that is VERY interesting. i wonder what they did to attain the jump at the end. surely it wasnt nothing... hmm, the interest in the projects seems little more uniform throughout the middle portions, it kind of looks like interest is dissipating in this case. now im really glued to kicktraq to watch the trends!

edit: the trending reports for those are a little more telling. neither trended downward for more than a day, if they did at all. they were flat at worst. pwt is trending downward now. PWT is also treading three consecutive days of literal negative performance. to not only turn that around, but turn it around to outperform every other day on average seems a tall order but ive got my pledge in and am waiting for donald trump to find out about this.   of course the name will have to be changed to "Trump Presents: Play with this Trump Too, A Donald Trump Production"

 

Actually BMOG did. As did modibot:



As did The Kingdom:



As did the Victorian Steampunk figure, which was all over the map!:

 

That last one is crazy, though the first two only had one day.

 

The KS goals of those projects are orders of magnitude different than this one. The Kingdom was $3000, Victorian Sci-Fi was 500 quid (and it's unpainted miniatures, not action figures - a completely different target audience)

BMOG was the closest with $19k (still 4 times less than pwttoo) and it barely managed to fund.

 

Oh that Victorian one being 500 pounds makes so much more sense. The smaller dollar amount ones need less people to get funded and consequently there's a lot more noise in their data when you look at it.

 

Yeah, every Kickstarter is different, and the annoying thing is they have to be locked in with a cutoff time and a goal on day one. They have to make exactly $80,000 on exactly that day to fund.

I've noticed some KS's put an extremely simple goal up just so they can say "funded!" early, and let people join on the bandwagon. Others hold out for larger goals, that barely make it by the last day or two.

 

Well, easy to find a bunch of action figure KS that never had a negative day.


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/warpo/legends-of-cthulhu-retro-action-figure-toy-line



https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/813878470/boss-fight-studios-vitruvian-hacks-action-figures


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iamelemental/iamelemental-action-figures-for-girls


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/georgegaspar/skeleton-warriors-glyos-compatible-action-figures

All different goals and target audience. What do they all share? All of them were serious Kickstarters with quality painted protos showing what they had to offer from the very start.

 

The curve of Kickstarter projects is very well documented. One example:

"But if every creator is so different, then why do the funding curves for so many projects look so similar. If possibilities are limitless, then why are are the results cast in so few molds?"

Mind the Gap: Kickstarter Funding Trends | Caffeineforge

There's the usual spike of excitement at the beginning, a dead spot in the middle, and a burst at the end. This is common.

 

I think I feel that way as well. Even if they added full articulation to them like I wanted, I just don't care for their alt modes. I'm not sure how much of it could be fixed by more joints. Maybe. It looks like they already messed up when they originally intended for those wheels on his back beside his head to touch the ground in alt mode, but hit legs don't fit so they get in the way.

They were also done this way in order to use them for their primary play pattern of BMOG style disassembling into accessories. If more complex joints were put in it might be harder to use them as solid, rigid objects with simple handles.
Though I can't say I'm really a fan of the play pattern, I see two other people say they like it. While I'm fine with them ditching the original Pretender shell play pattern, I wanted more articulated inner robots. Now they're just as poorly articulated, but transform even worse, on top of being less like the originals. There's just no interest for me.

I wonder how many fans prefer the shells over the inner robots or vice versa or both. I bet they can't even sell the drones separately because it's part of the initial set of figures and part of the whole play pattern of the series, but I think it's just an obstacle.

 

Welp, now I hope this actually goes to production, but my wallet is cringing in fear lol.

 

When it comes to Pretenders I am 100% about the shells. I want updated and more articulated shells.

 

Shells > Inner Robot in my book.

I think of Bludgeon as a skull faced samurai, not a green and maroon tank. Bludgeon has a decent update that mixes the robot with the shell though. The Generations Skullgrin toy did nothing for me, but I thought it as an okay attempt. Play With This Too has the Skullgrin I want.

 

I am really not trying to be a jerk but this Kickstarter made me go look into the Pretenders which I knew nothing about before. I /really/ love the G1 Skullgrin. Much more than the update. He almost looks like a modern art vinyl figure.

 

Shells! I think those are a lot more exciting and fun than the inner robots.

Love Bugly - Bugly (G1) - Transformers Wiki

 

I really like Bugly as well. Most of the first couple waves are fantastic.

 

I like the G1 Pretender aesthetics WAY more now than I did as a kid. Still, the only one I have to this day is Skullgrin.

 

I've spent some time recently completing my G1 Pretenders. I just search for Pretender part on ebay and pick up the cheapest piece, one at a time. Then when that part arrives, I order the next cheapest piece. Doing that I've completed 5 Pretenders, and have pieces of most of the rest.

 

I always had a soft spot for Skullgrin after Marvel's issue 44 ("Monstercon from Mars!").

Then I bought Shout! Factory's Japanese TF Collection. Headmasters was boring, but Masterforce was actually pretty good, with an ongoing storyline and slowly growing cast.

At the start of the series, the three Destron Pretenders Blood (Bomb-Burst), Dauros (Skullgrin), and Gilmer (Submarauder) were actually halfway competent, until various other characters were introduced and they became comic relief. They spent a good amount of time in Pretender mode, and "transmuted" (to borrow a Battle of the Planets verb) into a robot (which, of course, transformed as normal into a vehicle).

I had already found a Skullgrin, but this enticed me to seek out Bomb-Burst and Submarauder.

The Cybertron Pretenders in the series were Phoenix (Cloudburst), Lander (Landmine), Diver (Waverider), and Metalhawk (no toy outside of Japan).

I really want this Kickstarter to succeed, because it includes homages to Dauros and Blood at the beginning, and we've seen designs homaging all four of the Cybertron Pretenders that we can hope to see later. (But where's Gilmer?!?)

 

Good way to do it; that's why I have a G1 Scorponok.  

 

According to my tracking, tomorrow Wolfgang Walrus arrives. Going to need a group shot of the 1980's walrus action figures with him, Tuska Warrior and Longtooth.

BTW - Anyone notice the number of backers keeps rising? Still at 78%, but we keep getting new backers. Must be people jumping in with small pledges all over.