I think you are way under estimating the expenses in making the TK helmets. Yes, the material is cheap. I'm confident that it takes more than 15 - 20 minutes to vacuform the parts, trim the parts, assemble the helmet, apply paint/decals, and pack the items for shipment. On top of that there is overhead for things like running the company, paying the license, creating the models/bucks/molds, etc. Even vendors that run smaller shops and aren't licensed by Lucasfilm charge around $300 for a finished TK helmet.
I imaging Hasbro has very different economies of scale with their factories and the end products are very different even though they are both helmets so comparing BS helmets to helmets from collectible/replica vendors isn't comparing apples to apples. The Hasbro manufacturing process is most likely much more automated. We have seen plenty of examples where a Fett or Bo helmet was misaligned when some of the paint was applied.
Believe me, I understand your point. And I know they’re not making tens of thousands of these, like the Hasbro black series. So the economy of scale is not the same. Plus, they’re not taking advantage of the cheap Asian labor market where workers are paid minimal compared to workers in the western world. However:
1) they charge separate $50 for shipping and handling, so that’s extra expense for $450 total
2) they charge the same $400 + $50 shipping price for a fully assembled TK standard storm trooper helmet, which has many more plastic pieces and complexity, and no plastic vinyl sheet.
3) they charge $400 plus $50 shipping for the standard First Order trooper helmet (I think I paid $250 for mine when the Force Awakens was released)
4) they charge $350 plus $50 shipping for a pre-order blank rebel pilot helmet
5) I don’t think they have just one buck mold to vacuform the snow trooper helmet dome. My guess is they have a few, and they’re using large sheets to pull two or three domes at a time on the vacuform table.
6) there are only two plastic pieces that I can see, the dome and it’s attached back plate, and the goggles section. Those are being trimmed down with an X-Acto knife or rotary tool I’m sure, and then sanded smooth. The vinyl sheet may be hand cut from a pattern, but could also be die cut in the correct shapes in large batches. The dome, the goggles, the rear section of vinyl sheet, and the front face section of the sheet, plus the green plastic for the lens. Five main pieces, correct?
7) there appears to be no paint or vinyl decals needed for this helmet.
My point is, the basic snowtrooper helmet is probably the simplest and least expensive helmet to manufacture and assemble that they offer. Yet they are charging the same amount that they do for more complex helmets. This would be the perfect kit to sell for $200 bucks, do it yourself. In fact, Anovos offered the kit…
www.denuonovo.com
