Easiest way with molds would be chocolate or gummies. Probably too much prep work though. Easier way would be Orders, of course. Eat your tokens as you use your orders!
Oh, for the love of all the lucky numbers in the Tohaa math books! 1. Introducing new materials and processes is not free. It comes with a lot of costs related to training, testing, machinery and so on. 2. Lower resource cost for one of the three miniatures in the pack is offset by the increasing costs of the base materials for the other two. Tin has risen its price several *times* since the plague started. Not wanting a product that looks like some of the vostoks posted in the thread is one thing. I myself will pass on the pack for now and I got the old metal nomad rems, just in case. But CB being forced to change the material is completely understandable from a market point of view and they are not scamming you. At this point the reasonable demands from someone who wants to stay a CB customer are either "get good with the plastic faster" or "offer metal alternatives for a premium price". That or going on a crusade to fix world's economy.
Or, you know, voting with your wallet and not buying the models that do not have non-Siocast alternatives.
Асtually i'd like this option, but price will be very premium, i guess, since they won't make too many of these. Maybe CB is afraid that their fancy SioCast machines won't be needed and plastic production will be treated as second-class. I still hadn't received mine Vostok, but some of my friends did, and results are far from nice.
Around 1st page of this thread I said that making metal versions of every plastic product would be something many people would pay very premium price to get. Bunch of people jumped on me for that, saying it would be pointless. Well guess who was right... IIRC metal miniatures have low initial cost, they maintain pricy for materials. There is no reason they couldn't make preorder only limited metal alternatives.
Low cost isn't the same as no cost. I don't know the specifics, which is exactly what you'd need to know to know whether requesting special material low-run premium versions are realistic or not. Then you also need to take into account how many units you can realistically expect to sell if you're splitting the revenue stream between two products, each unit sold of "premium metal" likely reduces the units sold of plastic with the sculpt adaptation costs for each material and the limitations of both materials as well as the casts for both materials adding a fixed overhead that unit sales need to make back in a reasonable time. Basically, I'm not sure CB has enough sales that this is realistic outside of ITS winner packs, convention special runs and products with additional value like that that we already know they're doing special runs of. As for me, I'd prefer high quality plastic for any miniature that's bulky and tall over metal. I love my Guijias for their shape, not their weight.
I agree in principle, but recent reports have left it very much open whether they are ready to produce their plastics at the same level of quality at this point. The Rao prototype looked near flawless, but the REMs appear to be vastly inferior from what has been shown. It's their first official product cast in plastic, so some hiccups are to be expected, but I believe customers will need additional proofs of viability before fully accepting this transition.
Pff... 1. Release plastic overpowered model 2. Wait a few months untill everyone gets it 3. Release a special limited edition in metal ??? Profit. There. No reduction of plastic sales.
You're assuming that people are going to be sufficiently disappointed with the quality of the plastic miniature that they want a metal one enough that CB can afford to keep prices double digit, then? So far CB has shown no indication that they want to sell products with quality that low... We're still talking about larger bulkier units here, not S2 units that idiots like myself buy 9 of for their AVA 3 Holoecho unit.
Hm. Is there some 'official' statement regarding Vostoks with attached head? Aren't they supposed to be pre-production version? Seems like all Vostoks in my lgs are like this (and mine is not even *that* bad)
Yeah, I've seen several (5+) in the wild in Poland, and then there's mine. It unfortunately looks like CB are simply shipping the miscast preprod versions as if nothing happened.
Not really related to these problems. I wanted to make a subject in the miniatures section, but I have error forbidden. I recap some tips for siocast minis. Copy my ex post: 1. Preparation / Cleaning / Deburring Source: Spoiler: In FAQ Siocast partie First, if the casting is not good enough, you should ask for an exchange at the mispack service (or the best would be to buy in physical to check in store, if possible). For cleaning/deburring, use a cutter (or a modelling knife) and fine sandpaper to smooth out the shapes, do not use a modelling file to smooth out the shapes (or coarse sandpaper) at the risk of linting the plastic. As for the preparation, the components are glued with super glue cyano, not with plastic glue. 2. Paint Stripping Source: https://www.facebook.com/LossofLieutenant/posts/4382338381825986 Best method resume: Acetone. Superior cleaning, cheap and doesn’t damage the plastic, provided it isn’t left too long and allowed to fully dry before manipulating. Loss of Lieutenant, did a review with several detailed tests (Simple Green, Dettol, White Spirit/Mineral Turps, Iso-Propyl Alcohol, Acetone). So https://www.facebook.com/LossofLieutenant/posts/4382338381825986
Got mine, it's same sculpt, without separate head. Not as bad as shown, but it can be seen, where things can go worse.
Was there any official announcement regarding the material of TAGs from TAG RAID? Some say it's Siocast, some say it isn't, which is right?
They initially said it's going to be Siocast. Then they said the monsters are too large for Siocast machines they have, so they will be PVC. Then they dropped Siocast for that product altogether, it will all be PVC.
I don't recall them ever saying TAG Raid was going to be thermoplastic. I recall people speculating it, but they shot it down without ever confirming anything. Partly because they've been satisfied with the quality on the larger PVC miniatures and partly because TAG Raid has been in development too long for the minis to be projected using this technique. --- I can recommend nail polish remover for fake nails as it is very effective on paint similar to acetone, but doesn't melt e.g. GW-style plastic. I've no clue what's in that stuff, but it should be trivially easy to find.
