Tomb of Moria (Balin?)

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I had this diorama base made for ?120. The backdrop and sidewalls cost another ?80.

Honestly, the person that made that for you, greatly undervalues the value of their time.

That person should've charged you much more. It sucks to see artists valuing their work at such a low price.
 
Honestly, the person that made that for you, greatly undervalues the value of their time.

That person should've charged you much more. It sucks to see artists valuing their work at such a low price.

Maybe the person who made it is a fast worker and doesn’t feel the need to gouge his/her customers...? There are folks out there who are fast and reasonably priced — problem is, many are so used to the iminime’s of this hobby, that anyone who doesn’t bend their customers over a table is somehow seen as devaluing themselves. Just saying...
 
Maybe the person who made it is a fast worker and doesn’t feel the need to gouge his/her customers...? There are folks out there who are fast and reasonably priced — problem is, many are so used to the iminime’s of this hobby, that anyone who doesn’t bend their customers over a table is somehow seen as devaluing themselves. Just saying...

:exactly:
 
Well then you’re getting into the argument of just because an artist can create great work faster than others, why should that mean they charge less? More efficient working should be even more highly valued especially if they can match the quality of someone that would drag the project on for weeks. But once you’ve got enough experience to accurately gauge the duration of a commission you can probably offer better deals or even give multiple quotes that correlate to the degree of detail and work or materials that would go into a piece. People sell a pair of 1:6 sunglasses for $70 around here so that whole diorama seems like a huge bargain in comparison.

Either way, this should absolutely not cost anywhere near $400 and could be made just like a basic kids play set. Now that I’ve got one of the new Weta Cave Trolls ordered I might want my Gimli posed on the tomb.
 
Maybe the person who made it is a fast worker and doesn’t feel the need to gouge his/her customers...? There are folks out there who are fast and reasonably priced — problem is, many are so used to the iminime’s of this hobby, that anyone who doesn’t bend their customers over a table is somehow seen as devaluing themselves. Just saying...

Fast and reasonably priced, sure. But quality suffers.

You can't have quality work, quickly and cheaply. It just doesn't work that way.

good-fast-or-cheap.jpg

And it's funny you mention iminime ... they're not even around anymore. Which is ironic because they started off offering reasonably low-priced custom figures at high quality, but that didn't last because the laws of economics took over and they raised the price, to the point where now, the people that worked for iminime got to be so highly valued they went to work at other places that paid them more ... or they struck out on their own and made their own headsculpts at prices that they felt were reasonable.
 
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Make it plastic, costs less and weighs less. I can't see many collectors picking this up if it's more than 200 usd, to be honest.
 
Make it plastic, costs less and weighs less. I can't see many collectors picking this up if it's more than 200 usd, to be honest.

Making things out of plastic stopped being a viable cost-cutting measure around 2010.

The cost of molds is prohibitively expensive. It works when you're making 10k+ units like NECA or Hasbro or hundreds of thousands of plastic trashcans, but anything under that is prohibitively expensive.
 
Dear Mr. Asmus,
I'd purchase your Balin's Tomb diorama:

1) If you keot the corpse next to the tomb, plus the litter.

2) Remove the ground section beneath the tomb (doesn't look realistic, doesn't make the display look more interesting, adds weight/size/cost, restricts display flexibility).

3) Keep the price below USD150.

What do you say to that?
 
Dear Mr. Asmus,
I'd purchase your Balin's Tomb diorama:

1) If you keot the corpse next to the tomb, plus the litter.

2) Remove the ground section beneath the tomb (doesn't look realistic, doesn't make the display look more interesting, adds weight/size/cost, restricts display flexibility).

3) Keep the price below USD150.

What do you say to that?
Hi, based on the previous concept, this project was suspended already.
Its size is big and the retail price will not be less than 400 USD, and we had gotten some feedbacks in forum before.
Thanks for your suggestion :)
 
Thanks to you, Asmus for being so clever to interact with us, your customers, at the preproduction stages pf your product cycle. The openness of your mindset stays in sharp contrast with the laughable attitudes and total lack of vision of too many users of this forum.

Getting back to the matter at hand: what about applying the changes I listed, combined with the use of conventional plastic instead of polystone to reduce cost/weight? The tomb must of course be a hollow, one-piece job (the interior is never seen on screen, right?).

Such a piece should be doable for much less than USD400, right? A dwarf's tomb is not that big, right?

Thanks.
 
Thanks to you, Asmus for being so clever to interact with us, your customers, at the preproduction stages pf your product cycle. The openness of your mindset stays in sharp contrast with the laughable attitudes and total lack of vision of too many users of this forum.

Getting back to the matter at hand: what about applying the changes I listed, combined with the use of conventional plastic instead of polystone to reduce cost/weight? The tomb must of course be a hollow, one-piece job (the interior is never seen on screen, right?).

Such a piece should be doable for much less than USD400, right? A dwarf's tomb is not that big, right?

Thanks.

What is your experience in manufacturing?
 
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