Wars Rancor. Unicron would have failed without an extension, a luxury that has not been given to any other project so far, and it still limped across the finish line a day before the end. Rancor, infamously, fell just short of its goal (8533/9000) while the Skystriker soared past its goal in the last day (probably picking up a fair few burnt Rancor backers who were also Joe fans and had to choose between the two). In this case, the only thing competing with the Engine of Vengeance is Heroscape. I don't think there's enough overlap between those fandoms for them to eat into each other's sales, plus there's two weeks between the ends of their campaigns. So the EOV is failing on its own merits. I think it's going to be another Rancor, and the last minute surge will not be enough to push it past the goalpost. I don't want this thing to fail, I think it looks great, but it's certainly not promising.
If anyone wants it, here's my spreadsheet.