Special Preview link:
Going live tonight with a possible freebie figure that looks completely bitchin:
*EDIT*EDIT*EDIT* just go look at the page. Pic links still don't work for shit.
Waitaminute!!
I remember thinking their Black Snake figure was cool as Hell, but I didn't realize it was part of a sub-theme. That's hilarious.
Sometimes I really wish I still collected 1:18, because that stagecoach looks so good.
See... this is the kind of thing where I thank the heavens it's done in 1/18th so I can admire the pretty pictures and not have to worry about working nights and weekends to afford all of this.
This both intrigues and terrifies me - that stagecoach... and the horses... and the mule parts...
I have barely resisted the Dime Novel Legends line, but this may put me over the top and need to dive in...
The Cow-Bruh! dudes are pretty funny. I don't like that you have to pledge for a horse to get them, though. I've never been a fan of DNL horse designs.
The best thing in the Kickstarter, as far as I'm concerned, is the free Walks-Two-Worlds Native American figure if it makes goal in 24 hours.
The Cow-bruhs not being apart of the ‘all-in’ pledge only makes things confusing and unclear. They shouldn’t have been apart of this Kickstarter but it is what it is.
Going for a Blueberry and 2 Dragoons for now, will get the 4pack in the BK. I dig the Dragoons in an 'Oswald Bastable and the Warlord of the Air' way.
I'll preface this by saying I'm backing this campaign currently. I don't know how much I'll end up spending in part because of some reservations I have about it, but also - to be completely fair - because this is just a shitty time for a big KS (for me). Holidays are around the corner, and my daughter's birthday is next month and I bought her a $1400 guitar. So I don't exactly have another thousand bucks Canadian to throw down on a KS.
That being said, and again I am a fan of CFT/DNL and I'm backing this; this campaign still strikes me as kind of weird. Obviously, it's been successful so far and I'm hoping it proves incredibly successful before it's all over. So clearly my complaints aren't necessarily holding it back. But like.. there's weirdness and stuff I do not like here.
I think a big problem right from the start is they only kind of fixed the 'Cavalry KS' problem where we had a Kickstarter that was ostensibly about horses, but where the horses were all stretch goals so we never got any horses. This KS was a horse Kickstarter that had more regular figures than horses as opening items available to pledge for. That's weird. I really feel like there should have been at least two horses upfront. Obviously, this isn't as much an issue here because so many things got unlocked right away - but it was still weird to only start with the one, regardless of the reasons which I'm absolutely sure exist for choosing to do it that way.
The MOQs thing is just confusing nonsense and absolutely ridiculous to have here. This isn't how Kickstarters work. You present your initial 'we fund, this is what we make' goal. If you hit that goal, you make the initial offerings. Then, after the initial goal is met, more items unlock -after- you get to a point where you can make them. Presenting figures that you can pledge for NOW, but ONLY get made if MOQs are met for those specific items, is dumb. Unnecessarily confusing and a huge turn-off for even pledging for those figures. I don't get why you'd want to add any more layers of complexity and confusion to Kickstarter when your average chucklefuck backer can barely comprehend how Kickstarter works and has to ask a thousand super obvious questions.
It's just.. a bad approach. Bizarre and not the way I've ever seen any other action figure KS function.
But my biggest gripe, and no one will successfully convince me I'm wrong here, is not respecting the customer's dollar. Forcing people to buy fully kitted-out horses and then extra saddles to get the actual saddles they want is actually borderline insulting. So to outfit my five cavalry soldiers (more, if some more get made in this KS), I would need to buy 5 horses WITH saddles I don't need, and then 5 cavalry saddles.
Fuck off. That's 50 bucks per horse, and 25 per extra saddle. If we value the other saddles they come with the same way, that means not only am I spending 375 dollars for my cavalry horses, a full 125 dollars of that is for junk I don't want, don't need, and will never look at ever again once I toss them in a bin somewhere. There is no legitimate reason (don't care, don't even try) for not selling the horses and saddles separately so customers can match up the horses and tack that they want to have.
And no, I also don't care if that's a 'later option' or whatever. That should be the base campaign. Pick a horse. Pick a saddle. Or just get horses without saddles if you want wild horses. Or just get saddles if you're weird and have some kind of sex thing for saddles, I don't know.
125 -FUCKING WASTED- dollars. Utterly wasted. That's more than the amount that would be necessary to buy fully two MORE horses and tack. My 5 horses with saddles could be 7 horses with saddles -with money left over-. And no one thought 'hey, this is kind of a big problem?' No one said 'maybe forcing customers to buy parts they have no need for and don't want isn't the best approach and doesn't respect their support for our toys?'
Fuckin' weird.
Also, I kind of feel the same way about the mule parts. Just a sell a fuckin' mule. Why are you making me buy a horse, and then buy parts to make the horse INTO a mule, leaving me with useless horse parts? Just sell the mule. Also, now my mule has a western saddle because you can't buy a fucking horse without a saddle. Gawddamn.
I've sung a lot of praises for DNL. And will continue to do so. I genuinely like these figures a LOT. I've had loads of fun with them. I feel like they lend themselves so well to dio building and goofing around with. I've backed both previous Kickstarters. I own over a dozen figures. I'm a small timer in the grand scheme of things, for sure. This line doesn't live or die by how much I'm spending and I'm well aware of that. But still. I've been as supportive as I think I have been of most toylines I love and the complaints don't come from a place of negativity or looking for this to fail.
But with CFT's utter refusal to deal with their fucking awful international shipping policies, and this 'just give us extra money for no reason' approach. It kind of sucks and it bums me out.
That being said, I'm looking forward to finally seeing some CFT horses and saddles. I REALLY hope we get all that absolutely bitching stretch goal stuff. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to pledge for a Scarlet Dragoon, despite my complaints about the MOQ issue. I don't really care too much for the 'G.I. Joe: But Make It Western' stuff (wonderful idea, just not something I need to own in most cases). And with actual Joe toys, I have zero interest in CGs. But I absolutely love that stupid Scarlet Dragoon. LOVE it. Amazing pulp vibes. Like he'd fit right in with the all-white cowboy that I still haven't actually bought the parts for but also love. Also really hoping we manage to get to the Buffalo Soldier Gunner. That's a figure I really wanted in the previous KS (I believe he was the Buffalo Soldier Trooper in the previous KS?) and I love that we're getting a second crack at him.
If you stuck with me through all this - you're the REAL trooper.
@theknightdamien totally agree with you. The ‘all-in’ option not including the Cow-bruh figures turned me off enough I canceled my pledge entirely. What does all in even mean if it doesn’t include everything in the campaign. So confusing and convoluted. I think many people will be expecting things they aren’t going to end up with and be really mad in two years time when these actually ship. Love their weird western tales stuff but their business decisions are baffling. McFarlane has the miraculous track record with his crazy decisions but DNL don’t have that luxury yet.
Of all the boutique toy companies in the world, CFT is the boutiqueiest so a lot of their weirdness and pricing is simply trying to do better than break even with the factory, imho. I know John personally well enough he let me sleep on his couch at home once and bum some hotel costs by letting me sleep on the floor in his room a previous time; so I know he's doing his best to get as many different kinds of items out against the near-impenetrable wall that is The Factory.
On other hand... yeah.
I also dig the Scarlet Dragoon, and the Bronze Fusilliers side of things. Full-on steampunk Warlords of the Air vibes I wanna get balls-deep into.
I really feel like there should have been at least two horses upfront.
Some of the stuff like the gloved hands and the extra heads for the Cow-Bruhs seem like filler to me - not sure you need an unlock every $5K nor do I think there is a chance they wouldn't do the gloves or extra "beans" that are just repaints for the Cow-Bruhs stuff.
Also, I kind of feel the same way about the mule parts.
It is $25 for the mule parts and $35 for the pack saddle, so with the base horse it is $110 to make a pack mule. Why not just make a mule with the pack saddle? No good reason that should cost any more than a typical horse with saddle pack, or at worse just a bit more. I was actually fairly interested in getting a mule or two until I costed it out, but not going to happen.
Given how modular they have been in the past with the buckeroos and beans and accessory packs and so on, I am actually a bit surprised they didn't go something like $35 per horse and $25 per saddle and let folks mix and match.
Unlock the first horse and saddle at the same time as the minimum, then maybe a new horse and new saddle (or saddle paint variant) every $25K. 6 horses and 1 mule plus 3 horse saddles and 1 pack saddle, then offer a couple of variant saddles for the 3 horse saddles.
Anyway, I have been waiting for the horses to get into this line, so will likely back for the six horses and then go and pick up an assortment of figures from the previous releases. The stagecoach, if it happens, would be cool, but I don't see them getting there.
@buttmunch Really, to drive home how utterly bad and confusingly-presented this campaign is, when I read your post last month that was the first time I heard/saw anything about the Cow-Bruh figures not being included with the all-in. Which, first all, fucking why? Why even have them in there, then? But it's TRIPLE stupid because the add-on pieces specifically designed FOR the Cow-Bruh figures ARE part of the All-In. Whose fucking idea was that?
If I went all-in, I either need to pay extra for all the Cow-Bruh figures, or I get a bunch of Cow-Bruh accessories that are totally useless to me. Who could ever think that's a good idea?
@adrienveidt You're certainly being overly kind. And I get it. There's an existing relationship there, and by all accounts John and Paul are terrific guys. But neither is being done any favors, as guys trying to operate a for-profit business, by just doing the most ass-backwards stupid shit and giving themselves the excuse of 'well, it's my company so I'll do what I want.' They're not the only ones that have ever expressed that attitude, but that doesn't make it any less stupid and self-defeating. And baffling. Don't they WANT people to buy stuff?
@fac Exactly. You have a product built partly on modularity, but then refuse to sell things in a modular-friendly way. So what you're actually doing is steeply over-charging the few people that will go in on it anyway. Mostly, I expect, because they like you or because they want this type of product so badly they'll willingly get screwed over. It's basically the toy equivalent of video game company 'whales.'
Where this campaign is right now honestly, in my opinion, proves my complaints to be totally valid and correct. The campaign has like 200 fewer backers than their previous campaign, and the funding amount has barely moved in over a week - maybe almost two weeks until today or yesterday when it started climbing again? That's not just the usual mid-campaign slump - especially in the last few days. The audience is still there, so where is the disinterest coming from? Maybe the convoluted bullshit nature of the campaign, confusing add-on structure, and insistence on making people buy shit they don't want to get shit they do want? Nah. Couldn't be.
Even now, realizing this super obvious problem, CFT is offering that IF they get to the next horse unlock (they almost certainly will, but it may be very close to the end), they'll let backers get a PACK of all the horses without kit, to pair with their choices of extra saddles/parts.
So like.. still kind of telling the customers to get fucked? Still no option to just buy A horse without a saddle and get the saddle you want? Nope. Gotta get EVERY horse. Plus something else because that pack will be an add-on and you can only get add-ons if you're already backing for a base product - unless I'm reading all of this wrong.
So like... lame? Just lame and I don't understand why this wasn't planned out better except that it seems like CFT either refuses outside input, or only listens to yes men that tell them all their ideas are great. I just don't get it. It's so wild to be THIS frustrated trying to just collect a line that I LIKE.
@adrienveidt You're certainly being overly kind. And I get it. There's an existing relationship there, and by all accounts John and Paul are terrific guys. But neither is being done any favors, as guys trying to operate a for-profit business, by just doing the most ass-backwards stupid shit and giving themselves the excuse of 'well, it's my company so I'll do what I want.' They're not the only ones that have ever expressed that attitude, but that doesn't make it any less stupid and self-defeating. And baffling. Don't they WANT people to buy stuff?
John certainly has had that strongly territorial view of his businesses long preceding his association with Paul; but I don't think it's that so much as the hypothetical profit margin for this toyline is so razor thin that it's quite possibly something stupid like hypothetically how KS or BK charges companies for 'premiums' and 'add-ons'. There's a LOT of people involved in getting one of these boutique action figures into your hairy little paws and all of them want a cut. Much like MarauderInc.com, I don't think CFT.com makes a profit and the two toylines really survive based on how much MarauderJohn and Paul can afford to lose versus break even while doing something fun with the money they make in their day jobs. I don't get the vibe that Paul's pockets are as deep MarauderJohn's are and thus we see these sort of weird pricing-versus-MOQ issues come up as Paul tries to limit the bleeding.
I generally show disdain for those who wait to the last minute to back something, but I really only wanted the horses with a variety of saddle/pack looks. So since it seems likely this will get over the 170K needed for the string of ponies, I decided to back - right now on the hook for 2 horses, 2 Cavalry and 1 Native saddle and, and hoping for a final burst to unlock the string of ponies, the final horse and the mule pack. I think they maybe heard some of the comments about needing horses without saddles to entice people to pick up the extra saddles and mule parts, because I am fine with essentially $30 a horse and $25 a saddle instead.
Latest Post: Daredevil Top 10 - Just For Fun! Our newest member: aajs Recent Posts Unread Posts
