Kickstarter – Speculation on Why Rise of the Beasts Failed
NOTE: These are all my own thoughts and based completely on my own experiences in manufacturing, my outside-looking-in thoughts on Kickstarter, and random thoughts as I watched the cancelled project progress.
Yesterday, the Rise of the Beasts Kickstarter project was cancelled. I posted about this shortly after it happened, and at that time the project organizers told all of the project’s supporters that:
A fantastic opportunity has presented itself that Plastic !magination simply could not refuse regarding the Rise of The Beasts line. This opportunity allows them to bring the line to market without asking the fans to make a pledge in advance and allows them far greater flexibility regarding the frequency of new characters being released.
This swiftly led to unhappy noises from fans across the internet, and within hours of the cancellation of the project (which was within 3 minutes of ending) the project organizers followed up with a dramatically different — and, I feel, more telling — reason for cancelling the project.
I found out this morning that the factory came back late last night and said they can only do the figures at the 80mm scale which is 1/3 larger than the 60mm they promised. According to them, 60mm is just too small for them to handle. There was simply not enough time to notify everyone and give them the option of cancelling their pledge. Had this news come a week ago, an update would have gone out letting people know and the Kickstarter would have lived or died based on the 80mm size change. So really, the only option was to cancel.
This makes me think that my earlier gut feeling was right: the people behind this project had no idea what they were doing and were not anywhere near ready to manufacture and sell toys. You just do not launch a project and ask people for money without being so far along in the process that you have specs worked out with the factory. Again, this is all speculative, but what I think happened was:
- The project organizers saw the success of the OMFG toy series (official website) and decided that if OMFG could succeed then surely a Battle Beasts-derived product line would also succeed.
- The project organizers noted that the goal for the OMFG Kickstarter project was $11,000 . . . so that’s where they set their goal. And, I believe, this project was launched and the goal set before they truly had a good factory connection and project specs and quotes in-hand.
- As more and more people started getting behind the Kickstarter project the organizers started to get nervous. There’s nothing like getting close to taking almost $20,000 from people to make you really wake up and start to realize that you’re in too deep.
- At almost the last second the decision was made to yank the project and start rushing to find ANYONE who could manufacture toys. I suspect that part of this decision was made because actual manufacturing costs started to come in. Based on their promises and what I could see of the planned figures they were probably in for well over the money they were about to receive.
And that’s it. That’s what I think happened with the Rise of the Beasts project. Well-meaning fans saw the success of a toy series (run by professionals with toy design and manufacturing experience) and just assumed that they could also succeed. But when the realities of just how big a hole they were about to jump in hit them they bailed.
Am I right? I’m certainly not 100% perfect in my speculations, but I suspect that a fairly significant percentage of my points are close to dead-on. But you should read their official post — as well as this post at the October Toys forum and Poe Ghostal’s post on the subject — and form your own thoughts.
I officially invite anyone behind the Rise of the Beasts project to point out where I am wrong in my speculations. I, and others, truly do want to know what went wrong with the project. I am sure we would all appreciate a timeline of events and an explanation of how such a major mistake in planning and coordination happened.
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Obviously can’t say for sure, but I do believe that you’re hit most of the nails on the head. The most important one being they it doesn’t seem they were prepared enough for the project at the start of the campaign. Though I understand the factory issue, since they state they’ve found another manufacturer that will deliver better, cheaper, and faster, then cancelling the KS campaign starts to make less sense. I know Jon has stated that he doesn’t want to make another gamble with the KS money, but wasn’t it a gamble from the getgo if they didn’t have proper prototypes?
Any way you slice it they weren’t prepared. I’ve been trying to pinpoint why it bugs me so much. I’m certainly not angry, it’s just a real bummer. Again, I think you nailed it when you drew the comparison to the OMFG line. Feeling like a part of the community that helped to bring it about is sort of intoxicating, and to have that aspect ripped out from under this one just really leaves me flat.
@smurfwreck – “Again, I think you nailed it when you drew the comparison to the OMFG line.”
It was he $11,000 goal, more than anything else, that first made me even think of OMFG in relation to the Rise of the Beasts project. That was too perfect a match to make me shrug it off; anyone manufacturing toys will tell us it costs more to tool articulated toys than it does to tool static pose figures.
I know I’m harping on this and playing the killjoy, but I still think the whole thing was too close to Battle Beasts anyway.
Setting that aside, though, I think your speculation is probably close to correct, PJR. In the last fifteen years or so this hobby has become littered with the corpses of small toy start-ups (plus the shambling zombie that is Shocker Toys).
I’ve recently gotten interested in perhaps trying to produce a small item, but to do so I’m talking to people who’ve already done it. I’d much rather provide the funding and let people with experience handle everything else.
I couldn’t care less about any of these Kickstarter projects, or Kickstarter for that matter, so I am making this comment completely from the outside, but…isn’t all this (bad business ‘planning,’ poor communication, lost monies, lies from project organizers) all part of the risks involved in pledging to a Kickstarter project in the first place?
I have lived/worked in the Silicon Valley, gold fever in the form of ‘start-ups’ is the name of the game here; so is getting duped, lied to, taken, or just backing the wrong/uneducated/unprepared horse. So maybe I’m a bit more used to broken/unfulfilled promises or even the best ideas just not panning out.
What I’m saying is, why so glum, chum? Are you out anything more than your anticipation and a little internet time? Who cares why it didn’t pan out – there’s probably all you listed and more to it. But in the end, a neat idea didn’t happen. The end.
I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often with Kickstarter and other similar pledge campaigns, to be honest.
@Poe Ghostal – These likely were a little too close to Battle Beasts to really be new and unique, but regardless of the derivative nature of the work the entire event was not handled well.
And I’m with you: if I ever make a toy then I’m working with professionals who have done this before. I’ve handled manufacturing all kinds of things, but never articulated action figures.
@bubbashelby – “What I’m saying is, why so glum, chum?”
I think what is making so many people unhappy is that they got excited and felt like they were personally having an impact on the creation of a series of toys. Seeing that come crashing down, after being convinced — and seeing the funding numbers — that the project was going to happen.
If anything, I see this as a lesson to me: If I ever attempt to use Kickstarter for anything I will try to have all of the materials needed to produce what I am promising, from completed creative work to project quotes, customs and shipping arrangements, and a plan to deliver the materials to the supporters.
Regarding the OMFG! comparison, that’s actually been something going on with the project from the beginning. At LittleRubberGuys, in the ROTB thread, very early in the Kickstarter it was asked why this new, unproven line had such a brief deadline of one month. Jon flat-out stated:
“In regards to 30 days, yep. OMFG met it’s target in a lot less than 30 days, so the thinking is that if this line is going to be as successful as anticipated, then it should have no problems funding in 30”
This project has always been following the mold of OMFG. Whether the rest of what you say is true remains to be seen, but I do hope for an amicable outcome in the end.
@Baltan II – Thanks for the info! I rarely tough LRG because the “must login to see images” nature of the forums drives me insane. But I do appreciate you sharing some info I didn’t already have.
Did anyone there ask about the $11,000 goal?
@Philip – Oh yeah, not much longer than that.
“Basing this on the OMFG launch, which is where the optimism for the ROTB Kickstarter came from, even if you took out the 4 different $1000 backers from the OMFG one, their goal of $11,000 was reached. The way that this goal is going to be reached is the same, totally by word of mouth.”
For my own part, I wonder if Jon feels a little burnt himself by the role he had as the recognizable face of ROTB among the minifig community, certainly compared to Plastic !magination. I really hope that others are as forgiving about his involvement as much of LRG is, myself included.
Well if there’s one thing us toy collectors know all to well, it is disappointment.
Well, in case i wanna do an actionfigure and get it quoted at the factory i will make sure i have a real sculpt of it, haha.
And i thought both excuses are not making sense to proceed with the funded money and make it happen, so all you assume is true in this case.
Like smurfwreck, it bugs me but I can put a finger on it. It’s definitely because I felt like I was being a part of helping get an idea off the ground. Aren’t things like specs supposed to be taken care of before a Kickstarter is even considered? It just seems so sloppy and one giant guestimate on their part.
I definitely wouldn’t be interested in getting a mass produced version of the line because something like this is doomed for failure outside of it’s small niche. Plus, the whole sense of community is out the door at that point.
I’ll be surprised if the Gold Lion is ever actually produced for the $45 and up backers.
I must admit that the whole mess is silly.
It is not hard to talk to a factory start getting quotes and making a plan. I’ve been compiling information on manufacturing for a couple years now as I try to decide if I go vinyl first or injection PVC. The amount of people willing to fill you in and give an honest over view of the process is astoundingly small yes, but if you are diligent the job gets done.
In my experience with one factory in china is for two 2.5 inch figures with 2 points of articulation, one accessory and minor paint apps.
It was nearly $8,000 to do the molds and run 1,000 units.
I can’t see how they could meet fully painted articulated figures at $11,000 especially running as many units that would be needed to meet the KS incentives let alone fill inventory to begin making a profit.
I find all to often a group of fans just assume a KS will make the project happen and start making you money, but the fact is until you’ve run a couple waves you really won’t come out with much profit.
Fact is I like to see figures of cost etc . . . in the actual KS pitch, before I decide to fund a project.
Hi Phil!
Sorry about the whole “blocked images for non-members” bit, but if that weren’t in place, Google, Yahoo and the other spiders would suck the bandwidth down like crazy.
In response to your writings above, I posted a very detailed response on my board:
http://www.littlerubberguys.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=91523&view=findpost&p=390433
I hope this answer some questions and puts to rest a lot of speculation.
BTW, you could of just emailed me and asked.
@Johnny – Thanks for the post. Do you have a link to the factory that was giving trouble? I work in game manufacturing and always want to avoid known problems.
Damn well said Phil!