Cancelled ArcanEngine - Build & 3D Print One-Of-A-Kind Tabletop Minis

[Carnacki the Ghost Finder]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/330752914/arcanengine-build-and-3d-print-one-of-a-kind-table?ref=category

 

I'll be honest, I don't understand this high-tech stuff.  I hope the title of the post more or less explains it.  This is happening out of Vancouver.  Others can perhaps offer informed opinions.

[SamuraiJack]

Looks like this is the new trend..

 

http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/52190-proxy-war-custom-minis-nov-5th/

[Slendertroll]

Could be tempting in 10 years, but if you thought the details on Bones were soft...

[Nocturne]

If I'm reading that right you don't get any actual miniatures until the $88 level, just access to character parts and your first figure or two can be printed at cost rather than full price.

That seems a bit pricey just for access to the system.

[ApesAmongUs]

That's an amazingly bad deal.

[Nocturne]

oh, and the miniature at $88 isn't even a design your own one, just one of the preset test pieces... Compared to the other couple of 3D printing ones that have been around this one seems a lot more expensive, I've no experience on results or quality so maybe something about this system is more worthwhile.

[ApesAmongUs]

The one that got to me was paying to reserve your name on their website. Isn't that basically something that every site on the internet gives away for free? And i see no reason to think it would be a discussion forum or anything, so I'm not sure why reserving a name would matter at all.

 

And you can pay now to have access to the parts? Does that mean a regular post-KS customer wouldn't have access to the parts? If that's true, then what exactly is their business supposed to be? And if that isn't true and regular customers will have access to the parts, then what are you buying with that pledge level?

[buglips*the*goblin]

What is up with those floppy-looking renders?

[Arkady]

"Get your perfectly personalized miniature, provided of course our $100 premium bundle actually includes something remotely like what you want despite offering all of 5 poses per gender, and that's if you're willing to cough up the extra dough to actually get the figure printed."

 

Did I sum that up correctly, or did I miss an actual argument for buying into this?

[SIGIL]

This is one of those " WHAT AN AWESOME IDEA!!!! " type Kickstarters.

[estrus]

29 people so far like it. No wonder Tre Manor is depressed =(

[buglips*the*goblin]

The more I look at it, the weirder it gets.

 

And what is up with that weird sample mini? I mean, just look at it. What the hell? It's just a badly misshapen dude with some crap glommed on. It doesn't even look like anything.

 

I mean, are these people earnest but clueless? Or is this a troll joke?

 

I can't tell.

[MissMelons]

I messaged Zach Hill about his kickstarter. At first i thought i was having a stroke trying to understand what he was explaining to me, but its literally just how it sounds. It's a voucher system...ENTIRELY not worth its salt. This is what he replied:

 

Hi there Arianne, thanks for your interest! The first tier in which you get a physical 3D printed reward is offered is the 89 dollar tier. (69 if you get in for the early bird).

I put a lot of thought into how to offer the best value to backers at the least risk to us once we got funded.

At the low tiers, we're giving vouchers to print your first few figurines at purely the cost of materials with no markup. We're doing that so we can still give value without running the risk of having to shoulder the cost of everyone cashing in their free swag at once. Some successful crowdfunds have nearly tanked because of not anticipating that.

Also, we can't precisely predict how much each miniature will cost because they're all different, so to plan for it we'd have to aim high and offering them at lower levels would balloon our goal to huge proportions purely on fulfillment costs. So instead of 68,000, our goal would have to be 100,000 to compensate, which might be too high a goal for backers to even bother with.

You're definitely getting your moneys worth with the model packages though. Each at-cost voucher is going to save you about 5 bucks, which will be our markup on the materials once everything is up and running. Each piece, if you were to purchase them separately in the marketplace once it's up will cost about a buck each for simple items and between 3 and 5 for bodies, so at the $25 tier you are actually looking at a $40--50 value and at the $100 tier you are getting a $250 value in models and vouchers alone, and that doesn't even count the physical rewards you get at that level!

That make sense? Sorry if this reply is a bit long.

 

 

So for 89$ you are getting 1 custom miniature. One.....given you make make it however you want...one miniature for 89 dollars is insane. It comes across as they don't want to give anything 'free' at all and if anything is given for 'free' then you're only saving a few dollars from retail? Even at the 25$ level towards a miniature you have to pay for the materials/costs. @[email protected] Think I'm going to go back to painting now....

[buglips*the*goblin]

[ApesAmongUs]

Wow, so they actually are selling access to the model parts piecemeal (at an extortionate rate) once the KS end and it goes retail. So, essentially you pay for everything twice - once to buy the part and then to print it, which means for non-KS people you even need to pick out the parts and buy them even before you see how they look together.

 

The whole idea of paying for the use of 3d models that presumably have no function outside of their own software is in taking crazy pills territory.