Imperial Creative Engineering > Custom Action Figure News

Is the cost of customizing too high?

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Tamer:
I have to credit Brain Fulton, Darth Daddy, for creating an excellent Blog article that we are gonna steal and talk about for a future CAFN Roundtable. Of course Brian will podcast with us for this. here is the link:

http://customsforthekid.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-rising-costs-of-custom-action.html?m=1

Mr. Black:
That was a quality read, indeed. Well said, Brian. I know all about the rising costs of making my own figures. Speaking for myself, I generally need parts of three figures to make a new one. With today's prices the cost would instantly be about $25 - $35, depending on which figures and how high the shipping costs are. Mind you, if we actually had action figures to buy here in Holland, the cost would be even higher! CW figures are priced at roughly $17 here in stores....

And after that, the custom has to be prepped, primed, painted, sculpted and so forth. That takes quite some time. And time costs money.

Dayton recently posted a YouTube video of another artist's rant about companies asking artists to whip up something quick for free. Check it out, I completely agree with the guy and I'm not even having to make a living as an artist.

wraithnine:
totally agree a lot of times when i sell a figure especially to americans due to the exchange rate i barely break even .

Tamer:
I think what most poeple fail to realize is that customizing alone usually means two or three figures cost just to start out with for parts, then there is sculpt work, paint work, and the hours of time spent assembling till you get to the final version. I have seen very few customizers who can get even an ok price per hour for their customizing work.

Clonehead:
This is all true. I haven't done any commission work in a while now. Got burned a couple of times and sometimes, the buyer goes to change the rules or order halfway through the production of the work. Seems like a pain in the butt. I havent done any custom work to sell on ebay for years either. Not since the bottom dropped out of it a couple of years ago or more, I believe that the popularity of customs on ebay is on the rise again and has been for a little while now.

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