A buddy had a good idea- why not get everyone to Yes, why not get everyone together who got screwed, get a Japanese lawyer and hit him with a lawsuit? It basically sounds like he took a crap on everyone’s dreams of making toys.
If I remember correctly, your figure was 10”? Close to? The quotes I’m speakin’ on are from a different channel used than Ricky, and was more directed towards the average size of figures between 3” and 6”. Though my estimations should’ve been closer between the $2K and $6K mark. But the larger the figure, even if it’s the same amount of parts as a smaller figure, can have a substantially larger cost.
Damn 12k is rough. I know that's a great price for the size and quality but balancing that cost in my head if it was my own toy would be tough just because it's a lot of money. 5k sounds pretty close to what I've seen for anything with a couple moving parts. The days of spending 2k to make a toy seem to be long gone. Even the price of the vinyl itself seems to have gone up significantly in the last year or two. Almost double in some cases.
Yeah, and something like 12k for just one sculpt shows you the dedication artists have and how difficult it really is to make a living off toys alone. And the amount of time spent on designing, sculpting, associated artwork, painting, packaging, shipping, marketing on social media and maintaining websites, collaborating with shows and other artists, planning for conventions...for one person
Yup, hard to get a standard toy pulled for less than 30 a piece these days. And people don’t understand the margins of new production cost. I’m going to have to sell a figure like the arch Usir for 300 or more just to make money and people are just going to think I’m trying to create hype. I try to tell myself I’m just doing it for the love of it, but this year I’ve been giving more and more thought to retiring because it’s too difficult to make good money. Coupled with what seems like a peak over a year ago and decreases in sales and collector numbers since. Lesson, don’t make vinyl toys kids. Go short bitcoin instead.
I understand this stuff all too well. I wish more toy people were as open as you are about how much this stuff costs and how long it takes to even have a chance to break even when you make toys. Spend weeks or more likely months designing and sculpting something. Fork over several thousands of dollars for a mold. Wait years to get any vinyl in hand. Maybe two more years on top of that to get enough vinyl runs made and hopefully sold to cover the mold cost. If someone is in it just for the money they are an idiot. Excluding the top handful of guys who make a good living off this stuff I'd say upwards of 90% of everyone else loses money in the long run. If you want cash you'd be better off running around your city and collecting cans to recycle. Also you better not retire. Your medium size figures are one of the few things affordable enough for me to collect. And hurry up with those blank yellow twins!
Even the few artists that do make a solid living off of toys TOTALLY bust their asses for it, too. I’d say Paul Kaiju is a great example of this, as he’s consistently sculpting, painting, releasing, contributing, building, pushing. That dude is goddamn non - stop. Even Joe, who’s doin’ it on the side, and absolutely for the love and passion of it, has a fuckin’ craaaaaaazy catalogue of toys, projects and characters, and the push to create and release is adamant. With this hobby being so exposed, accessible and oversaturated now, I feel like factories are having to justifiably raise production costs and the price of materials is rising. I also don’t think a lot of people understand just how small the factory world in Japan really is. It’s not even a world, it’s more like a neighborhood.
As much as this conversation is about people trying to recover their molds, and I don't want to lessen the attention to that [important] issue, I do think that this discussion is [also] actually incredibly useful to everyone. Frankly, too many people coming in to the hobby (maybe not as much recently, as it has slightly died down) have this sense of entitlement to these toys, and completely disregard the time, money, hard work, and passion that it actually takes to get them made. I am surprised more artists don't get burned out on it sooner by all of the stress and then the subsequent poostorm that makes up a good portion of dealing with toy 'collectors.' It is a headache and costly, and people are [generally] really doing it for the sake of their art. And what with the increased production costs now, in terms of getting the waxes, molds, etc., done, the time to actually get a toy to production and pulling, shipping, and then painting costs and labour - this between a backlog of factories capabale of doing the work - the higher price point of most soft vinyl is just something that you sort of have to life with. No one really wants it that way (well, except maybe the flippers). Anyways, just an aside to say appreciate the artists and makers. This isn't some whim, and if you really enjoy the output of the craft - which is why we are here - then support them as you are able. [and stop yer bloody whinging!]
A mold has many different variables. If what is being made is a first time mold of a brand new wax prototype you're going to be paying three things: 1. Joints (depending on complexity can be 10000円 - infinity円 each. I've seen some very expensive joints so I honestly can't give a realistic cap, but your average arm, neck, or waist joint might cost like 10000円 each which might seem expensive, but I promise you that you want good joints and these dudes are experts. 2. Plating // Pan (This used to be significantly cheaper. When I first started I was paying around 45000円 for this step and now I'm paying around 78000円 for a small pan and 98000円 for a large pan. I advise this to anyone making small stuff: make a few. Fill that pan and get the most out of your investment. You can fit a few parts on a small pan so if you're making a mini guy add an omake or a second mini. Making a larger toy that will take 2 pans? Have an omake ready just in case there's room. Ask your producer for input on this as they can always size things up and even ask the factory for their input. *please note that some toys require centerspinning for certain designs and more often than not those figures might need to stand on their own pan for this process to be done.) 3. Tax (8% right now) *Please note that these prices are a ballpark estimate and reflect invoices that I have received for various clients from projects of various complexity and size and are in no way to be taken as "the final price" on anything as each factory and project is different* It's still possible to "make a toy for $2000", but due to the large increase in the cost of plating it's a bit harder than it was. Also, anyone trying to contact me please send me an email: sciencepatrols@gmail.com. I get a lot of IG messages, FB messages, and for some reason inquiries, on my webshop about stuff and ranging from can I export FOK paint or Japanese vinyl to asking if I can produce an impossible thing in Japanese vinyl from a crude sketch. I ended up (save for the few of you I know well) declining all unknown messages on all social media due to the hassle it became and ignored anything on the webshop inquiry that wasn't about the webshop. Not to be a dick, just to get people to notice that on my IG and site it has my email address. If you send me an email I will 100% see it and will absolutely respond, sometimes with a little delay as I tend to be verbose on stuff and I also live on the other side of the world where my sun is your moon. If you don't hear back from me in like, 4-5 days max hit me up with a reminder because sometimes it gets a little heavy and that'll help remind me. I can't help with everything, and I'll tell you if I can't or if it something will be incredibly difficult, but if I can help I will. Also Maruyama-san and his full timer have been incredibly helpful with both the locating of molds, the collection of aforementioned molds, and simple, but really helpful things like letting me know the second a mold is ready or when an order from one of the factories I'm not at comes in. I'm there every weekend so I see stuff all the time, but it's still nice to be able to know that a mold came in the Tuesday before so I can plan doing test pulls or emailing clients before I even get to the factory. They usually accompany these updates with pictures that help me confirm that it is the correct project that they're telling me about too. I see Maruyama getting a lot of negative press on here and while he isn't a god or the fastest person on earth he does quite a lot for how busy he and his company are. You would be surprised at how many things his company is involved with here and around the world and I'm grateful that he takes the time to help me with this stuff when he easily could just tell me no. Also, as it was stated previously in this thread, I am bordering overwhelmed with a lot of toy production stuff right now, so I'm not really looking for new clients at the moment (email and ask) nor am I looking to take on an entire history of toy molds from a new or existing maker (also please email and ask), production on this end at the factory is also slow, but the important thing is that it's happening. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for taking the time to write that all up and share with us, Cory. Incredibly informative, and hopefully useful to a lot of folks here. Information and toy discussions; what Skullbrain is [actually] all about.
Yeah that was great Cory thank you. I'm really hoping that he can be available when my next sculpt is ready to got to tooling. Ricky is still not responding and I'm really getting pissed. I think he owes soo much money to these folks that he couldn't get me back my molds even if he wanted to. This is heavy crap to have this happen but I'm not gonna let negative waves keep me from moving forward. Karma will catch up with Mr.Wilson fo sure that I'm sure off. Maruyama bears absolutely no blame in my book and appreciate all their efforts in assisting with the location and hopefully eventual return of our molds. I'm in this for the long run and I'll make my toys till I drop, that or the earths population of elves have depleted all the vinyl supply from deep within the planets core.
Flipping through youtube videos and found a fun channel that covers different aspects of metal music....and guess who makes an appearance?
