EXO-6 Star Trek "General Discussion" 1/6 Line

[Koloth]

davejames, I think you missed my jest -- it was not aimed at nanjin, it was aimed at where Koloth might be in 10 years.

Indeed, there are people here that do not understand...

 

[Mike86]

I think a lot of the issue is that some people expected EXO-6 to just pick up from where QMX left off. I get why that can?t be the case to an extent, but I can also see where it?s frustrating too.

In a way I get what Nanjin is saying about if figures are done that way then a segment will only buy those and be done and then sales drop. At the same time though I wonder how long it will end up taking to get the characters some of us want.

 

[nanjin]

I think a lot of the issue is that some people expected EXO-6 to just pick up from where QMX left off. I get why that can?t be the case to an extent, but I can also see where it?s frustrating too.

In a way I get what Nanjin is saying about if figures are done that way then a segment will only buy those and be done and then sales drop. At the same time though I wonder how long it will end up taking to get the characters some of us want.

Sales drop is a distance future for Trek if done properly.

But by properly, I mean throughout the entire Food Chain, from licensing, development, manufacturing (no middle man, so I pay salary to factory workers), shipping, marketing, and operations are all under one roof.

Only under this eco system 1/6 Trek can go beyond 4 -5 figures for ANY 1/6 companies.

On my own, I make anything I want. But I have an eco system to watch over.



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[nanjin]

Indeed, there are people here that do not understand...

I thought you will be away for 10 years?

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[Asta]

I'm in no hurry.

There's always plenty of other things to buy. If and when something interesting goes up for pre-order it will be bought.

What Nanjin actually just wrote was that if 1/6 Trek is to survive then the good stuff has to be drip fed in between a larger number of less interesting figures. Creating longevity with padding. Plus being tied by the wishes of the license holders to produce things they want.

Yet the company still needs to find customers for those second string figures. That may be easier in the beginning when some people feel an obligation to support a new venture in the hope it'll bear fruit later. As time goes on I could see that becoming riskier, and the company becoming more of a vanity project until the point it's no longer viable.

Does Trek have the customer base to sustain long term production like this? Even the mighty Hot Toys targets the big money, rarely venturing 'off piste' into unknown territory as they used to. They spend a lot of production on things that are currently popular, putting older 'classics' on the back burner because their popularity will stand the test of time, and can be returned to later.

The Trek model for this would be to produce figures from Discovery while Discovery is current, and to leave the classics until a later time.

However, there isn't much of Trek that isn't from a 'classic' era. Then there are the divisions within those eras, the different series, each with a myriad of characters in a myriad of uniforms, sometimes separated by hundreds of years and thus temporally unrelated to each other.

By comparison Star Wars has it easy, since there are fewer distinct mainstream eras, and closer temporal connectivity. Imperial troopers get new looks but are still compatible with older ones within their time frame. In Trek uniforms change and it's a whole new matching wardrobe for everyone barring the odd inconsistency.

You can build an Imperial army made up of a variety of armours, but you can't build a Trek crew from a variety of uniforms from different sources. This is what I meant about different collecting habits between Star Wars and Star Trek.

Customers will have to be in for the long haul in order to build the collection they want, but how many will actually have the patience to stick with it? I see impatience more and more in the hobby. It's never been a problem for me. Things either happen or they don't. I only get impatient when a thing is actually in the post to me!

 

[Mike86]

Yet the company still needs to find customers for those second string figures. That may be easier in the beginning when some people feel an obligation to support a new venture in the hope it'll bear fruit later. As time goes on I could see that becoming riskier, and the company becoming more of a vanity project until the point it's no longer viable.

To me this is a concern for sure. I love Star Trek, and EXO-6 existing is awesome, but at what point does supporting the company because it’s new and I want them to succeed run out versus the output I want from them? At this point Data was an instant pre-order for me. Like literally within minutes of it going live, even though it isn’t my preferred version of the character. Picard will be the same way, however I already am questioning the third release (Borg Queen statue).

New Trek is a no go for me outside of maybe Pike. How many characters will I find myself going: well I’ll get this in hopes of something I really want later? I’m a big Trek fan too, but I don’t want to just gobble up everything with the name slapped on.

I’m not trying to be negative or hard on EXO-6 either. I get that they’re a startup company and that they have obligations to fulfill with the licensor. Just giving some honest thoughts.

 

[davejames]

It'll definitely be a challenge given the limited number of 1/6 Trek collectors out there (who all have different eras or shows they consider their favorite), but I think Nanjin is probably right to focus on the figures he thinks will sell best and keep the company going long term over simply completing one crew at a time. Because we saw before how long it took many sites to sell off figures like McCoy and Khan, who aren't exactly minor TOS characters. So I can understand why he'd want to try a different approach this time around.

 

[superdoug]

There are obligations that I need to fulfill with CBS. I have to make X amount of New Trek comparing to old ones. This means I must Market new trek and make room for them in production.

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Fascinating. By new Trek do you mean the new shows coming out now? I guess it makes sense for them to want X amount based on the new because it could help bring in new viewers or excite the viewers of the new shows. Unfortunately I don?t have their steaming service so I have seen absolutely none of the new Trek yet. So I currently have very little attachment to most of those characters. The new (can I still call the new) movies are the most recent ?new? Trek I have see.

I am in it for the long haul and honesty for my budget it is probably best if the building up of the TOS, movies and TNG crews
is spread over years but I do really selfishly hope TWK Kirk and Spock are sooner rather than later.

 

[The Green Goblin]

davejames, I think you missed my jest -- it was not aimed at nanjin, it was aimed at where Koloth might be in 10 years.

Is he not there already, after taking all those photos with bootleg Black Widow getting spanked by Kirk and Spock into account?

 

[Wor-Gar]

My peek into 10-years-from-now Koloth shows a dystopian future where he has left Star Trek far behind and now only collects soft Disney ''cuddlies''' as they are known in 2031.

 

[gin007]

Since we are talking "new" trek characters, I humbly submit that with Q's arrival on S2 of Picard....he'd make an awesome figure....

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[superdoug]

Since we are talking "new" trek characters, I humbly submit that with Q's arrival on S2 of Picard....he'd make an awesome figure....

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Since I have not seen any of the new Trek yet the ones I would be the most interested in would be ones with ties to the older series like old Picard and Q. I would probably preorder those.

 

[Kebron]

I'd love to get a Saru and a Georgiou from Discovery and Seven of Nine from Picard.

 

[davejames]

Since we are talking "new" trek characters, I humbly submit that with Q's arrival on S2 of Picard....he'd make an awesome figure....

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Nanjin already made a really damn good one that I hope we see someday. And if he appears on Picard in the judge's robes again maybe the figure could come with both young and old sculpts that we can switch out.

 

[Life_m2000]

Nanjin already made a really damn good one that I hope we see someday. And if he appears on Picard in the judge's robes again maybe the figure could come with both young and old sculpts that we can switch out.


View attachment 510279

I?d buy TNG Q straight away.

 

[gin007]

Re: EXO-6 "Star Trek" 1/6 Line

I'd love to get a Saru and a Georgiou from Discovery and Seven of Nine from Picard.

These are all great choices. Georgiou is iconic, but I'm not sure which one - I think maybe mirror Georgiou in full Emperor's uni.... To be honest, from episode 1 of Disco, she was my favorite captain of any series. I think she would have made an incredible captain in a traditional trek show, we'll see how far down the rabbithole the Section 31 spinoff goes (I'm sort of over the time travel paradox laziness from the writers).

Tilly is a fantastic character, and would make a fantastic figure. She's adorably awkward and funny and nerdy, and I love how she isn't the perfect Starfleet graduate right out of the gate. However, she'd probably need her own body, which makes her much more expensive to produce, and I think maybe rooted hair would work better for her than sculpted.

Saru, likewise, I would think would need his own body, but he is certainly a unique and fun character and would make a huge hit as a figure.

Another good crossover character that I think could be released as a semi-standalone is Quark. Who doesn't need a bartender, or if you are waiting for Guinan, two bartenders!

Anyway, I think it's silly to get mad or badger EXO about what they are producing, at least they are producing something. Let Nanjin release whatever he thinks will make him enough money to stay in business and keep going. While he worked for QMx, it's not his job to clean up their poor management decisions or cater to anyone's demands about who to produce or when.

I actually think the one off releases from different shows will force people to evaluate the figure itself a little more. Like, I have no doubt people would have bought that terrible Chekov from QMx if they had released it, just to complete their crew, but the HS was so poor. In a situation where you might not get the whole gang, then I think you are more picky about what you want and why, and buying habits are a little different. That means each fig has to step it up to be worthy of a place in the collection, and that isn't a bad thing.


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[gin007]

Re: EXO-6 "Star Trek" 1/6 Line

Nanjin already made a really damn good one that I hope we see someday. And if he appears on Picard in the judge's robes again maybe the figure could come with both young and old sculpts that we can switch out.


View attachment 510279

I know, I love him. Nanjin's private collection (I assume these reside with him rather than at QMx in a dusty unused bin) is incredible. John de Lancie, yes please!

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[nanjin]

It'll definitely be a challenge given the limited number of 1/6 Trek collectors out there (who all have different eras or shows they consider their favorite), but I think Nanjin is probably right to focus on the figures he thinks will sell best and keep the company going long term over simply completing one crew at a time. Because we saw before how long it took many sites to sell off figures like McCoy and Khan, who aren't exactly minor TOS characters. So I can understand why he'd want to try a different approach this time around.

I am only focusing on keeping 1/6 Trek alive.

I am swimming against the current with Trek.

With such a small quantities, no factory will be interested in Trek production. Naturally, Trek will be used as Schedule fillers. They produce whatever they can when they are in between other company's big production.

So I have to build my own factory.
Once I am in production, I will be looking at a totally different business model than merely having ?license to produce and to sell.? I am looking at the TOTAL annual output of my factory, no long by individual production quantities. I go by annual performance in production, and go by individual character sales for performance on the other end of the spectrum.

Then there are training. Although I have strong confidence in the selected employees but expecting them to do HT quality on their first job is unreasonable expectation. (70% of my employees are physical disables, and never cut and sew).

Therefore, they need to be trained under ?non stressful? condition. I will not PRESSURE them in anyway.

They are technicians. Time and experience add to their skills and benefit the final products.

Is my incompetence as a decision maker to force them onto the a major battlefield when they are not ready.

1/6 Trek can't afford too many employees. So we have to do more individually. For example, I never did any low lever operations, i have very little experience (so I am not a capable manager in this area). But FC Data out performed all historical 1/6 Trek sales data including wholesellers like SS, BBTS, and of course QMx. This means we had to process thousands of orders internally.

The above means I had to prepare for some overwhelming operations soon because as we know TNG and TOS are top sellers. If we have trouble dealing with simple issues as processing orders, we will have serious issues when we start on TOS or TNG.

A tiny mistake for a new business establishment can be dangerous. With so many specialists whom I rely on, and whom I won't personally manage them (they are in full auto), I have to take each step carefully making EVERY step is secure.

On top of all these, add Covid-19 to it. Samples are taking 3 weeks traveling time for me to see versus 15 seconds when I was stationed at the factory.

Seriously, who can have such a fast turnaround time in 1/6? From preorder to delivery, we are looking at 4-5 months max.



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[nanjin]

It'll definitely be a challenge given the limited number of 1/6 Trek collectors out there (who all have different eras or shows they consider their favorite), but I think Nanjin is probably right to focus on the figures he thinks will sell best and keep the company going long term over simply completing one crew at a time. Because we saw before how long it took many sites to sell off figures like McCoy and Khan, who aren't exactly minor TOS characters. So I can understand why he'd want to try a different approach this time around.

Actually, they did well. The problem they had was the line was NEVER built.

My logic is this, with ZERO marketing and planning, 1/6 Trek had this performance, then adding professionally done business approach, the line can be expanded.

Do note that as of today, more than 90% of Trek fans do not know about 1/6 Trek line.

Potential is there, and the business model WILL work if I keep the operation small and at maximum capacities throughout the entire year.

But under my lead, I will not look at this potential until after Sept. Right now, my concern is to have a good and film production foundation. I really not concern with selling any Trek figures.

Remember, I have another profit center within the mix, production. Therefore, as long as I match up sells with production (make less than market demand) I am in good standing.

I focus on keeping 1/6 Trek alive (and not maximizing sales. This come in 2nd)

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[nanjin]

Since we are talking "new" trek characters, I humbly submit that with Q's arrival on S2 of Picard....he'd make an awesome figure....

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My eyes have ALL Trek. I can even just make 100 of Q if I want to.

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