Forget McFarlane... get 'YOURSELF' sculpted

[Venkman]

Focused on WoW, but no reason this service couldn't roll out for other RPGs and MMORPGs

FingerPrints- The service
Article about it

Short form: Order your WoW character as a sculpt for $99.95. Get it a month later.

In partnership with WoW publisher Blizzard Entertainment, FigurePrints will take orders from consumers at its web site, www.figureprints.com, and then go through an elaborate process before shipping the figures a month later. The models cost $99.95, but Fries thinks that World of Warcraft fans who have played with their characters for years won’t mind paying that price to get a model of their exact in-game character.

My opinion: they should have launched this a month ago in time for Christmas, rather than in time for when everyone's going to pass out from their credit card bills.

Edit: speling

[tmp]

The ability kind of been around for a while.

http://ogle.eyebeamresearch.org/

Probably quite cheaper than hundred bucks too, though one would have to look up costs of getting 3d print done.

[Furiously]

What's more interesting is who owns the fingerprints company.

[Surlyboi]

Do some of those for my CoX toons and I'm there.

[HaemishM]

Do some of those for my CoX toons and I'm there.

You want me to sculpt your CoX?

[Mrbloodworth]

Do some of those for my CoX toons and I'm there.

You want me to sculpt your CoX?

No. He wants someone else to do it for him.

[Venkman]

The ability kind of been around for a while.

http://ogle.eyebeamresearch.org/

Probably quite cheaper than hundred bucks too, though one would have to look up costs of getting 3d print done.

As Furiously said, this service and the partnership are what is more important. Getting some sort of full-color dot-matrix style rapid prototype of a CAD model has been around almost as long as stereo lithography. Having your exact WoW character built with one though is a different order of magnitude. Most of how that relationship was built probably had very little to do wtih technology.

[Lantyssa]

Probably quite cheaper than hundred bucks too, though one would have to look up costs of getting 3d print done.

3-D printers aren't cheap to operate.  We have a few in the department.  Take other overhead into account (depending upon quality), and it's really not a bad deal.

[MrHat]

YOURSELF should be in ' '.

[tmp]

As Furiously said, this service and the partnership are what is more important. Getting some sort of full-color dot-matrix style rapid prototype of a CAD model has been around almost as long as stereo lithography. Having your exact WoW character built with one though is a different order of magnitude. Most of how that relationship was built probably had very little to do wtih technology.

Guess i just don't see why it's such a big deal -- the ability to have your character sculpted if one wanted to been there for a while like you say, just like ability to get hand-drawn custom portrait of it or whatever. So now a guy who no longer makes money selling others' games decides there might be money in selling others' game characters, and Blizzard apparently agrees to the point where they stick their fingers in the pie. It's ok, the idea just doesn't give me hardon despite a honest try. 

[MrHat]

If they were bobble heads though..

[Draegan]

I just don't see the appeal of having a figurine let alone spending $100.00 USD on something that will sit on your shelf.  I can name many other things I'd like to do with 100 bucks.

Great idea for a stocking stuffer or something if it was like 25 bucks.  Just too expensive for me.

[MrHat]

Eh, there's a big market for desk ornaments imo.

[Lantyssa]

At a bazillion players, they only need a tiny slice of them to run at capacity and make decent money.  One sculpt a day puts them at $30,000 a month.  That's if they only have one printer.  They'll quickly be able to afford as many as their 'artists' can produce the final file to print for.

[schild]

100x30 is $3,000 not $30,000.

[MrHat]

100x30 is $3,000 not $30,000.

Hehe.  5PM is closing time.

[Venkman]

I just don't see the appeal of having a figurine let alone spending $100.00 USD on something that will sit on your shelf.  I can name many other things I'd like to do with 100 bucks.

Great idea for a stocking stuffer or something if it was like 25 bucks.  Just too expensive for me.

Yea, I'm not the market either for this stuff. But people are buying the generic non-personalized sculpted stuff already. This gives them something even more to blow cash on. The price is a bit different, but you're already talking about something that isn't an impulse buy anyway, so price is less an issue.

You also shouldn't discount the ease of this service. MP3s and MP3 players existed before the iPod. But it was iTunes (and the associative business model) that actually changed things, business-wise.

[HaemishM]

Why use a 3-D printer? Hell, it's not like WoW is going to have a whole helluva lot of different looking characters. 

[NiX]

Why use a 3-D printer? Hell, it's not like WoW is going to have a whole helluva lot of different looking characters. 

I think that's what makes this so funny to me. There's nothing really defining your character from the next except for your name. Hurrah for the idiots who decide to do this.

[Sauced]

Hopefully, when they are on their deathbed, and they look over at the nightstand and see their WoW dolly, they don't experience too much last minute regret.

[Draegan]

Why use a 3-D printer? Hell, it's not like WoW is going to have a whole helluva lot of different looking characters. 

Zing!

[Merusk]

You guys are so amusing sometimes.  None of you have kitchy, stupid shit hanging around your computer desks, do you.

[Samwise]

None of you have kitchy, stupid shit hanging around your computer desks, do you.

Not that cost me $100 I don't.

[Azazel]

This is the kind of thing I'd never get for myself, but I'd think nothing of dropping US$100 on something like this for my wife...

[schild]

You guys are so amusing sometimes.  None of you have kitchy, stupid shit hanging around your computer desks, do you.

I have some Persona 3 figures behind me. And a Big Sis Prinny. All combines less than $100 and there's no way the WoW figures are anywhere near as awesome as the Akihabara P3 statues. Mostly though, no. I do have a PS3 and 360 on my desk. Is that kitsch? ^_^

[Venkman]

Mostly though, no. I do have a PS3 and 360 on my desk. Is that kitsch? ^_^

Them being on the desk is kitschy How has your computer not gone and kicked their newb asses off that desk and back into the living room where they belong?!

[Kirth]

The actual sculptors are pretty decent but the coloring looks like total shit. I would rather they just sent me it un-colored and I'd paint it myself (though thats just me). I wonder how true to the armory it would have to be. my gear was pretty mis-mashed between t6 and t5 when I quit. All in all I can see this making some money for whoever.

[schild]

Are there standard issue WCII peons in WoW? I wonder if they'd make one of them. And just put 'peon' on the pedestal. I'd find that more fun than turning my avatar into a fagatar.

Oh god I slay me.

[Merusk]

You blew $600 on a console's potential, and how many hundreds monthly on games, and now you act like $100 is a big deal to some other geek.

This is LOLWOWHATE at it's finest, and it's incredibly amusing.   Could they do it cheaper? Sure.  Then it's not as geeky, though.

[WindupAtheist]

Why use a 3-D printer? Hell, it's not like WoW is going to have a whole helluva lot of different looking characters. 

I found myself thinking the same thing.  They won't do this for CoX characters, because CoX characters might require more than like half a dozen different paint schemes.

[Venkman]

I don't know what technology FingerPrints is using. But I have worked with machines that print with the same basic resolution, in both dot size/density and color, as a good inkjet printer. It's a powder/resin type operation that builds from the bottom up, and can include some undercuts. CoX, SWG, WoW, CoD4, TF2, all of that would be handled fine.

[schild]

You blew $600 on a console's potential, and how many hundreds monthly on games, and now you act like $100 is a big deal to some other geek.

This is LOLWOWHATE at it's finest, and it's incredibly amusing.   Could they do it cheaper? Sure.  Then it's not as geeky, though.

Oh, it's very much still as geeky at $20. I'm not saying $100 is a lot either, as I just said I'd buy a WCII peon. I just... maybe I'm underestimating the market for an avatar who will have different armor in a month.

[Draegan]

You blew $600 on a console's potential, and how many hundreds monthly on games, and now you act like $100 is a big deal to some other geek.

This is LOLWOWHATE at it's finest, and it's incredibly amusing.   Could they do it cheaper? Sure.  Then it's not as geeky, though.

Has nothing to do with hate.  I play WOW.  100 bucks is not a lot of cash to me, but it's the principle of the thing.  It's a stupid figurine for god sakes!

And you can't compare the console purchase.  You can actually do something with a PS3.  I mean it holds down papers, you can use it as a space heater and it also plays blue ray discs!

[schild]

You can eat cake with a PS3 also.

The Wii doesn't like cake.

Neither do these WoW figures.

[Lantyssa]

100x30 is $3,000 not $30,000.

Math is hard. 

Okay, so it's still nice for a small operation, just not OMFG Moneyhats!!! nice.