FigurePrints
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FigurePrints LLC in the Vancouver Sun
Just this morning, the Vancouver Sun published an interesting article about FigurePrints LLC, which is a name WoW players know quite well, though probably not the little details of the company. FigurePrints LLC, which is based in Washington, has its production center in the heart of Vancouver. A production center with with only 11 employees, up from its original one, with its eyes set on moving up in the world to a mind blowing 25 employees.FigurePrints works around the clock, producing somewhere between 1,200 and 1,400 figurines in a month. That almost sounds like a lot (they produce over 40 figures per day), but when you consider they need to draw these names from a lottery of over 25,000 potential customers? They really have their hands full, but they're clearly not going to run out of customers anytime soon, especially since their contract with Blizzard is an exclusive one. FigurePrints is also looking into opening a plant in Europe to expand the market to our overseas friends, and they've been approached by other gaming companies as well. They seem to be in a very good place right now.Personally, I'm curious to see where the company will actually go from this point forward in terms of what they print, and who they print for. I'm sure most of the popularity of this company is due to their arrangement with Blizzard, so will that relationship continue even beyond World of Warcraft? Will FigurePrints LLC be right there with Blizzard when some other MMO rolls around, like Galaxy of Starcraft (or whatever)? Or will they stand just fine on their own when WoW is gone, moving on to other companies and games?Edit: To try and clarify, it's a Washington-based office with a Vancouver, Canada-based production plant. Not Vancouver, Washington.
DC Unlimited releases Series 2 of the Warcraft action figures
DC Comics has released series 2 of their World of Warcraft action figures. Coming after series 1, and the next series due in November, this set includes a Draenei Paladin, a Gnome Warrior (looking great despite being mounted), a Human Warrior (rocking the Sword of a Thousand Truths), a Night Elf Druid, and a Troll Priest. You can see pictures of all the figures below -- they look great as usual, but as usual, it would be even better to have actual figures of our characters that look this good. Too bad FigurePrints hasn't got that figured out yet.Are you planning on picking one of these up? You can get them from the DC direct sales site, or at a comics and hobby retailer near you. Looks like MSRP is around $14.99, but as with all of this collectible stuff, your mileage may vary.[via WorldofWar]%Gallery-27171%
Figureprints raises their price
Figureprints (that company that will make a 3D mini-figurine of your character) has posted a notice on their site that they are in fact doing so well... that they're raising their price. Now, if you want a real-life copy of the character you've worked so hard on, it'll cost you $130, a $30 increase over the original price. What will the extra money buy you? They say they're stepping up production, and that they've opened up a brand new production facility on the other side of the country. But even though they say they can make more faster, they're still doing that random drawing thing -- instead of actually buying a figure, you have to enter a drawing to buy one.The other reason they cite for raising the price is that their "material costs" are much higher than they expected. Could that have to do with the fact that we've seen a lot of figure replacements in their run so far? These things can get pretty expensive when you have to make two for every other order.Is $130 too much for you or are you still interested? From the beginning, Figureprints has been working around the clock making these, so even if they lose a little business over the higher price, maybe it'll help them keep up with demand better. And if the new price doesn't work out, maybe we'll see them cutting back again (or offering deals via Blizzard or someone else).%Gallery-21352%
Wrath will bring new forum icons
Tactial mentions on the forums that all of the Rogues (in fact, this is true about almost everyone) are still in Tier 4. When Burning Crusade first came out and we all reached 70, Tier 4 was where it was at -- some people were excited about being in Tier 4, even if they hadn't earned it yet. But nowadays, Tier 4 ain't that great, and yet all of our forum icons shows us in the (now old) armor.Drysc does say that the Armory is a click away from the forum icons, but surely Blizzard could take an afternoon and code a little customization into the icons. It seems like everyone else can render icons out of game -- why can't they? There is some good news for those looking for a forum icon update, though: Drysc says that when we're all level 80, we'll probably have new icons yet again, with shiny T7 on our characters.Which will be great -- until a few big content patches after Wrath, when T9 will be out and we'll all be whining that we're still dressed in T7. Thus goes the circle, the circle of life.
LEGO Universe announces upcoming features
The upcoming LEGO Universe has recently announced the in-game currency plan they have in store for us. Apparently, you will be able to earn your LEGO bricks by spending more time in the game. "The more you play, the more you get to build things", says LEGO Group director of business and development, Mark William Hansen. The bricks will be traded for coins which players earn in-game.But one aspect of this news that we find particularly interesting is the real-world component that will be introduced. Users will be able to order physical versions of their online creations to be delivered to their homes. These aren't FigurePrints of your WoW characters, these are real LEGO bricks -- potentially up to 6,000 types -- for use in producing your game creations.
Breakfast Topic: Figureprints
When we first heard about Figureprints, everybody seemed fairly keen to get one -- there were thousands of people trying to get in on the drawing, and lots of folks were more than willing to put down their $100 for a custom, real-life figure of their characters created directly from the in-game models.But as the Dude (if censored) might say, new stuff has come to light. We've seen the first Figureprints off the press, and the quality, so far, hasn't been impressive, to say the least. We should note that Figureprints is replacing that figure in the gallery, but we'd like to know: has all of this new information changed your mind about Figureprints?Are you still excited to get one, or have you changed your mind from originally liking the idea to not so thrilled about the actual product? Or, like Matthew Rossi, have you said "This aggression will not stand, man," from the beginning? OK, that's not really what he said (I just wanted to quote the Dude agaIn), but where are you at on Figureprints lately? Yea or nay?
Figureprints figure underwhelms, will be replaced
As I mentioned on the WoW Insider Show the other day, reader Chad G. sent us a tip about the Figureprints character he received (probably one of the first shipped figures that we've heard about so far), and as you can see from the pictures, he was a little underwhelmed by the quality, While the actual process went OK, the figure itself just seems kind of dusty, which hardly counts as the "vibrant" colors we were promised back when these things were first announced. From across the room, he says, it's hard to make out any colors at all -- the whole thing looks "dusty black."Chad says he doesn't know if he would buy this thing again, although since he posted the pictures, he says that Figureprints is sending him another figurine, so maybe this was a mistake (there was also apparently a spot of paint missing on the figure's arm, and that seems more like a flaw in the specific figure than the process). Either way, while it's cool to have your character in actual, real 3D form, maybe the Figureprints folks don't quite have all the kinks worked out yet.%Gallery-21352%
Figureprints: What's the point?
I know I'm a curmudgeon and a grinch. Many times I just have to step back and say okay, I just don't get it.But seriously, why exactly does everyone seem to want a Figureprint? I just don't understand the appeal. I mean, at this point I have fairly decent gear, but I just don't understand why I would want a little model of my character. For one thing, it's not like the gear I'd end up immortalized in would stay good very long (there' s an expansion on the way and all) and furthermore, it's not like you can get the Figureprint updated, you'd basically have to buy another.That of course assumes you'd get to buy one at all. The way it works, you don't get to order a Figureprint, you sign up for a drawing and if you get lucky, then you can buy one. Are these things really that awesome that it's worth waiting months for a chance to get one? There's some back and forth on the construction process and the finished product in this forum thread but that didn't really help me any. Reading the interview Mike did with the founder of the company made it sound pretty cool, actually. But thinking printing stuff on plastic in the manner described sounds cool doesn't really help me figure out why folks are so astonishingly into these things. Is it to motivate you to get better gear? Honestly, help me out here. Has anyone reading this actually bought one yet? How does it look? Did you think it was worth it, and why'd you decide to get one in the first place?
Blizzard and dealing with the expanded WoW universe
Zv of Destromath has an interesting argument on the forums -- he says that Blizzard has overextended themselves, and that by producing everything from trading cards to credit cards to WoW minis, the board game, and the upcoming movie (and he even forgot the FigurePrints and Dell deals), they've lost sight of what they should be working on: the game itself. While Zv does admit on the second page what Bornakk points out on the first (that it's not the same people or even the same company working on all of this stuff, and that the devs are still working on designing the game, not writing a script for the movie), there is still the same old argument here when anything goes mainstream and starts selling a brand: has the original material been neglected?It's up to you, of course, whether you think that's the case or not, but there's no question at all that Blizzard is a completely different company because of World of Warcraft. Before this game, they were a popular-but-still-boutique games studio famous for just a few quality titles in even fewer franchises. But now, they're part of not one but two multinational corporations (one of which shares their name), and they oversee a global empire not just of rights and license releases, but of millions of players and financial interests all over the place. As Zv says, why are they making more deals for expensive swords when they still claim they don't have the manpower to let us use flying mounts in Azeroth?The problem here is that you can't really second guess Blizzard -- despite the fact that you may agree or disagree with the decisions they've made, there's no question that they've got a successful game on their hands and that they've done nothing but make money with it. But though the Warcraft licensing universe seems to be growing at an exponential rate, we hope (and we'll find out, we guess, with the release of patch 2.4 and the expansion), that the core game is still as strong as ever.
Figureprints make great gifts... or do they?
You are no doubt aware of the new, if somewhat costly, service provided by Figureprints in cooperation with Blizzard, which allows you to receive a real-life statuette of your character from the game. This likely appeals most to players whose characters have progressed far enough in either raiding or PvP to acquire some of the really impressive looking gear for their characters. Yet, as these two comics from Penny Arcade point out (part one and part two), they don't exactly make for good gifts, unless the giver is very keen on the wishes of the recipient. For players who haven't acquired high-end class armor, the appearance of our characters may inspire more shame than pride. Certainly a lot of the armor we might happen to possess isn't the kind of stuff you'd want to place on the mantle above your fireplace.Nonetheless, if you were to receive such a gift, you wouldn't necessarily have to quit one's job to grind honor and raid for a few months. There are some relatively attractive sets of armor available for purchase on the auction house, and, though they won't impress those friends who really know their WoW gear, they might just look good enough to impress everyone else.
WoW mud dolls attack the internet
And now it's time for something ridiculously cute. Behold, World of Warcraft mud dolls! There's grinning Orc Shamans (pictured), Blood Elf Warlocks in cartoon tier 5, and even a Paladin wearing full Lawbringer, which is awesome beyond words. 'W00t' doesn't count.Thousands may have lined up to buy their own characters from FigurePrints.com, but these ones were all hand-made by a girl in China. And very nice they are, too. It's not just me that finds these stupidly amusing, right? RIGHT?The full gallery contains twenty-one total images and is hosted at MMOsite.com; the blog they're hosted on appears to be Chinese-only.
Today is the last day to enter WoW Insider's Dell notebook giveaway!
I'm serious as a raidleader on progression night-- if you haven't left a comment over on this WoW Insider Dell notebook giveaway, you better queue up and do it right now, because today's your last chance (the whole thing ends at noon). And if you have left a few already (the contest has been going for eight days), go leave your last one now (on that post, not on this post-- all this post gets you is on Santa's naughty list) because you get to post one per day.Right smack dab at noon Eastern, WoW Insider's Dan O'Halloran is going to close the comments and choose one lucky winner to take home the whole package-- notebook, WoW schwag, FigurePrints figure, and those Blizzard beta keys. And if you did enter, check your email in the next 48 hours, because that's how he's going to make it the luckiest day of your life.Yes, even luckier than that Tuesday you heard school got closed, and Blizzard decided not to do maintenance so you could play all day, and you discovered a whole six-pack of soda in the back of the fridge that you didn't even know you had, and the donut truck crashed outside your house, and the donut guy came knocking on the door asking you to help them clean up the donuts before they all went bad. Even luckier than that.
Reminder: Post a comment on WoW Insider's Dell notebook giveaway
It's Wednesday, and that means there's only three chances left to put a comment on our sister blog WoW Insider's ginormous Dell notebook giveaway. Yes, the contest ends on Friday, and you can enter once per day, so today, tomorrow and Friday are your last chances to enter to win not only the swank Dell notebook (you get to choose either the Alliance or the Horde version above, not both), but all of the WoW-related swag that comes with it, including the collector's edition pets, a FigurePrints figure, and even five beta keys to upcoming Blizzard games. That's big time.To enter, go over to the WoW Insider post, and just put a comment (you've got to be 18 and a US resident, thanks lawyers). Remember that posting a comment on this Massively post will not enter you in the contest (but it should make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, if our new commenting system is working the way it's supposed to). So go post a comment on WoW Insider, and then come back here and read about all MMOs. Sure, WoW is super popular, but we here at Massively know you want to read about lesser known MMOs, too.
WoW Insider's Dell notebook giveaway continues
It is now Day 5 of the Dell WoW edition notebook giveaway on WoW Insider, and we have cracked a whopping 20,000 comments to enter the contest. But don't worry-- even though the number of people entering goes up every day, every day is also your newest chance to enter the contest-- you can leave a comment on the WoW Insider post once every 24 hours.So consider this your daily reminder to enter, and there's only three days left-- on Friday, we'll be choosing one random commenter on that post (not this one-- commenting on this post doesn't win you anything but holiday cheer from us at Massively) to win the WoW Edition notebook and all of those crazy goodies that come with it. Good luck!
WoW Insider interviews Ed Fries on avatar figurines
Although nothing will ever top our surprise Spore figurine (in our hearts, at least), former VP of games publishing at Microsoft Ed Fries (one of the original Xbox guys, remember?) is hoping to provide a similar service for World of Warcraft players by making a 3D replica of their avatars. Our MMO-obsessed siblings (not them, the other ones) at WoW Insider interviewed Fries about his new venture, entitled FigurePrints, and the process of turning the virtual into reality. (Fries, as it turns out, was inspired by those Spore figurines from E3 2006.)You can demo the program for yourself. The operation is currently in its early phases, so drawings are being held during certain time periods to have your character molded. The cost is $100 plus about $15 for shipping, and even at that price, we have no doubt the service is trying to keep up with high demand.
Child's Play raffle donations soar to over $12,600
If you haven't heard of the fabulous raffle being hosted by the folks at the Bronze Kettle, then you must have been living in a box. A box where you hadn't heard that the donations count has reached $12,654.00! That is definitely cause for celebration; and celebrate we shall!To be fair, one person donated $10,000, but as Shelbi points out, even if this hurts your chances to win one of their many prizes, the tickets are still for charity. In fact, 100% of the money raised will be heading straight to Child's Play.If you haven't purchased your tickets yet, or you have a few extra bucks lying around, head over before it's too late! Currently, the raffle is scheduled to take place at 11:00pm CST today, Friday the 14th of December, at Booty Bay on the US server Dark Iron. Not only will you get the chance to participate in the server event, possibly hosted on vent, but the entire shebang will be liveblogged over at the Kettle. Although you don't need to attend the event to win, it's looking like it's going to be a blast. Just look for Shelbi and Jon on Aereyan and Kaelwryn. Raffle entries will be closing as of 8:00pm CST, and although you can still donate after that point, you will not earn a ticket toward a prize. Make the jump for a complete listing of prizes, and remember; each $1 donated earns you one ticket, and one chance at one of twenty fabulous prizes.
FigurePrints donates custom figure to The Bronze Kettles' Child's Play charity raffle
Yesterday, Jon and Shelbi at The Bronze Kettle announced that they had added several more prizes to the list for the charity raffle they are sponsoring for Child's Play. In addition to the already mentioned list of prizes, The Bronze Kettle revealed that Blizzard and FigurePrints have donated a custom FigurePrints action figure of your in-game World of Warcraft character to add to the raffle as the Grand Prize. These figures have, to date, only been available either with the purchase of a Dell XPS M1730 laptop valued at around $4500, or by winning a place in the random drawing that FigurePrints will be holding on December 21st. This could be your chance to win one of these extremely exclusive figures, a full week before they go on sale to those lucky enough to win a place in the first official drawing. You can read more about FigurePrints and their custom World of Warcraft action figures of your in-game character in this WoW Insider interview with Ed Fries, the founder of FigurePrints.
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WoW Insider interviews Ed Fries, founder of FigurePrints
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Insider_gets_the_skinny_on_FigurePrints'; After a quick announcement last week, the FigurePrints site opened yesterday, offering Warcraft players an easy (if not necessarily cheap-- each figure runs about $115) way to recreate their ingame characters in real-life figurine form.But we still had lots of questions. How did these figures get made? What kind of material were they made of, and where did FigurePrints get the models and information to turn ingame characters into real sculptures? For the answers, we went straight to the source. Ed Fries has been in and around gaming for a long time, and after playing WoW for years (and creating games for years before that), he had the idea to create a way to bring Warcraft characters to life with a 3D printer. WoW Insider got a chance to talk to Ed on the day that his company's site went live, and all the answers to your questions about FigurePrints are right after the jump.
