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Yes, Melody does say that the beans are limited. From the section of the store open to Kickstarter backers (and invisible to everyone else as far as I can tell) – Released in 2018, these Mini-Bean Poad sculptures are an EXCLUSIVE reward for Melody Pena’s 2018 Kickstarter.
In my limited experience with Kickstarters they usually include some exclusive item or benefit as a “Thank You” to the people who backed the project. A Kickstarter for a book might include the option to get special “Kickstarter only” bookmarks with designs from the book on them, a game might have “Kickstarter only” cards or a unique playing piece, and so forth.
As far as the bean poads go, no, they should not be exclusive if selling them is profitable for the amount of time and effort it takes to produce them […] For the people who are mad because they assumed something would be a “one off”
The issue here is that we did not “assume”. Melody explicitly said they are exclusives for this Kickstarter from the very beginning.
but I did have KS all wrong if no item is ever meant to be an exclusive item.
Kickstarter has no rules about this. It is up to the person/company asking for support if they want to offer something exclusive to backers. Many do, but many do not.
My keyboard is broken. I keep pressing "Escape", but I'm still here.
So ultimately, those of you in favor of never making this sculpt available again through other limited runs because it was offered as a kickstarter “exclusive” would rather have Windstone not produce something that may or may not be profitable, which might help to keep their small business going, which those of us who have run/been involved in one of them, know that the profit margin is usually not very high, because you never would have bought them if you had known they would be released again later, and/or you would rather be in an “elite group” of people who could afford the whole kickstarter and buy up to the level where you could get one of the bean poads, who can say that they have one of these sculpts, and/or that by re-releasing them in some sort of limited run without any of the colorings offered on the Kickstarter, it would decrease the value be it monetary or “personal” of your sculpts? Look folks, I really do get it, and it was said it was an “exclusive sculpt for Kickstarter.” But as it is a painted item that could be taken to mean that it was an exclusive painted sculpt. Meaning that it could be re-released in some other fashion, painting wise, without having Windstone to run yet another Kickstarter which has considerable cost in time (which is money) to run. The secondary market and “recouping” costs aside, small businesses do not always know what is going to be wildly popular ahead of time, and what isn’t. To force said small business to limit something that turned out to be a good money maker and nit-picking over words for something that was offered as a “gift” or “extra” isn’t supporting the company. It’s being selfish and wanting something that no one else has. Different example. In my doll hobby a sculpt was released as a limited run. It turned out to be hugely popular, but at the time of release a lot of people couldn’t afford it yet, just missed the deadline, or came into the hobby after it was released. The small company, needing to make money to stay afloat, made a few very minor changes and re-released it under a different name. It was not as popular because many people still wanted the original one. So they came up with a way to re-release it on a limited basis. This angered some of the people who bought it when it was considered limited and would not be repeated. Why? Because they were no longer the only ones who had it. It was no longer as rare as it became attainable, albeit less so than the basic sculpts, and the “value” of their doll was “decreased.” So again, unless you are buying something because you intend to re-sell it, and unless you are non-supportive of a company doing what it has to do to stay in business, even if it means angering a few people, Windstone choosing to re-release something popular really shouldn’t be an issue. And I say all this not being a huge fan of poads, and I did have a very nice member who was able to afford the kickstarter level to get a bean poad (which I, at the time, was not) purchase an extra for me, but I am a huge fan of Windstone and supporting them whenever I can afford to. And that means I don’t think anything should be considered so “exclusive” or limited that the company is not “allowed” to re-release something they made as I have seen too many other niche small business in various hobbies go under for similar reasons. And all that said , maybe the bean poads are ridiculously hard to paint, like anything hatching, apparently, and Melody and co will say, no, they are not worth the hassle to keep making more of them. That I would respect, but not the cries of people who supported a comic book kickstarter and are mad that a “reward” for the Comic Kickstarter might not be “100% no one else can have it but me exclusive.” You all are great people and this has always been the nicest hobby community I have ever been a part of, but I can’t understand the mentality here.
Keeper of the Fledgings
Some of these comments, especially unnecessary comments about people’s mentality.
Melody specifically stated exclusive. If she chooses to change that later on, then that’s her choice as the artist. All anyone can do is speculate on the future. Currently, it says exclusive.
I think of the fantasy gb hatching pegs and ebay as examples. They still make hpegs and paint them for ebay and store production, but they were not as fun for her to paint, a headache, so that will be a very rare fantasy grab bag. Even though it wasn’t labeled exclusive, it pretty much is.
*Ebay’s, may or may not be exclusive, and are specifically listed as such in the description.*
*The bean description specifically says exclusive and I remember reading multiple times of Melody saying that the sculpt was only for kickstarter.*
You didn’t have to buy high tier to get extra poads. I almost couldn’t buy anything, then I was able to buy a book. And then I decided and was able to add a bean poad because at first all I thought I could afford was a book. (I never liked poads so much either, but now have a couple beans and a young thanks to the store she created.) There were inexpensive options to back and I understand that some people were unable at all to back. I was almost one of those people as I was prepping my house for sale.
Melody kindly opened the kickstarter store with the books taking longer and since she was still filling original orders. (Here, I’m assuming, I don’t know for sure that’s the reason.) And there are definitely super kind people that are willing to access their kickstarter page to get non-kickstarter people poads. It was also Melody’s choice to open a store page for kickstarter backers. None of us, as far as I know, knew she would do that. Super kind, but she didn’t have to and chose to on her own.
People always get excited and passionate of Melody’s art. Tangents of what if’s float around about pieces and paint schemes all the time. There’s some, no matter how much all of us loved it, stayed ebay paint schemes and never made production paint even if it would have made windstone alot of money. Their choice.
As far as making money, maybe there are a couple that care about that. Most of the time I take a loss on extra pieces I sell from a grab bag, which are one of a kind/rare. If I’m lucky, I get around what I paid. There’s also been times I paid alot to get one I thought I really wanted and then had to sell for less later when I changed my mind.
“maybe the bean poads are ridiculously hard to paint, like anything hatching, apparently, and Melody and co will say, no, they are not worth the hassle to keep making more of them. That I would respect, but not the cries of people who supported a comic book kickstarter and are mad that a “reward” for the Comic Kickstarter might not be “100% no one else can have it but me exclusive.” You all are great people and this has always been the nicest hobby community I have ever been a part of, but I can’t understand the mentality here.”
OK … I would call it keeping faith with the community, which is something that Windstone has tried to do over the years. Example 1 – Old Black Grand Unicorns (sigh).
Also, as I forgot to say in my post last night, one of the reasons for “exclusive” Kickstarter rewards is to entice people to commit more money to the Kickstarter. After all, the first priority for a Kickstarter is to get the darned thing funded! If people know that they can wait and get something later, after the Kickstarter has ended, there is not the incentive to stretch the budget a bit and spend money while the Kickstarter is live.
Something for us all to remember … this first Kickstarter was a learning experience for everyone in the Windstone community. Melody was truly worried that the project would fail and may have gone overboard on the rewards. She might not have set the bean poads as an exclusive if she had realized how successful the Kickstarter would be. Getting people to spend money on the project was not a problem! However, since she did say that the beans are an exclusive reward, I believe that they should stay that way.
I have a solution, if Melody decides she wants to keep doing bean Poads even after the KS, but still keep the KS bean Poads ‘exclusive’, she could make the Bean Poad sculpt slightly different! Have it in a different pose, it’s head turned to the side or something like that. That way there will still be the exclusive KS Bean Poads, and then a production or pyo Bean Poad that is clearly different than the KS one. That is, if Melody even wants to continue doing bean Poads at all after this.
Frankly, I think a bean baby Sloat would also be awesome, if Melody wanted to do a Bean series xD
*Formerly meowmix101
Not currently open for PYO commissions.I’m going to beg for a release before the 6th! I will be out of the country after the 6th, in a flipflopped time zone! Pretty please!
I wish! But I may not be able to make that date!
I’m pretty sure that in the original dialogue when Melody was first sculpting them there was a strong possibility for the bean poads to be a PYO. Then they became a KS exclusive. I don’t know if they intend to make it PYO-only after the KS or not; if so, sweet, if not, not a problem. Some people will likely strongly disagree with me on this next bit but…I do think that, since they are meant to be exclusive (at least ones painted by Melody), they should stick to their guns on that point. It was already extremely generous of them to open up the backer store for the Kickstarter poads, giving us backers the opportunity to save up a little more money and add additional ones to our clutters. But it’s not something that was ever meant to be permanent. As adorable as the beans are and as versatile as the schemes could be, there eventually has to be a limit to what can and should be done with them. Especially if the intention was to keep them as unique, one-of-a-kind event pieces. Don’t get me wrong: I love the beans. I have a handful of them coming with my clutter. But things are only special if they’re limited. Additionally, Melody has a ton of things on her workbench that could use the extra time. Off the top of my head, the upright baby/young oriental dragon, new flion, possible female flion, possible hoarder dragon release/kickstarter idea, long list of requests for various gb releases in the future, possible LP runs for the both new pebble dragons, so on as so forth. Not to mention trying to keep up with Rue Day pages! I’m not saying the beans have to stop “right now”, but it should taper off in the future. Also, as cute as Halloween beans could be, that scheme really doesn’t have anything to do with The Veligent themes, i.e. doesn’t really have anything to do with the Kickstarter…which is what the beans are all about.
The beans , and the online special store will probably go away when we get the book shipment, and finally FINISH filling all the kickstarter orders! That should be in about 4 weeks.
I have a solution, if Melody decides she wants to keep doing bean Poads even after the KS, but still keep the KS bean Poads ‘exclusive’, she could make the Bean Poad sculpt slightly different! Have it in a different pose, it’s head turned to the side or something like that. That way there will still be the exclusive KS Bean Poads, and then a production or pyo Bean Poad that is clearly different than the KS one. That is, if Melody even wants to continue doing bean Poads at all after this. Frankly, I think a bean baby Sloat would also be awesome, if Melody wanted to do a Bean series xD
I was wondering how else a Poad could be posed, though. They’re so blobby, would different poses actually look so different? LOL
Looking for...
Sitting young oriental dragon koi gold and white
I have a solution, if Melody decides she wants to keep doing bean Poads even after the KS, but still keep the KS bean Poads ‘exclusive’, she could make the Bean Poad sculpt slightly different! Have it in a different pose, it’s head turned to the side or something like that.
Very clever! 🙂 A sitting up bean might be cute.
I suspect that Azurielle is right and the current beans are too complicated/take too much of Melody’s time to be a practical long-term store item. Store beans, if they ever are produced, might have to be color shift or black sparkle without the fancy patterns.
Are the beans 100% being retired after the KS is wrapped up? Because I imagine a safari bean GB would be amaze-beans.
They are Kickstarter exclusives. The loophole is there may be more kickstarters, though after 8 months of work on the last one, I don’t look forward to doing another one!
I too agree with all that Rylorian and the ones after her have stated. The mini-beans are an exclusive KS reward and should remain so. The KS was something most of us in the forums knew was upcoming for well over a year before it happened which gave everyone time to save, barring any unexpected emergencies. I know for me personally I would not have bought as many of the mini-beans as I have if I thought they were going to become something everyone could buy at a later date. As adorable as they are, for me, in part their exclusiveness adds to their value. I would be less likely to try and save as much for any new KS if I thought the exclusive rewards were all of a sudden going to become available to everyone. I think Melody has been incredibly kind to continue to paint for those of us who did back the KS. I know that I have bought some additional members to my clutter and they are all much loved and appreciated! I do love the thought of Halloween painted poads and I think that the tad poads would make a fantastic candidate for that. Just think vampire tad poads with black and white tufts! Or orange ones with green tufts. So many possibilities and still affordable!
Beans will remain for Kickstarter backers only
We must protest the retirement of beans!!! They are too cute to disappear.
They are going to be 100% retired after the store closes, and the last batch is sold out.
I don’t often weigh in on these things as they often devolve into nasty, personal attacks. Already, the speculation on people’s mental states and motives seems uncalled for, and frankly, the kind of negativity that crops up every once in awhile and tends to drive people away.
The people on the forum all have at least one thing in common – we appreciate Melody’s art. Whether that’s to the tune of thousands of dollars a year, or just a tadpoad, I know Melody appreciates all the support. She’s very kind to interact with the forum so much, take our requests into consideration, send christmas cards, etc. Whether someone is buying her art for an investment (A small group, probably) or because they love the look of it, they are still buying. It’s not the forum/forum members/staff’s job to police the buying and selling of pieces between private parties – I’m sure that’s why they specifically state on the classifieds that they don’t maintain feedback lists. It’s a courtesy they allow us to list sale/trade/wanted items.
Personally, I think if an item is advertised as an exclusive, it should stay as an exclusive. Am I going to throw a fit if Melody decides to sell them on the site/in a grab bag? No, I would not begrudge an artist the right to sell her work. But as it was advertised as an exclusive, I think it makes sense to either do a new exclusive batch for the next Kickstarter (Hoarder Dragon? Rue Day?) or to sell them as a plain LP item. Maybe just one color per bean like the color shift cougars. Either of those options allows both the sculpt to be sold, while still honoring the advertised Kickstarter exclusivity.
I don’t have a ton of skin in this game – I purchased my beans with the kickstarter. I would have supported it if the beans weren’t exclusive, but I did spend more because of the exclusivity. I am such a Windstone junkie that my hard and fast rule is that I don’t collect LP. That way each of my pieces is unique, special to me, and I don’t go completely broke/die under a pile of hoarded gypsum.
There’s enough pettiness circulating in the political arenas nowadays – It would be great to enjoy this gorgeous artwork together without the unnecessary drama.
Most importantly: When can I get my hands on some of those sweet, sweet baby uni grab bags 😉
Seeking Test Paints & GBs ! Please get in touch if you'd trade/sell. I'll remove pieces from list by owner request
ANY Red Eyed Unis
ANY Test Paint Bat
UNIS:
The Purple/Yellow Baby Uni of Awesome
Male- Snow Leopard TP
White Lighting Male, Pony, Colt and Grand - I have Mom, Baby, & Young
Ponycorns: Golden Zebra and/or Spotted Skunk
Mother: Okapi
Gothic - Mahogany
PEGS: Male Midnight Calico, Male Bloodstone, Mother Starlight Rain
DRAGONS: Male CoyoteI’m going to beg for a release before the 6th! I will be out of the country after the 6th, in a flipflopped time zone! Pretty please!
I wish! But I may not be able to make that date!
In that case, make a huge batch and release after the 18th? 😉
I know, I’m awful, My name is Natasha and I’m a Uniholic.
Seeking Test Paints & GBs ! Please get in touch if you'd trade/sell. I'll remove pieces from list by owner request
ANY Red Eyed Unis
ANY Test Paint Bat
UNIS:
The Purple/Yellow Baby Uni of Awesome
Male- Snow Leopard TP
White Lighting Male, Pony, Colt and Grand - I have Mom, Baby, & Young
Ponycorns: Golden Zebra and/or Spotted Skunk
Mother: Okapi
Gothic - Mahogany
PEGS: Male Midnight Calico, Male Bloodstone, Mother Starlight Rain
DRAGONS: Male Coyote
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