anovos deathtrooper helmet
- Thread starter TIGCreations
- Start date
ggriffaw
Sr Member
Who sells fully finished fiberglass helmets for less?
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cboath
Master Member
You know, that guy in people's dreams?
People simply don't understand the economics behind these things. You could probably get down to $350 a pop...IF you sent it to china, and had an order size of 100k, and were willing to wait 2 years, and were willing to be flexible on your material and colors, etc.
People simply don't understand the economics behind these things. You could probably get down to $350 a pop...IF you sent it to china, and had an order size of 100k, and were willing to wait 2 years, and were willing to be flexible on your material and colors, etc.
CT7567
Active Member
I realize the cost of fully finished fiberglass helmet, but I don't think the general public will. When a maker finish a helmet for you, they do it by hand and it takes their personal time and labor. These helmets are being produced in relatively large quantities. Plus, they are manufacturing them overseas so I would think that it would lower the cost a bit too.
ggriffaw
Sr Member
I don't think the other licensed manufacturers like efx and Master Replicas had much cheaper prices for their fiberglass helmets.
A guy making helmets in his basement doesn't have the licensing cost and other overhead like convention appearances.
The efx fiberglass Vaders were much higher priced than the current PCRs. Some of that was because of the limited runs.
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Got Maul
Official Licensee
Guys, this stuff ain't cheap...And this is coming from a guy who used to avidly sell in these forums, just like half of you.
I think the unspoken costs is in fact we don't take short cuts. We can't. Sure, there are reference pictures and maybe some digital sculpts that we could use, but to date, none of the material compares to our archiving team, simply flying out to a site and acquiring the data we need for our purposes of 1:1 replication. But, you can imagine the sheer amount of money it takes to fly my team of five people out to another country's production site, be there for multiple weeks to scan, shoot, and categorize each individual prop, costume, swatch and detail...of course all of which is done on very specialized, very expensive equipment that we have to finance ourselves. At this point, we hadn't even gotten to product !!
Anyone who has ever dealt with scans will also know, a scan doesn't mean anything and about 10% of the path to actually make it printable. I then have a team sculpt the heck out of this scan, which then plinko's (bounces back and forth) between highly paid digital sculptors and art directors who agree to nearly every single INCH of this helmet before it ever goes to print. Then there is printing cost for something this big and having to master out multiple copies for paint, engineering and insurance. The costs to have sculptors and art directors is as necessary as the acquisition team, but again, we haven't even gotten to manufacturing.
THEN manufacturing starts. All that above requires a lot of money... like a lot of it. On top of it, here's some news, China is NOT cheap anymore. The days of MR type prices are long gone and that was well close to two decades ago now. Look at China's economy...its booming. When economies boom, you know what happens to base labor prices ? They skyrocket which is what we are seeing. I am not going to give an econ course here, but the point is, overseas isn't what it used to be and our prices have to reflect this rise in labor costs. It's simple math. I won't get into licensing costs, but that pretty much rivals manufacturing costs as well.
So when you factor in all these elements, you can be the judge whether something is worth the retail price we put on it. . I can't tell you what to value nor will I try. What I do know is that we do go the extra step in not only making a great replica, but also take extra steps to ensure that the acquisition of reference material and the handling of the data is just as solid as the final product. We do not ever take short cuts and this is the unspoken and uncelebrated aspect of our product. Some of you will get it, some of you won't, but if you do understand what I am saying and agree with it, perhaps you can spread the word too. Our community is still budding and new people keep asking how the costs are justified. They are just looking for answers and you know what you know.
I think the unspoken costs is in fact we don't take short cuts. We can't. Sure, there are reference pictures and maybe some digital sculpts that we could use, but to date, none of the material compares to our archiving team, simply flying out to a site and acquiring the data we need for our purposes of 1:1 replication. But, you can imagine the sheer amount of money it takes to fly my team of five people out to another country's production site, be there for multiple weeks to scan, shoot, and categorize each individual prop, costume, swatch and detail...of course all of which is done on very specialized, very expensive equipment that we have to finance ourselves. At this point, we hadn't even gotten to product !!
Anyone who has ever dealt with scans will also know, a scan doesn't mean anything and about 10% of the path to actually make it printable. I then have a team sculpt the heck out of this scan, which then plinko's (bounces back and forth) between highly paid digital sculptors and art directors who agree to nearly every single INCH of this helmet before it ever goes to print. Then there is printing cost for something this big and having to master out multiple copies for paint, engineering and insurance. The costs to have sculptors and art directors is as necessary as the acquisition team, but again, we haven't even gotten to manufacturing.
THEN manufacturing starts. All that above requires a lot of money... like a lot of it. On top of it, here's some news, China is NOT cheap anymore. The days of MR type prices are long gone and that was well close to two decades ago now. Look at China's economy...its booming. When economies boom, you know what happens to base labor prices ? They skyrocket which is what we are seeing. I am not going to give an econ course here, but the point is, overseas isn't what it used to be and our prices have to reflect this rise in labor costs. It's simple math. I won't get into licensing costs, but that pretty much rivals manufacturing costs as well.
So when you factor in all these elements, you can be the judge whether something is worth the retail price we put on it. . I can't tell you what to value nor will I try. What I do know is that we do go the extra step in not only making a great replica, but also take extra steps to ensure that the acquisition of reference material and the handling of the data is just as solid as the final product. We do not ever take short cuts and this is the unspoken and uncelebrated aspect of our product. Some of you will get it, some of you won't, but if you do understand what I am saying and agree with it, perhaps you can spread the word too. Our community is still budding and new people keep asking how the costs are justified. They are just looking for answers and you know what you know.
CT7567
Active Member
I guess I was a little rash to pass judgement without fully taking into account the full production process. That being said, I do love your company's work, I was able to become a memebr of the 501st thanks to your wonderful TK kit.
tubachris85x
Master Member
I spent $650 on a static replica plasma rifle from Halo from Tri-Force. It's A LOT of money for me to drop on anything at one time, but I really wanted it. People will pay what they want to for what they want, if they really want it.
Aside from personal opinions or subjective aspects surrounding "value," I don't think it can be argued against Anovos that if the costs surrounding it's production are honest in determining their asking price, then the price of this specific piece isn't really that bad, all things considered...in other words, they're not intentionally inflating a price for the sake of maximizing profits while hiding that actual production costs are lower (lying about it)
For example, it more than likely costs McDonald's a few cents to make a Big Mac, but the consumer is paying $3.99. Is it a rip off? Or are they charging to cover for costs associated with making that burger?
You pay for the product, but the product needs to pay the company back for the labor of it's creation or else it wouldn't be logical in the first place to even go about making the product, as explained above.
But hey, we can just make this explanation more simple- it's called capitalism
Aside from personal opinions or subjective aspects surrounding "value," I don't think it can be argued against Anovos that if the costs surrounding it's production are honest in determining their asking price, then the price of this specific piece isn't really that bad, all things considered...in other words, they're not intentionally inflating a price for the sake of maximizing profits while hiding that actual production costs are lower (lying about it)
For example, it more than likely costs McDonald's a few cents to make a Big Mac, but the consumer is paying $3.99. Is it a rip off? Or are they charging to cover for costs associated with making that burger?
You pay for the product, but the product needs to pay the company back for the labor of it's creation or else it wouldn't be logical in the first place to even go about making the product, as explained above.
But hey, we can just make this explanation more simple- it's called capitalism
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Jagjaguwar
Sr Member
EFX, that's who! $599 for the Wedge X-Wing helmet. A steal at under $600!
...wait, you didn't mean sell and SHIP, did you? Because in that case I've got nothin :lol
cboath
Master Member
Not to mention it has to factor in rent or mortgage on the building, the electric bill, water bill, gas bill, sewage, trash, taxes, insurance, facilities (ovens, registers, freezers), delivery fees, etc.
And that's just for your big mac
Capitalism probably isn't the best way to go about the explanation either as it's not always good. Charging 1000 a pill for a a cancer pill simply because you can for example crosses the line massively. But that was the excuse he used for it.
You want to make a fair profit off it for sure, but you go to far and people won't buy. It can be a very delicate balancing act between successful company and failure.
tubachris85x
Master Member
Not to mention it has to factor in rent or mortgage on the building, the electric bill, water bill, gas bill, sewage, trash, taxes, insurance, facilities (ovens, registers, freezers), delivery fees, etc.
And that's just for your big mac
Capitalism probably isn't the best way to go about the explanation either as it's not always good. Charging 1000 a pill for a a cancer pill simply because you can for example crosses the line massively. But that was the excuse he used for it.
You want to make a fair profit off it for sure, but you go to far and people won't buy. It can be a very delicate balancing act between successful company and failure.
Let's be honest here...Disney (or whomever with their own IP) can charge whatever they really want. Just because it's not "good" or seen as morally correct, doesn't disallow a business to charge what they want. It is capitalism because they still need to compete - Maybe not in a direct sense since these products are very niche, where there's a dozen fan-made products flowing around generously for cheaper, albeit, of course not licensed or overtly advertised, but in terms of overall accuracy and quality, can be on par and in some instances, even better than the licensed products.
It's the same reason why Prop Shop charged such astronomical prices for their products, because they either wanted to or could....was it Disney or Prop Shop themselves that set those prices? Regardless, it's on the business at the end of the day to follow their licensee's rules and contracts. Had they survived longer, you'd see that people wouldn't want to drop $2000 for a propshop Kylo helmet when the Anovos one is a little under half that, especially when it becomes knowledge that they share the same asset data. They'd be competing in that regard but it'd be an obvious choice to go with Anovos for the general market.
Capitalism completely neutral to subjective morality; businesses will either be successful or fail due to how they operate, conduct themselves and price their products in relation to the rest of the market. Consumers decide whether or not a company is worth their money. Sure, companies that either take particular questionable moral stances (remember Chik-fil-A?) will suffer the consequences of their actions, "good or bad," but at the end of the day, most people will continue to throw their money wherever they want to.
And you'd be very surprised at how many people throw their money at businesses with open and obvious history of poor practices. It's just the way of the world...people speak with their wallets...those wallets will either speak fondly or negatively
ggriffaw
Sr Member
It's pretty difficult to compare a nice X-wing pilot helmet to a full trooper helmet. The X-wing requires more labor for painting, but less material and labor to make the base helmet. The cost may even out.
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H0llyw00d
Sr Member
Joe, I gotta' say kudos to you for going off-book for us with some assuredly non-mouse-sanctioned insight. You have gone to extreme lengths to get our input for better or worse...
What can we do to help?
And surely it's not griping about buying a fiberglass helmet for less than $600 because I don't think that's happened at any time or exchange rate.
Dao2
Well-Known Member
That's a whole new level of expensive ;p I haven't kept up but I've heard some companies (in random industries) are looking to India as the next cheap factory work but there is a lot of growing pains there before it becomes the same level. Stuff just isn't the same quality.
*pushes up nerd glasses* Shooooo... I don't know if you should adjusht the thread title, but apparently these are actually correctly referred to as "Advanced Weapons Research Troopers" or "AWR Troopers". "Death Trooper" is jusht an unfortunate nickname. *sucks on retainer* Jusht thought I should mention it.
--Jonah
--Jonah
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