Big Chief Studios - Dr. Who Weeping Angels

[JohnStanowski]

I thought I read that the 2-pack will be available only from BCS on the BCS Fan page. I'll go check that now.

Okay I found it. A project manager from Big Chief told me "The version available to retailers is the single figurine only."

 

[gdb]

I need one of those as a tree topper!

 

[JohnStanowski]

I need one of those as a tree topper!

That's if they're not solid. A BCS rep said that these things are heavy, too. So it may make that top branch bend!

 

[Entropy]

Okay I found it. A project manager from Big Chief told me "The version available to retailers is the single figurine only."

Thanks. I'm only looking for the single so I may be placing an order soon.

 

[JohnStanowski]

Consider us then if you like. https://www.flossiesgifts.com/Big_Chief_Studios_Weeping_Angel_1_6_Scale_Figure_p/dmd-stk644741-doctor-who.htm

 

[SAB]

I'm out at that price.

I thought the justification we tell ourselves for 1/6 pricing was based on the art of sculpting and painting near perfect likenesses and working with cloth and stitching in miniature scale.

So these are so much, why?

 

[JohnStanowski]

How much more of a perfect likeness could you get than from a solid, polystone statue? It comes with multiple alternate pieces and is quite heavy, too.

 

[Entropy]

I'm out at that price.

I thought the justification we tell ourselves for 1/6 pricing was based on the art of sculpting and painting near perfect likenesses and working with cloth and stitching in miniature scale.

So these are so much, why?

The 1/6 licensed statues from SS and just about all other companies cost about this or more.
I've been looking for one substantially less expensive but most are around $250-$280 and don't come with additional pieces.

Could they have offered these as hollow plastic for $95? Maybe, but maybe the tooling would be more expensive, maybe they would have needed to sell 2000 units to recoup R+D and license fees or maybe they just thought polystone produced a better, more screen accurate end product? Who knows? But as is they are priced in line with similar 1/6 statues.

That said, I'm really hoping to find one shipped for $200 or less. I got the 11th doc for less than $200 and I agree that this, however nice, is not as good a value as a Dr. figure.

 

[murdomac]

Price like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what something is 'worth' is always a tricky subject and people will often not think about production runs/materials etc etc etc when makung up thier minds about wether a product is worth it or not.

For me I look arount at what else £150 could buy me, and theres a lot, the 1966 Batman or Robin, anything DiD with change, Sideshow droid 2-pack with change and more and all these for me offer better value for money and are more 'worth it'

A companies product pricing structure is key to thier continued success and i'm afraid in my opinion BCS haven't placed thier products at the right price point and are going down the 'make less, charge more' road. I have no idea how this is working out for them but seeing as they have only just sold out of the 10th doc, had a fire sale on Amy and the 4th it would seem not that great a policy.

I should stress that I have absolutely no knowledge of what goes on in the making of a 1/6 product of any kind and am merely a end user/buyer of 1/6 product and as such while these are a good product for me they are not worth it, I have no doubt they will all sell in the end and then hit ebay for laughable prices.

 

[Captain Britain]

Price like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what something is 'worth' is always a tricky subject and people will often not think about production runs/materials etc etc etc when makung up thier minds about wether a product is worth it or not.

For me I look arount at what else £150 could buy me, and theres a lot, the 1966 Batman or Robin, anything DiD with change, Sideshow droid 2-pack with change and more and all these for me offer better value for money and are more 'worth it'

A companies product pricing structure is key to thier continued success and i'm afraid in my opinion BCS haven't placed thier products at the right price point and are going down the 'make less, charge more' road. I have no idea how this is working out for them but seeing as they have only just sold out of the 10th doc, had a fire sale on Amy and the 4th it would seem not that great a policy.

I should stress that I have absolutely no knowledge of what goes on in the making of a 1/6 product of any kind and am merely a end user/buyer of 1/6 product and as such while these are a good product for me they are not worth it, I have no doubt they will all sell in the end and then hit ebay for laughable prices.

Great post. I love BC and what they do but I'm finding it hard to justify spending the money on this. Would be great to hear from them here on the issue of price, there hasn't been any trouble in these threads for a long time and it would be good to hear the price point explained in more detail.

 

[illproxy]

Great post. I love BC and what they do but I'm finding it hard to justify spending the money on this. Would be great to hear from them here on the issue of price, there hasn't been any trouble in these threads for a long time and it would be good to hear the price point explained in more detail.

its the material they chose to use, polystone. it will feel and look like a real statue inhand. heavy. i think its admirable they chose to do so, providing a very high quality piece at the risk many will be turned off by the price.

due to the material this is really like a statue with alternate parts rather than a figure etc. if you consider it from that perspective and think about how impressive they will be inhand it doesnt seem to expensive, at least IMO. i have a couple polystone pieces by threeA and they look and feel high quality. will def be gettin a weeping angel, no question!

 

[pixletwin]

I'm in the same boat. These are absolutely lovely masterpieces. But I just can't justify spending so much... We'll see...

lilproxy has a good point too though... If I think about it as a PF I am not so hesitant.

 

[Captain Britain]

I've no doubt the price accurately reflects the cost of development and production, it's one of those figures that just 'feels' a little too expensive. Still hope I'm wrong and in six months time everyone is scrabbling to find one!

The other issue is that I'm on the fence about how much I 'need' this figure which is something you don't get with, say, Ten. One thing that would really help me make up my mind is photos showing the angel next to an Eleven or Ten figure.

But, I love monsters and as BC's first monster figure I really want this to be a success.

 

[DVD1]

I still think could have been achieved as a rotocast figure. A hollow PVC figure would have looked equally as good as a polystone. The weight would be drastically reduced, as would the cost. The aesthetic appeal would have been the same.

 

[pixletwin]

I agree. I didn't need the poly stone aspect of these. I would have preferred something that looked as good, weighed less, and cost less.

 

[JonWes]

It's been brought up by me before, but I'll bring it up again. There's nothing to say that the polystone is what makes these the cost they are. In fact, they could be polystone to help justify (in a buyers mind) the cost that they had to hit anyway. When you factor in licensing costs, production runs, the cost of labor to apply high-end paint jobs, sculpting, etc... it's possible that they wouldn't have been much cheaper anyway. I don't know that. Just something to consider.

 

[Captain Britain]

if these hadn't been polystone lots of collectors would have been saying 'they're statues, why aren't they polystone?' I agree with DVD1 to the extent that all I want is something to go alongside my CO 12" figures, but I think as many people would have wanted them polystone as want them plastic.

 

[murdomac]

I think what people want is affordable figures, take the Star Wars Battle Driods for instance we wouldn't expect them made out of metal so theres no reason why a statue figure needs to be stone?

They, the Battle Driods, come from one of the most expensive licenses out there and you can still pick up a pair for £100-£120, both the Droids and Anglels could be considered army builders, I mean a cool Angles display would be 4 faceing each other and at £100-£120/pair I might well land up haveing 4 but at £150 each it's just not going to happen.

Plastic can very easily look like stone and you really wouldn't need a high end paint job to achieve that.

 

[Captain Britain]

I think what people want is affordable figures, take the Star Wars Battle Driods for instance we wouldn't expect them made out of metal so theres no reason why a statue figure needs to be stone?

They, the Battle Driods, come from one of the most expensive licenses out there and you can still pick up a pair for £100-£120, both the Droids and Anglels could be considered army builders, I mean a cool Angles display would be 4 faceing each other and at £100-£120/pair I might well land up haveing 4 but at £150 each it's just not going to happen.

Plastic can very easily look like stone and you really wouldn't need a high end paint job to achieve that.

Good points, but isn't plastic more expensive than stone because of the high cost of the tooling? I'm no expert but the one thing I've taken away from decades of reading toy threads is that the tooling is what costs the money. Otherwise they might as well make them out of vinyl, that would be the cheapest material of all to ship!

Sounds like a good subject for a poll - Would you prefer the Weeping Angels to be made of a) plastic, b) polystone?

 

[Entropy]

BCS replied to this question on FB:

"Making these in plastic would have a much higher cost. This is a very big piece to create and would cost a lot in tooling. Being that the Angels are statues we felt it better to make them in Polystone so they look and feel like a Statue while at the same time keeping the cost down. Thanks BCS"

Plastic doesn't seem to be a less expensive means to manufacture just 1000 units.

EDIT: Taking the Battle Droids example...
Driods w STAPS, Commander Droids, Infantry 2 packs and Security 2 packs are available all using the same molds with possibly more to follow. Most do not have an edition size but the one with STAP was 2500. Let's just assume there's 2500 of the rest but the numbers are likely higher. That's 15,000 Units, a number that makes expensive tooling for plastic production of a figure this size worthwhile. I know it seems it should be as simple as "plastic things cost less" but obviously manufacturing something is a lot more complicated than that. BCS is not "making less just so they can charge more", there is just not enough consumer demand. Doctor Who just doesn't have the worldwide popularity of something like Star Wars.