This long bit of writing was looking kind of gigantic to me, and taking up too much space, so I moved it here.
August 04, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
WWW.PAULBUDNITZ.COM
The personal web site of Kidrobot founder and president Paul Budnitz.
Who is Paul Budnitz?
Where is Paul's press?
INTERVIEWS
Reach Aug 08 NEW!Paul Pope Jul 08 NEW!
The Sucklord Feb 08
eBoy Dec 07
Frank Kozik Oct 07
More interviews coming soon!
LECTURES & PODCASTS
Core 77 Podcast Nov 07AIGA Denver Podcast Nov 07
Blog Archive
- Jun 2009 (5)
- May 2009 (9)
- Apr 2009 (7)
- Mar 2009 (7)
- Jan 2009 (2)
- Dec 2008 (2)
- Nov 2008 (4)
- Oct 2008 (15)
- Sep 2008 (16)
- Aug 2008 (7)
- Jul 2008 (6)
- Jun 2008 (10)
- May 2008 (18)
- Apr 2008 (3)
- Mar 2008 (5)
- Feb 2008 (9)
- Jan 2008 (10)
- Dec 2007 (12)
- Nov 2007 (29)
- Oct 2007 (17)
- Sep 2007 (15)
- Aug 2007 (2)
- Sep 1976 (1)
27 comments:
Good post!
And although I personally don't really like the new KR Simpsons toys, I think you explained KR decision really well.
Wow what a bunch of fucking losers.
Yeah seriously thank you for posting this, I heard a lot of backlash from it.
perfectly said....keep up the good work
Now, if only you would would do away with the blindboxing, I would buy a full set of these Simpsons toys...
Or maybe I'll just start paying with blind-boxed money. You'd get a sealed envelope that might contain anything from $1 - $20, but you won't know until you sell me the toy.
-Steve!
I love that idea. Maybe we should start blind pricing, you open the top of the box and it tells you what you've just paid on your credit card...
:)
Well, according to your business model, that would make sense. Why should I know what I'm paying when I don't know what I'm getting??
Life in Hell toys please!!
Fuckin brilliant. ;)
-H
Huck has never sucked.
Please take this comment as allogorical.
Paul
Yeah, I get all of this.
"The Simpsons" is something totally atemporal, so it can't be 100% nostalgic. Old episodes are super new if seen today.
And rules are meant to be broken anyways, so you guys just do what is right and fun. Are we are still loving it.
sticking a simpsons head on a dunnys body still does not make 'collectible art'
So, "Go Fuck Yourself" cause I've gone to Monkey King for real art toys and have given up on Kidrobot.
This is like watching the leader of a revolution ride into power and then, once he's in power, renounce the ideals of the revolution and do what he can to stay in power.
I was part of your revolution. Kidrobot got me into designer toys and apparel and I thank you for that.
And I gave complete loyalty to KR. I spent over $7,000 from KR directly last year, and thousands more at other retailers. But a long list of problems spoiled that early this year and I haven't spent a cent.
And maybe 10 new Simpsons fans will buy a few blinds to try it out for every hardcore enthusiast like myself who sees these new toys as selling out and have taken our business elsewhere (like Munky King). But is that a good long-term business model?
Fox Media is one of the worst "big companies that kill life and suck". And Kidrobot is now marketing their toys.
Yes, the Simpsons are cool. You should have had Matt Groening make some customs for you and not this.
I was hoping to read this blog and get some 'hope' for the direction of kidrobot. Instead I'm told that selling out is okay as long as it doesn't totally suck, hypocrisy is not black and white but part of the kidrobot ethic, and in the future we can look forward to Muppet toys?!?
I get your point, totally.
I also agree about Fox being nasty. Fox news makes me want to vomit.
I'm going to give some more thought to what you're saying. It may be that doing side projects like this is a too much of a distraction from our essential mission.
It's not about money -- Kidrobot makes many dozens of toys for every project like the Simpsons. It was really because we liked the toys and we like Matt. We do not need to make Simpsons toys to survive.
Anyway, thank you for your comments, and for being willing to be open.
Paul
I get your point, totally.
I also agree about Fox being nasty. Fox news makes me want to vomit.
I'm going to give some more thought to what you're saying. It may be that doing side projects like this is a too much of a distraction from our essential mission.
It's not about money -- Kidrobot makes many dozens of toys for every project like the Simpsons. It was really because we liked the toys and we like Matt. We do not need to make Simpsons toys to survive.
Anyway, thank you for your comments, and for being willing to be open.
Paul
I would agree with whoever said to do "Life in Hell" figures! How did that one pass you by?
OT-
Hey Paul,
My 2 year old son loves to collect the munny zipper pulls! He can't get enough of them....he could be munny's(zipper pulls) youngest collector? I get it though, for me it was little twin star/my melody stationary in the 80's.
We left Brooklyn on Sunday to visit the NYC flagship store and were delighted to find a sale going on and he bought his first dunny and dunny hoodie for the coming(nursery-hah-ha)school year.
ANYWAY, i get a call from my credit card company today as my acct has been frozen since our purchase at your store(aug10th). I was going to call to talk to a manager tomorrow but i'm pretty pissed so i thought i'd go straight to the top. Apparently, one of your employees(or friends or theirs) took my info and charged more murch from the store onto my card(on the same day!!). My company noticed this and called me. It was def. an inside job the lady on the phone told me....they even added themselves as a 3rd auth. person on the acct.(nice).
Whatever, i get a new acct tomorrow.
Your NYC store on the other hand might have a little illegal racket being played out.....just thought you'd want to know. Not too good for your business.
peace and good luck.
I can see both sides points of view on this one. Personally I wouldn't class these as art toys at least not in the same way as the Dunny releases etc. I think if these were open boxed there'd be less of a backlash. The Simpsons are cool but I don't think many people will run the risk of ending up with multiples of them. They're collectable but not in the same way as Dunny.
Obviously a company like Kid Robot has to change over time, even just taking into account how many people collect their products means there has to be a fundamental change to the business model otherwise only a tiny percent of KR fans would be able to snag the toy they wanted. Even this has caused some people to spit the dummy and stop collecting because there's more than say 1000 of a Dunny release so to them it suddenly becomes worthless. I don't collect the stuff I do cos it's rare, I collect it cos I think it's really cool. To me just collecting a toy because it's really rare is totally souless and the quickest way to dissappear up your own ass. I hate trying to find the rare stuff.
To me a more important factor is the way that KR handles (very) limited edition releases. I've always collected Dunny but due to being a UK resident I've not had the chance to get items like the Baroness 8" and the crap thing is that almost all of them were just bought to be flipped within a week. This is part of the increasingly prevalent synical element in toy collecting/flipping.
All of this is part of the scene expanding and changing. I used to buy a lot of stuff and I always bought every Dunny but nowadays I only buy the odd thing that I like.
The toys/art have changed, the market has changed and I as a buyer have changed as have my tastes. Just because I don't like a release doesn't mean it sucks, it just means that I think it sucks and that's fine. In fact I do think these Simpsons toys suck. What it doesn't mean is that Paul Budnitz has tried to ruin my life by releasing a toy I don't like. Get over yourselves an maybe leave your keyboard for 5 minutes and go for a walk or something.
When I first saw these I thought they looked like happy meal toys, but on reflection I think that has more to do with the way I percieve the Simpsons brand and less to do with the toys themselves. I think that's the way a lot of people are viewing this, in a knee-jerk reaction kinda way which is understandable cos the Simpsons got REALLY played out at the height of it's popularity but that happens with any cultural phenomenon (StarWars anyone?)
Thank you for your note.
The flipping thing is really hard to work with. I know what you mean, and we try to limit one (occasionally two) toys per customer. If anyone has any new ideas, that would be great because we're trying to stop it!
Dear Jasmine
Thank you for your note, and I'm sorry for these problems! We really want to help you, and also find out if there is something sneaky going on in our store we don't know about.
Please email sales@kidrobot.com, and specifically ask Michael or Jason to connect you with James. He will look into this for you. If you have any other problems getting through, post here and I'll help you!
Thanks for the heads up.
So you know, all Kidrobot employees are forced to sign a contract stating that if they do anything illegal, we get to confiscate their toy collections AND cut off their left pinky. So we've got great leverage.
Seriously, if there's something fishy going on we'll deal with it immediately, and do everything we can to help you with your problems.
Paul
I don't really think flipping is your responsibility I just hate it, I suppose thats a personal thing that didn't really belong in the comment for your post I just got pissy. Sometimes it just seems that the people who act the most elitist esp in this scene seem to be the ones who're out to take advantage so the two topics merged in my mind, KR have done lots to try to circumvent flippers like the message board exclusives unfortunately it just means that the boards get jammed with people who are....let's just say on a different level/state of being to the KR ethos (at least in the way I percieve it)and it seems to me that they are the same type of people that take every release with heart attack seriousness(ie how much will these be worth).
It's kind of like when the band you love, hung out with and watched in the seedy dive-clubs becomes a platinum selling supergroup, some folks disregard them due to there success, because they're known they're just not cool any more. I'm just here for the "music" so keep rockin it.
I like the fact that you guys try different things, not everyone's gonna like it (me with the Simpsons for example) but fuck that, kudos for moving onwards and trying new things! You should never have to explain your decisions. Just remember some folks who are vitriolic in thier comments only are so because they really care about KR and have a true affinity with the brand.
The people who are here for the art, creativity, community and FUN of the whole thing will be here long after the dust settles/bubble bursts...whatever. All I know is that personally you guys were my gateway into this whole scene and I'm thabkful for that and I'd even say that you have given a lot that people have taken for granted or are soon to forget.
Enough of this love in. Get onto a new J Marshall release!!!
Hi Paul-
I must say it is impressive when the CEO of a major corporation has better communication skills than the customer service department. Impressive for the CEO, at least...
But as a hardcore enthusiast of the art-toy revolution, I wonder what direction KR is heading?
I have not "abandoned KR" and "spent my time and energy with someone else that deserves my attention." I love KR and I want to dance with the one that brought me to the dance. Obviously, reading your blog I still give KR my time and attention--but not my $$$ anymore.
Where I've spent my money is on the three recent releases that exemplify what an art toy is and should be are the chueh's possessed, yamamoto's koibito, and ashley wood's bertie.
You have been asked to defend the Simpsons release, but I would like to ask, in your opionion as to what Kidrobot releases have stood out this year? What is art and not just a toy?
And as for flipping, it sucks when demand prevents you from getting a toy that you really want. But, on the business end, once flipping ends, that is, once postmarket toys are generally worth less than retail and not more, the toy market will be dead. For collectors, retailers and manufacturers alike.
A good example of that is the CritterSplitters and Sket-bots. Even at $1 a piece they cant sell out. what if a large partof the inventory got that way? What if it already is? hmmm...
So where is KR heading? and what KR toy release has stood out to you this year?
Thanks Paul...i liked envisioning the repo of their toy collections! So cruel.
~Jasmine
Hi Butchness
Thanks for your note & your kind words.
How many to make of a toy is kind of a balancing act.
Anyway, I don't know about us being a major corporation, -- you know, there aren't that many people over here.
My favorite toys over the last few months... I love Unicornisaurus, and I really really love the Paul Pope toy. I've been a fan of Paul's forever (did an interview, so that's obvious) and we maufactured VERY FEW. Its an expensive toy, and it is very surreal, so it'll probably sell slowly, and that's OK. It's not the kind of thing that sells real fast.
Not meaning to defend Kidrobot exactly, but you know, NOT selling out is sometimes a mark of us having faith in a designer, and saying fuck it, lets take the risk and make it anyway. So, Sket was like this, and after Sketbots he went on to design some really remarkable stuff. He's one of the best custom artists in the world, along with Huck and others.
You have no idea the number of really big companies show up at our door trying to make stuff with us. Soft drink companies. TV companies. Really scary celebrities. Big Box retailers. We're actually fairly picky about who we'll work with.
Thank you for writing.
Paul
Paul any comment as to why the QC on half the simpsons toys are great and why the QC on the other half are just inexcusably bad. Especially on the homer with seams showing and holes on the sides of the head etc. Also the paint issues on most of them. They are a great design but the QC issues really take away from the set especially at 8 dollars a pop.
Please comment.
Chris,
Like all of our injection-molded toys, there are some seams and tooling marks on the figures. This is unavoidable; it's a result of injection and rotation molding.
That said, your Simpsons toys certainly shouldn't look "inexcusably bad" - drop us a line at sales@kidrobot.com and let's see if we can help!
Sincerely,
Philip
Kidrobot Customer Support
This cannot be considered nostalgia at all. The Simpsons airs original episodes most Sunday evenings. Not even counting all the other ways in which the franchise is contemporary (Simpsons Ride, Simpsons Movie, real-life Kwik-E-Marts...), the continuous original content of the television episodes makes it plain that the word "nostalgia" does not apply.
Post a Comment