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My current collection. It’s all dragons except for the Pegasus, which I bought in memoriam of my mother. The RF’s are my “grail pieces”. Love that color. It’s hands down my favorite production color.
*Giggle* the lil MK next to the Old Warrior! ^-^ Beautiful collection! 🙂
Bummer that there isn’t much of anything being cast… been eyeing the PYO’s a lot, hoping to maybe snag a Keeper at some point, and hoping the hippocampus sneaks in somewhere, lol…
Kickstarter tends to work with price levels, someone pledges $5 and gets a bumper sticker, or $1,500 and get 1 of 3 special painted pieces (examples)… and somewhere in the middle is the actual GB’s… and I’m not sure if there is a minimal amount of price points, so you may need to find other things to offer…
I honestly think for the amount of planning, and extra work needed for the Kickstarter to get off the ground.. it’s going to stay grounded…
Kickstarter will let you do just one price point if you want. But it will make veteran kickstarter users eye your campaign and wonder if you know what you’re doing, it’s very unusual. Then again, “unusual” doesn’t mean you’ll fail, and if you’re running it as a kind of grab-bag order, you can set the goals such that just the people from this forum are enough to make the campaign fund.
I will say, though, that kickstarter’s order management system is… a bit rough. It works, but it’s not always terribly efficient, there’s a reason really large campaigns oursource their rewards to other services that have sprung up to manage kickstarter backer fulfillment. (Though having just one reward level will simplify this, since any given order will by necessity be one single order for one single dragon.)
I’m still totally up to consult on details if you guys want to go ahead, I’ve got four successful campaigns under my belt at this point, all finished (well, I’m still making rewards for the last one. Success can be its own problem!) Susan or Melody or whoever can drop me a line any time. Heck, pay me in Windstones I’ll help actually listing and running the thing. 😀
But yeah, kickstarter itself is not a great way to get publicity, the site will not drive backers to your campaign, especially not early on. If you get fairly successful you’ll climb up their listings and be more visible, which will bring in a few extra backers, but by and large you have to do all the publicity to reach people yourself. And since they take a cut of the money you earn, if it’s just for publicity, it may not be worth it.
At least it is possible to do a single price point. The little I know is from a glance, figuring out the basics so I know what I am buying into if I support a campaign.. I also thought about starting my own campaign, back before life went inside out >.< but I never got much into the details of how it works. Maybe some day when I am in a better place, I'll get mine going, lol..
Anywho, I still think Kickstarter is not the right place for Windstone, I think there are a handful of other options that would be better suited. My .02 anyway *shrug*
I *was* planning on working on them at the ‘drawing and drinks’ night at the bar tonight (Can we say procrastinator? haha!) seemed like a cool way to meet new people, especially since it’s a geek bar… but the bar part of my plans sort of got chucked out the window today, so it’s Netflix, beer at home and colored pencils! XD haha…
I like that Little Critters dragon! They make a goldfish I like, maybe I’ll get them someday.
Here is my only Enchantica piece, ‘Windows of Wonder’, which was the 2004 annual piece apparently. I like many of the Enchantica/Andrew Bill pieces very much, but haven’t been able to get them. Similar prices to Windstones, but I like the Windstones better if I had to choose. I’d like to get more though.
I have 1 pewter dragon, have to see if I can find a pic. Got it at a regional fair, pretty humorous. Then 1 Hagen-Renaker mini, 1 ceramic sea dragon I painted (hmm Melody could make a sea dragon, that would be AWESOME), 1 or 2 small ones I sculpted, 1 McFarlane (would like to get a couple more), a weird one I bought in Mexico, and some ‘toy’ ones- one by Safari, and a few by Schleich. Don’t like most of the toy ones, but these are cool and affordable- at least compared to the Windstones and Enchanticas. Most are packed away, I will try to get pics of the others- but my computer is brainfarting now and won’t let me look at my photo albums or add more.
He’s a pretty baby! 🙂 and I second Mel making a sea dragon *someday* 😉 a PYO sea dragon to go with the Hippocampus sounds even better to me, lol
This is a nifty thread! 🙂 I’ll have to get photos of the couple other dragons I have out of their boxes, I have quite a lot more put away (To make room for my Windstones, lol) I’ve collected dragons since I was quite young, though my Windstones have caused me to become quite a lot more picky about what I like in dragons 😉 hehe
Personally for what you just described, I think Kickstarter isn’t at all what you want…
For exposure, things like Pinterest and Instagram (Maybe Twitter, though I have no idea how Twitter works, I’m not that cool, lol) would do much better, with someone with the dedication and knowledge of social media to get it out there so people see it… and better yet, targeting your market… place Windstones in Table Top game shops (I know of two that I personally go to and have heard of several others among Northern Colorado alone, along with the gamer Tavern – Non of which have ever heard of Windstone unless I make a comment on the ones I paint) even just a single Windstone and a stack of business cards could get the word out… Comic Cons and Renaissance festivals and art festivals come to mind for great places to have Windstones as well… Those types of places will get to more people that’re likely to buy Windstones than most any other shop (and you don’t need to personally have a booth set up, though it would do you better, I think.. but get a couple Windstones with a bunch of cards in a shop that’s already going to be in these places), and even though most customers may only buy one or two, who knows which one(s.) will fall so in love they become a new collector… They may be the next person who can spend $1,500 on an ebay Emp…
As for Pre-order… I think something similar to the Notify button as a ‘guesstimate’ counter would be a much better solution, otherwise, it’s been a very long time since GB’s have simply sold out in an instant, and there is no such thing as making everyone happy.. SOMEONE is always going to be at work or just a day too late to see it… no way around that! I would personally love to get a GB Hoarder, but I’m afraid they’re going to be entirely priced out of my market, so I personally hope for production colors… still hoping for a Peacock colored MK…
Kickstarter tends to work with price levels, someone pledges $5 and gets a bumper sticker, or $1,500 and get 1 of 3 special painted pieces (examples)… and somewhere in the middle is the actual GB’s… and I’m not sure if there is a minimal amount of price points, so you may need to find other things to offer…
You also have to run the campaign for an X amount of time (I’m unsure what the minimal is, but the average is 30 days) and if you don’t put a limit on how many “preorders” can be made on the Hoarder, you have 30 days of people being able to order as many of them as they’re willing to spend the money on…
Also, if you somehow overestimate your goal price -I’d recommend aiming low because it can go over the goal price, but if the goal price is not reached, the entire thing is cancelled… Also, those who do sponsor the campaign, are not charged until after the campaign ends (and if the goal is reached)… So.. I don’t see too many Windstone people wanting to figure out how Kickstarter works even for buyers… and the people you do reach, are people who are prone to be on Kickstarter… (Make sense? Much the same as a lot of people on the forum have no idea what is going on with Facebook posts because they’re not on Facebook)…I honestly think for the amount of planning, and extra work needed for the Kickstarter to get off the ground.. it’s going to stay grounded… it’ll put the factory through more misery than not… and it honestly seems like the factory all but falls apart at the seams just trying to normally release a GB batch…
If it weren’t for the obnoxious fake account issues… I’d say a great way to get word out is word of mouth, and the best way to do that is with a coupon of some sort for referring people… (if a new customer mentions you referred them, you get 10% off your next order of $300 or less) … gives us a reason to promote Windstone and a reason to make our own order!
Just some thoughts anyway, per the usual.. do what you please (and let the Windstone defenders rip this to shreds), but I honestly don’t think Kickstarter is a good idea for this company…
Yes dragons win!
Actually, I only collect dragons, so between that and (moreso) being broke recently, the last piece I bought was a MK grab bag. I probably don’t even deserve being here lol!What about advertising in a sci fi mag (are they still being published?) like Asimov’s, Analog or Locus? Since the bulk of the Windstone figures are fantasy, and that’s the target audience of those mags (when I’d read them some, they published fantasy as well as sci fi, and usually horror too). On a similar theme, a small ad in a general herp/reptile hobby mag, and/or a booth at a herp show? Any of your vendors that may set up at such a show being given a bonus piece or two for displaying your product? And once again, the show offer for vendors that set up at fantasy targeted i.e. Comic Con/Dragon Con/furry events? Have your products ever been displayed at the big Atlanta wholesale gift convention? (it’s the only one I know, may be others, big national event targeting gift/collectible retailers) Don’t know, just thinking…
Most of the figure vendors I know of any more are flea market vendors, like Kim said. Few in the malls or whatever anymore, and those are more likely to carry cheapo Chinese garbage than the flea market guys.
*Giggles* Apparently we were a bit on the same page… as I was writing my reply and didn’t see what you said til after I hit send, and ended up agreeing with you on several accounts, unknowling 😉 hehe
Very good read! As a person who has worked closely with dogs my entire life, one of my biggest pet peeves are the people who have “wolf hybrids” when it’s *clearly* a husky or malamute, or the one idiot I darn near smacked because she had a “Dingo hybrid!” … Australian Cattle dog mix…
I lecture the few idiots I’ve talked to that thought they were good enough with animals to own a wolf hybrid.. kind of wanted to hand them my Dutch Shepherd and watch the sh**-show as she walked all over them (She’s such a good dog, but she knows when she can walk on a person, lol) then point out she would be a walk in the park compared to a hybrid… but generally just shut them down with explaining how very illegal hybrids are (I don’t precisely bother pointing out only select states they’re illegal in, I do believe Colorado is one of them, though… I figure the less chance they think they have, the better!)
Of course, this is the same mentality of the people who assume my Dutch Shepherd is a Pitbull x German Shepherd, because she’s brindle, she has to have Pit, right?? *facedesk* Ohh gotta love dumb people o.oI’m going to ask a dumb question…
Was there something about the Hoarder that *needed* the Kickstarter? or was this just a plan to make money? – The way I see it, if it is ready to produce but just sitting for over a year and a half, then it is literally losing money not being produced… My blunt opinion is forget the Kickstarter til someone actually cares enough to do it and just produce the dragon that you’ve already put your time into making and people quite clearly have wanted for quite some time now…
I too enjoy the pebbles, but as I look at my Windstone collection, I miss the mythical creatures and have been working on narrowing down the pebbles to make room for mythical creatures… and now the pebbles have reach the same price value as many of the dragons, so they’ve lost even more of my attention, as they’re no longer easily affordable… a GB sitting fox or even a production cougar VS many of the dragons in their price range, dragons are going to win with me…
I hope that Hippocampus is to be released soon! I have been wanting something that would put me back on track with painting (sucks when emotions get tumbled around and the painting mood dies) – this lil guy is just the thing! 🙂
I’m a last second bidder cause I see no point in running the price up on myself.. and as many have said, it keeps me in check! lol.. I have a max amount in my head of what I am willing to spend, I put that in, push the button and see where the cards fall… I have been outbid by the person who held the high bid for the whole week, I have been outbid by someone new, and once in a while, I’ll win… all those times I lose, I simply chalk it up to ‘they wanted it more than I did/They could afford it more than I could, and good for the seller for getting that price!” I never do the mistake of thinking it is mine until I am paying for it, lol… – Hell, on Windstones especially, I *know* the price that held all week is /nothing/ like the selling price will be if it’s a sought after piece…
Now for those who think last second bidders just sneak in and take it away with 0 effort or for the fun of it… anytime I last second bid, I have watched the item very closely since I first saw it, evaluating what I think I’ll put in for my max bid… I’ve also talked myself out of a lot of the pieces I watch by the time it’s the end of the auction, I realize I don’t want it as bad as I originally thought I did… and then there are those ‘ah dang it!’ moments, when I completely forget about an auction XD
It’s simply a tactic, and honestly.. a good one if you know how to do it…
I got the warnings for an ad I deleted, lol.. didn’t bother me, but since you’re asking about things I figured I’d mention it
They’re all beautiful! Sadly I’ve had to pass on them as well… I would have kicked myself when bills rolled around but would have possibly been able to swing one if they were priced the same as all the rest of the foxes, but they’re much more than I expected… Hope those who get them enjoy theirs 🙂
