Hello all!

This is actually more of a prelude to progress. I want to talk about where I’m at in the planning process, and what steps I need to take to get from where I am to where I want to be (proud owner of a team of Amazons).

First of all, when I had the initial idea I went through a flurry of thinking and plotting.

I have spoken to a caster, and got concrete quotes that will inform much of the costing process.

I have spoken to a few sculptors, and am waiting to hear back from others.

I am trying to get some concept art drawn up by a couple of illustrators I know.

After I get the concept art, and I have settled on a sculptor, I will be looking to purchase (with my own money) one or two initial sculpts to show how the team will look, and which, alongside the concept art, will enable me to give the crowdfunding campaign something to hang on.

And now, some numbers.

The cost of each sculpt could range from £100-200.

The cost of metal is £15.80/kg (which will produce about 3 teams of 16).

The cost of the moulds is £130 (two moulds), plus another £20 to ensure I can produce at least 50 teams.

Each time a team is cast, it costs £4.

Postage and packing – £15, Royal Mail Tracked, per team (assuming all teams are being sent to NZ or the US).

Thus:

16 figures will cost about £3200 to have sculpted.

Moulds cost £150.

Casting 100 teams will cost £400.

The metal for 100 teams will cost £530.

Postage for 100 teams will be £1500.

So to have 100 teams sculpted, moulded, cast and shipped will cost about £5780.

I then have to add 20% to cover crowdfunding fees and potential errors or pitfalls that may occur during the campaign or its fulfillment, giving me a rough estimate of around £6936. Rounding to the nearest £100 gives me a goal of £6900.

So what does that mean for team cost (which will include shipping)? Well, dividing that figures by 100 gives:

£69 per team, or £4.32/figure to meet the costs involved at a bare minimum. I will round this up and sell the teams at £70 each, or about £4.38/figure.

So what does this mean for the campaign?

First of all, it establishes a baseline. If I raise £6900 I can afford to have 100 sets of 16 figures made and shipped to 100 backers.

It means that I can work out stretch goal targets – if it costs £200 to have a figure made, how many extra teams (or team-equivalent funds) do I need to raise to have, say, a Star Player, an Ogre, two Cheerleaders, a Referee, an Apothecary, and a campaign-exclusive figure made?

Or how much would it cost to have fundraising-exclusive dice made? How many teams would I have to sell to afford a set of dice for each backer with a team? etc.

Well, let’s do some more maths.

Once all the costs of the moulds and the sculpting are covered with the initial goal being met, the cost to cast and ship each team becomes:

Cost of metal (£5.28) + casting cost (£4) + postage (£15) + 20% buffer.

That means every 16 figure team costs £29.14 to cast and ship.

Which means that for every team I sell over the initial goal I get £40.86 to put towards potential stretch goals.

To afford one more figure being sculpted, I need to sell (£200/£40.86) 4.9 extra teams.

To afford enough figures to fill a mould, I need to sell (4.9×7) 34.3 extra teams.

To afford the cost of that mould (£75), I need to sell (£75/£40.86) 1.8 extra teams.

Just to have the sculpts and moulds made for the add-on extras I need to sell an extra 36.1 team, or £2527 – and then I need to add 20% in buffer, which brings it up to £3032.40!

So to unlock stretch goals of any kind I need to raise £9932.40 (or 142 teams sold). At minimum. Let’s round that up a bit, because round numbers are good. Now we’re looking at £10,000 and 143 teams sold.

In other words:

INITIAL GOAL – £6,900

STRETCH GOAL – ALLOW SCULPTING AND MOULDING OF EXTRA FIGURES – £10,000

Then I have to consider the cost of casting these extra figures (phew!). Let’s assume that all 143 backers buying a team also get at least one of these figures each, so I need 143 sets cast. Fine. That’s £286 for casting, and £47.19 for the metal, plus another 20% – a total of £399.83, or another 9.8 teams.

On the bright side that suddenly gives me about a thousand figures to sell or give away.

NEW STRETCH GOAL – ALLOW CASTING OF EXTRA FIGURES! £10,400

143 backers buying a team is now 153 backers buying a team, or the equivalent.

Right. Excellent. Now I have a monetary goal to build around. Obviously prices may vary, costs can fluctuate etc etc and I may have made a catastrophic error which I will only discover later in the process. But I wanted to let you know – O you brave souls who read this far! – my planning and my direction.

Next time – picking a concept artist and talking to sculptors…!