Hi there,
I do apologize for lurking; work commitments real world + moving have kept me from the hobby.
I have only a few minis compared with 3 years ago; mostly customs I've kept from trades over the years, and the monk council. Oh, and my bits of my bits box.
I'd like to talk about character miniatures and have a discussion with the community about having figures we can't make being made.

I'm looking at a few characters that I cant make being made, and wanted to bounce some ideas with the community.
We mightn't get everything on the wishlist (probably only 2 or 3 from it initially, more if we team up); so hopefully the wishlist has diversity and a 'what the' factor. These are figures we haven't seen at all before anywhere else, and we probably would never otherwise see made elsewhere.

EDIT: Do people feel this thread needs to be moved to the Customs section?
I put this into Off Topics because I felt there might be a lot of non-Customs related technical discussion etc
and seeing as how technically im not making anything, i felt it was a better fit here.

The Concept
I was putting this out there to wonder if anyone has come across "not figures" in their travels,
and to test the waters of interest people might have for a 'not Naga Monk' monk figure...
What finish/detail do people feel is appropriate? SWM detail/quality control is haphazard; and generally of a lower quality than Pathfinder, Reaper, GW40K, Dust Tactics and many other tabletop games... consequently, I feel that if we get minis that are too detailed, they might look great next to Knight Models SWMini line, but they'd show up our WotC mini sets... I'd opt for a lower detail standard; this may work in our favor when trying to get 'sculptors' to consider these projects.
How close are we prepared to have the likeness/non-likeness?

This Naga Monk has been a long held want of mine; how do you feel about the completeness of your monk sets?
We've never officially had this monk figure to complete people's monk sets, its been one of those glaring gaps in the figures, and I doubt we'll ever see a Naga Monk* ever made. In all my years, I've not come across a not-Naga Monk anywhere worldwide: have you? (excluding the fine polyvinyl custom specimens made here and elsewhere)

Potentially, generic thispassian naga monk characters could be made, we'll see. I'm very interested to hear peoples opinions around scale discussions. I'd like a couple of naga monks to run in D&D games and in Fallout minigames set in Oceania. Its a very generic concept, as are all these potential figures.
I feel that THE Naga Monk wields 4 lightswords (hence why he was killed, due to being a threat to Separatist GenG).
Also, do people feel the naga monk has tentacle/tendril hands, or has 5 digit finger hands?
My naga monk will be based on the comics and EPII, 40mm high, so newer fans will have to customise the newer headwear.
Would people be interested in a Hyslarian variant? --- the Hyslarians seem similar in scale to Thisspasians.

I don't think I've seen any Goofy Monk*/Rubbernecked Monk (Yarael Poof, that Goofy character) figures as yet,
I haven't seen too many customs of this figure anywhere, let alone standalone sculpts.
and I'd be keen to hear what people think about this characters scale to other monks, like Conehead Monk or Kel Dor Monk. I think goofy monk would be 3 heads taller than conehead monk/keldor monk, based on the actionfigures for monks and much of the EU art work.
Some artwork though suggests that Goofy monk is 2.8m high (or 3 R2Units end to end), which would be almost 5-6 heads taller than conehead monk (now that is goofy!). Itd be almost 45mm high.
I want my goofy rubbernecking monk to be 3-4 heads taller than keldor monk.
would people want goofy monk in a spinny attack pose? Its hard outside of Robot Chicken to find dynamic art for this monstrosity of a monk.

A Jastus Farr Monk Feeorin/(Blue Brute Monk*) would also be something I'd be very interested in having made.
This character, from the rots game and from the EU, is about 2 times the size of a large person, or about 7-8feet tall and 5 across... I wonder what people feel about the scale? 1.8 clone troopers high and a 40mm 2x2 base sound rightish?

We haven't seen Revwien monks in a while: existing ones are superdooper rare, contain lead and are frankly too tiny. do people think a Revwien Monk wears a cloak/robes?
These'd be great along with some venus flytrap figures as terrain markers (could even be adapted for vong or nids).

A troig monk would be awesome. Would it be better as a darksider? Two lightswords, or one? Robes armor, robes and armor? Male or Female Troig (and if female, tri-bewbed as in Total Recall?)

Foul Moudamma "Abominamal Snowman" monk would also be one I'd look at seeing made... as awesome as our customs have been over the years, I'd like to see this one tackled.
What do you feel? Does this monk have boots, or are they barefoot?

J'Mikel Anx monk could also be something I could see being made, (though I'm happy with my version as is )
What scale would we be looking at compared to a clonetrooper figure, do you think? I think my one is too small, so maybe up to 48mm and a 40mm base?

Now, a neti monk (or Ent Monk) could also be something of interest.
For those who couldn't find the mage knight tree mage figure, this could be an option.
I'd prefer to see a female neti monk made, and I've a fair idea of the scale involved.

A tholothian monk (rasta haired monk) could be made...
though I envision a head rather than a whole figure, and even then, Wargames factory already does great Tholothian heads!

an Aleena monk would be great, so I could finish Tsui Choi 'properly';
theres a few ways this might be realised, as either conventional or as 3D printed, there's options.

I made a stalk headed jedi ages ago... humanoid till the neck, at which point 2 or 3 crab like stalks jut out where the head oughta be... would people be interested in a crab monk?

MasterSinube Monk...
I'd really like to see this made (turtle monk) and a
Besalisk Monk made (triple chinned General)... we'll see, depending on time etc...
Bothan cat-monk would be very neat,
as might a Cathar monk.
A Halsey monk figure outright might be a tall order... especially given that we could make the figure anyway from existing WotC parts + Green Stuff. A head though might be sculptable...

Would a Gand monk (flyman monk) be something people would be interested in?
good monk or bad monk? what kind of pose... there are also some scale issues, so any comments on Gand Scale are welcome!

Finally, Ken-To might be able to make some more Ergesh minisbonsai,
and failing that, new versions of Ergesh might be forthcoming in the near future; I was wondering what scale people thought that ought be in... is this character more like tangela, or more like a bonsai?
The original comics depictions vary from a rock with vines, through to a venus flytrap/bellsprout style plant with prehensile roots... sorta like the Revwien figures. I like mine as bonsais with roots over rocks, I'm curious how others see this

---

Changing topics,
In terms of dark monks, droid roboticas...
I'd like to see some Pit Droids made I'm thinking 4 per base or 2 to a base? sorta like the mouse droids?
a T4 Turret Droid (this custom has haunted me, and I can't find any good example of customs made elsewhere worldwide).
the concept heavy rolling droid (based on the chiang drawings).
also, irregular R2 domes etc; I've had some success in contacting other custom makers in the past, and I'd like to see many more of these made and available.
I can make and have made loads of roboty-type minis, that and there's quite a lot of them out there, so please bare that in mind when suggesting roboty type characters.

Admiral Trench was a character that caused me much grief to try and make (tarrantula general);
this'd be a great multipurpose figure I could use in Fallout too...

Ive yet to see a Montross or Vizla (wacky bounty trackers).
Montross will be made, its a matter of when. I've had a crack at customising this mini, and always felt it needed a better approach than mine
Is Jaster needed, do you feel?
If we were to include Jaster... I'd have to insist on a fresh Jango Survivor mini.

Where's Xanatos (that angsty pupil of Liam Neesons): wheres he been hiding at?

How would people feel about a dark Slug monk? (Slugga the Huttt Monk)?
or just a generic sluglord? These'd look great as Slann Mages too or in Fallout as minor bad characters...
In the past, I've seen shabby ones at these scales, and we do already have one out there.

Has anyone come across a Chodak miniature?
These villains from Star Trek: A Final Unity are highly unusual, and would make a good generic villain.

Larvox (the new style transparent one) would also interest me;
a blueant was kind enough to make the old style green lightcorp figures a while back.
I think much of the lightcorp would make great MIB style villains.

Would people want alien bounty hunters/guns for hire?
What sorts of sculpts and poses? Just bare in mind that these are more ubiquitous, so we're chasing the unique poses/stuff that is hard to find.

Telekinetic generic lightswords would also be a sweet mini, along with 'irregularly shaped polygon markers' to serve as holocrons/ intrinsic dice markers for D&D games.

---
SO
You can probably see the problem there;
Only 3 figures potentially being realised, from a list of over 30 odd minis.
How can we get some of the rest of those 27 figures realized? The 3 with an asterix are already in the mill,
its hard to sort the rest from the list, and thats where you come in!
Where's demand at? Which ones do we absolutely want to see, and which ones can be relegated as 'meh at best'?

I'm going to bounce the exegetical approach here with you;
I envisage this along the lines of "The Lost Twenty" approach, or the custom card sets expansions we've seen over the years. A last hurrah of the customs/minis community, to prove we're all still alive and still care about minis .
At a later stage, we might need to team up if we want more than 3 masters from the list to be realized.

I approach this as a hobbyist - I want to keep things as simplified and as close to production cost as possible, so the end unit is as close to the prepainted figure market prices as is humanly possible .
While showing the minimaker the appropriate respect for their time involved as is appropriate
(sometimes getting payed in excess of ~$90 per hour for ~5hours work just for a master figure alone, not including casting, AND THEN on top of that, the potential for the maker to have made a mold that can spawn 900 odd minis @ $3-8 per unit, is a little too respecting from a hobbyist perspective, for a non-canon mini that is ultimately a paperweight/shelf ornament that you've then gotta base, paint and assemble yourself anyways).

I'm used to getting hobby commissions made for me by amateurs, for anywhere around the $20-$80 price zone per raw green mini (theres a lot of variables involved, but thats essentially for a 1-4 hour job); not the recent ~$400+ per figure that all levels of 'sculptor' seem to now charge as a minimum (thats experienced/professional or amateur alike, anywhere in the world). Thats if you can get through to them; often there are 2 or more gatekeepers/agents/intermediaries who tack on a cut into the garage kit model... 2 or more interlopers who don't care about art or the hobby, but who instead have $ where the eyes should be...
As a hobbyist, who wants to 'make the minis my own' anyway, and complete them as part of my customising hobby, I'm used to paying GWminis/Hasslefree minis prices (up to $30 for pewter figure blisters), not ~$400-1800 per individual sculpt (thats minimum) as an individual enthusiast.
As a hobbyist, I dont necessarily 'care' about that master figure, I just want my copy of the figure, and normally the master is the responsibility of the maker anyhow.

Being a moneypit of a hobby already, I want to limit the profit motive in third parties as much as possible
while respecting that 'kids gotta eat: I got skills that you don't" factor that sculptors so often raise.
They are talented people, sculptors, no ifs ands or buts about that.
I have to state upfront that I'm not the one casting or sculpting the minis, I'm just a hobbyist that wants their monk collection completed. So I, like you, would be very annoyed if I saw a third party profit unfairly, or put any mark ups on my paperweight that don't need to be there.


So, hopefully I've outlined where I'm coming from, and can find methods which achieve the best of both worlds;
a few sculptors potentially could take on figures for less than a quarter of that ridiculous going rate, and hence would allow people to also back a copy... worse case, if we had 20-odd interested people (or a few charitable/enthusiastic ones) and cloud funded onboard, then the cost per master would be a cup of coffee, and then we'd all be able to get a copy of the figure much closer to those more familiar prices.
No-one would own the master (the maker would keep it for their records); we'd all get to have our monk figures realised.

This'd be similar to crowd/cloud fundzing
(so, a cup of coffee each in the group for the master, and then another amount for your copy/copies + your appropriate postage and handling):
but we'll only jump that bridge if and when we come to it.
At this time, for example, I'm having the Naga Monk mini made to fill that gap in my monk collection
(so I'm taking care of the master), to see what quality is out there.
I'll let you know how that project goes, and where to get it if it goes smoothly.

Thanks for taking the time to read!
I look forward to hearing discussion and feedback,
any suggestions you might have are greatly appreciated
cheers!
Kobayashimaru

Hi there!

Its been rather hectic with work supranationally of recent,
with WTC and Tapis doing its thing, its been rather interesting...

anywho, I'm pleased to share a few updates

Above: a space pirate naga monk forms... with moncal monk for scale.
How do people feel about the scale?
I feel, depending on your cannon, that this is PERFECT SCALE!

As you can see from texture, etc... the detail is emerging on this project
- certainly an order of magnitude greater than my own abilities - props to the sculptor!
Who are they [sculptors of such wonderful minis]? Where can you get these monk minis and other tabletop figures?
All in good time.
Hopefully there'll be some female naga monk variants as well, maybe even a Hysalrian variant?
Theres some other faces I worked on as well, a fat face (there should be all types of aliens represented), a couple of different insect/dinosaur faces (so think of if Oppo and a Gand had a love child, or Oppo + Coleman Trebor or J'Mikel).
And of course there's always the fun that you can customise a mini and make it your own once you've got a good foundation to start with --- I'll be using some of these for Fallout Tabletop RPG and definitely in Dungeoneering.

Effects Tokens
There is bad news at this time on the effect tokens concept;
(also known in other parlance as "thrown lightsaber component", "Holocron/Dice" etc)... the material thickness has been hard to make work with Makerbot or other options, so thus far there are only a handful of prototypes from the lab's assembler (that thing is cool).
These prototypes're also superbrittle, even in 'frosted ultra detail'. What's worse is, for the flamethrower/jetpack effect, there seems to be a flaw with the plastic which limits the types of glues and solvents which can be used... its not a polyvinyl to polyvinyl surface. This might be to stop people from printing their own copies of copies or something... its certainly not mould release. The reaction can be violent: melting the plastic and discolouring or warping the figure, especially where glues like tarzans grip through to generic glues are used
There are a few different ways to proceed:
I could either try running off a lot more of them from the lab assembler (my boss will kill me), These are brittle.
The 3D sculptor whos working on this stuff, she can try to make a pewter cast from a rubber mold (end result will have less resolution and fidelity),
another sculpter has an opaque 'clear-crete' putty they claim will dry opaque... this claim seems legitimate, but I wanted hi-fidelity translucent/clear as opposed to opaque --- and it'd be even better if the effects pack could come pre-coloured physically in the plastic (so, it ships already a translucent orange/ green + clear, etc) so people can customise the mini as they see fit.

What are your thoughts here? Clearly for some customs C.E.Ratios, you won't beat the ratio of making it at home yourself with clear acrylic rods; but not everyone will have that skill set, so if I can get the minifig ratio as close to the acrylic + glue + greenstuff + mini model Prc.Point, that would be superb!
I also want to value the 3D designers and sculptors appropriately/proportionately where possible. They shouldn't be payed a once-off lump sum; it should be proportionate, as if they hadn't done the work... we wouldnt have the cool stuff (much like our engineers, physicists etc). by the same token, these designers should then have lower upfront overheads if they intend to be part of future successes, because the effort on their part diminishes as a function of volume.

so, as a for instance, maybe its a mix pack of parts up to a margincap, say $5 or whatever
(whatever the lowest possible cap is, P+H is a killer), and each component by itself is like 0.3c, but the catch is you must get a minimum of say 30odd components. There'd then be a range of configurations on 17 odd parts that could add up to the $5...
alternately, I could just employ the Virtual Stat Card model, and print off an arbitrary number as the cap, and then have an opt in on that... bottomline, who cares so long as we get more original WotC minis which we then customise!
A simple component, so just a 'translucent light rod', 'shooter rifle' or 'blast effect' would be cheaper than say, 'jetpack contrails' or 'holocron floating/holocron on plinth' or 'thrown lightsword, 6 telekinetic lightswords around base" those sorts of effects... these'd be in the fraction of a cent per unit, but with 'minimum of 50' *translucent paints and inkwashes not included, not a flying toy.
Jetpack contrails would be around 30c-$1.10 (this is production cost per unit, not what the unit is made from: the unit is made from about 20c's worth of plastic + ~0.07c odd worth of electricity, then you've got the 'labor' and other margin factors). Looking at the ratios of effects in minis over time, you can see this seems to be how DC Clix and WotC originally seemed to look at per-unit manufacture... until recently, with DC Clixes increase in effects, Pathfinder minis and what have you (but look at the aftermarket perunit in this new 'effects +' era, its gone up a few dollars more than inflation, probably to increase what we're prepared to value to cover that unit cost).
As other things like generic pitdroid robot #5 or thrown lightsword) could be a character or figure in their own right, and cease to be a customisable component... these things I feel would have to be more in the vicinity of a couple of dollars each: around the cost of a common figure, or cup of coffee. For more process and energy intensive minis (pewter), I could understand prices approaching to (but never reaching or exceeding) GW40K prices.
Have you ever thought about the logistics like this before? Or has my dayjob spilled over into the hobby?


Digression aside,
The Chodak mini/s are coming along fine, I shan't be sharing teasers until I come to an understanding on the whole set size and breakup: it'll probably be a couple of 3-5part mini's
(that translucent internal mollusc and the clear canopy are non-negotiable design elements which present something of a design challenge) , repleat with either a built-in regular 1x1 flight stand (custom designed as a separate component) or with a recess for an acrylic flight stand that I source separately (whatever has the lowest per-unit cost, after all this is a hobby for me as an N-F-P. project hahahaha).
I've included in the sketches of the 'heavy' chodak, some recesses for magnets and so you can customise the figure with other magnetic recessed minis components (adult lego much?) You can glue magnets into the lego, and use those as components; just means you'll need to buy more lego for your kids to replace the legos you take off them huh?

Whats Next?
The next minis on the backburner/production list appear to be;
Goofy Monk (will be next after the Naga Monk),
Besalisk General (Toad Monk Master), --- consensus elsewhere is that Jastus is substantially larger, so will require a separate figure.
Revwien (unsure if a Revwien wears robes or not...).

People have argued for NJO minis,
some standouts have been Desann, Saba Sebatyne and the Bouncers of Ruusan
theres been a request for a generic Anx...
and for a Foul Moudamma mini.
A big one I thoroughly endorse is a generic Huttlord mini on large base (maybe even in battle armor?)
Hobbes the loveable villain from Wing Commander is also a want from elsewhere on the web.
The alien from independence day... that is fascinating, though I'm not sure how much of a want it is at this time (especially given we have Venom and Carnage minis).
A Swarm of Floodlings from Ring-Lo was wanted... this one would be tricky, but doable.

Do people want to see underrepresented classes from the RPG made into mini-form?
Would people want a set of hostages/galactic civilians?

As our mini-wants tend toward infinity,
we'd have to crowd-fund/cloud collate to collaborate to make that vast list of wants a reality...
I'm wanting to engage with EU sculptors, but that market has some stubborn barriers that are non-negotiable so it seems (of some guild-of-convenience P.point envelope-shaping varieties).

---Over to You---
What would you like to see made, that we never got before, or that you've always wanted to see?
Maybe theres a custom you've never quite been content with, or something you'd like to see an alternate take on?
What concepts have that WOW! factor, that weird/different factor?
I'd like to add Ergesh to that list... its not a biggy for me, as I've 4 different versions already.

Hi there!
Just an update from over on the blog,


Above: small though the thumbnail may be, you can see a mini forms...

The casting for generic naga monk/ mutant snake warriors is in process, and the head/s are being finished presently.
At this point, I'm looking forward to receiving this mini and completing my monk collections.

The Quemarian (Goofy Monk) is next on the sculpting block, as is the Jastus Farr mini and Besalisk General figure.
Jastus Farr won't be cast I'm afraid: its a one-off,
the Besalisk will be available with many options for the head and will probably be sculpted holding 2 spears.

Fear not! There will be female minis coming soon too, they'll be coming after the effects objective markers are sorted out (because a lot of the female mini concepts would require similar tolerances etc).

Any ideas you'd like to see mini-ified? (thats turned into a mini)
Chuck a few concept images up either here or on the Custom Forum thread of the same scope, and we can get some discussion happening.

@all
For the objective marker mini: 'Holocronicular Dice': what shapes do people want to see, and how many holocrons do they want per base? What is the upper size limit of a holocron? Do people want to see floating holocrons, opening holocrons with a hologram, holocrons on a display plinth/pillar, holocrons in a container (like the sensor placed on the Falcon in IV) or holocrons in a jar?

For the Irregular Lightsticks, I take it a lighttonfa is a given, but what other irregular shapes do we want to see? Light-nunchuckas? Light Trident? Double-ended light stick? U-shaped lightstick, T-shaped Light-Icepick... a Lighthammer (some GW40K people wanted to see lighthammers)

Some have suggested some different species of youngling: what species do you want to see?

Kobayashimarus

update!
Oppo arrived in the mail; its even greater in person, and now the pressure is on to get the paintjob to a "WotC" standard (have to be so careful with figures: can't paint them too well or make them too detailed because then they'd stand out too much from the WotC standards... which would then lead to a ceaseless cycle of re-updating all the minis to the new standard...)

But who made this great figure you ask? Where might I be able to get figures in the future? (there are many ways to skin cats, especially if you've penfriends) For your consideration, I humbly and highly recommend them if you've not come across them before during your travels,
The custom-sculptor extraordinaire is... ExManus Studios!
(you can visit the site over at http://www.ex-manus.com/commissions).

Although many of my specific projects are one-offs, loads of the figures at ExManus lend themselves to adaptation to the SWU and to LOTR usage. The speciality in my opinion is the women figures - the poses aren't all T&A (shock horror, a company that sells RPG women figure who are wearing clothing), & there is some real versatility and verisimilitude there.
Definitely spread the word with friends if they're looking for figs.
(*This isn't a payed endorsement, nor do I derive anything related to this project in anyway; I'm humbly supporting an up-and-coming studio and in terms of projects, trying to fill the gaps in the figures mods from the WotC line - those iconic figures that were always a 'what the?! Why did they never in umpteen years ever make them?')

Whats next?
Goofy Quermian monk is up next: He'll have the cannonical longer handle bladesword and it'll be yellow cause thats what it most often was depicted as... just as Plo Koon oughta have a yellow handle via the number of instances he'd been displayed wielding a yellow lightblade.
There is potential for there to be generic goofballs if the demand is there.

Following that will hopefully be:
Jastus Farr (one off in truescale)
PongKrellian monk
Troig-arian monk (maybe a troigarian sithster)
Paaerduag monk
Revwien Monk and sappling (along with perhaps a few Ergeshi/Neti, that's if Ken To is available for these wonderful works)
Foul Moudamma in truescale,

Im in consultations to see if:
Serra Keto (either in spinny pose or in normal standy pose)
Doublebladed knightgatekeeper
Siri Tachi,
Xanatos
Master Sinube
and some robots (such as your pit droid, DMauls/CIS ball droid etc)
:can be made.

A lot of these other niche figures would require cloudsourcing to have an idea of numbers beforehand so viability can be done (so sculptors are more encouraged to take on a project etc): so if you've got a hankering for some gaps in your figures collections do speak up and recommend which gaps oughta be filled most .

We've had some minor delays again on the clear 3D printed minis componentry set/objective markers:
we are right on the borderline for tolerances: both of the printers and of the printer's discretion to print or not...
This might require cloudsourcing to get around with collaboration, and makerbots.
The few prototypes I've seen and or handled have been brittle and have reacted poorly with a variety of glues and polyvinyl...
it'll sort itself out though hopefully in a reasonable time frame

Some Questions for the Bloomilk community:
How big is the largest holocron? I'm thinking of making small medium and large holocrons, then irregular shaped ones (they can double as in-game dice avatars for Cthulhu etc)
what level of resolution and media do people like the figures in? As I'm finding; if the figure is too good/a different style standard beyond a certain tolerance, it can make your whole collection look inferior by comparison...
Do people like pewter minis? they're heavier than WotC and harder to customise... but apart from that, they paint similarly and look the same on a board...

Do people mostly play digitally or with proxys (such as papercraft figures?) Are there many people actively looking for RPG'ing figures?
(i think people are at that point where they're moving out of that space and there'll be abrams fans instead, so there'll be a drop off. Besides, many only play the tabletop Xwings game now... which was partly based on the Xwing v Tiefighter computer games from ages ago...)
I think tangible minis handcrafted can't be beat: whatever the game happens to be: so much time effort and talent has to go into the good looking figures at such a small scale. They're fun to collect and swap, and they give people an opportunity to still do something as well as potentially recycle etc...

Cheers,
Thanks for reading and for your patience as these projects progress
Kobayashimaru