Please don't take this as an attack, more thoughtful advice, really for anyone looking to make a toy. At a mid-standard size figure, you are looking at a relatively high price point for most people. What you don't want to be in, is a situation where your toy isn't selling, I see it alot, you'll be marketing a ton of super limited micro runs, trying to scrape back the money you spent making the toy. A lot of people chime in and say I would buy that, but getting sales is much harder than you think. Most of those people are no where to be found when it's time to collect, and a lot of people will look you over to buy toys from a more established artist with a bigger name.

With that said, I think the design could be much stronger. What is the idea, the spartan penguin is silly, I don't get the relation, but I'm no penguin expert. If it's a penguin monster, is it a giant penguin that has mutated to fight back against polar bearts, is it a product of pollution? What's the idea?

Just my opinion, there's a lot of stiff competiion out there, and it's a lot easier to fail than to succeed trying to make a vinyl toy.

Man... It is better to do it and fail, than to never have tried. If you have a vision;save your money and do it. But spend the time and do the r&d.
I haven't made a sofubi, but as a working Artist I can tell you competition is rough in any artistic venue. You are basically getting advice from competition. I make indy comics, that is is rough. Its hard, but I still do it.
Do what you love. Don't live in fear.
I looked at 3 monkey coconut. dude quoted a 3 inch figure x100 for around 2 grand. might be worth checking out.

That is one thing to be wary of. There are people who make money making toys that go out of their way to hurt any potential competition ahead of time. Some people will literally tell you that your toy design is shit if they think it might be popular or tell you that your design is amazing if they think it's garbage. I've seen people do this and joke about it with their friends afterwards.

The main advice I would give anyone is always try to make any toy with expendable money. Don't do it with your rent/food/bill money. It is not an investment. Look at it like you'll never get that money back then if it still seems like a good idea jump in and have fun with it. So many people have gone into stuff like this thinking they will break even quickly then everything else will just be profit. It rarely works that way. And if you end up in a mad scramble to get your money back it will suck the fun out of everything you do. One of the reasons people are hesitant to buy from a new toy maker is because so many people jump in, drop a new toy and poof, they are gone forever. People want to know someone will keep making stuff and not just be one and done.

Uh not true at all. 7+ years ago. Several people started with painting customs and got good and bad feedback; were told to stop/continue, modified and changed what they did, entered shows and built a following.

They did not just post up a picture and say..GIVE ME FEEDBACK. It was a slow build. In the past few years, multiple people have joined and did so just to pitch a product. Others got to know folks, showed what they were passionate about, worked on side projects and some of it worked out.

Ask Rich, Joe and PK how difficult it has been.

All I know "Isodrin" is that you have 7 posts in this thread. You haven't introduced yourself in the Intro thread. You have no name/no location/no anything so some people get a little wary.

I get the feeling that a lot of vinyl makers work alongside each other and don't see it so much as a "competition" as much as a "community". With so many collaborations within the states and even overseas we can at least speculate as much. So to think that Joe offering some great, experienced advice and insight as just some words from "competition" seems odd. Everything he has said is true even in other creative fields. That's why hype is such an issue.

But hell, he even offered you some mythos type advice.

I'm also a working artist and I've never encountered this "competition" thing. Every artist I've met is only stoked to look out for another artist.At least the genuine ones. Its how group shows are often formed. I guess maybe I've been lucky, but if I was stoked on something I'm going to be excited to help and share how I can. If someone can do something I can't or would fit better I definitely let it be known.

It also seems like a community that which if you delivery a "solid product" people will purchase it despite whether or not you've been around for years or ...you came out of nowhere. Look at all the newcomers who have popped up in the last few years (mostly Japanese though, awesome toy comes to mind)
But those people dont come to this board to get advice and just do it so those are two different things.




As far as SB goes, from everything ive read unless you're truly active in the community like the people Bryce have mentioned, you're also way less likely to get nearly as much of a welcoming. All goes back to being a community.


Of course I'm still very much a newbie to it all so...

what are you even talking about??

Bryce has been around a long time and knows whats up.
Plenty of people have come here for critique on a sketch of a toy theyre gonna make only to never be seen again. Also this is a collectors board and most people here dont make toys so they are not your competition. But coming here and saying "hey i never talked to any of you before but if i make this will you buy it?" Just seems like a weird approach to me.
A few times weve even had people join and tell us how they know nothing about sofubi but are here to tell us that they will be making a toy for us soon.

Edit: 3wing removed his post. My bad. I read it and commented.

I agree. There is a big difference between an active member looking for advice and someone new trying to get people to help him make money from them. It can come off like a used car salesman saying help me help you give me your money.

I was being an asshole. sorry.

This thread is getting out of hand. But I'm gonna put my two cents in on the toy production topic.

I make toys, in fact I've made a few. All of which people on here hate as far as I know. Does that stop me from making things I like, nope. Art isn't about the buyer, or collector, or critic. If your passionate about this character, passionate enough to fund it's production. Then just do it. You'll never make everyone happy. But you can please yourself just fine. If you don't think it's worth spending the money to make the character, dont. Wait till you find one that is.

Hell no. I really dig Thunderdog and Khonsu and managed to grab some in blank flesh but I just can't ever find them anymore. Last time I saw a couple pop up for sale they were way too expensive for me. Hope they get released again soon.

I recognize that my coming to the community with no previous posts and asking for input has been off putting for some. Despite this most of you have been kind enough to give me input regardless of the fact and I honestly appreciate it.
Even though I haven't posted anything I have been pouring through the pages, reading, learning, and trying to understand what it is I want to do and how I want to contribute. Because of the community I learned about Monster Kolor, and vcolor and have been teaching myself how to airbrush. Its because of this community that I was able to find the video that was put out by Kaiju Korner going to the sofubi factory and watching the vinyl getting pulled from the molds which put a fire under my ass.
My fascination began in Houston in this little shop that used to be here when I first seen soft vinyl but was WAY too broke to afford any of it, and just wised that I could just buy ONE piece, but it was because of this community that I was able to find my love for it again, and it completely took over me.

If I may use a quote "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." This penguin guy that I posted is apart of something much larger, an over arching project that I have been working on for a very long time. I posted him not to find buyers, or see if anyone would be interested in buying, I put that on my grave.
It's because my level of respect for this community is so high, and I value its opinion so much, that I feel like its the first and only thing that has been worthy of sharing on my part. I didn't care if it got shredded to the ground, but there were a couple comments that really helped me, and that's what I was really hoping to find. One, that it needs to be a smaller figure, which I totally agree, and the feet could use some love. Perfect.

Sure, I could have posted "Hey I love this, great job Soandso!" or "I can't wait for this to come out Mr. blawblaw!" here and there, and maybe I should have, but as I said in a previous post I am rather anti-internet-social and posting those remarks a few months ago just so I could have some "credibility" to make this post would have been disingenuous on my part. This post is actually an exercise in having to learn how to be more active online.
So to me getting this "wrong" or not doing it right by posting the pic as my FIRST post/comment/anything makes perfect sense to me because I am internet-awkward.. IRL I am a well adjusted human being, who can chit chat it up with anyone. But I never get it right on forums, and this is my first foray on any forums in a very long time.

I can tell you this though, I am not going away. This has been a very long hard road for me, and I still have a lot of work to do, I know this. I have been doing a lot of research and know things about soft vinyl that probably a lot of collectors don't. I don't have connections, I don't know people who know people.. I have asked around and got shot down repeatedly, which even fired me up even more.... I have spent hours and hours (talking about 60+ easy) to learn what I have. My passion is there, my love is there, and my heart is without question 100% in it. I recognize I need to put my money where my mouth is, but I assure you... I am doing just that.

There are a hundred things I can see wrong with this, but I still think its fresh, and its because of this community that I was able to create it. Thank you.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=43899

still anonymous

Not so much anymore Bryce. Not so much......

So... you're responsible for that jet ski of a helmet? And Skullbrain had something to do with it? Hmm.

If you don't teach your kids about Monster Kolor, they'll learn about it on the street.

I love that the helmet felt as if it was supposed to be a mic drop.

Bike drop?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

No, not a mic drop.. So far from that actually. This was one of the first things I created with MK, I wanted to find the best stuff I could find and was blown away by it. I wanted to recreate Kenneth Tang's of Black Seed Cocoa Monster. I couldn't get the same colors he had, but he called the colorway "Crystal Meth" which I just though was the sickest name you could give a colorway. I asked Kenneth if he would be insulted if I gave it a try and he was gracious enough to give me the green light. So I just went to town, the colors were just too fucking awesome. Then I inverted the colors and called it "Cocaine".

"If you don't teach your kids about Monster Kolor, they'll learn about it on the street." -akum6m

Perfect description of what happened.

I still think it could use more eyes.

Isn't the "American Idols" forum intended for American vinyl artists? All we have here is a drawing and a dream. The thoughts and discussion within this thread should be preserved, but this just doesn't seem like the right place.

If your only takeaway is to decrease the size of the figure, I think you've misunderstood most of the comments and advice.

But decreasing the size has it's own challenges, small figures are even more challenging to succeed with than mid or standard. A 3" figure is going to cost you a minimum of 2k for wax and mold, another 100 figures will cost you at least 500. Bottom link is you are spending 2.5k minimum on 100 figures with a max of a $35 retail price, after your shipping and paint and packaging and will have to sell 100 plus figures just to break even. after you've sold 200, maybe you've made over 2k, and if you are lucky enough to be able to sell runs of 30 figures (and most people can't) you wold only have to sell about 7 runs to hit that 200 number. say you sell a new run every 3 months, you will take about 2 years to make 2k on the figure.

This idea, that people here are in competition is bizarre.When I see an upcoming designer I like, I'm one of the first people to take interest in and patronize, you have to support the things you love and the artists you want to stick around. I am friendly with and collect toys from dozens of designers, as I imagine most toy makers do. I think the people who feel otherwise are people who haven't had success, and blame everyone else for failing to recognize their own greatness.

60 hours, is really a week-2 in a full time job. I think as a generalization it takes 1-2 years in a creative field, for people just to feel like you don't totally suck. You're dealing with people who have been collecting toys for 5, 10, 30 plus years and have collections of 500, even 1000 plus toys.

I think your mindset that you are learning is right. I'd just slow down and really digest the feedback you're getting here.

This is interesting and I am grateful to read it. I was wondering about the cost and price points.

Success is completely subjective. with all of the do it for the love talk I've seen you write; you know this, MAN

Using terms like stiff competition and market, reference capitalism, which is inherently competitive.