Could building custom mini figures be profitable?

[Jackad7]

So I've been looking at using decals and custom helmets to make custom clone troopers. I'm wondering could it be profitable? I've been looking at buying pieces on bricklink and then selling them on ebay but right now I've not found a solid selling price, and I don't want to pour my money into something that could have no yield(granted I would be happy with the mini figures). Im just trying to find a way to sustain my hobby with my hobby. Also is there a good place to buy bulk mini figure pieces besides bricklink? I've found they're either really expensive or not in bulk amounts. Thanks!

[HawkLord]

I think the custom minifigure and minifigure accessory market is drying up alittle. Before the license craze, there were people having success making custom pieces, but now we're finding that the license material is creating a wealth of bricks and accessories that are making it harder for customizers to really have success through truly unique items. The one exception would be real world weapons (mostly guns) and that's where certain companies are still doing well enough to stay in business.

My primary example would be something like LOTR. Before that hit people were making custom heroes, like Gandalf and Elves. Now that those have been made in abundance officially, there's really no need for custom material.

[Jackad7]

I think the custom minifigure and minifigure accessory market is drying up alittle. Before the license craze, there were people having success making custom pieces, but now we're finding that the license material is creating a wealth of bricks and accessories that are making it harder for customizers to really have success through truly unique items. The one exception would be real world weapons (mostly guns) and that's where certain companies are still doing well enough to stay in business.

My primary example would be something like LOTR. Before that hit people were making custom heroes, like Gandalf and Elves. Now that those have been made in abundance officially, there's really no need for custom material.

That's a good point. Since I last looked at the market(5 years ago?) There seems to be a lot less bidding/sales of customs.

[Wardancer]

I think it is very difficult. A kickstarter campaign for custom figs has just failed a week ago. I know a few people who tried selling custom stuff, but they hardly make any profit. There are a few big players who dominate, capemadness, brickwarriors, brickarms and brickforge. These work because they have many products in a very good quality.

A counter example might be what just happened with the custom LOTR helmets. They sold very well in the past days. Check out the minifig customization workshop forum here on Eurobricks.

[Robianco]

I think you have to look at the customisers that are out there and gauge how your product will compare to theirs to see whether there is space in the market... and that also takes into account the scale of what you want to do.

Someone like Christo produces top quality pad printed figures which are enhanced by newly moulded pieces that are of Lego quality. The first examples of figures he puts out can sell for up to $200 per figure, such as the Maestro Hulk and Mera figures he released at the end of last year. After that they regularly sell for between $40 and $60 per figure depending on the amount of print etc. Printing pad customs isn't cheap and you have to have a place in the market to know that you're going to make your money back.

There is an EB member who has Phoenix Customs and has produced around 7 pad printed figures... He sells initially through a pre-sale at a slightly discounted rate which then acts as a pretty good indicator of popularity while also funding the initial print run.

You have customisers like Onlinesailin on eBay who print digitally and in large numbers... they also have a very good reputation and following and sell tens, if not hundreds of figures a month.

You could look at putting custom figures together with genuine parts from BL or B&P with customs parts from people like Brickforge etc and then sell those as a starter or even print on decal paper to create custom figures to sell. A few years ago I created a set of Ghostbusters with accessories from Brickforge which I sold on eBay... this was before the official set was released. You can do it whatever scale you wish... Getting known on Flickr is also a good way to sell or trade figures.

[Jackad7]

Cool! Thanks for the ideas! I'm going to try some decals with brick arms weapons and clone army customs helmets and if I can't sell them at least I'll have some cool figures