David Silva's Beasts of the Cenozoic and Eons mammoth Backerkit

[croco_105]

Just when you think they're going in the right direction.......failed again. I really don't get their logic by showing the figures in their latest youtube video but not mentioning the backerkit at all. Yes, they hid some mention of it in the comment section but why not just make it obvious and talk about it in the video?  There is the small Eons store banner below, but it doesn't really draw attention (especially if you use an adblocker, it's hidden).

I have to call them out on how badly this has been handled. Complexy is the company behind the Eons franchise, their website lists a staff of 84 people with a dedicated merchandise manager (who has been answering questions in the backer comment section) and a MARKETING MANAGER. There is a person who works solely on marketing for the company yet this is the best they can do? Launching a close to 200k campaign, but just whispering about it cryptically and quietly to your nearly 3 million followers.

A quote from their campaign page:
"There are more figures we'd love to unlock, so please keep spreading the word! These figures can only be made if this project gets funded, so it is up to all of us!"

Maybe Complexy should take their own advice and do their job properly, it's really not that hard. Stop hiding the content which potential backers need to see. Don't make hidden/unlisted videos about the campaign, market on all your social platforms and get the word out to your massive viewer base. It's almost as if they want this to fail.

We want this campaign to succeed but Complexy/Eons is not making this easy.

[Faelrin]

@croco_105 So I did some digging around on this. Found something out. It is no fault of their own, and explains a lot on the lack of marketing.

We've unfortunately been throwing shade their way due to our frustrations of wanting to see this marketed better without understanding the why the whole time, and unfortunately they can't tell us that up front either if I had to guess.

Someone's comment on the last baby mammoth articulation post helped shed some insight as well with why they haven't been marketing it much.

So basically it is PBS at the top. They have certain restrictions and Eons and/or Complexly have to follow them. Here's what I found out. I hope it is helpful to folks. Scroll down to the Creative Message Guidelines. It's all there.

https://www.pbs.org/about/producing-pbs/proposal-process/online/

Anyways there has been a slow (and steady?) uptick after the most recent video about the probosscideans. They also had a few more posts on instagram about it too. Andy's Dinosaur Toys also did another news video spreading the word of the campaign. Creative Beast had a new video go up today covering some of the prototypes from it, as well as another social media post (the scale comparison between BotM figures). It's getting even closer to the halfway point now (about $92,500k), and hopefully crosses it.

[croco_105]

@croco_105 So I did some digging around on this. Found something out. It is no fault of their own, and explains a lot on the lack of marketing.

We've unfortunately been throwing shade their way due to our frustrations of wanting to see this marketed better without understanding the why the whole time, and unfortunately they can't tell us that up front either if I had to guess.

Someone's comment on the last baby mammoth articulation post helped shed some insight as well with why they haven't been marketing it much.

So basically it is PBS at the top. They have certain restrictions and Eons and/or Complexly have to follow them. Here's what I found out. I hope it is helpful to folks. Scroll down to the Creative Message Guidelines. It's all there.

https://www.pbs.org/about/producing-pbs/proposal-process/online/

Anyways there has been a slow (and steady?) uptick after the most recent video about the probosscideans. They also had a few more posts on instagram about it too. Andy's Dinosaur Toys also did another news video spreading the word of the campaign. Creative Beast had a new video go up today covering some of the prototypes from it, as well as another social media post (the scale comparison between BotM figures). It's getting even closer to the halfway point now (about $92,500k), and hopefully crosses it.

Great detective work @Faelrin  that does make it more clear as to why they are so cryptic with their hints. But there seems to be conflicting ways they are going about it. For example, the PBS Eons instagram post clearly reads like an ad to participate in backing a product whereas on Twitter they are mainly sharing other posts but not directly saying themselves to "buy this product".

I guess it must be difficult for them to try and have a successful campaign with such advertising restrictions. With that said, it is odd they would launch such a project knowing the limitations they must abide too.

To the general public (such as us) who don't know all the limitations they face, it is justified that we are critical. Without the transparency of PBS policies, it just looks like they handled it poorly. With that said, I hope it succeeds.

[Faelrin]

Well for one thing I'm glad they took the risk, and they reached out to Creative Beast Studio for the figure sculpts. I don't know if we would have seen the lights of the Gomphotherium, Platybelodon, and especially the Moeritherium with David's focus on Cyberzoic since he's kind of done doing animal groupings now. The mammoth was expected as it showed up in Dragon Clan artwork a bit back, but anything could have gone for the others. Of course they all need funded first to say they are happening, but it's a chance for now that they can be made.

If this is ultimately successful I'd love to see a rhino (and brontothere, etc) and early whale one done too (already see folks expressing interest in Basilosaurus to go with the Moeritherium, if it gets unlocked because of WWB nostalgia).

[BlueKrono]

An early whale line like this would be intensely cool.

[Flaffy]

They still have yet to address why they keep all the stretch goal information so vague in the actual campaign itself. Hard to want something you can't see clearly. They really could take a page out of David's book and reference how he structures his campaign pages.

[Faelrin]

I think it's safe to say one of those is a female mammoth, and the other has broken tusks. Or it literally could be those tusk parts for the 1:35 figure. Could be repaints too but who knows. In any case based on their responses about the tusk parts for the 1:35 figure being locked away behind stretch goals (maybe), it seems those might have something to do with them.

Not exactly a fan of the fact the alternate tusks for the 1:35 scale mammoth are being locked away behind stretch goals though, and one might need to buy multiple mammoths for alternate display options. I think I stated this before though. Also considering the 1:35 mammoth is selling the least of the bunch so far, having two more be stretch goals before the more interesting genera is also disappointing to see, but this was shown earlier as well. I'm guessing the 1:35 mammoth with the male tusks was unlocked early to help to get a move on for the campaign based on the day 1 stretch goal arrangement.

I do think we should have an idea of when those will unlock at least too. Like how far off from the campaign goal? How much total do we need for Moeritherium and everything in between?

[Faelrin]

So the campaign has finally hit the 50% mark 14 days in, with 17 days remaining to hit the funding goal.

Comparison for the other campaigns:

Raptor Series: Funding goal reached 13 days in, with 18 days remaining (all stretch goals unlocked by end of the campaign)





Ceratopsian Series: Funding goal reached 14 days in, with 17 days remaining (not all stretch goals unlocked at the end of the campaign, required post campaign backerkit pre-order funding)





Tyrannosaur Series: Funding goal reached in like the first day or two, with the rest of the campaign soon following. An anomaly from featuring the most famous prehistoric animal of them all (all stretch goals unlocked by end of the campaign)





Cyberzoic: Funding goal reach in 4 days, in big part from a mystery investor, with 27 days remaining (all stretch goals unlocked by end of the campaign)





Here's the mammoth campaign so far in comparison. We should be on track to get the main campaign funded, but unless there's a huge last two days, the stretch goals might need the additional post campaign funding like the Ceratopsian Series required.

https://www.backerkit.com/projects/complexly-and-creative-beasts-studios/prehistoric-elephants



Not only did this have the worst first day showing so far, but this late in, it still obviously hasn't been funded yet. I'm guessing this is what has been holding the campaign back, but who knows, and anything goes.

-Lack of visibility (having it on backerkit, not kickstarter), and advertisement from Eons early on (due to PBS restrictions)
-Lack of variety and/or lower cost options (only the woolly mammoth, with the three others are stretch goals, also see below point)
-A disparity in price points for pledge tiers (on day 1, with only the $35 baby and $200 adult, with the snowy version bundle at $225). It wasn't until several days in until the 1/35 was (preemptively?) unlocked, which can be seen as the boost to the funding and backers above on the 6th. I'm kind of curious what the tiny increase that happened on the 14th though. Nothing too big, but bigger then it has been since like the 10th (when the Eons video went out).
-Lack of interest (from being mammals, not dinosaurs, being herbivores, not carnivores, being the woolly mammoth which have a dime a dozen figures out there, even if they aren't highly articulated action figures)

Hopefully the last few remaining days of the campaign have a strong showing (fully funded, and whatnot). Here's an updated tally count of the number of orders (previous one was here):

 -165 Backers (+18): 1/18th Scale Woolly Mammoth
-157 Backers (+16): 1/18th Scale Woolly Mammoth and Baby Mammoth - Exclusive Snowy Variants
-101 Backers (+31): 1/35th Scale Woolly Mammoth
-57 backers (+4): 1/18th Scale Baby Mammoth

From most to least purchased add-ons:
-137 purchased (+20): 1/18th Scale Baby Mammoth
-42 purchased (+6): 1/35th Scale Woolly Mammoth
-25 purchased (+3): 1/18th Scale Woolly Mammoth
-17 purchased (+2): 1/18th Scale Woolly Mammoth and Baby Mammoth - Exclusive Snowy Variants

Combined totals:
-194 (+24): 1/18th Scale Baby Mammoth
-190 (+21): 1/18th Scale Woolly Mammoth
-174 (+18): 1/18th Scale Woolly Mammoth and Baby Mammoth - Exclusive Snowy Variants
-143 (+37): 1/35th Scale Woolly Mammoth

[Carnoking]

Thank you as always for the exhaustive breakdown @Faelrin
It's always interesting to compare how each of these campaigns stacks up to its predecessor, so this is very helpful.

I'm still confident this will reach its initial funding goal by the end of its run.

I'm less certain about all the add-ons. Even if there's the option to get extra funding for them through the backer kit, I wonder if it will be enough seeing as they need 185,000 for the first two figures alone.

[croco_105]

@Faelrin thank you for the charts comparing the previous campaigns, I didn't know such data existed.

I wonder if the campaign would have been more successful if they offered all the models in a more affordable 1/35th scale (and maybe a larger calf also). Not many can afford or justify paying hundreds of dollars on non essentials given the current economy. I understand 1/18th scale was chosen to be in line with previous creative beasts models but wonder if that was a bit too ambitious. A smaller size would probably be more enticing to the general demographic of EONS followers who have no prior knowledge of the larger creative beast models.

I seem to recall seeing a comment on the creative beast facebook page about whether the mammoth would be available later on through their site. David did not say "no" outright but left a somewhat vague answer. Perhaps creative beast may have the rights to the models to do other things with them should the backerkit not be successful. Even if the woolly mammoths get funded, hopefully we can still get the others in some other future campaign.

[Carnoking]

Well, halfway through the campaign seems as good a time as any to finally give us an idea of what to expect for their stretch goals. Hopefully this and their continued promotion will give it a boost but if I had any misgivings about this campaign unlocking all of these figures, they're all but confirmed with this. No way they're cracking just south of 300k at this pace. 

[Giganotosaurus]

Is $226k possible?

[Faelrin]

We just jumped up over $4k just from folks preemptively pledging for those stretch goals if I had to guess. Hope the pace keeps up from here. Just gotta keep getting the word out (about to go make an insta post with this new update).

Also wondering if the Moeritherium being $50 is a mistake since the Platybelodon above costs that much? Or if it will really be that much.

[David96]

@Faelrin

I wonder if the campaign would have been more successful if they offered all the models in a more affordable 1/35th scale (and maybe a larger calf also).

Eh, I quite doubt it since interestingly enough the 1/18th scale mammoth is the one selling the best while the 1/35 version is selling the lowest. Perhaps the problem is more so with the unexpected 200$ price tag than with the scale itself. I'd imagine that people were expecting to pay something between the Pachyrhinosaurus and the Triceratops given that the Wooly Mammoth is not THAT big, rather than an almost T Rex tier price point. I get that prices have rised in everything so it's understandable that they charge more but 200$ is a very heavy price point, for Columbian or Steppe (or Deinotherium, Stegotetrabelodon, Palaeoloxodon Antiquus, etc) I'd get it but not sure if for Woolly.

Part of that is because the figure is a whopping 9 inches tall. Which (and I never thought that I'd be the one saying this, given that I always campaign for large figures) is perhaps a bit too big. At 9 inches tall it would be a bit over 4 meters in 1/18th scale, that's a freaking Columbian/Steppe Mammoth in size. I mean, I'm all for large specimens but not such a record breaking creature. And the height is important because, unlike other proboscideans, the Woolly Mammoth's fur makes it appear far more robust hence more plastic demanding. So a Wooly Mammoth that is that big would end up being the size of a Columbian/Steppe Mammoth but also demanding much more plastic, sky highing it's price. Imho, ideally it would have been someting like 8 inches tall. At that size it would have been a quite big specimen (3.65 mt tall) and still cheaper than 200$.

However, imho the bigger mistake (and I say it the most constructive way, I don't mean to belittle David or Eons but to help) has been keeping the stretch goals as secrets. It is a very counter productive policy for the customer, and David has made this mistake aswell during the Cyberzoic campaign. Many of the figures that are/were the most anticipated are/were stretch goals, and not only do many people are left not knowing their price and how much it takes to unlock them but also many people may not even be aware that they are a possibility in the first place.

It depends offcourse of personal taste but me personally, among many others, are more interested in the Platybelodon and the Gomphoterium than in any of the others (despite being very interested in the Wooly Mammoth and Moeritherium aswell). Given how rare their representation in figures (let alone in articulated ones) is, despite being such iconic and unique species. And I get that not every specie can be offered at the get go but at least knowing that they are a possibility and how much it takes to unlock them would draw enough interest to take the challenge as a community to achieve or even surpass the goal. Like, the worst part may be that many people may even be aware of the campaign but not that these three fan favorites are an unlockable possibility to begin with.

Thankfully the stretch goals have been revealed today, which is what I have been thinking would be the main solution to take in order to speed up the funding. I just hope that it's not too late to reach the last stretch goal given that there's only two weeks left, although the Cyberzoic campaign got a vertiginous ammount of funding in it's last two to three days so maybe that can be repeated here. Personally I don't think that there's a lack of interest in general in proboscideans, so while I'd not be absolutely confident in this campaign + stretch goals fully funding neither I'd be as pessimistic as I would be if the stretch goals were not revealed.

[David96]

We just jumped up over $4k just from folks preemptively pledging for those stretch goals if I had to guess. Hope the pace keeps up from here. Just gotta keep getting the word out (about to go make an insta post with this new update).

Also wondering if the Moeritherium being $50 is a mistake since the Platybelodon above costs that much? Or if it will really be that much.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that. If someone can please ask them if that really is the case, which I doubt since Platy is significantly bigger than sausage boy. And for a Moeritherium 50$ feels like a bit too much.

[Carnoking]

Given the sticker shock I felt with the Mammoth figure, and that it's slightly larger than the 35 dollar baby, I wouldn't be surprised if 50 for the Moeritherium is accurate and it's the Platybelodon that has the misprint. At 50 dollars and 8.5 inches long, that seems the most reasonably priced of the bunch. I'm wondering if it's actually meant to be in the ~70 dollar range.

[Flaffy]

Well, better late than never I guess. Would've been ideal if this information was made available at the start of the campaign when momentum and attention was at its highest.

The base roster really should've been 3 unique species. Platybelodon could've easily taken the 1/35 Mammoth's space (both require all new tooling always), and Moeritherium could've replaced the baby.

The $50 price tag on the Moeritherium is shocking though given how small the figure is. Pricing seems to be all over the place for this particular campaign. No way it costs the same to produce as the much larger Platybelodon.

[Noideaforaname]

The Mammoth focus is a bit frustrating. I'd be totally on board for either the Gomp or both the Platy and Moe (them somehow being the same price doesn't matter much when buying them as a pair), but I'm just twiddling my thumbs here since the only options are Expensive Mammoth, Orphan Mammoth, and Out of Scale Mammoth.

[Faelrin]

So I got an answer from Fraize regarding the price of the Moeritherium. No typo there. It will be that much. Here is why:

While the cost to manufacture the Baby Mammoth is actually higher than Moeritherium, we're making twice as many of the baby, so we're able to lower the price. You can read up on "Economy of Scale" to learn more about how this works in greater detail.

Honestly that makes sense to me, and while I get it costing as much as the Platybelodon, or nearly as much as the 1/35 mammoth, is going to disappoint folks, honestly I'd still gladly pay for one at that price. I've long waited for a figure of one to hit the market, and if it will be of a smaller production run, and one of this quality, I refuse to miss out (if it unlocks).

Edit: Case in point, I plan to switch the 1/35 mammoth out for it, if it unlocks (or if the Moeritherium does not, then I would switch it for the Platybelodon).

[Flaffy]

I wonder what the market demand is between the baby mammoth versus the Moeritherium. Especially those in hardcore paleo-communities compared to the general action figure collector.

I am biased of course towards the Moeritherium, but I can't help but feel the lack of species variety in the base roster is not doing the campaign favours.