Forum > General Wargames and Hobby Discussion
What to do - what to do? Need opinions
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pops:
Well,
I am near completion of a new line of 25/28 mm gangsters. Line is comprised of 35 figures for now - including two vignettes. I have, as anyone knows having done this laid out a substantial sum for sculpts, molding and casting.
And now that the time to do or die arrives I am still unsure whether I should try a kickstarter, sell via subscription or just plain retail with my website?
I realize that it is a niche within a niche - my goal is to recoup costs if possible and plow most of the sales into expanding the line into other known gangsters and gangs and public figures.
Anyone have any suggestions? What would you do?
Thanks,
Frank
N.C.S.E:
I'll preface this by stating I've never had a miniatures line sculpted, nor spoken personally to anyone who has. I speak only from the experience of backing a number of miniatures kickstarters which have done well most of the time.
With that in mind:
If I were you I'd ask myself how ready you feel you are here. If it's a matter of the moulds being ready and the only thing needed being orders to make it worth pouring lead into them, I'd go for a kickstarter. The interest, the potential for one of those vignettes (for example) to be an exclusive to the kickstarter could well make the exercise well worth your while and will generate a lot of movement and interest (depending on your skill in advertising) in your product.
The most significant downside to this is if there are problems you might be unaware of - I don't know myself, I don't know the process of casting figures beyond adventures with Prince August. :) It could turn out that these problems put you back months and you'll end up with no money (after fixing everything), no return and unhappy customers. The second downside is time investment. Do you feel up to handling a lot of orders in a very small space of time? There was one kickstarter I was involved in where it appeared the guy wasn't, for whatever reason, and so we waited for perhaps a year and a half before we received our figures (once another company took them over mind - not a lot of happy customers after that). I know myself if I were to do that that I would overwhelmed fast - if in the dim future I did have the opportunity to kickstart a miniatures line (stranger things have happened), I'd prefer simply to open up a site, splash up lots of posts on all related forums, and let things develop more slowly so that I can get used to the process.
I'm always eager for guys in suits for VSF purposes (the pool of Victorian gentlemen up to no good is too small), so I'll be looking out for this kickstarter. :)
WillieB:
Frank, what kind of 'gangsters' are we talking about? Mind you this is a purely personal question as I really can't give you any reasonable advice on how to market them. Are these the classic American 'Chicago' style gangsters or would they be more suitable for something like Peaky Blinders/ Irish Troubles.
warrenpeace:
Do you really want to handle the sales and shipping yourself? Do you want to create and maintain your own web store? Do you like actually casting and packaging the miniatures yourself? I wouldn't want to do any of that unless I was retired and didn't have anything more enjoyable or more lucrative to do with my time.
If your interest is really in creating the line by commissioning the sculpts and molds, why not cut a deal with an existing company such as Brigade Games to do the sales and shipping, or perhaps even the casting and packaging? (I mention Brigade Games because that company is near where you are, and seems oriented toward selling many products not originally their own.)
pops:
Hi Willie,
They are not Chicago gangsters. The line is named after a quote by Bugsy Siegel, 'We Only Kill Each Other'. The line is the gangsters of NY of the 20s and 30s. There are 8 named gangsters, 20 generic with assorted weapons, and two unique vignettes. Many of the figures could be used as Peaker Blinder types as well as Irish or English fighters of thst period. More than a few could be used as WWI or WWII partisans as well.
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