Official pwttoo kickstarter thread

Discussion in 'Transformers 3rd Party Discussion' started by PWTToo, Feb 26, 2015.

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  1. deaculpa

    deaculpa Stand Alone Complex

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    ^whoa, wtf are those?! who is 4h?
     
  2. Robogeek28

    Robogeek28 Proud grandpa

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    Wow, those look great. If they were to come out and have better articulation I'd hafta buy them all.
     
  3. Roufuss

    Roufuss Shots

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    :lol  :lol 

    Best thing in this thread I've read so far.
     
  4. Turnman

    Turnman Well-Known Member

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    The Four Horsemen. The company behind Mythic Legions and Gothitropolis KS. Have worked for many toy companies in the past. Developed and marketed their own original in house properties and stablished themselves as a serious company before using crowdfunding.

    </title> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.sourcehorsemen.com/wp-content/ata-images/4HM.ico" /> <link rel="profile" href="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11" /> <link rel="pingback" href="http://www.sourcehorsemen.com/xmlrpc.php" /> <link rel="alternate


    I would love the blue tiger creature and one or two of the repaints of it. The style reminds me a bit of a mix of Adventure Time and Pixar style. Hope the market for them opens up one day!
     
  5. Scaleface

    Scaleface Well-Known Member

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    $282, ordering everything at the base level.
     
  6. GiganGoji

    GiganGoji Well-Known Member

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    This is literally why I backed the project.
     
  7. dominusveritas

    dominusveritas Arizonacon™

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    ...I would've had you pegged for a $900 backer...
     
  8. deaculpa

    deaculpa Stand Alone Complex

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    ok, ok, imma check this out. interesting enough to get me to look at least.

    -----
    so when i hear about a 2nd kickstarter, i gotta back up and question if i understand the true nature of a kickstarter:

    i guess the base principle of a business is start small, and use the small(er) successes to reinvest into the business to grow to/at a sustainable level.
    my understanding of the KS concept was to assist those who have an idea fo rthe product but lack the initial funding to begin the aforementioned growth cycle of the company, or a very altruistic 'kickstart' for the company.

    if theres a 'first' successful kickstarter, the company has been funded to get off the ground and make an initial product to distribute and make the initial profit to begin the aforementioned growth cycle. the company either doesnt make enough money to be sustainable, or makes the money to start to reinvest in its new products.

    so the concept of a 'second' kickstarter leaves me scratching my head as to what happened after the funding- did the product not sell well, and the company failed? fair enough. why would it be refunded in this case?
    or did the product do well enough to accomplish its goal? if so, where did the profit, which should be reinvested, from the initial product sale go?

    so im seeing a second kickstarter as sort of a signal that the first kickstarter was either a failure or just a payday for the makers who took hom ethe profit and now want us to fund their next check. at worst, the first in a lather-rinse-repeat cycle of kickstarters?

    why do you need a second kickstarter for the same company?
     
  9. dominusveritas

    dominusveritas Arizonacon™

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    For the Four Horsemen, it's proven to pull in a large community of supporters without having to pony up the cash for manufacturing up front, skipping distributors, etc.

    They have also proven themselves a number of times, first through FANtastic Exclusive and then here.

    It is apparently a more profitable model for them, for which I can't fault them. Honestly, I'd think they were fools if they weren't interested in leveraging Kickstarter for a nice paycheck.

    Play with this Too has a long way to go to meet the same level of success.
     
  10. deaculpa

    deaculpa Stand Alone Complex

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    so (seriously, im learning here), you can sort of 'earn' a second kickstarter through a solid fanbase and demand for more new product, or at least thats one way of looking at it.
    im still thinking it through, kind of working through the ethical side of it. thanks.
     
  11. dominusveritas

    dominusveritas Arizonacon™

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    That's certainly a way of looking at it. In the Four Horsemen's case, they don't have the capital to run a project like this out the gates, but they do have the talent and the history to make any Kickstarter a solid guarantee for backers. Another company that is using this model is Pebble, the smart watch company.
     
  12. Predarican

    Predarican Top Gunner G1er

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    Why not $900?
     
  13. Thundershot

    Thundershot Ratchet Fanatic

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    Actually, as he seems to be the unofficial spokesperson for PWTToo around here, I'm surprised he's not a $900 backer. He sure puts out enough enthusiasm for the line. Obviously people can pledge what they want (or not at all)...
     
  14. mazintotoro

    mazintotoro Well-Known Member

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    Scaleface, I think this would be a good time to consider that throwing out theories can be a dangerous thing. I just saw a few pages of posts about what might be involved with a "Play With It All" pledge and discussing how that idea is not viable.

    I think this time could be more useful educating fellow fans about Pretenders, that cool neck joint, Kickstarter trends, or of course what updates occur.
     
  15. Peaugh

    Peaugh Hi.

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    Oh man, I want that Monkey/Mech set SO BAD.
     
  16. Terrortron

    Terrortron Breastforce

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    The new prototype photos just went up, and as awesome as they look, it confirms some doubts I was having yesterday.

    I was in this for an updated Dauros and Blood. And, while he works fine for Skullgrin, he just doesn't read as Dauros to me, and I'm not sure I want to back Bloodbath unseen.

    hmmm...
     
  17. Scaleface

    Scaleface Well-Known Member

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  18. Scaleface

    Scaleface Well-Known Member

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    I do not have $900.
     
  19. CyberShadow

    CyberShadow Wheeljacks Lab

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    You are right... and it was, and thats kind of one of the issues.

    This is what I have been saying a few pages back.

    KS started with that altrusitic goal, of getting a startup business off the blocks, as a result of TV shows like Dragons Den and Shark Tank (I think the US version was called). The idea was that people starting up a variety of products from tech to books could get people to invest in their idea.

    It then migrated into a preorder process based on a single product line or set of releases, like we have here. Essentially a company uses it to kick start a line of items, eliminating the inherant risk of producing the item by using a 'print on demand' model.

    As a side effect, the publicity and community around KS has made it MORE effective as a tool for this. It allows you to showcase your product both to the core target audience (for example, on toy dedicated forums) as well as KS dedicated avenues, as well as providing in infrastructure to contact people from PAST campaigns.

    Now, a second campaign following an initial successful one is actually a great idea, because you can contact all of those people who were initially interested and point them to your new line, as well as show that you have delivered in the past, and snowball this to new potential customers as a traditional part of the process.

    An additional issue is that KS backers expect more and more as the platform matures and establishes itself as this preorder model. People say things like 'I wont get value from my pledge' which makes it clear that they are making an order for goods. On top of that, a number of successful KSs have thrown in a huge number of 'additional items' which raises expectations exponentially. It results in the feeling of 'why would I pledge on KS if I only get what I could at retail? I should expect more than this from a KS'. This has lead to a number of companies actually struggling to make any profit from a KS. The goals have been met and (for example) in the year between close and delivery, international shipping costs rise.... and now the campaign funding gets eaten away more and more.

    I know people who have almost exclusively moved to Kickstarter or Indiegogo for their products - relying on this to float a new line and get it established, but not expecting any profits left over after this. But, following this campaign they will have the required tooling, etc in place for continued sales. It has also allowed them to release two or three new lines in a single year, a process which would normally take at least twice as long through traditional methods, because they dont need the full capitol up front and have a guaranteed customer base in place.
     
  20. Scaleface

    Scaleface Well-Known Member

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    Looking... awesome!

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    The articulation looks great to me.
     

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