Kickstarter: Dream Big Friends 10-inch Yuna

[gunm]

Pretty cool, but with 10 days left and not even half way to goal as I type this, I don't think it's going to get funded.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bigshot-toyworks/dream-big-friends-yuna-doll

 

[InebriatedGnome]

Bumping the hell out of this. Bigshot is a super-solid company and they deserve your support. How many of you have kids who like nice toys?

 

[ditch]

What a shame that is really nice.

 

[dominishin]

Think it may be possible if they keep trying, still tough.

Admirable project.

 

[potato]

for $40 it's pretty affordable for a 10" full figure doll.

but if it fails to fulfill the pledge you lose your backing money?

 

[InebriatedGnome]

No; you are only charged if the Kickstarter is successful. You can also change or cancel you pledge up until the last minute, though cancelling is discouraged. Billing happens through an Amazon service, if I remember correctly.

Some companies have failed to deliver on Kickstarter products, but Bigshot has consistently put out quality products before, so I would trust them with my money here.

 

[EVILFACE]

Failed to deliver?

So peps backed money, the kickstarter was successful and the company didn't uphold the end of their deal? Glad I don't mess with them.

 

[potato]

No; you are only charged if the Kickstarter is successful. You can also change or cancel you pledge up until the last minute, though cancelling is discouraged. Billing happens through an Amazon service, if I remember correctly.

Some companies have failed to deliver on Kickstarter products, but Bigshot has consistently put out quality products before, so I would trust them with my money here.

if you back them up $80 and it doesn't gets fulfilled, you will get all $80 back?

i looked at their breakdown, it seems Postage takes the biggest cut out of the cost. also Kickstarter 9% is pretty much evilbay level. other than listing the kickstart, do kickstarter actually do any promotion to help since they are taking a 9% cut?

also does the package include postage or you have to add it in afterwards? postcard will be sent by snail mail that's what i read.

if some big toy store like Walmart and toysrus backed them up, would easily reach $170k target. $40 a piece for something better than Barbie they can sell it for $60 for a 50% profit per sales. I believe many big toy store did sell ugly dolls products.

 

[InebriatedGnome]

Your bank account won't be charged unless the Kickstarter is successful. I do agree that Kickstarter's cut is too large, and I don't know how they justify that.

Shipping is generally specified on the rewards page; for a lot of things US shipping is free and international costs extra. For this specific campaign, it seems like shipping is free worldwide.

 

[SwedishHeat]

For this specific campaign, it seems like shipping is free worldwide.

Considering that 29% of the project's costs are going to "Postage". . . shipping is most definitely not free.

 

[InebriatedGnome]

'Free' as in 'included in the price you pay'. The same way when you buy something with free shipping on eBay, the seller uses some of what you paid to pay the cost of shipping.

 

[potato]

'Free' as in 'included in the price you pay'. The same way when you buy something with free shipping on eBay, the seller uses some of what you paid to pay the cost of shipping.

depends though, some items ended up less than cost of shipping so seller will ship the item out with their own money.

 

[InebriatedGnome]

Generally not the case on Kickstarter but that would probably vary from company to company--asking Bigshot might be the way to go here. The company is pretty established and has produced stuff for big names before (e.g., the ThreeA Lost Planet merc was their work), but I don't know how much stuff they actually ship to customers themselves.

If I remember right they did some sort of unicorn toy Kickstarter a while ago, clearly inspired by the booming My Little Pony fandom but with some really cool designs that had me tempted to buy. I'll look for a link to that campaign later.

Anyway, it might be helpful to see how that previous Kickstarter went--whether things were produced according to timeline, if communication with backers was good, quality of the final product, etc--for a sense of how this might go.

 

[InebriatedGnome]

Also just to be clear here--I have nothing to do with the high-end toy industry or Bigshot

This piqued my interest strongly because I have a much younger sister who's very into my toys, and I'd love to get her stuff that's more affordable than adult collectibles but still high-quality.

 

[koonfasa]

These look awesome, and at $40 each are fantastically priced. Too fantastic when shipping would be nearly that to me...

I'll find the time later to read but is this Kickstarted for mass mass production and we get it super cheap or is this like the actual raw cost we are given for the first prototypes?i

Big shot, aren't they like graphic designers for sideshow?

 

[InebriatedGnome]

The price you pay on Kickstarter gets you whatever rewards are described in that tier. Here, the $40 tier gets you the full production figure.

Bigshot does a whole mess of stuff. Looking over their site just now, I was surprised at the number and variety of high-profile collectibles they've had a hand in producing--e.g., the life-size T-800 bust and StarCraft Raynor figures for Sideshow, the Dead Space and Mass Effect figures for Threezero. I think for the most part Bigshot will handle specific parts of a figure (e.g., sculpts for the Dead Space Isaac Clarke) which then get combined with another design team's efforts in the final product, or they produce a prototype and the contracting company handles production (that was the case with Sideshow and Raynor).

Their site says they also do character design and illustration, but I don't know anything about that.

 

[potato]

not sure how possible for them to raise another half in such a short time. is there any extension on the kickstart deadline?

 

[InebriatedGnome]

Nope. If it fails, it fails I've never heard of people repeating a campaign either, so I guess Kickstarter only lets you do one funding campaign for a single idea. Hopefully it won't be the death of the design if they don't get the Kickstarter funds—perhaps a big toy company could get involved as an investor, or something like that.