Master Replicas

[fettpride]

As far as the packaging question, yes i would gladly accept an item in any kind of packaging if it protects the item in transit, but then i'm not your average licensed collectable customer, they like the fancy packaging and the shiney plaque and certificate with numbers on, so much so that most of them choose to either leave the product unopened in the packaging or open it once inspect it it then replace it again.

I think most would definatly be up for making the stuff in the US and having it shipped in a styrofoam container wrapped in Duck tape. I want the item and really could care less about the shipping box as long as it gets the item to me intact. If the price of the box is where the higher cost is coming from between a US and China made product than screw the fancy box. They just sit in my attic anyways. If you can find a way to supplemant the styrofaom for paper mache than that will work too. Just don't skimp on the item or the stand.

:lol

And that is exactly what I was talking about :thumbsup

Boxing/Packaging? That is not what this is about :lol That's farcical. A great replica at a fair price with a COA/Plaque/Stand is all anyone wants. I don't know of anyone who could care less about the box it arrives in as long as it arrives safely :wacko As far as distributors go .. you have the advantage. You have the licenses to make these replicas. They will distribute your products wether they like your packaging or not or they won't be able to give their customers the toys they seek. That's ridiculous. "If you build it, they will come " (or sell for you in this case) :lol

The MR ROTS Vader Helmet came in a great package :thumbsup That's about all it had going for it. Don't get me started on the MR Boba Fett Helmet. Mine still reeks of formaldehyde to this day. Both flawed in so many ways it was laughable. Both of these examples are only the tip of what jumping into bed with the lowest bidder can do for a company. I believe that this is what ultimately led to the demise of Master Replicas. They couldn't recover from the unfortunate circumstances of their manufacturer letting them down - in a BIG way.

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[outlander]

I do equate Chinese being junk because it is. There is a reason the stuff costs less. Their stuff doesn't have the quality of stuff made in other nations. Especially with tools. .

I'm way too old to pay attention to this board anymore... but three and a half decades ago they said the same thing about things made in Japan.

They got better at what they were doing.

As far as the ex MR associates are concerned, I have no interest in any new products from a new company. They lost me with the products I bought from them when they ran MR.

It's not the same people. Michael Cookson began destroying M.R. as soon as he got his sweaty, pudgy little hands on it. He drove out the creators and nerds and replaced them with beancounters.

The king is dead, long live the new king, whenever it rises.

If M.R.s crime was a dearth of creativity and worthwhile products in the past couple years, you guys obviously don't remember Jim Latta and ICONS.

 

[Master Replicas]

Again, some excellent points and brilliant discussions here thank you.

Originally Posted by fettpride
Boxing/Packaging? That is not what this is about :lol That's farcical. A great replica at a fair price with a COA/Plaque/Stand is all anyone wants on these forums. I don't know of anyone who could care less about the box it arrives in :wacko

Packaging is important. When we partner with somebody to produce a product that partner prices it as a finished piece, delivered to us ready to sell. Certain factors domestically such as who they ship with and who they buy the boxes from to achieve that are important to them as they are fixed and as such have to be passed directly on to us. Made even more difficult by the small runs involved in these items, they buy less so they pay more.

Originally Posted by Atemylunch

And he had to talk green, the biggest joke/farce around. To make it even funnier they have their products made in China, and then talk about how green they should be.

You want to be green, buy green colored boxes.

The only reason we suggested green recycled materials as they would be cheaper for a vendor to obtain and therefore help keep their costs down. We are in no way suggesting that China products are greener or more ecologically sound. Nobody is going to want a product where at least 40% of the cost is in the packaging.

Most retailers and distributors WILL NOT sell products that do not meet certain requirements including pretty stringent packaging requirements. Most of them have lengthy guide’s pages thick that detail exactly how many drop tests and packing tests products must pass before they will be accepted for sale. We wish it was as simple as ‘if you build it they will come’… sadly not. If your products arrive damaged or get damaged on shelf in a store, or 101 for other reasons, they simply send them back and don’t pay you for them…ohh and they also fine you heavily for each item and bill the shipping to you. It can get very, very pricey. We HATE foam inserts, twist ties, tape and the countless other things you see on packaging… but they are there for a reason.

We thought we made it clear that we understood that 99% of RPF readers don’t give a damn about packaging?… Its a tools for the job thing, sure we are going to have some items made in China... they can produce excellent work its all in the QA/QC and the partnership with the right vendor. but why not produce specialized small run products domestically, for all the reasons stated in these posts and more. We agree its sad that facilities for affordable domestic mass production simply don’t exist any more... but thats a whole huge new argument. The question is, would every potential consumer be happy with this lo-fi solution for these low run replicas? We love the RPF and everything it stands for but there are a lot of people out there who do not frequent this board and have no idea it exists, but they want quality replica items too and do not buy online or direct should we not at least try to service them as well… after all the truth is they actually make up at least 60% of the potential market. The debate it could we service them through this method.

Imagine this scenario: a local comic shop in a small town buys one of our high end products from us directly as they have no issue with packaging requirements, however they do not get to enjoy the volume discount price of one of the larger distributors who would not carry the product. The product is delivered simply with a plaque and a stand in a shipping box. How do they sell it? Most likely they would have to open it and put it on display, a customer then wants to buy it but does not want the store display piece and wants a sealed boxed piece. What happens to the display piece? Does it get discounted? Who foots that bill? Bear in mind its probably quite a high end piece, and probably costs a fair amount and is probably by default fairly high risk for the retailer. In all honesty would they really even bother to carry it? Again this is only one example, it’s a complicated and many faceted business with many potential routes to market and we have to think about them all.

We are not exactly being swamped by potential domestic vendors and manufacturing partners that can handle a run of say 100 units of a replica. Hence the open casting call. Where are they all at?

Running nefore we can walk is exactly why you have seen no announcements or product information from us yet. We decided from day one that this would be the new way of doing things. But on the other foot please tell that to the countless complaints we get daily that we are not giving enough news or updates or have not announced any products yet… what’s that they say about all of the people all of the time ?

Originally Posted by outlander P.S they are manufacturers not artisans, that would be lovely if companies would stop using BS language like this and the claims of accuracy and misleading advertising that alludes to the replica being an exact copy of the original, i don't expect you will but it would be nice.

Point taken... you will never hear that term again... happy to join the campaign for no the BS lanuage... slap us when we fall down on this... which we will. and please tell the sculptor who got angry when I called him a manufacturer the other day that he is too sensitive :unsure

Originally Posted by outlander: It's not the same people.

Yup, totally right. NONE of the people at Factory was involved directly in any of the product development of the replica products produced by MR in the last 3 years. Those items were all inherited and for the most part unloved stepchildren.... ours are completely new 100% our babies. We should add that the people who did develop them did nothing wrong and are great people...it's hard to be creative and produce good product when you are chained in a bag lying at the bottom of a river. How they managed to get anything out at all is nothing short of a miracle and they should be praised!

Proud to be crawling…

 

[Zombie Killer]

I guess it depends on how limited the item is and who you are targeting. If your talking about 50-100 pieces then are there really going to be that many in retail stores? If your going to do small runs and your target is the RPF and some other specialty sites then i would think as long as you chose your products wisely and keep prices reasonable you will sell out of everything pretty quick and won't have to worry about taking up shelf space. I guess it all depends on what you make, how many and who is your target. If your going for the 500-1000 then your targeting a larger audience and retail packaging comes into play. Also noone says it all has to be done the same way. You can do some smaller runs of US made items in a bare bones packaging and have larger runs of other items made in China with the full blown retail packaging. Or find a way to make cheap boxes look fancy on the cheap. Brown wrapping paper printed up with some cool graphics and a "IT'S WHATS IN THE BOX THAT COUNTS" printed on it might suffice.Maybe a small US flag on it too. The other thing to consider is this, if you make an awesome product, the word will get out and then the cheap packaging becomes part of the whole experience. What i'm trying to say is use the cheap packaging paired with a high quality product to sell it.

 

[Commander Max]

I'm way too old to pay attention to this board anymore... but three and a half decades ago they said the same thing about things made in Japan.

They got better at what they were doing.

But there is a big difference between Japan and China, japan is a much more open society, and they take good care of their workforce. Since the Chinese are communists the people are possessions of the state and are treated as such. No matter how much apparent openness people see, that is all carefully controlled for the visitors benefit.

It's not the same people. Michael Cookson began destroying M.R. as soon as he got his sweaty, pudgy little hands on it. He drove out the creators and nerds and replaced them with beancounters.

The king is dead, long live the new king, whenever it rises.

If M.R.s crime was a dearth of creativity and worthwhile products in the past couple years, you guys obviously don't remember Jim Latta and ICONS.

Those ICONS wounds run deep, I'm glad I wasn't into collecting in those days. But those are lessons for anybody who wants to be in this business. And the same goes for the bean-counter mentality, the sci-fi market isn't a place to make lots of money. It's a very tiny market, and most of that market is relatively poor. Now don't get me wrong there are guys who will buy everything that comes along. But there are only a handful of them in the world.

My suggestions for a new version of MR.
If you want to get into manufacturing in the US, think small. The US economy is in really bad shape(and not getting any better), and most collectors don't have the money to collect as they once did a few years ago. But there still are those who have the money, and that is who you want to sell to. For the mid-range gift items a much smaller production run(less than 50 units, I'm thinking less than 20), but at a higher retail cost/unit. No longer use the wholesaler avenue, as a customer of the MR products, I was mad as hell to see the same product on ebay for a little over half the price I paid, free shipping, and it had the "buy it now" option(I have number #24, I could give a rip about what number it is).

Think about a high production low cost gift items. To help offset the costs of the high dollar units, those can be made overseas. But something to help keep MR in the minds of the customer(those items can be sold by more traditional methods).

Your marketing will have to be small as well, your customers are here on the boards. Not in any big retail outlets(or small for that matter). Why waste money on a huge marketing plan, when you can post across the boards. And your customer feedback is here as well, best of all it doesn't require a full time marketing person. Besides as a customer I want to hear from you guys who run things. Not the marketing lackey, who is blowing sunshine up...(you get the point).

Handle the sales of the high dollar items yourselves, you'll make more money that way. Especilly if you sell everything at retail prices.

Manufacturing and product development would be the hardest part of this. You can't afford to do things the way your used to, there is where you would have to emulate a garage kit company, and be just as small. To use the term be very "Lean".
There are guys out there that can do this sort of thing. I assume you'll have to use severial contractors, because these guys specialize in different subjects.

 

[exoray]

We are not exactly being swamped by potential domestic vendors and manufacturing partners that can handle a run of say 100 units of a replica. Hence the open casting call. Where are they all at?

I suspect you are looking for turnkey vendors? From plans to retail box right? No doubt they are hard to find for small volume runs...

If you are looking for people that can source individual components or build small numbers of units then I know there are many around here that can help facilitate that... Then keep retail packing and QC in house or very close so QC is at it's highest level right as the package ships...

Doesn't work well for bigger runs but IMO works very well for small specialized runs...

 

[p0sitr0nic]

Just to voice a completely different opinion, perhaps NuMR (whatever you call yourselves) can produce some lower end, lower cost replicas. Things that dont cost an arm and a leg, but I could still give to my 11 year old and see his eyes light up. He wouldnt have cared if his lightsaber was made of metal or not, he wanted a lightsaber to play with. And replica or not, these are big boy TOYS.

 

[Master Replicas]

Just to voice a completely different opinion, perhaps NuMR (whatever you call yourselves) can produce some lower end, lower cost replicas. Things that dont cost an arm and a leg, but I could still give to my 11 year old and see his eyes light up. He wouldnt have cared if his lightsaber was made of metal or not, he wanted a lightsaber to play with. And replica or not, these are big boy TOYS.

Amen to that! I have 2 little monsters who are equally perplexed by the whole big boy toy thing.

I cannot promise to deliver miracles on this, but its something we are very aware of and are trying to work into our plans. Price and value is very important . Factory Entertainment is made up of people who know what a gallon of milk/gas costs and the value of money. We are NOT corporate loons who are insulated by expense accounts and executive salaries and we watch every single penny.

 

[theropod]

Factory Replicas is already well on their way towards replicating designs from well known licenses:

 

[Master Replicas]

Factory Replicas is already well on their way towards replicating designs from well known licenses:

Wow, we did not know that 2K invented art deco... amazing what you learn They did create a damn fine game though!

Actually we were shamelessly ripping of a certain classic sci-fi movie and are not afraid to admit it.

The golden age of classic movies, and Hollywood glamour. A terrible thing to associate with a movie replicas company, certainly.

Come on guys we are a replicas company after all... we could'nt have an original idea if we tried, it would not feel right

 

[Therent]

It would seem Corgi did not benefit at all from their brief ownership of Master Replicas.