Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Mid February Update


I'm sure there's a quote about the "wheels of progress", or "slow and steady", or "good things come"... and as in the world of ketchup in glass bottles, so too does it apply to the world of toy soldiers. 

I promise, we're close.  So instead of an official unveiling, let's cover a few more details.

1.  There will be no packaging.  This is done to save time and money and to keep retail costs as low as possible.  I mean, seriously, if we were doing fantastic artwork like Airfix used to do, ok, the packaging would be worth it.  But we're in the business to make figures, and I'm pretty bad with art.

2.  The cost per unit will be about the same as our last set.  Maybe a bit higher, or a bit lower, but right about the same (and I'm talking the current $11.95 sale price, not the initial $16.95 price).  We'll set the final number soon.

3.  Have I mentioned it will be LIMITED!!  Let me put it this way, if Mamma and Pappa Dalamation wanted to give one to each of their brood, you'd have some sad puppies.  Future sets may have higher runs, just depends on demand.

*Why are we not distributing these to other dealers??  Easy, to keep the price as low as possible.  Bare with me here:

If we supply to dealers, we have to put enough room in the retail price to make sure that the wholesale price is still above production price.  For example, if it takes us $1 to manufacture a widget, we sell it to the big retailer for $2, and then they turn around and sell it to you for $3.  We make $1 profit, and the retailer makes a $1 profit.  You, on the other hand, spend $3 for a $1 product.  Bummer.... So with this release, we're wanting to get the retail as low as possible, so we do not put a wholesale bump into the cost, and in effect, we're selling you the $1 widget for $1.50.

To those of you who took business courses, I humbly apologize.  I'm sure the previous paragraph was insulting to your senses to read such an amateur take on it.  But basically, that's how were going to cut the retail cost in half.

Rock on, and keep an eye out for more updates coming soon!

2 comments:

J. M. Steplyk said...

I'm going to take the new picture literally and guess you're producing Romans in tortoise formation! ;)

Beau said...

Or it could be an exciting line of endangered and extinct species with offficial licensing from the Nature Conservancy. Next up is the Dodo Bird!