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Kevin Wilson wrote:
> As for the time, designing a kit for production takes longer than building a
> single-use model (especially if you're making complete interior detail and
> complete openable-ness so all that detail can be accessed); then you have to
> LDraw it, split it into buildable steps, generate bitmaps of a suitable
> quality for printing (not the same as screen quality), lay out instructions
> (anything up to 86 pages of them in my case), print them (860 color pages is
> a non-trivial print job), generate parts lists (combining multiple LDraw
> files to do so), source the parts, sort the parts, make the packages, bind
> the manuals, photograph the model, build the web page, market the kits....
> there's more to doing this than may at first appear. Most people who start
> doing it never get to production with their first kit and of those who do,
> many never produce another.
Though I have not yet even thought about entering the kit market, I can
agree with everything Kevin says. Yet, I still feel the kits are priced
above the level I am willing to spend. Part of that is that with my
extensive collection, I don't feel like paying a premium for someone
else to find the parts, I've probably got them already. I am open to
buying instructions and stickers, but I'm not sure there's a good enough
market to justify the price the kit seller would feel is fair for the
effort they have gone in to producing the kit.
On the other hand, I suspect these kits will be one of the most frequent
sources of sets to find their way into the My Own Creations line. One
reason is the quality of the set. The other is the fact that so many are
designed with currently available parts which increases the chance that
LEGO Direct can get the set produced. The My Own Creation series will be
a win win for everyone since LEGO's ability to market to a much wider
audience than GoB can reach and the ability to acquire the parts at cost
should allow them to offer the designer more than they could ever hope
to see from selling the sets themselves. They probably won't sell as
many copies of the Blacksmith Shop as the Guarded Inn, but I could see
them selling something like 1/3 to 1/2 as many pretty easily (and at
less than 10 cents a brick assuming the price and piece count is
correct, we will be buying many of them to part out - in fact, it's kind
of amusing that a set developed from parting out official sets is one of
the best candidates for parting out itself - I'm suspecting part of the
price break hints at the real costs of developing a set [it's reasonable
to pay an untested designer less than one which has a lot of history,
even if the reality is the skill is the same]).
Frank
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: "MOC" Blacksmith Shop on lego.com
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| (...) It does indeed sound like a lot of work. (...) I wonder if some other 'guild' will attempt to fill this marketing void? Why not offer just high quality step-by-step instructions for models you can build with parts you already have? (...) Based (...) (23 years ago, 17-Dec-01, to lugnet.market.theory, lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: "MOC" Blacksmith Shop on lego.com
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| Hi Ben I'm not going to answer every detail of your post, but there are a few misconceptions that I need to address. (...) I suggest you try producing a kit, Ben, and see just how much time it takes to do a good job, and how much the right quality (...) (23 years ago, 16-Dec-01, to lugnet.market.theory, lugnet.general)
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