Big Bad Workshop General

One of the things that got me most excited about Monster Force was that the figures were such a cool sort of gonzo that they inspired me to make up my own lore. I'd been mostly a nostalgia collector up until now, but here was something that had my 50 year old brain making up stories like I was 10 again. So really, the effort they put into making lore for their characters is kind of wasted on me.

It reminds me of the progressing storylines of 90s RPG books like World of Darkness or Deadlands. They'd use the progress of their storyline to justify their releases and, more importantly, not release anything that wasn't part of the story. They'd be all "there's a lot to say about the Cackler, but that's for a future book" and "we'd love to give you stats for the Vampire Prince, but we have plans for him and don't want your players killing him yet."

It's the same thing here where instead of saying "we don't have the parts library yet to build a 7' Frankenstein" they just say "his story is coming, and you can learn more about it when we release this thief character who is stealing mysterious things."
 
Wait... is this it? Is Bobby a furry?
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Vallaverse: Noir

Detective Dana Harding is tired.Worn.Jaded.She lost hop…
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Regarding the fiction of BBWS; I think they're in a sticky spot (like Bobby when he's under an 'Omega'). People will complain if you use the lore as a reason why you haven't made X item yet, but other people will complain if your property doesn't have any lore. Or at least that's the perception; that you HAVE to have a story for your toyline in order to get people invested in it. Is that actually true? I think you could argue it in either direction.
 
Damien said:
Wait... is this it? Is Bobby a furry?
www.goodreads.com

Vallaverse: Noir

Detective Dana Harding is tired.Worn.Jaded.She lost hop…
www.goodreads.com www.goodreads.com




Regarding the fiction of BBWS; I think they're in a sticky spot (like Bobby when he's under an 'Omega'). People will complain if you use the lore as a reason why you haven't made X item yet, but other people will complain if your property doesn't have any lore. Or at least that's the perception; that you HAVE to have a story for your toyline in order to get people invested in it. Is that actually true? I think you could argue it in either direction.
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I don't think story actually matters, especially beyond just like general framing.

I think you just can't talk about lore and a strong story without delivering at least something.
 
Damien said:
Luckily, I don't care about those figures. Even looking at your list of stuff, it's easy to see where the burn-out comes from when it's 20 figures on 3 bodies.
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And I think that's the biggest issue. You shouldn't be losing a customer that's bought 20 figures. There really haven't been any new molds added beyond the "fwoosh" skeletons and Chadsworth (but he's also $80 and kind of a one off). Crimson Moon, Soldiers of Fortune, The Fresh Monkies, and Agents of Omega are all the same bucks from series 1 and 2. We're even seeing some of these molds end up in Longbox Heroes.
 
thewyldman said:
And I think that's the biggest issue. You shouldn't be losing a customer that's bought 20 figures. There really haven't been any new molds added beyond the "fwoosh" skeletons and Chadsworth (but he's also $80 and kind of a one off). Crimson Moon, Soldiers of Fortune, The Fresh Monkies, and Agents of Omega are all the same bucks from series 1 and 2. We're even seeing some of these molds end up in Longbox Heroes.
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And so far my list is: Caligari, that exclusive soldier dude, Edgar Allen Poe, The Tick. I think I'll enjoy all of them quite a lot, actually.
And, to your point and with absolutely no offense intended, when I see the comments about this line already getting long in the tooth, I can't help but think 'brother, you just went overboard.' At some point, I get tired of buying SWB Stormtroopers. Even if they're the best Stormtrooper figures I've ever had. Eventually it's just 'more of this guy.' I'm trying really hard to avoid that feeling in my toy collecting nowadays.
 
Vala can be an asshole, but the best thing he ever did for Action Force was getting the figures under $30.

It makes it so much easier to swallow reuse, army build, and take a flyer on a figure. Hell, it's what got me to actually collect the line instead of fence sitting it.

I really just have to imagine unit counts aren't high enough on these to justify going cheaper.
 
Damien said:
And so far my list is: Caligari, that exclusive soldier dude, Edgar Allen Poe, The Tick. I think I'll enjoy all of them quite a lot, actually.
And, to your point and with absolutely no offense intended, when I see the comments about this line already getting long in the tooth, I can't help but think 'brother, you just went overboard.' At some point, I get tired of buying SWB Stormtroopers. Even if they're the best Stormtrooper figures I've ever had. Eventually it's just 'more of this guy.' I'm trying really hard to avoid that feeling in my toy collecting nowadays.
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And totally fair, I realize I own 10 sleepwalkers haha

I think the issue is more like if I was collecting Start Wars and Luke Skywalker was just his desert poncho over tan storm trooper armor.

It's the risk of a troop builder heavy line, because you know people are gonna troop build. You risk people burning out over reuse much quicker.
 
thewyldman said:
Vala can be an asshole, but the best thing he ever did for Action Force was getting the figures under $30.

It makes it so much easier to swallow reuse, army build, and take a flyer on a figure. Hell, it's what got me to actually collect the line instead of fence sitting it.
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Absolutely agree. I mean, we can argue about WHY he did that, as I think there are different theories there. But it's undeniably a -smart- decision, and one that serves the interests of the customers as well.
 
Damien said:
Absolutely agree. I mean, we can argue about WHY he did that, as I think there are different theories there. But it's undeniably a -smart- decision, and one that serves the interests of the customers as well.
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Oh yeah, I doubt he'd be doing the same production runs he's doing now at $33-$35 a figure. It was gamble to boost sales and it does seem to have worked. Plus I'm sure the weapons packs help make up for the lost margin on the figures. I'm still amazed that there's enough interest there to do 10k runs of some figures. I'm curious how maintainable the 27.99 pricepoint is for him, but I totally understand the appeal of trying to price evenly with mainline hasbro from a marketing standpoint.

That's why I'm really surprised BBTS hasn't done more to get prices down ,especially with Soldiers of Fortune. The closer you get in price to a Classified figure the more people can justify crossing over. Biggest battle is getting customers to buy in to an indie line because quality and such only means so much if people aren't even willing to try them.
 
I have a lot of theories about this that are somewhat complex/layered, but I do think I can summarize PART of it by saying BBTS is charging what they think they can get away with and so far it's working, while Vala found he couldn't charge what he wanted and hit the sales numbers he needed, so it made sense to take less profit for more guaranteed sales AND a boost to his company image. He gets to spit in every other company's eye by matching/beating their prices as a small company and he gets credit from collectors for being the good guy, despite really having no choice but to do it.

It is also possible that Vala wants Valaverse as a long term business and he's banking on the current price point holding customer interest over many years and building brand loyalty, whereas it's equally possible that BBTS sees this in the same way a lot of current big companies see it; Bang out as much product as possible at as high a price as possible and get out before the entire market crashes around you.
 
altcunningham said:
So people who have all 3, how do BBWS feel compared to Joe (softer. Gummy sometimes?) and Vala (rigid, plastic feels harder)?
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Feel like somewhere between Wave 2 of Valaverse (Better than wave 1 but nowhere near as good as SDS onward) and Joe. The joints don't feel like they're gonna snap but they're not exactly fun to move either. Haven't opened any with the gridiron weapons but the wave 1 weapons are stiff like Vala's and the stock on the Sleepwalkers scares me because its so thin but there's no give which is an issue with the limited butterfly joints.
 
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