Things are progressing a little bit. My crew of ace designers has been busy making some stuff and I have been trying to make some molds. I am redesigning the female troopers for one piece models. There are another set of multi pose infantry in the works. Another fellow is working on a piece for use with a board game and the long awaited tank is somewhere on the horizon.
The first thing finished is this road block set.
The sprues are here;
I am currently trying to figure out kick starter. It seems to be the preferred method of buying for most consumers. Kind of baffles me a bit. In fact makes no damn sense at all. Why would I pay money now for something I might get a year from now? However, looking at the huge sums of money being lobbed at anything with the word kick starter in front of it there is a good chance I may change with the times and do one.
There are a few other changes in the works. I have to be a lot more aware of the sort of people I am dealing with. Hence the title of this post-which gives instructions on how to avoid crooks.
As of today, I am announcing that I will NEVER have any dealings with Defiance Games in any way shape or form. Simply put, the reputation they have on the internet is well deserved. And the "new" management team can go straight to hell.
The new management team refuses to pay for products ordered under the old management team. I have shipped 3 large orders to them, costing me hundreds in shipping alone, and not gotten one single penny. The first few months were filled with excuses, but now I have been told to go pound sand.
Be very wary of these folks. I am learning all about running a business and this is a very important lesson.
Ok guys, have a good week and I will keep you posted on new events.
Sorry to hear about your issues with Defiance. I pledged on their recent KickStarter but then cancelled my pledge a couple of days later after seeing comments that reminded me of all their troubles.
ReplyDeleteAs a consumer I have mixed feelings about KickStarter in general. There are lots of tempting projects that go up there but I have limited budget to spend on toys. It annoys me that there are established mid-size companies who are using it as a storefront (e.g. Mantic Games) - I don't think that is meant to be the point of it.
So far I have pledged on two projects. The first was 'Meridian Miniatures Steampunk Army' - I really liked the look of the miniatures, and it was clear that (1) this is a lone sculptor trying to get his own range going and (2) he had a mould-maker/caster lined up so there were unlikely to be issues with production.
Second was 'Robot Turtles', which is really for my daughter. Again this was a lone but enthusiastic designer who made it clear that he had figured out how the game would be produced in time, before the KS.
Clearly the fact that Mantic, CMoN, Raging Heroes etc. have had success on KS means that lots of people disagree with my views so I wouldn't read too much into them...
Just stumbled upon your stuff and put in an order this week. Looking forward to the roadblocks. Just got into Infinity and am loving what you're making. I'll be sure to promote it once it's painted up!
ReplyDeleteWhat a shitty deal. Thanks for the heads-up.
ReplyDeleteBest,
JBR
Received my barriers yesterday, thanks for the fast shipping. Great product!!!
ReplyDeleteKickstarter's success is not due to it being a preferred method of consumer purchasing (although they do often offer good discounts and deals), but mainly due to the fact that kickstarter is a huge site that millions of people look at every day.. it's that marketing boost and lots of extra eyeballs more than anything else that makes the difference.
ReplyDeleteSome advice for kickstarter (I've backed loads and love them):
- Presentation. Nice video, doesn't have to be fancy, just you chatting about the product, showing your workshop, explaining what you'd like to do and what you need to do/how much your need to raise to make it happen will work great.
- Expandability. Don't just stop at the first goal, have a wider plan and stretch goals to either create a new product or throw in a freebie sprue for people who have put in a lot.
- Get some concepts or 3d renders to show off in advance for a few products, or just concept art if it hasn't gone to sculpting yet.
There have been plenty of one-man operations that have done very well with hard plastic and excellent sculpting talent, if you take a look at dreamforge or secret weapon kickstarters those are perfect examples of both high quality sculpting and good tooling.
I think you could do great with a 3d sculptor hired leaving you to focus on the business end of making the moulds.
Hey Ken, can I call you? I may have a solution for this issue but I will not know for sure until we have a chance to talk.
ReplyDeleteAll the best!
Mark
Things are resolved. I chalked it up to a learning process and am moving forward. Defiance and me are finished and everything is good. They need to focus on not pissing off more people by failing to deliver the kick starter.
DeleteYou two should still connect. You're both on FB. Get to it!
ReplyDelete;)
Best,
JBR