On Commissions...

Right then.

I suspect a decent chunk of you are here for one reason alone, and it's not to hear me wittering on about toys - you want to get your grubby protuberances on your own versions of them. To which end, a brief Q and A session. (If you've sent a message via Flickr, and I've yet to respond, firstly my apologies - I've just not been set up to handle this properly to date. Secondly, please see below.)

Hi there, love your work. Do you take custom commissions?

Why yes I do. And thanks for the kind comments.

How would I go about getting one?

Start up by sending an email to robwhite29@gmail.com with the figures you'd like. Up until now, I've been fairly laissez faire with wishlists - largely because not that many people have expressed interest. But in the last few months I've had a huge uptick in interest, and a lot of the people are requesting 10 customs or more at a time. All this adds up - if I totted everything up, I'd have more than 100 figures on my work list, which would mean a very long wait for anyone at the bottom of the list! So for the time being, I'm going to ask that you limit your lists to three figures at a time, so that everyone gets a crack.

What figures can I have?

In theory, anything you find on this site is fair game for being remade. In practise, there are a handful of figures that I'd have to think very carefully before tackling again - scratch build jobs like the War Machine or L1 robot, for example. Never say never, but I suspect I'd price myself out of the market on purpose for those ones!

Prices, eh? What are you charging?

It varies from figure to figure, but as a rule, somewhere between £50 and £100 per figure. This isn't the cheapest you'll find out there, so feel free to shop around if it's not for you. I think the price reflects the work involved (everything is sculpted and painted entirely by hand, and I try not to cut any corners in terms of screen accuracy). I could probably attract more work by charging less, but I'd rather have a few jobs I can do to the best of my ability, rather than becoming a production line. Repetition blurs the creative process, and I'm honestly not in this to make a living. Selling customs is an unexpected side effect of the hobby I enjoy, and I'm hoping to keep it that way. Please don't try to bargain - I'd rather not get into haggling. And having already done a lot of the popular figures before now, I have established prices in place, so it would be unfair for someone to find out they'd paid extra for something you got for less.

What happens next?

Once I get back to you with costs, you decide whether to formally offer the commission. If you're interested, I ask for 50% up front to secure the job (and avoid any time wasting offers). Should I be unable to complete a commission for any reason, this would obviously be fully refunded (this has yet to happen). Should you choose to cancel during the process, it would be at my discretion whether to refund - I might eBay the figure on or offer it elsewhere to recoup costs and only refund if I'm able to recover that cost. But this has also yet to happen, so it's theoretical - I'll take cases as they come up. I prefer funds by Paypal, but am prepared to consider other methods.

And then?

Once the deposit is in, I get cracking! Depending on whether I have base figures in, I'd either start work, or order the relevant parts. I would expect to send you one or two in progress images as things move along. The timeframe again depends on how many figures I'm working on, availability of parts (I may have to order specific older figures in), and my time constraints - this is being fitted in around work and family commitments. Roughly one week per figure is probably a fair ballpark, but please don't wuote me on that! Once everything is finished, I'd send finalised images for your approval. If you want any tweaks, please mention it at this point - I won't be offended and I'd far rather you be happy, rather than nursing hurt feelings forever over a wonky flipper...

If I'm happy?

Send me the other 50% with your address details. I'll package everything up very securely and get it posted to you. The postal service I'll use is at my discretion - it'll normally be standard, but if the figures are especially expensive, I may opt for a more secure service. If you want express delivery or signature, that's fine, but I might ask for a little extra to cover it.

Do you take commissions from outside the UK?

I see no reason why not - I've sent customs to the US and Australia before now. I would ask for a little extra money to cover international postage though, as it'd eat heavily into the margins. Get a quote from me at the time.

Hope this covers everything - if not, mention it in the comments below, and I'll edit the post.

Cheers,

R.