Hopefully the first prototype will be shown on Sept 9…with final product being ready in mid-october. I don’t think the mods will shut this down, I’m hoping not. I’m currently trying to arrange something where everyone would actually be buying my custom from the company directly. But I think if I order a larger quantity of them, it will be cheaper for everyone if they go to me and I distribute. I have several references on the board, I’m not a scammer, and I think anybody who knows me, knows that
Hi Slink,
We’d like to assure you that we won’t be shutting down this thread or banning you. We are discussing how to handle this and will contact you shortly. 
im interested
I’ve received relatively high interest. Hopefully that will result in a price break. I’m fairly confident it will.
Hi Slink, we’ve sent you a PM, please reply to it as soon as possible.
To all members, we kindly ask that you read this thread and this thread for more information.
For interested parties, the thread will remain open as long as no financial enquiries or exchange takes place on this forum, so as long as no one breaks the rules, you don’t have to worry. Members are free to provide constructive comments and feedback, as every other non-for-profit fanwork maker is entitled to. And of course, you can conduct the business transactions elsewhere like through email or other social networking sites.
Here are example posts which breaks the rules:
“Hi, how much is the Woody toy? Could you sell it to me for $20? I’ve PM-ed you my mailing address and Paypal account number.”
“Hey, I can sell it to you for $15. I can give you a Jessie doll for $25. I’ll send it to you within a fortnight after receipt of payment.”
And here are example posts which are fine:
“Hi, I really like your Woody fan-model. His hat is cool. I think you need to get the snake out of his boot, otherwise I really like the design! Do you sell them?”
“Thanks! I make these for the fun of it as a fan, and I don’t sell them. What do you think about this Jessie doll?”
If you have any questions, feel free to contact any of the Mods for further clarification.
So, you can ask if people want to sell something or say that you are selling but you can’t name a price? I’m just not clear on where your supposed to draw the line. Seems pretty blurry to me.
Either way, I’m not worried. There is no way there is “profit” in this for me. After dropping $200 on the prototype, I’d have to get many, many others to order with me just to break even. More than I think are interested, let alone make profit.
This honestly makes me want to take the idea to eBay instead, because I would make money there (the last painted set on ebay went for $80, these should be the best ever made) but i want to help out and share with other collectors, so I won’t, because I don’t want to be like that.
[rant]
I really don’t get why one individual blows it for everyone. It’s not like the board/moderators/whatever can be held responsible for any bad deal, that has or will ever go down, as a result of a conversation on here. Worst case scenario, they hear someone complain about it and say “Pixar planet assumes no responsibility, blah blah blah”
The fact of the matter is, this board has many casual fans, but many more collectors. This should be a place that allows sharing and helping out other collectors, whether that be with info regarding release dates, online and real life locations that have stock, or occasionally picking something up for another collector.
Should you be able to sell TSC bullseyes for $150? No, but there has to be a happy medium. I could name several members that i’ve helped out on here (the last several being at cost of product and shipping ONLY, not a dime for gas, time, or packing materials) who would be pretty upset if I got banned for helping them out. And several people who would like a great set of troikas. Making a blanket statement about anything that can be construed as “selling” seems to be an overreaction to one member. This board is essentially dead outside of collectors, now that Toy Story 3 has been out a while.
[/rant]
At the end of the day, this thread is not about profit. It’s about sharing a product that ONLY I will be able to purchase. If that is construed as "selling’ there isn’t much I can do about it. If that is looked down upon here, I’ll gladly remove the thread.
I’m sorry that the example was a little hazy. It was merely a set-up question to prove that the thread-starter had no intention of selling his products, and was making it purely for his own purposes and to practice his art-and-craft skills. In the thread-starter’s response, note that he told the commenter that he does not sell his fanwork.
Besides, if anyone innocently asks a fanmodel-maker whether he sells his/her works, it’s not like the Mods would instantly ban them outright (although if said person read the forum rules, they would know that commercial selling is not allowed in the first place). But we hope that the fanmodel-maker will reply that they make it for no commercial benefit, just like the millions of fanfic writers and fanartists who do their work just for the fun of the fandom.
If you ask me personally, I have more respect for those who create fanwork just for the sake of it and to improve their artistic skills, than those who take a copyrighted character and make a tidy profit from it. If one wants to make a financial profit, one should use one’s own original characters and stories, not pinch it from others. Or resell their merch in the second-hand market, although again, I feel that it is better to support the studio through cinema viewings and plugging the film to one’s friends rather than through non-biodegradable merch which will end up in landfields.
Personally, I’m not sure if the forum has a “bears no responsibility” clause, but the reason we do this is because a few of our members are minors and we are concerned for their wellbeing. Of course, this doesn’t mean that we don’t care about the adult members too - no one deserves to be scammed or part of a financial fraud.
After studying the rules set out by Phileas, my personal interpretation is that there is nothing against sharing info regarding release dates, or sharing online and real-life locations that have stock. I have witnessed several thread where info about Pixar merch is shared, or where members post pictures of what they’ve found or discovered. That kind of “Hey, look what I found” or “Did you know this store has this” info is fine. When it becomes a financial transaction (ie the exchange of money between two forum members), it becomes a little more risky.
We in fact have a ‘Toy Story Replicas’ thread which is still up, which we took down, but after receiving fan feedback, resurrected. So we do take the members’ comments into consideration, and anything is open to negotiation. From your reply to my PM, I assumed that you were okay with the conditions, but it sounds like you are a bit dissatisfied from your [rant][/rant] aside here. If you like, I can bring this up to the other Mods and we can discuss the rules a bit?
Well, if we have misunderstood you, we apologise - do let us know what arrangement you would like us to make. And we have no intention of removing your thread, as I mentioned in the last post. I have received approval from three other Mods: ellie-jessie-eve, Spirit of Adventure and The Star Swordsman in this decision, but if you would like to make an inquiry, as I mentioned in your PM, you are free to do so.
I’m fine with the fact there are rules and will follow them. I’m simply stating that there has been an intense overreaction to one individual’s dishonesty.
Just because I will accept and follow the rules, doesn’t mean I can’t be frustrated. There will always been dishonest people out there, some even that will prey on the young and innocent, but quite frankly aren’t young people supposed to be asking their parents permission for online transactions?
Also, the member who this the rule is a reaction to, wanted you to send him cash/money order/check in the mail. Anyone on here that uses Paypal (including myself) is very hard to rip off. If you pay someone on paypal and they don’t send you anything, you can dispute it. That member can be forced to give a refund and get their account banned. Even if I tried scamming people, it wouldn’t work. And no one wants to lose their paypal account.
This board has been close to dead for a while and the only two threads that are consistently read are “toy story collection” and “toy story replicas.” Both of these threads have been down for LONG periods of time, simply due to bad picture link being posted. The only way we can fix it is to pm the picture poster and wait for them to respond. Sometimes the threads have been down longer than a week. Contact the moderators about this, and tell them what they can do, and it’s complete inaction. I know, I’ve tried.
I’m not trying to insult anyone or say the moderators are ineffective. All I’m saying is, this is very frustrating. Several people on here would like to buy products…especially rare ones like toy story on ice merchandise (just to name one). If they chose to do this and not be safe about it, isn’t that their call? Everyone knows the risks, and after ONE bad transaction, that person will no longer be trusted by the community.
And once again, I’m not even “selling” anything. The company producing them is. Only I can purchase the item, as it will be “my patent.” and I can get cheaper prices on a higher quantity. Everyone knows the risks of dealing with people online…95% are honest, 5% will screw you, and it’s always a risk. But for those people who WANT to buy these, (like the ones who responded to the thread), I feel like that should be their call. The board can warn people about the risks (although, anyone who owns a computer SHOULD know them), but at the end of the day, the board isn’t liable, cannot be sued, so what’s the harm?
The rant was based on frustration, not disregard for the rules
Sidebar, is there a reason we’re treating Tyler Haslett like Voldemort? Every post about this seems to deliberately avoid saying his name…
I was going to say “you know who” or something, lol…I don’t want to name names, but i suppose the infamy makes it all but apparent.
I agree with you that minors and their parents are really the ones who ultimately make the decision. But as the people who run the forum, we owe a duty of care to them. Of course, we can simply throw up our hands and go “Yeah sure, do what you want. You know, if you get scammed or anything, it’s not like we didn’t warn you.” We might as well not bother censoring swear words by rude members, because really, everyone should be polite. Or removing links to vulgar images or adult websites, because frankly, everyone should be aware there are people not old enough to be seeing such content. But we do this, because we look out for anyone who participates on this website, and we care about them. We don’t go on ego trips or get a kick out of doing this (Everyone who becomes a Mod was a former member sometime or another, including me). What our members choose to do outside this community is beyond our scope and resources - and really, it would be outside our ‘jurisdiction’ anyway. We can’t tell you what to do on other social networks or in RL, but we try our best to keep Pixar Planet as safe and family-friendly an environment as possible.
Well, this is new information to me. If you have mentioned it before in previous posts, on behalf of the Mods, I apologise that I missed it. Again, if you feel you have a case, either by the integrity of your mode of transaction, or your trustworthy credentials, feel free to send an appeal to us and we can reconsider things.
I’m not sure whether there are not simply enough fans who want to discuss the Toy Story series simply on plot, or characterisations, instead of trading replicas. Or if the Toy Story franchise tends to lend itself to merch discussions more than any of Pixar’s other films. It’s a natural flow of life in the forums when a new film is released for new discussions to take place in the respective boards, and then for it to die down, before resurging for the DVD release. It’s as ordinary as the share market or weather. I do wish that there were more fans to discuss the finer points of Wall-E or Ratatouille with me, but the boards have been pretty dead. So I go visit the other, more active, boards like ‘Members Inc’ or ‘Other Animation’ and mix around with the people there, instead of sticking to just one board.
As for the threads being down, I’m not aware of it personally. The site has been pretty glitchy since the revamp, and of course, like you said, sometimes bad picture links don’t work because of the original poster. I’ve posted many pics in other parts of the forum and they all worked fine, so I don’t know if this is an isolated incident to the Toy Story boards. Also, most of the Mods and Admins are doing their work voluntarily and have lives outside of the forum in RL. So we may not be able to reply as quickly as we’d like to (or at all, if it misses our attention). We try our best, and on behalf of the Mods, I apologise if we don’t run at full speed half the time.
It’s not just that Tyler made one bad transaction (in fact, he made several). He abused the other Mods, both privately through PM and in public, on the boards. He goaded other members against us, and painted himself as a victim, instead of amicably ‘agreeing to disagree’ and taking his business elsewhere. He even threatened to file a lawsuit against us (although we weren’t sure if he was capable of doing so), and stalked Phileas and a few of the Mods through social networking sites. I supposed he was the reason for us drawing up the new rules. I’m sorry if this sounds unfair, it probably is, but again, better to err on the side of caution. This is first and primarily, a fan forum to discuss about the films (among other things) and share non-for-profit fanwork. Not a commercial selling, trading or procurement-of-rare-replicas-assistance site. There are other sites for those purposes.
Well again, there are other sites for that sort of thing. As I said in the last post, you can share info on how you obtained said merch, or to show off those you already own. Those ain’t against the rules as far as I can tell. If someone wanted another person to help them get a toy, they could contact them through Facebook, or Myspace, or Twitter, or email. The forum is not meant to be a conveyancing service. Yeah, I feel it’s kinda bureaucratic for us to cover our own *ss, but again, there’s a legitimate reason behind it. As I said, we have been threatened with legal action by Tyler, and whether it was a serious threat or a bluff, we don’t want to risk it. We don’t have a legal team, and even if the case were to be thrown out of court because it had not grounds, why go to all that trouble? Also, why should we allow that 5% chance our members would get scammed if we can prevent it?
Thanks again for understanding the rules and consenting to it. And of course, you’re perfectly entitled to expressing your opinions as long as it isn’t abusive or offensive. Despite my reasoning with the points you raised, I kinda understand your sentiments about the situation, as I also have encountered problems where I couldn’t do something because ‘it was the rules’ (writing political posts, having a large signature, etc). I throw a hissy fit, and then I get on with participating in the site through other ways, like writing horrible fanfics or chatting incessantly about JL’s Hawaiian shirts. Just gotta give and take, ya know?
We occassionally refer to Tyler by name. I personally don’t have a problem with it, since I was not one of his personal targets. Thankfully.
To quote another fan site of a popular animated TV series:
Hey everyone, I asked for an update today and this is what I got:
"Sorry, we are several days behind the schedule. The trickiest task is to reproduce the fish scale. What are the projected order quantities? It could be possible to accurately hand paint it for few eggs. But it would be a hassle for a hundred. "
On the minus side, they are still a few days away. On the plus side, they seem to have taken my " as accurate as possible" very, very seriously. The fish scales have a very complicated pattern and if you look closely enough, each scale line is three colors. These might end up more detailed than I expected…just a thought though, still have to see the final product.
If these are turn out as accurate as I believe them to be from what you’ve been saying then colour me 100% interested.
I’m sure they’ll be somewhat expensive for what they are, but being a unique and limited item will makes them worth the higher cost, especially considering the care and attention going into getting them spot-on accurate.
So what is your projected order quantity? It must be tricky coming up with a number - not yet knowing the price they’ll sell at nor how many people can afford / would want this as part of their collection, especially considering the relative obscurity of the characters.
Whatever your quantity consider one set all but sold already. Cant wait for piccys.
I’m not 100% sure at the moment. I would say the absolute minimum is 5 (some people are interested only after seeing product or knowing the cost). I’d say it’s likely between 8 and 10. However, once I actually get the prototype pics, if they are as good as I think they’ll be, there might be more interest. I’m hoping to get it to a min of 10. I think that’s a reasonable goal for now. I will be able to order them later as well (presumably for the rest of my life, or if the company goes under, until then) if there is interest later. I also still haven’t ruled out ordering 1 or 2 extra and testing eBay interest (mainly to get back some of my prototype production costs), since there are probably some ebayers not on this site.
They will be pricey for a relatively obscure character, so I only expect interest from the more hardcore collectors (or crazy troika fans). But it is something I really want, and if my final cost is $200 for them, so be it ( I will get at least some of it back, but $200 is the absolute most). Plus, I wanted to see what the company came up with…because they might be able to make me another character or two later on.
What other characters do you think they could take on?
They also do custom shapes (they did a custom job for coca cola where they made coke can troikas). I’m thinking that the roly poly clown might be possible. It’s a fairly easy shape…at least for professional word carvers…I know the roly poly clown wasn’t made of wood, but I think they’d do a good job. And if they did it hallow, I could actually make it a “roly Poly” object with a weight at the bottom below the center of mass…could maybe even throw a bell in there to make it jingle. The professional painting I believe would look nice (maybe even make it look glossy/plasticy and not look wooden). Probably not close enough for your tastes…but if the troikas are quality…might be something I look into. But that won’t be for a while…can’t put the cart before the horse.
I could see that. Your probably right, I’m not sure wood can ever look plasticy enough for me. The shape does seem simple enough though.
I wonder if they could do a Slinkydog. He was based on old wooden pull string toys so it could be right up their alley. Probably too complex from an articulation standpoint though. Even if it wasn’t completely accurate it would still have a certain charm to it. But yeah, lets not get ahead of ourselves and see how this turns out.
I might be interested in the troikas, I’m not sure yet. The whole wood VS plastic thing still bothers me.
I dunno, my thoughts would be that slinky is a little too complicated. But you never know. Honestly, if the current slink isn’t accurate enough, I don’t think you’d like a wooden one…but could be wrong. I don’t think they’ll look “plasticy enough” to pass as plastic, but could always looks close…I dunno, even if they arent perfect, they’d still be a fairly unique item.
Not to be a Debby Downer by any means because I for one am CRAZY about the idea of a company making toys for us but is this project legal? Are we allowed to use the Troikas design without Pixar knowing?