Blade Runner Recreated Stunt Casting Model

[racprops]

And I have some news for you...

I looked at the thread and pictures of shapestorm stunt blaster:

That "stunt" casting has been modified...it is NOT ORINGINAL!!!.

Many of the screws have been replaced,and in one cast incorrectly, and the front of the Steyr reciver is also incorrect, the pin on a good stunt is a pin not a rod.

It also looks to be a reworking of a recasting...the new screws are getting bubbles.

I have a cleaner unmodified original 1985 stunt casting that has the correct detailing.

How do I know?? I did a run of Blasters in 1985 from a couple of those original stunt castings so I was there....

FYI.

AND you did not object to his price of $125.00 for a one part casting of a bubbly piece of resin...a hollow casting to boot…

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[andy]

I will let Shapestorm know about your accusations. He has worked as a a film prop authenticator professionally, and also helped restore the spinner in the Seattle sci-fi museum. This casting is much larger than your 1985 prop of which I have, so it is likely closer in origin to yours. Also many of the original rubber stunts had these bubbles in them, this casting recreated those bubbles in the original. They aren't new bubbles from a bad modern cast, but from the bad 1981 cast. The roto molding process is done to keep all original details crisp, and have absolutely no bubbles, and very little shrinkage. We paid a little extra for a cast from the real thing (or as close to it as possible), but if your accusations are true, then we did get overcharged.

Andy

[racprops]

I am sure he thought so, I know I have seen recasts X 10 of this prop..
but I do know of what I am talking about.

OK Here is the proof.

Check out the first 6 pictures:

http://s922.photobucket.com/albums/ad67/racprops/Blade%20Runner%20stunt%20model/

And check out how close to the right size my '85 model is next to a real Steyr Receiver is and so is the Stunt prop, with in a hair of each other.

Mine is the one with the brown grips...Granted it was thin side to side and had no Bulldog frame and triggers...

I have seen the oringinal castings that I cut up to make my '85 and this stunt casting.

And I know what the oringinal bubbles were like...and screws, most were gone and not as clear as those are. Most of the screws have been replaced.

The were all the same...the pin was there in all 5 stunt castings I have seen.

My only complaint is how you hammer me on price and jumped right on this one for $125.00.


Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[racprops]

If you go to this site http://www.imfdb.org/index.php?title=Blade_Runner

And page down to the group of three stunt blasters they show..the one you bought is the middle one. Right down to the pour point.

OR look again in my photobucket I uploaded a copy of it for you.

IF you look close you can see the other two do not have to same screw heads, the other two are the right ones.

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[Murderermarv]

Never mind,I miss read something.

[racprops]

For those that are already on board, no.

Newer sales, maybe.

Other sites and ebay yes, I think so... to $125.00 at lease.

After all I am making a clean, multi-part model not a one shot dummy casting.

I have to make a few molds not just one, as well.

To understand read this thread:

http://www.propsummit.com/viewtopic.php?t=1403&highlight=shapestorm

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[racprops]

OK For your viewing and interest I have just up loaded three pictures of the new reworked stunt model at:

http://s922.photobucket.com/albums/ad67/racprops/Blade%20Runner%20stunt%20model/

Note the grips and butt plate are separate parts as is the ammo clip, the trigger guard, the side rod, the screw and/or weaver knob on the side as is the other binding post knob, and the front post and screw.

And of course the two triggers. (These will be metal)

You can order the Worldcon clip or the stunt clip with no LEDs.

Upgrade parts will be METAL Butt Plate, Hollow Side Rod, and Trigger Guard, and other colors than amber for the grips.

Enjoy.

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[Michael]

Rich,
I think you put the wrong link in to your pics.

[racprops]

Your right...

Fixed.

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[andy]

I do believe a gun cast from an original piece does have added value, but we still want a kit priced under $100 for those who still won't buy the stunt or any other gun priced that high. Especially since you can get a Wilco for $50. You can price it at whatever price you want, but the people who are looking for an affordable model won't be buying it. Pure and simple.

It is funny you still don't get the point. People who bought the stunt bought it because it was supposed to be a cast only a generation or two from the real thing, not because they couldn't afford a better model. If you don't want to sell a super simple inexpensive model, they can still get them elsewhere. I know Adven and Elfin Knights are both working on such things. I only pointed out the stunt model because of what you wanted to title yours. Plus it was also years ago, before the economy went so bad. People were willing to spend more then.

Andy

[racprops]

It was 2009, last year. I read the thread.

I will make these and sell them to anyone that wants a nice model.

Get real, I can not afford to give shit away, no matter what you think or wish.

You paid more for less, a one shot slush casting...

Low price junk works only in the 1000s of units sold, and here I am lucky to sell 10/20 units...And if mass produced.

By the way a slush casting is a cheaper way to do a casting, it uses about 25%/45% of the plastic of a solid casting so they were done on the cheap as well.

And I have no shrinkage with solid casting with my plastic.

Rich
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[andy]

Make that 5/10 units after your posts here.

Andy

[Noeland]

You guys sure do like to argue with each other, huh?

I'm in for 1 raw worldcon kit Rich.

I bought one of the rotocast stunts. It's pretty damn durable for a hollow cast too. Not at all a POS. It adds a nice visual difference to my BR blaster display.

Njc-------
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I don't have enough blasters!

[andy]

The point is that there are a LOT of people who are not willing to spend $100 plus for a model. It is a big market and doesn't have to be a lot of work if you keep it simple, which was the point. It is not instead of higher priced models, because many of these people will end up upgrading once they get the bug. It is about filling a market that right now only recasters have filled. You need to stop comparing apples and oranges and see the potential. If you can't, you are the one who will lose out on that money. If they can convert one of your models cheaply to make a lot of money, than so can you.

Andy

[Robotprops]

Being such a specialized area, I think you definitely get what you pay for. If a fan can't shell out $100 for a reasonable replica, maybe they should get one of these;
eBay- 180582781621

[racprops]

Right, that is a cheap POS kit, a recast of a old Japan kit.

And I was talking about Andy's Wilco recast (his words) for $50.00.

Selling at a lost is no good for me.

I would not be mad if a lot of people had not gladly paid $125.00 for a one peice fast casted slush molded recast of a stunt peop that was a reworked inaccurate copy...and at this time I am being hammered about calling my models a stunt and over the price.

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[racprops]

Andy get real, I cannot live on a profit of $.10 cents per model, so yes there is always a market for cheap, but your need to sell a ton of those to make the same income from one good sale.

I heard that cry for a years when I first started..If only it was a little cheaper, so at Worldcon San Francisco, I teamed up with Nicks Dad whom had just came out with his Injected Phaser Kit and we set up Phasers from $10.00 for a Phaser one kit all the way up to my then $300.00 full dress model, we had kits and buildups at every $25.00 price point, IE A Phaser one for $10.00 a Phaser two kit at $25.00 a build kit at $50.00 and I offered lower priced older Phaser models and so on.

And yes we sold two cartons of the Phaser Two kits at $25.00 and I sold out of all my top of the line $300.00 models and had to part out ALL the in-between priced models, and all that sold was the lowest models and the highest, which we sold out, the rest were not wanted…

Do the math, at $25.00 each with a cost of say $10.00 to $15.00 (these were done within the USA, if he could have gone to China they could have cost only around $5.00) he made $10.00 to $15.00 per sale. A markup of easy 100% profit with almost no personal labor.

And as an injected model it was a mass production run, so he did all right. Other than pay for the tooling, and parts run, he had almost no labor in these, other than folding up the boxes and putting in the kit.

So I learned that only the cheapest stuff will sell, and you have to sell a lot of them to make a good profit, and to do so you need a mass production model, and that people will only really buy at the two ends end of the market, the cheapest and the best. All of the rest were unsellable…

And funny but that is why I stopped making the old stunt casting, it sold so poorly…

And lastly if I got the price down to say $75.00 of even $50.00 there will still be people who will not/cannot afford that and you will be crying how I should offer a model for $25.00…

You can never get cheap enough for everyone.


Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[racprops]

And another thought:

Most of you have already bought the Cheap models, why would you want a new copy of a dummy model that is solid cast in one piece???


I can see that there will be very few sales for that.

I am hurt and pissed off by the idea that I do all this work making a good as a model as I can, with lots of room for customizing and fixing up and I get hammered over the price and name…

And then I find out that no one complained over $125.00 for a guy to throw rubber over a casting he had to do no work on, and pop out a bunch of one piece castings.

I spent more time in cleaning up my old stunt model that it took to make that mold. And I still have to mold it and make molds for the smaller parts…

Can you see why that hurts??

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[andy]

I think you almost proved my point in there. You can sell a ton of them if you find the right price point, and if you are smart enough to make the casting easy and quick to do, so little work for you. The reason you would be able to sell more in places like here, TheRPF and ebay is that yours would not be a recast. Well actually it would be, but of your own model. I pointed out the reason why the price point would work, and why you would sell 10 times as many (or more), But you still insist on doing a ton of work for these, and then even point out why these mid range props don't sell. That is what I have been trying to tell you. You can sell hundreds at a profit of $20-60 each and all you have to do is throw rubber over what you already have. You also can't keep comparing your stunt to one that is, even if modified to some degree, still related directly to a screen used piece. Even as an apparent POS, it has a lot of added value yours will never have. It is like the difference of having a picture of Darryl Hannah as Pris, or having another picture of an actress portraying Pris. No comparison, no how matter how great you think your work is. It is still an imitation of the real thing.

I am just pointing out the market for you, You can still keep giving excuses as to why you are unable to do it, in the meantime Wilco and Coolmodels will keep selling kits and making tons of money you won't. Even though a handful of us still buy other kits than yours, doesn't make us the only market for these. There is a huge market for these, maybe not Star Wars or Trek huge, but getting bigger all the time. There are also a good number of model makers like Matsuo that can make and sell high quality simple casts for well under $100. I am sorry if your mind is too small to see the differences, and what I am trying to show you about this market, so much it insults you, but that is your fault for not having the vision to see the truth, and stay stuck on old concepts. If you can come up with an amount you need to make on each one, and make your molds simple enough, I am saying you will sell hundreds of them and probably in the end make more money for less work. No finishing at all. No fitting, no tapping, no nothing but casting. And best of all, You can still sell the higher end models too.

BTW a slush casting requires a temperature cooled material like metal, wax or plastic to work, and also usually has a metal mold. It will not work with a chemically cured material. Rotational molding is very different and more time consuming process. Both though make clean casts that are hollow, but that is about it. If you could make Roto molded stuff you could also save yourself some material and still have room for electronics, imagine that?

Andy

[racprops]

What ever...

In the race for cheaper there will always be another trying to beat me, all that takes is to be willing to give it away, or free supllies like on old recast used to get from his job, and the very model you telling me to make will be just too easy to recast and there we go again.

It is a race I cannot win...

But to be the best, I can win.

So I am not interested in the bottom end of the market.

Rich
_________________
I never have enough time to do all I want to do!