TOS Phaser Factory Entertainment SDCC

[Leinads]

Bringing a product to market is absolutely a brutal process. But the sentiment here is that no prospective customer would have complained if Factory Entertainment had simply announced it with concept art, rather than presenting this Franken-phaser as their prototype. The whole thing feels disingenuous.

 

[renaissance_man]

I know many here are complaining about the price, but in reality, the manufacturers are dealing with quite a bit of cost and are not making a huge profit doing this.
First, they have to pay a licensing fee, which takes a significant bite out of that cost.

They have to prototype, machine out parts, doing so in very limited quantities. It is not like high production numbers that get greater discount due to the high amount of items made. Most machine shops will charge an arm and leg and a bit more to do such a project. If, they will do it at all.

They also have to pay for a company/engineer to make custom packaging, again in low numbers. Most packaging companies with charge a minimum of $ 60,000 to do that. Packaging for a delicate or intricate item makes that initial cost very high. And then ANOTHER fee to produce the packaging and having it set to the manufacturer overseas.

They have to pay then for advertising, raw resources, their own highly talented people to design the piece, all the employees that are in the company from the time of deciding what they will make, through a year or two or three to the time they get the item out for sale to the public. You have shipping from the manufacturer, fees for cost and import, storage of the item to the company, shipping out again and if there are any retailers, you have to add in the extra cost of a profit margin for them. Utilities, overhead cost of a company and many many more cost for doing so.

Most across the pond cost have skyrocketed due to inflation and hire labor cost in third world countries that have seen cost rise by 400 percent in the last decade. It's not that cheap to make items overseas any longer.

All of this process at a risk, will it be profitable enough? Will it sell quickly (which is needed to keep overhead cost down).

Frankly, it's a steal at under a thousand dollars when you factor how much costly that entire process. Remember, all the cost at the start from 2 to 3 years ago and in very low production numbers unlike 99.9999999999999999999999999999% of other types of companies. Specialty pieces are far more expensive for items like this. Kudo's to the prop companies making these, it's a very tough thing to do. So much so, many companies are tending to stop manufacturing specialty low number items because it just is not profitable now. For prop companies, they have to be constantly designing and moving product to survive. It is a difficult process for most companies which is why it is so rare and the number of companies doing so gets smaller by the day.

To the complainers, you do not know just lucky to have a company doing so. If you really like and want to see this very very VERY tiny niche market survive, you should be cheer leading support for them. With the way cost keep going up, companies like these are a dying breed. Hats off to all the specialty prop companies out there for doing incredible works!

If they produced accurate props then more people would buy them. FE are known for making inaccurate pieces which a lot of fans don't want to shell out a huge amount for when they can get more accurate replicas elsewhere. Just look at the WandCo, the fan support for their pieces has been second to none when it comes to a small company making an accurate, well researched replica en masse with lots of functions at a price that is affordable.
FE are throwing money away by deliberately making inaccurate pieces. It's not the fans fault for not "cheer leading support for them", the company themselves make deliberately poor choices when it comes to making Replicas.

They aren't listening to what fans want, they continue to give the FE interpretation, not an actual well researched replica.

Sorry, but that is the truth of the matter when it comes to FE.
Arguably, nobody would want a highly accurate TNG Mark VII Medical Tricorder more than me, but when I have an HMS Vacuum formed kit and machines metal scanner as well as a Stapleton kit, why would I fork out $800 for the FE version which doesn't even match the prop?

That's on FE, not the fans.

 

[WinstonWolf359]

I'm also firmly on the "it's the accuracy, not the price" complainer's list.

I understand that things cost a lot to make, and that replicas (mass-produced and otherwise) aren't going to cost what they did 10/20/30 years ago.

My issue with Factory is the price to accuracy ratio. I would have snapped up the tricorder if not for its bizarre appearance. The Strange New Worlds phaser's price is defendable if it looked like an original prop walked off the set, but it doesn't. Everything they've done has been Playmates-level accuracy for previously unheard of pricing.

In every case Factory claims to have access to original props and has yet to make a replica that matches. It's impossible to "vote with your wallet" when the line of folks willing to pay for 80% accuracy is surprisingly long, so I feel like the only way to try to get them to try harder is to complain.

I know there's a lot of previous Trek products that used a higher-end replica as a prototype for a toy version, but this is the first time I can recall a (supposed) high end replica being reproduced directly from someone else's high end replica. If Factory is truly using a combination of the Wand Company and Master Replicas' products as the basis for their replica...I don't like to throw the "R" word around lightly, but that's kinda what it looks like to me.

 

[tripoli]

lol. I am old, Friend of Bijo, I actually wrote on the letter campaign to try to save TOS all those years ago. I was here in 95, a small group of Sci Fi fans that wanted to hold a prop from the screen to the movie in hand. I have over the last 3 decades thousands of boards come and go. In all the different fandom groups, one type sticks out. Star Trek prop makers/collectors. No one group has had the displeasure to knock down reproductions than these. I learned long ago that there is no discussion / argument that can be resolved with such a rabid franchise fanboy group. The only thing TOS groups when it comes to props can agree on and that is that no prop is accurate.

I have seen the original props, I have spoken to all the actors, Gene the Great Phoenix and I have held TOS show props in hand for the first time in the mid 1970's. And with that, I can tell you why NOBODY will ever be able to make an accurate prop.

Those props were not the best props as you would think of props now made in production. The hero's took a beating during the few short seasons and constantly got modified. They had hot glue sticking out of them, wires sometimes sticking out. They were not symetrical from side to side. They got handled, not just by the actors but fans and a whole host of other people. They go thrown around on set. Some got stolen when Gene was going around the country hosting conventions and talking to as many people that he could find. The mini Star Trek Enterprise ship model. I know the guy that stole it in Detroit and held onto it for years and years before it got so bad he decided to sell it off. You are NEVER going to get an accurate replica because there were several hand made, that got busted several times changing the prop. When they went missing a new hand made prop would be made. The did not get new materials and make calipers measurements for the phasers, they would eyeball it.
And to makes things worse, you had hucksters that would claim they had a screen used prop from the show and sell at cons. Those people would believe they had the real thing. There are so many "Prop Experts" that think they have the ultimate correct details that this has been the most explosive topic possibly placed on the internet. What a load of c**p.

ANY company that makes a reproduction of this prop can never get it right. It is impossible to get it "perfect". There was so much abuse and multiple versions as well pieces that change from show to show whether it was damaged or they had to crack them open to replace a battery, and then glue stick or a quick model glue assembly that changed the portions of the prop from season to season. There is so much mis information out there and the last few post highlight the crazy mentality that THEY KNOW what is really accurate and not. I would love to say, give it a rest but we are not talking about rational any means discussion when it comes down to TOS props. To semi quote Barnum, You cannot please all of the TOS fans any of the times. And, if you wrestle with pigs, you are going to get muddy.

Which was NOT the topic of my post earlier, which talked about production cost and why prices are so high for a quality prop from the show. On THAT post, so many say that all props are too darn expensive, they have no clue about that which they complain. Even the Wand Co would have to significantly raise their prices. By the way, they produced much higher numbers of those props which when you divide the set cost over time to the numbers of reproductions made, allowed them to price it much less than you see with these props now being produced. Those points are invalid as are the irrational direction to that took this about the infinite discussion on how many 10 thousandths of an inch the hot glue is from one prop to another.

 

[jts1031]

Look at the bright side, this franken-phaser is probably more accurate than what they end up releasing.

 

[CessnaDriver]

Look at the bright side, this franken-phaser is probably more accurate than what they end up releasing.

And I made my own right at home!

 

[Leinads]

And I made my own right at home!

You are magic!