77
« on: May 2, 2014, 02:36 AM »
I just got an email from Marauder that they're going to offer two additional accessory sets even though they didn't get unlocked during the run.
Four things with the Marauder Kickstarter; the G.I. Joe guys are a mixed bag of the cheapest collectors and those that don't seem to have an upper limit on expenditures. Star Wars can be like that but it always seemed more extreme to me with the Joe guys. The guys that'll buy at top dollar, those are the guys funding this. The funding level works out to an average of $204 per backer. While there are SW guys that'll pony up, I don't think a SW kickstarter would get a $200+ average. Besides, all those accessories and extra figs in different decos increased the desire to pay more to unlock stretch goals, the Death Star didn't have any stretch goals and the Ewok Space trees had a $50 price before you got anything while Marauder gave you a figure w/ accessories at a $19 donation.
Second, and probably the most important thing, Marauder has a legit manufacturing company lined up to do these figures plus they were designed by pros, Boss Fight Studios, who have worked on Hasbro products and do work for the Joe Club. Marauder already manufactures accessories with a known quality to them. The Star Wars dios that I think you're talking about, Jesse, are being 3D printed by guys "in their basement." Meaning, not professional manufacturing. I'm not inclined to offer money to someone that's not in manufacturing and probably doesn't really get what all goes into it. My impression, Marauder is doing retail quality manufactured toys while the SW dios are garage kits.
Kickstarter is the third thing. Marauder has been there before and Kickstarter is the popular site for this type of thing. The SW dios got funded but they used Indiegogo...I'd never heard of that site until Yakface started advertising the sets. I don't know what their reach is, but that may have had something to do with it.
Finally, dios. There is a segment of SW collectors that want dios, but I've always said that it's not as big as some people think. I've had that argument with Chewie a couple times, especially on the playset vs dio angle. Marauder is making generic military action figures that fit in with G.I. Joe collections and are playable toys. A 3D printed dio may look good on a shelf but it won't interact with your existing fleet of vehicles and they're specific to displaying, usually, a certain type of figure. Generic figures? They go anywhere in a collection you want to put them.
I can't think of anything Star Wars related that could hit Kickstarter or the Indiegogo site that I'd back. If Hasbro ever went the way Mattel did to get Castle Greyskull funded by offering pre-orders, and they were doing an amazing Death Star playset (not dio) or maybe Sandcrawler, I might be in. But 3d printed? No thanks.
E...