When a Sculpture/Figurines became way too affordable to own a new one - Uncomfortable Reality I had to face as a Solo Sculptor
I am seeing more and more extremely affordable sculpture/small figurines with high quality paint job and material choice for its price. It feels like as if it was a great deal - Well except the fact that they come in Blindboxes so who knows if you'll get the one you wanted!
I have a strong opinion that if you are not careful, you'll probably spend way more than when someone buys an one-off sculpture. This is coming from someone who had little experience buying blindbox toy but only if I like the entire line of the toy, and someone who buys nendoroid or pop-up parade from Goodsmile company.
Although Goodsmile company has a more affordable option for buying 1/8 or 1/9 scale figure, the paintjob and how the sculpture looks and being designed made total sense for its price. Personally I am not afraid of this type of pop-up parade figurine line.
What I am most afraid if when big toy corporate decided to make blindbox toys for extremely low price (like I said, as an illusion), then the public decided to define that insanely low price as how independent sculptor should price their sculpture. Mind you, producing just one small batch of sculpture, even in simpler design, has such huge labour, time, and cost. To the point, I could not just price it very low!
So often times as a sculptor, I had to produce a more interesting concept and sculpture design, and really pay such detail to the quality and paintjob, to basically make my "fair price" made total sense. This does not come naturally and it does come in such long time. I'm not sure I have achieved it even.
Also, I hate the blindbox business model. It really gives an illusion for people to pay even more! So what if it ended up buying 5 more of the blindbox toys when each priced extremely low right?
Nope it's just oneeeee big price, just cut into 5 different bitesized chunks. You'll spend more still.
I don't want to shame anybody who but blindbox toys, as long as it is mindful purchase! Like I said it can be one way to purchase more affordable collectibles if you don't mind getting any of it. I do purchase blindbox toys mainly to study the physical material. So whatever I get doesn't matter.
Maybe it will seem like it will be much harder for us independent sculptor to sell collectibles but I'd even go far as saying: if someone made fun of your fair pricing, maybe those people are never the ones that want to take your sculptures a comforting home.
This is more of a "I talk to myself about my own concern" type of blog but I hope it will be much of a use to others! Thanks for reading!