Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
A place to discuss, share, and create stop motion films.
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I wasn't really sure were to put this but here we go anyways...
Ive been thinking that we totally need some Bricks In Motion T-Shirts...
I mean they would be totally cool and I would buy one, and I'm sure
other people would too. So I have 3 Questions for you guys.
Does such a place exist where i can buy one?
Would it be a good idea for BiM to have a store for them on site?
Who else wants one?
Yeah, that would be brilliant.
You mean like these shirts that took Sméagol years and years to get rid of?
Yeah, I tried the t-shirt thing once. What I found was that while tons of people expressed enthusiasm for the design and were willing to straight up commit to buying them, very few people in this community actually paid for shirts. It took me 5 years to sell 30 of them.
And what about Bricks In Motion playing cards? Each card features a still from a different brickfilm.
While that sounds cool in theory HOO, it would take a huge amount of organization and set-up, and would probably face the same reaction as the T-shirts. (Which, by the way, I love. Thanks Smeagol!) That being a lot of initial interest, but very little actual purchases.
Now, cards are cheaper, (I would assume) and having a card with a still from your own film would be really cool, so it may get more follow-through. But I highly doubt any of us have the desire to wade into the extensive design process necessary for that.
It's too bad really, but that's just the way it is.
Why would cards be cheaper, you would have to get 52 different things printed and then all put together, if you just get a custom back you are looking around $8 a deck and that seems like a lot of money for a pack of cards. And you can get them that cheap because they mass produce the individual card types.
$8 a deck and that seems like a lot of money for a pack of cards.
That's the regular price for card decks that aren't the typical bicycle one or two-deck packs. Cards can run from $5 to $10 if they are interesting enough. I don't have an opinion on this subject, I just wanted to say that $8 for a specialty deck is pretty common.
It isn't that expensive to produce calendars. I would love to have a Bricks in Motion 2017 calendar on my wall next year.
I read Sméagol's post a little more like this:
Yeah, I tried the [selling something on BiM] thing once. What I found was that while tons of people expressed enthusiasm... and were willing to straight up commit to buying them, very few people in this community actually paid for [the BiM themed item]. It took me 5 years to sell 30 of them.
If there are enough members in the community that joined after the last shirt was sold that are interested in purchasing some themed merch to help out this site, perhaps then something like this could be re-implemented. But, as it is, I don't think that's likely to happen.
Keeping dead stock for 5 years isn't really a smart business decision. Making more documentaries, brickfilms, or other projects that could be supported by fan pledges on kickstarter, though, doesn't sound too out of the ballpark...
Pritchard, designing the cards is not at all a tedious task for me. Getting 51 other still image submissions for the deck is the tricky part. And I can print them on-demand, so there's no overstock. This is something I'd really like to do, if others would like to see their still on deck of cards.
In fact, send your favorite photograph from your film to me and I'll see how many I get of the bat. send your pictures to this email address, specially made just now for this project: brickcards "at" sigaint "dot" org.
Wow i post this yesterday night and now 10 replies 
The Magic of Forums... 
What about a custom printed Lego item with the BiM logo on it? We are all into Lego right, and it wouldn't cost too much at all. Maybe a minifigure torso.
I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I would like to throw this out there.
Last time you had a sort of unofficial pledge thing and you ordered the shirts, but then weren't able to sell all of them for years. What if you do a Kickstarter or another similar pledge program for BiM t-shirts? Just a one-time thing in which people can pledge to get a shirt; if there's enough interest you'll order the shirts and if not you don't. This way you won't run into people saying they want a shirt and not following up.
If there are enough members in the community that joined after the last shirt was sold that are interested in purchasing some themed merch to help out this site, perhaps then something like this could be re-implemented. But, as it is, I don't think that's likely to happen.
We've got a lot of new folks since that last order (Pritchard being one of the few people who joined in the past 5 years and has a shirt 
), so it might be worth trying it.
Like I said, I just wanted to throw this out there.
Last time you had a sort of unofficial pledge thing and you ordered the shirts, but then weren't able to sell all of them for years. What if you do a Kickstarter or another similar pledge program for BiM t-shirts? Just a one-time thing in which people can pledge to get a shirt; if there's enough interest you'll order the shirts and if not you don't. This way you won't run into people saying they want a shirt and not following up.
Initially I wanted to do something similar, but I couldn't get enough people to commit to a pre-order. People kept clamoring for shirts so eventually I went for it with faith that at least 25% of the people who said they *would* buy a shirt were being honest. Only like one of those people actually did.
I could do it again, this time without relenting, but even in the unlikely event enough people want the shirt, there's not a lot in it for me. Profit margins for things like t-shirts and calendars are razor-thin and there's a lot of work and time involved to make a good product and ship it out. I'd rather put that time into creating a great contest, or working on the film festival campaign for the documentary.
I would like a giant swimming pool in my back yard that says "Bricks in Motion" thank you. If you could mass produce those that'd be great!
I'll get buffed up and tanned for my calendar shoot, then.
You can always try Amazon Merch. You just submit your designs and they do the "stock", so if one person orders, they will print one shirt, and you still get some profit. It's only invitation-by-email right now but i got accepted easily - just took them like 2 months to send the confirmation email (I signed up when they announced so I'd imagine i was in a pool of pending people), so I'm sure if you include details about this forum they should accept you just fine. Seems like a win-win to me, since all you have to do is submit the designs and Amazon does the rest.
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