Armor for children is rare. And you need to get rich on rarities, as the chief commerce advisor of the Snow Queen said, and he was absolutely right! Many firms produce figurines of men and women dressed in knightly armor. Nobody releases figurines of armored children !!! But for them there is a permanent sales market: souvenir shops at museums in which they are exhibited. Well, let's say this is the Vienna Armory of the Hovburg Palace and the Armory in Dresden, next to the famous art gallery! Meanwhile, look how beautiful they are, what wonderful armor these children were wearing!
Porcelain, sculptures, bowls are everywhere.
And every day - Opening Day.
All this is a fabulous miracle!
All this is the glorious Hermitage.
Alexander Norenkov. hermitage Museum
This shrunken, shrunken world. In the previous article about figures on a large scale, it was said that today this is a very promising direction for organizing production, and even at the level of the "garage industry". The fact is that modern technologies make it possible to organize it in minimal areas and using minimal equipment. That is, it is possible to produce something, but the question is, what will it give? After all, any production, including modeling, is organized for the sake of money. But how do you get people to buy your products? And, finally, and most importantly, what principle will you base your production on? What sales markets will you use?
The most important principle of modern production "buy fragile things more often" does not fit here: your figures are not condoms or Gillette razors designed for one-time use. Hence, it remains to rely on the status and popularity of your products. Let's say that such beautiful dolls as in our photo are popular today, and you immediately sew new dresses for them, one more luxurious than the other, so that the girl who bought such a doll could tell her friend: “You have a dress like everyone else, it sucks, here I have dresses from the firm "Status Accessories", this is not your cat sneezed! " You are opening the production of doll hats and jewelry, why not? And today such a market sector exists, and you can even take your own niche in it.
Or let's say you know that a certain company produces a samurai figurine just like in the photo. But at the same time, you also know that the swords for her from this company are rubbish, cheap plastic. Make them steel, with a beautiful tsuba, and not only that - sew him a ceremonial costume with hagabakama pants so that you can follow him on the floor and to them, to the whole costume, make an appropriate sword. Such a set, if done correctly, can even be sold to Japan!
Some firms are constantly using the so-called "umbrella brands" to "cut down the easy way." Let's say that some company makes such beautiful seamless bodies on a metal frame, flexible, like living people. Hands and heads for them are usually made replaceable. And this opens up a truly limitless scope for creating an "umbrella". How? It's very simple. There are people of different sizes and, of course, the figurine depicting "Comrade Stalin" cannot be the same proportions with … the figurine of Richard the Lionheart. Their creators take this into account. But if you can make interchangeable brushes, then you can also make interchangeable heads! Here is the head of "Comrade Stalin," and it is made very well. But … what's wrong with exactly the same head "Stalin in anger", or … "Stalin is joking."He said: "Attempt is not torture" and sincerely smiled so, why not. Not all the time he looked at people as severely as this "head". There are photographs where he smiles …
As already noted here, it is very important to find for yourself not only an umbrella brand (you can create your own on the basis of a unique product, but this is more difficult and more expensive!), But also a theme. The theme "Knights-children" is good because its figures will be anyway … cheaper than figures of knights of adults, because they, yes, you understood correctly, there is less material. And since the purchases are still made by the parents, having visited the same Vienna Arsenal and decided to please their child with the purchase of a souvenir, they will start thinking what is better: to buy a "child knight" or "adult knight". Many, even the most child-loving parents have a habit of saving, so there are more chances that they will buy something that is cheaper!
The emblem of the figures is very important. Pay attention to how many things manufacturers attach to the figurines of modern soldiers, and do you know why? Because they are … in camouflage and have very poor emblems. The eye does not “cling” to bright colors. Well, let him cling to the form. That is why, by the way, figurines of the British Guards on a scale of 1:12 are so popular. And they come in red dress uniforms, and red is the most energetic color.
But there was a time when bright, colorful uniforms were not uncommon on the battlefield, and these are not hussar uniforms that are very difficult to make. These are … the soldiers and officers of the "colored regiments" of the White Army in our Civil War. No wonder, for example, about the Kornilovites they sang a ditty: “Who is painted like a poster? That is a Kornilov soldier! " By the way, the uniform of the red ones with multi-colored stars on the budenovkas, with “talk” on the chest and stripes on the sleeves, and even in “red revolutionary riding breeches”, are also very attractive. However, the uniforms of the White Guards are still brighter and more colorful. And most importantly, it bears very attractive emblems for the subconscious of a person - a skull and bones. Of course, after all, the symbols of suffering, death and redemption are what, in general, everyone thinks about.
A ready-made set for the production of large-scale "soldier" figures: a White Guard general, in a Circassian coat with silver gazers and a Kubachin dagger, and even a burka (just a stunning element of a costume on a scale of 1: 6!), "Painted like a poster" Kornilovite with a banner and Mauser, and a captain-drozdov with an order on his chest "For the Ice Campaign" in the form of a crown of thorns (again a symbol of suffering!) and a sword crossing it. And let them be confronted by a female commissar in a leather jacket and a red kerchief, and, of course, also with a Mauser, a red horseman in red trousers, and a Baltic sailor, all wrapped in machine-gun belts and with a red bow on his chest (fig. I. Zeynalov)
Moreover, a businessman must seize the moment literally on the go, which is again not so difficult today. Let's take our very same Hermitage … What do we have there today? And we have a complete dominance there … Chinese, Koreans and Japanese. Buses with them come to him one after another, so in the famous Knights' Hall they just … do not breathe. But there they also opened a hall of eastern weapons, which is much closer to them both in spirit and in mentality. And in it we see fine examples of armor that can be worn on … that's right - figures with the faces of Mongoloids. And it is known that as Europeans get lost among Asian faces, so Asians experience psychological discomfort among European faces. And then they are taken to a souvenir booth, and they see … "all familiar faces!" Well, how not to buy as a keepsake something that is, in general, someone else's, but at the same time dear and close? Whose mentality should open the wallet - ha-ha, and when they see these figures, they will definitely open it.
Just one reference to the Hermitage plus a photograph of real armor and its details in a colorful accompanying brochure will guarantee the high historicism of your figurine and increase its attractiveness in the eyes of potential buyers. After all, not every manufacturer can boast that his figurine is dressed in armor that is an exact copy of the armor from the collection of one of the greatest museums in the world - the Russian State Hermitage Museum.
