This is a proposal to create, manufacture and distribute a series of NOUNish collectible figures with a unique style and unlimited utility possibilities.
A modular collectible physical toy series based on NOUNs. Uniquely crafted in a new look and style that will showcase the fact that “nounish” does not just mean “pixelated”. Unique packaging and interactive elements will make this series stand out above all other figures in this format.
Packaging design (templates, die lines, color callout for production): $4-6K (1-2 ETH)
TOTAL STAGE 1 ESTIMATED COSTS: 11 - 14 ETH
Klim and his team have been working on this project over the past 3 months and the final designs are fun, playful, modern and we feel represent NOUNs well in this funky new style. The sculpts are ready to go but we have gone as far as we can without help.
A much more robust description of the proposal dealing with production costs and beyond is here;
As always we will be building out in the open and will engage the community with regular updates and sharing opportunities.
I would likely support, after some thinking and discussion, and am happy to put this onchain when it’s ready for it. This proposal, the Google doc, is very thorough and well put together.
Rough numbers after Stage 1’s 14 ETH: ~20 ETH for Stage 2 and then >100 ETH for 25k units produced/shipped/sundry, X for marketing.
It’s hard to assess the demand for these or how we’d use them, it’s a big TBD, but I would guess the demand for us internally to have these made would be high nonetheless. Need more thought on this and where it fits.
How do we choose the 7 heads?
What toy out there would the best compare to?
There may be a desire to do this via Sablier rather than multiple stage proposals.
How do you see this next to @DAVID and Nouns Sofubis?
For 6, my take is The nouns studio 1 sofubi are not actually toys at all but rather “context creators” to break through the attention membrane in a space which both is completely overrun with characters via advertising and critical to make impact with highly influential specific segments of the consumer market in an important point of contact in an effort to have an impact on surrounding territories. Our project, while “toyetic” is not a “Toy” or even an adult collectible, but a tool to draw a very specific beam of attention from a very specific audience.
Thanks for your question and positive response I will do my best to answer and keep things open ended since there is so much going on in this space so fast. [quote=“Noun12, post:2, topic:967”]
Rough numbers after Stage 1’s 14 ETH: ~20 ETH for Stage 2 and then >100 ETH for 25k units produced/shipped/sundry, X for marketing.
This is about right for an all in project like this. Many of these are one time costs that will not be a factor if we do series 2 and beyond. I feel that it is a good value for the main goal which is to proliferate Nouns and the community.
It’s hard to assess the demand for these or how we’d use them, it’s a big TBD, but I would guess the demand for us internally to have these made would be high nonetheless. Need more thought on this and where it fits.
Many of these would be used as promotional giveaways at shows and conferences as well as holder redemptions. The packaging will have a comprehensive linktree to allow for easy sharing of information about nouns, CC0 and connections to any web content and AR activations. projects like this usually take about 8-12 months to develop and ship and we are already 3 months in here on it. We will have a window of time to develop some additional content as a parallel projects leading up to the release that should add a lot of utility to the toys and value to the overall project as a whole. It is too early to discuss those plans but the big idea is that when the project is ready to ship we will be able to activate everything .
How do we choose the 7 heads?
I picked the 7 heads that have a nice cross section and have quite a few others already sculpted and blocked out. I have share them before on Discord and will share ore as we get this project started.
What toy out there would the best compare to?
There is no real comparison because this project combines so many parts of the collectible space and helps bridge the physical and digital together to make something unique. I would say Medicom Bearbick, KidRobot Dunny. Superplastic janky. and Roblox /minecraft are things that are similar but not the same.
There may be a desire to do this via Sablier rather than multiple stage proposals.
Not sure what this is but I would love to learn more.
We always structure payments in multiple stages in order to facilitate faster milestone payments when we need to wire funds to the factory or pay vendors on the spot. this also gives both parties a way out if the situation is a mess of sorts. I would prefer to keep things as they are since we are in such a new space
How do you see this next to @DAVID and Nouns Sofubis?
David is a good friend and we worked with him and @4156 on the design and execution of the sofubi, I think that his explanation above is 100% on point. The two things are very different, but I feel both have a lot of value for the NOUN brand.
Hope this helps answer your questions, We are in full work mode on this so this is very encouraging and the community insight is welcome.
Based on the overwhelmingly positive response and the sheer volume of time and work I have invested into this project I decided to move this one step closer to the next and prototype the figures so that it is easier to visualize what they will look like and maybe get ore traction here so that these can be available for the holidays. the figures will be about 4" tall and have a stand that would help keep their giant heads and bodies balanced and standing.I have a ton of other ideas of how to add more heads, generate more engagement but all of this needs to be done in baby steps I should have images of the se in about 7-10 days If anyone has any questions I am here =) OI am also open to discussing any potential collaborations as we build this out
What would the cost be to update to a larger amount of heads? At what point does it become too expensive to produce unique heads? I would like to see a cost break down at different levels of heads and maybe that would allow us to determine what we could support even at a larger stage.
I think each series would add more heads and accessories. retiring parts of the previous sets.
Some designs don’t translate into physicals and others can not be manufactured, so there would need to be some flexibility within the community to understand that this is a NOUNish project and the aesthetics and designs may not be the same. here is an example of other NOUNish designs i did. As you can see some are new others are familiar. We plan to continue this with new body styles as well.
progress … having physical samples in hand is key to the development process. now that we have these a whole new flow of ideation and design thinking is taking shape.
i like the thought process on a unique take beyond the current pixelated nounish look, but being so early in the brand’s life would it make more sense to first focus on figures that are more traditionally “nounish” / recognizable?
one concern i have is that with the re-imagined body type combined with all these other types of glasses, is that they don’t immediately make me think of nouns.
I am reminded of the aesthetic volatility comments that 4156 had made when they decided to have all the glasses be the traditional “noggles” so that there was still cohesion across the collection
If we go with this unique body type I think it would make more sense for all the eyewear to be the traditional square glasses that have immediate brand recognition
-for stage 2b, 24,000 pieces + another 7,000 in the 1k ROYGBIV sets feels a bit high? what are your plans around distribution/retail cost?
Lots of good questions, I will do my best to answer about my design choices and the marketing plan later this week or I can jump on a call in discord to discuss my vision for this series and answere any questions in depth? let me know, my schedule is mostly flexible.
Having spoken to a number of people about the shapes and after reviewing he prototypes for durability I am making some changes to get be body to be a bit less curvy and dial it back a bit to the more angular look but still keeping it production friendly and pleasant in hand/tactile experience
I agree with @Oni that aesthetics should more closely match Nouns artwork and about bringing down the number of units down by a large amount. I’d feel badly about putting so much stuff into the world unless it had a good reason to be there.
I am in agreement about dialing back the design a bit to reflect some of the nounish aesthetics, but you have to keep in mind that non of the PFP details transfer well to 3D or manufacturing at scale with good quality paint
these should all be more explicitly nounish - they all need to have the signature glasses in my opinion
and we should do a small trial first to see if there is actual demand before we do a massive order
taking in all of the Feedback i dialed back the forms to be a bit more in tune with the NOUN forms without getting too angular and keeping in line with the classic Art Toy aesthetic. Went back to just one classic shape for the glasses with a nice range of paint options. This is a mock up of the rainbow genesis set that I think would be an awesome way to start the collection with just 500 sets (all 7 figures in a nice box)
The bulk of the costs are in the up front development, tooling and preproduction. and logistics. we can get this down to 10000 pcs, but the per unit costs would go up by a bit. I can recalculate for 10 K but remember that this is a 15 dollar collectible figure (this deco design is not final) that would most likely be given away at events and sent to retailers, reviewers and influencers to help proliferate the brand. Each figure would come packaged with a QR code (or possibly a POAP?) that would get the user unique access to other NOUN related content that is currently being developed (coloring books, new 3D animated content and games)
