[boombatty]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Moore

I don't think so. The court stuff was resolved right around the time the Kickstarter was launched as there was a settlement reached. I believe they said that the legal issues left them with out the start-up capital needed to get the figures produced, which is why they went to Kickstarter.

That whole legal mess was crazy to begin with.

I think the Kickstarter uptick is great and all but I see a lot of new Kickstarters in the space that leave me scratching my head. This includes Skeleton Warriors (which hit it's goal right at the end), the FreshMonkey stuff (which has the appeal of a dollar store figure) and a the Archangel Michael (or whatever it was) figure that was really beautiful but the cost was really high.

I get the awesomeness of being able to bring interesting lines to the public like never before but they are all missing some core components that make these things work. Skeleton Warriors looked really goofy. The FreshMonkey figures look, well, cheap. The Street Fighter figures I think were scaled wrong but the 4" were covered recently too which may have taken a bite out of the market as well. The ArchAngel figure was one figure and costs both an arm and a leg to procure as well as a high KS price ($85K I believe) with no incentives.

What I have seen work:
1) Proper Scale. Look at Marauder and Vitruvian. Why did the scale matter so much? I think it had to do with the fact that smaller scale makes for army builders. Army building a $10 figure vs a $30 dollar figure and you see a big differential.
2) Articulation. No one wants an unposable statue and Kenner level articulation just isn't going to cut it. I think that is part of why FreshMonkey's Amazing Heroes will fail or if lucky just pass the goal. I get "retro" but you can be retro looking and articulated. Action figures in the 60's sucked, why recreate the suckitude?
3) Stretch Goals. Marauder and to a greater extent Vitruvian NAILED this. Make a lot of goals and make them worth it. The Archangel Michael figure was cool looking but there was no stretch goal to be had. It then feels like, "Pay me $85K or you don't get your figure". No audience participation is to be had.
4) Know your audience. The Vitruvian and Marauder figs targeted thos e that are into Super Hero and GI Joe figs at the scale. Great move, lot's of dollars flowed. The Amazing Hero figs are targeted at people that probably don't frequent these type of sites. The audience that might look twice isn't to be found here. Where to find them, I don't know? But if you are making a 4" Space Knight themed set I would recommend you post to the Stars Wars centric type sites. Making a robot that transforms into a weapon of mass destruction? Go hit up the TFW2005 type sites. Point being that if you can't find the audience online, they don't want it, don't bother.