Unsurprisingly, the Four Horsemen’s Mythic Legion Kickstarter closed with a huge surge that pushed the project to $452,528!!! Yeah, that’s almost a half million dollars. That’s kind of insane. It’s a true testament to the Four Horsemen as both sculptors and as creators. They did a great job in the planning and rollout of this line. It’s also a testament to the Four Horsemen’s fan base. They made that near half million with a shade under 1200 backers. The Four Horsemen are famous in our circles, of course, but they’re still a smaller company overall. With these results now, I can only imagine where they’ll be going in a few more years as more and more people learn about them through successful projects like this one.
Now, the fun part is here for me – the Kickstarter is over. That means 1) the agony of what to back is over and 2) I get to play with some numbers. Now, in the age of add-ons, some of the wind gets taken out of my sails a bit, but there is still some interesting tidbits to be found. For starters, with 1166 backers, that averages out to $388 per backer. Talk about commitment!
The second thing is those add-ons. While we can’t know which figures did well in the add-ons, or how many more are sold when the backerkits arrive, we do know that the pre-set pledge amounts came out to $226,934! That’s about 51% just for the pre-set rewards. That leaves nearly half of all the money, $225,594, pledged to the 4H as add-ons. This could be for duplicates of the 22 pledge-available figures, particularly those army builders, or it could be for any of the dozen or so add-on figures themselves. There were some choice candidates that seemed to catch on with collectors – I’m looking at you Bog Goblin! We’ll never really know the story on those, but we can play around with the pledged amounts.
First up, even though it was only available for a few days, 152 backers chose the All-In option. That alone raised $161k of the total pledges, nearly 35% and no doubt came out at the right time to push this KS into overdrive in the closing days.
42 Backers got in on the various 16pc set offers. This raised $22k of the overall total. What’s interesting here is that there were 117 backers of the 16pc sets just before the news of the all-in dropped. Did all 75 of those folks convert to the all-in option?
Now, here’s the really fun part (at least for me). For the 22 pledge-available figures from the Kickstarter sales, including single figure pledges and sets, 4952 figures were selected! And who won? This should be of little surprise to long-time Four Horsemen fans – the Fantastic Exclusive Blood Knight! He edged out Gorgo Aetherblade by one vote! Does Gorgo overcome the Blood Knight with the add-ons? Could some dark horse like Bothar Shadowhorn pick up major sales when the backerkits go out? Maybe. We may never know. For now though, by pledges alone, the Blood Knight reigns supreme.
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And finally, if we neutralize the 4016 figures sold as part of the All-In or set options, we can see a breakdown of each pledge figure sold and how they compare to one another:
| Figure | Units | % |
|---|---|---|
| Blood Knight | 116 | 12.4% |
| Gorgo Aetherblade | 115 | 12.3% |
| Standard Skeleton | 108 | 11.5% |
| Bothar Shadowhorn | 88 | 9.4% |
| Carpathius | 75 | 8.0% |
| Silver Knight | 48 | 5.1% |
| Bronze Dwarf | 43 | 4.6% |
| Tibius | 41 | 4.4% |
| Attila Leossyr | 40 | 4.3% |
| Otho | 40 | 4.3% |
| Skapular | 37 | 4.0% |
| Sir Gideon Heavensbrand | 30 | 3.2% |
| Thord Ironjaw | 28 | 3.0% |
| Jorund Runeshaper | 24 | 2.6% |
| Sir Ignatius | 20 | 2.1% |
| Sir Owain | 18 | 1.9% |
| Golden Skeleton | 16 | 1.7% |
| Clavian | 14 | 1.5% |
| Gold Knight | 12 | 1.3% |
| Sir Galeron | 12 | 1.3% |
| Orn Steelhide | 6 | 0.6% |
| Silver Dwarf | 5 | 0.5% |
No love, for the Silver Dwarf? Sorry, little dude!
That concludes the math lesson. Thank you for indulging me!
Good stuff. I love seeing the breakdowns. I also loved Ed’s paint job on the FanEx. He killed it. Blood Knight rules. 🙂
This line looks so cool, but the timing was terrible for me. If they’d done it a couple of years ago, or a couple of years from now, I would’ve shamelessly indulged in the whole line. But I just can’t afford to collect it now. Oh, well.
Exactly my scenario as well. Three kids, preschool, car, mortgage, bills – it was amazing to see the various figures, and awful to know that I couldn’t get involved.
now that they have raised damn close to a million dollars in their last two Kickstarters maybe they can actually fund their next project themselves instead of putting that burden on their fans.
Is it wrong that I feel the same way? I know some/most of that feeling comes from my immature jealousy that I couldn’t take part, but the idea of spending that kind of money all at once kept me from getting involved at all.
I don’t get this sentiment. Ignoring that the start-up costs are huge (and most of the million dollars raised goes into producing the actual figures. It’s not like it costs $1 a figure to make these things and the rest goes into a giant room that the 4H swim through like Scrooge McDuck), how is paying for the figures now more or less of a “burden” than paying for them after they’ve shipped to the 4H’s warehouse. Think of Kickstarter like a giant pre-order, if you want. You pay for the figures now, this not only give the 4H the money to make the figures (they’ve said numerous times that without Kickstarter, they wouldn’t be able to make figures on this scale anymore), but it tells them how many figures to make (I hope there will be a bit more “in-stock” product available for the Mythic Legions than for the Ravens, but that’s a whole other discussion).
The biggest difference is when payment is due. If this worked like a true pre-order, I know about the figures now, place my order, and spend a year saving the money needed to pay for it. With the Kickstarter method, I know about it (and its associated costs) 30 days prior to payment being due. To me, that’s an enormous difference, and it’s a burden to those who have limited budgets for luxuries.
I mean no offense to 4H; they do amazing work, but a lot of my feelings stem from frustration that I’ve been eyeing this project for two years and felt shut out due to the Kickstarter method. A grand for the all-in package isn’t chump change to come up with in such a short period of time.
Most figures I buy on pre-order require immediate payment, so I don’t really see the difference. Just last month I put $110 down on an SH Figuarts Sun Vulcan set that I won’t see until July.
If you were eyeing the Mythic Legions for two years, did you not realize money was coming due? I guess I’m still not understanding how this is burdensome to the consumer. You’re paying now for product you’ll be getting down the road (as is often the case with pre-orders), and that in turn gives the creators the funds to actually produce the product.
Now me, I had not been eyeing this project, because I expected it to be in the 4″ scale, and I don’t collect much at that scale. The announcement that it would switch to 6″ came like a week before the Kickstarter launched. I was caught off guard, and couldn’t get everything I wanted, but I still don’t feel burdened by paying now for figures I’ll be getting in about a year, because I do it all the time. I think the 4H dropped the ball by announcing the scale switch so late in the game, and not giving people like me enough warning to budget for it, but I don’t feel at all burdened by the Kickstarter method. Without the Kickstarter, the figures wouldn’t even exist.
Fair enough. Every pre-order I’ve ever engaged in has been “order now, pay at shipping,” so this is a very different way for me to buy. As for being prepared, most of my luxury budget was wiped out with other issues (car repairs, house maintenance) that was unexpected.
To be fair though, I thought I was going to be okay. I didn’t think they’d try to offer as much as they did. I figured it was going to be like the Ravens – around 10 figures. Not 40. That priced me out of the project, given how I prefer to collect.
I realize that for some, like you, it’s not a burden. That’s cool, I get that. Just accept that for some of us, the method the 4H chose, timing, and lack of clear announcements so close to launch made it so that some couldn’t take part. And it caused some frustration, that’s all.
dude, not to belabor a point here, cuz it doesn’t have to be a thing, and it shouldn’t be, but here are two things you said above:
“I’ve been eyeing this project for two years”
and
“A grand for the all-in package isn’t chump change to come up with in such a short period of time.”
these are not compatible complaints… start a toy jar, sock a 20 or a 50 in it every month, and you’d have been completely set. we knew when they debuted the line this first time that it was intended for kickstarter. so you had the option to be prepared (this isn’t personal to you, i’ve seen the complaint a lot that people didn’t have time to save… they totally had time.) if you chose not to do that, that’s fine, and i’m not calling you or anyone else out on a choice to act or not, but i do take some offense that there was no option to prepare. there was absolutely ample notice to start a mythic legion fund.
that said, could the boys have done more pre-press before starting the kickstarter to let folks know it was coming? oh hell yes! could they have done more press releases to more websites than the limited number of toycentric sites that they did? OH HELL YES!!! press has NEVER been a horsemen strong point, and while it seems that they are content selling to a modest, ravenous fanbase, i can’t help but think that they are missing a chance to double or triple sales by getting word out more efficiently. they’ve got all the talent in the world, but they lack hustle. for folks like you, folks like james, folks like me, more notice could have elicited more funds. i would DEFINITELY have reconsidered subbing for motuc this year had i known that mythic legions was coming down, especially right at time for the quarterly sub renewal. even if they’d offered me a rough ballpark, “like we intend to conduct the kickstarter while toy fair is going on” i’d have had enough information to perhaps make a different choice, and in my case, i would have said “oh well” to motuc, and tripled the amount i spent on mythic legions. i had notice, i had saved some funds, but i could have had more with more notice.
Holy shit snacks: that’s a crap ton of cash. O_O I wonder how many Glyos figures that would make? Hell, you could probably get a few figures, a vehicle or two and a small Play set for that much moola.
If I started a Kickstarter project and I pulled that much money (hell even half that amount), I don’t think my brain could comprehend it. I had $5,000 once and that was a lot of money to me.
What exactly is all the KS money used for? Does it all go towards tooling and production, or does it get spaced out for other expenses?
-Bah’glenn
Yes, it pays for the various expenses incurred making the figs and packaging. Doing a line in house means all the expenses and work fall on them, so the communications back and forth to China, the costs of labor, materials, and transportation, that’s all built in, so using kickstarter, they front load the bank account to cover their expenses. Especially given the precedent after the anitherian guard first run were defective, they learned a painful lesson in how expensive Indy production is. I’m sure there’s some fun money built in there, but I don’t think they’re doing the boats and hos world tour just yet. The guys aren’t new to this game.
I think the key to remember is, they asked for 140000 up front, but that a for a fixed small production run. Every pledge dollar over that also increases the size and cost of the production run. It’s not all profit once that minimum is met.
Wow, really nice breakdown! It’s clear you love to do it (as you said). I love seeing this kind of analysis!
The Blood Knight Figure’s numbers are more impressive considering that the actual figure wasn’t shown until the last few days, while Gorgo was up the whole time.
Gorgo was also the main evil antagonist and got a bio, while the VVinner did not. Gorgo has been prominently promoted for over a year since he first appeared at the Toy Fair Toypocalypse. The Blood Knight has only been around a couple days.
It was tons of fun participating in the voting and discussion at the source horsemen boards. The Blood Knight had to come from behind to win and there was a one vote difference between him and the runner up going into the last half hour of voting.
Another success for the 4H! Ultimately I was unable to pledge enough for any figures, but I threw them a dollar just as a tip of the hat. I can’t wait to see how this line progresses. Hopefully I can nab a few of the figures I want down the line!
I learned of the M.L. kickstarter just about 2 weeks ago (thru this site) and jumped right on board. Loved attilla and his brother so i was in!! Originally pledged $77. and increased from there lol. Not too much – definitaly not $388. But I’m getting the ones i REALLY want, because there were a lot I really dont want INCLUDING the Fan Blood Knight (found him boring). End of the day I threw it on a credit card and will pay at my own pace so I can be a part of something special. All the talk blaming the kickstarter from stopping others from doing the same makes no sense – you get what you can afford.
I wish this line had come out a few years back when I was still collecting as a lot of the designs and scale really appeal to me.
Man, I wish this had come earlier.. or maybe later. Just not a good time for me ( N I was all in on the Ravens ). I also felt that this was a bit overpriced as compared to the ravens, with much lesser detail IMO.
Anyway, i’ll probably get a knight on day of. 🙂
Best to the horsemen. Hope they re-do a Seventh Kingdom line.. I’d be all over that !