Just when you thought this crowdfunded project couldn’t get more awesome, the brains behind the venture has decided to cancel their first campaign and relaunch it with lower, more reasonable prices. The creator of this TMNT Action Figure Encyclopedia has a lot of experience in publishing, so when they came up with an even cheaper method to produce the book, they had a tough decision to make. Although there was a risk that previous backers wouldn’t rush to fund the relaunched campaign, it would appear that their effort to provide more value to backers has already paid off in full.
While the original Kickstarter campaign had a goal of $58,000, the relaunch only required $28,000 to begin production. As a result of the lower cost, prices for each stretch goal were also significantly lowered. As luck would have it, the relaunched campaign reached its goal after only a few days. So how did they cut costs? Well, the publisher has decided to use fewer, larger pages to create the final product. Fewer pages means a lot less to print, making the whole project a lot more affordable.
If you ever felt like there were enough TMNT toys to fill the pages of an encyclopedia, you weren’t wrong. Image Source: Jay Lawrence, Kickstarter.
Oddly enough, I’m pretty sure there’s a similar story behind the original publication of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books. Eastman & Laird were just trying to get their product out there, and they found it would be cheaper to publish the comic on magazine sized newsprint. It’s interesting to note that yet another TMNT project has now been made possible for similar reasons. As a wise man once said, history has a tendency to repeat itself!
Regardless of the historical precedence, it’s important to note that (as of writing this article) the now fully backed TMNT Action Figure Encyclopedia is still available on Kickstarter for at least a few more days. If you are interested in picking up a copy for yourself, make sure to visit the new campaign page to take advantage of their cheaper stretch goals. For as little as $40, you can purchase a definitive encyclopedia of every TMNT toy ever made.
