I wonder if this is just the ceiling of how many people are willing to commit to buy a product from BCS without seeing the finished item from production first.
I think this is a massive contributing factor given that their female character track record is okay to average at best and the recent debacle with the Bond figs. Plus, BCS collectors are waiting two+ years on figures they've paid for. Couple this with the very mixed reaction to "New-new-Who" last season and I think you've largely got who's willing to play ball.
I'm not trying to stir the pot, because admittedly, I have not watched it so I can't cast a lick of judgement. But, if you look at where the venn diagram overlaps for for a group that A) Likes Dr. Who, B) more specifically likes this new season/Doctor, and perhaps the biggest difficulty, also D) collects 1/6 and has faith in preproduction BCS, I think that cross section realistically is smaller than expected.
On top of that, and I don't mean to stereotype, but whatever casual audience that may want a 1/6 13 will likely just go get the Barbie. We are an extremely niche part of a fan base. So they're not tagging in the expectedly/likely (though not always, all things considered) female audience in that regard that may have joined the show recently.
Yeah I do sympathize with BCS, as it's clear they want to find a way to keep producing these figures and get them to the fans, but so far nothing really seems to be working for them.
Of course if they did go ahead and produce all 500, I'm sure they would have no problem eventually selling out. Since there's bound to be a lot more interest once people see the final product or more people gradually become aware of it.
I agree. I think they would sell the 500 run inevitably, but that's a realistic number in the end. The question now is if they are willing to double down on launchpad in the sense that if it doesn't meet it's goal, then the project is bonked; in other words "the audience has spoken and we will not fund the project".
I feel like if they go ahead and do the 500 run, then they are setting themselves up for failure simply because there's no faith in the launchpad platform then. Didn't meet your goal? Oh well, BCS will do it anyway.
I suppose the alternative is that they offer the figure at a higher price if it doesn't meet the 500 quota to compensate. But how many backers would you lose then? Offer the head, outfit, accessories alone and let you bash it?
Although I have to say BCS have not stated that 500 is the minimum green light number. It is a target. I would expect the incentivised target would be around 400, with the remaining 100 going out at the full published RRP. Surely there has to be a 40 day target that is a break even numberbelow 500 otherwise all 500 would be sold on an incentive basis reducing profitability.
