BackerKit ends in 7 days!
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Nov 23, 2023 at 06:48:28 AM
BackerKit ends in 1 week on November 30, 2023. See the campaign here: https://legends-of-the-hidden-force.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
We want to thank everyone for their continued support as we have raised almost $10,000 more in funds and 30 new backers bringing our total to 288 backers, just 12 shy of 300 which will unlock Master Ayakashi, our Kickstarter/BackerKit exclusive.
A quick reminder - if Ayakashi does not unlock then he will remain hidden forever.
Factory update: Accessories!
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Aug 24, 2023 at 11:10:42 AM
A fun new update from our factory - the accessories are ready for tooling! These aren't the final colors, but they are the final molds. One step closer to production!
If you haven't been following us on Backerkit, you can do so here: https://legends-of-the-hidden-force.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders
We're currently at 268 total backers - once we get to 300, the first of our free* figures unlocks!
We're currently at just about $50,000 total raised between Backerkit and Kickstarter - the second free* figure unlocks at $125,000 - so still a ways to go. Tell your friends, your family, your coworkers, your teammates, anyone you might know that needs more ninjas in their life. The more support we can muster - the closer we are to getting those last three figures unlocked!
(*free to All-In pledges, regular price for everyone else)
Great Question! How/Why/What...
over 2 years ago
– Tue, Aug 15, 2023 at 03:29:39 PM
Rob Arts asked how we were unlocking items at specific dollar amounts of support during our Kickstarter, and now in Backerkit everything is just available even though no new money was raised.
It’s a great question that I’m happy to answer. But we should go back one step further, to our original self-cancelled Kickstarter, and I’m going to be as transparent as Ikiryo :)
Factories have MOQs: Minimum Order Quantities. This is the absolute minimum of each item (sku) you must order/produce at the agreed upon cost. If you can’t order their minimum of each product (sku –Stock Keeping Unit), then the price can be vastly more expensive per unit.
We went into this with two goals. 1) To bring these characters that are so dear to us to life, and get other toy fans excited about them as well. 2) To make enough in profit to be able to continue making figures beyond what we’ve already shown everyone.
So our factory has an MOQ of 1000 per sku. That means we have to order 1000 Shinobis to be made, 1000 Obakes, 1000 Torashis, and so on, to get their reasonable price per piece. That is $10. So $10 per figure, or $10,000 per sku. They originally told us that if we failed to order the MOQ, it would only be a dollar or two more per unit. So we juggled back and forth knowing we would hit some MOQs, miss a few others, and the average price would end up at $14 per figure. Don’t forget – Kickstarter, Backerkit, and the IRS all get a significant cut after that as well. So it would leave us with $2 or $3 in profit per figure.
When it became evident we would not hit ANY of our MOQs, and that we would be paying $18 per figure, if we didn’t hit at least $100,000 in funding, we were going to have to PAY another $10,000 out of pocket to get these made – which we just did not have. So we cancelled it.
We relaunched on Kickstarter, now with far fewer skus. Likelier to hit that MOQ per piece. But we haven’t yet, and that’s okay. We only generated $40k but that’s okay. It was enough to get the tooling done and that no small feat. It's also enough to get essentially the exact amount of figures made - without even a few of each extra for our collaborators. But we still have a few months of Backerkit to raise funds, and hopefully produce a few extras of each figure.
Going into Backerkit, we decided to ignore trying to make any profit so that we could continue producing future waves, and just focus on getting these figures out. So it was restructured assuming we would not make those Minimum Order Requirements on any figure. With that in mind, and no drive to get each figure ordered x amount of times, why not just make all the figures available? If we only make 150 Daito’s so be it. That’s all there is. And it cost us $18 to make that $24 figure (remember the rest goes to Kickstarter, Backerkit, and the IRS). BUT, if we are able to raise significant funds, and can get those MOQs for the 12 figures, then we will celebrate by buying you three extra figures. The money we save just gets put into producing 3 new figures that we give away.
I hope this clarifies things a little bit, and feel free to ask questions if it doesn’t.
Backerkit Smoke-Test
over 2 years ago
– Sat, Aug 12, 2023 at 12:47:34 PM
A random 5% of our kickstarter backers were sent their backerkit survey late last night. If you were one of those people, this is your chance to let us know which specific figures you were purchasing. It's also an opportunity to add to your order if you choose - including the two new accessory kits! Most importantly, it's a bug-hunt. Let us know if you encounter any problems during the process that we can fix before sending the survey to everyone else.
This also effectively re-opens our ability to gather new backers for Legends of the Hidden Force. So please, spread the word. Share the links. Share the pics. We hope to add enough in new backing to get everyone their (up to 3) free figures!
We anticipate the prototype accessories this week, and will share with you as soon as we receive them.
Talk to you all soon!
Factory Samples! Digital Scrapbook! Backerkit Launch!
over 2 years ago
– Sat, Aug 05, 2023 at 11:50:03 AM
Hey Everyone! As you can see, the factory has sent us final samples to tool from (which we've approved), so the tooling of the molds is underway! You'll note in this picture that Daito seems to have a different chest, this is not his final look - we had just asked the factory to produce all of the various parts and put them together how they wish. We're happy with what they've provided, and it's all moving forward!
Matt has finished the digital scrapbook, and these we email out around Monday, August 7th!
BackerKit is in the final review stage, and should launch Monday or Tuesday! We've added a few fun extras that you may want to take a look at and add to your pledge...
Thank you everyone for being awesome through this hot and busy, busy summer - that we're somehow (thankfully) been able to stay right on schedule through.
Love you guys - and can't wait to show you more in the coming weeks!
