Schneier on Security

"At $100 I'd expect the action figure to at least give corporate security advice."

And sound chips are cheap.

"Er, so basically they're making these things by trading on your name and image and they're keeping all the profits for themselves. Did they ask you to subsidize them as well?"

They did ask me how much money I wanted them to charge above their minimum for a royalty. I don't think I can raise the price any higher. I don't think it's worth buying at that price.

"But an action figure is supposed to *do* something! Does it even come with a tiny briefcase I can use to keep my passwords in? A talking bobblehead would be much nicer."

My fear is that I need to make something like 500-1000 for them to be affordable. I don't think I have that many potential sales out there.

"It might be worth getting hold of John Leach..."

That's a good idea.

I'm taking with someone else who makes similar toys. Once I get an idea of what sort of quantities are required for something at a reasonable price point, I'll post it in the comments here.

From a friend of mine who runs ToyVault:

"Action figures cost about $20,000 - $25,000 in up front costs including things like sculpting, creating molds etc. Minimum orders usually are 10,000 pieces per figure at about $2.00 per figure, plus about $4,000-$5,000 in misc costs like safety testing and transportation. We've negotiated smaller orders in the past as low as 4000 pieces. Not sure if a factory would do that now though since it's been 5+ years since we checked.

"Sound chips cost about $3,000 in set up fees and usually have a 20,000 minimum order and add about $1.00 in cost to the action figure.

"All these costs go down when you make 100,000+ pieces, which is why Walmart can sell figures at $9.99 retail."

To summarize: he can make them for $5 each, but only in quantities of 10,000. He thinks he can make them for $10 each in quantities of 4000.

I don't think there are 4000 people out there who want this thing.

I'll let you know if bobbleheads come out significantly cheaper.

More from my toymaker friend:

"Anything in plastic has to have steel molds, which is costly, at least $4000 per mold. A bobblehead would probably need 2, maybe 3, molds. Also factories are unwilling to make less than 4000 of anything in plastic.

"However, if the bobblehead was made of resin, then the minimum order quantity (MOQ) would be around 2000 -- maybe as low as 1000. Resin is more fragile, but it won't break unless seriously mishandled. Costs for a resin bobblehead would go to maybe $5,000-8,000 up front fees, then maybe $4.00 per piece plus $2.00-$3.00 for ocean freight, shipping, safety testing etc. Sound would be the same additional cost as listed above.

"By the way, plush has upfront costs of $1,000-$3,000, and manufacturing costs of $3.00-$5.00 per piece with MOQs of 800."

So maybe $15 each for bobbleheads, in quantity 1000.

I don't think I would look good in plush.