Introducing Alan

Holy crap... in less than an hour you already have more pledges than Anthony's ill fated campaign had over the entire 30 days.... Awesome Will!

Hi Richard,

First, I have to say ALAN is incredible (aesthetically & functionally)!

Just a suggestion, would it be conceivable to open a lower pledge tier to become involved in building ALAN? The reason I suggest this is because even the bronze level reward pledge level will be a major barrier to market for most potential backers.

Bear with me while I explain further. If a new $125 pledge level was opened for full 3d printable stl's & recommended hardware/build guide, 1000x backers at that tier and you're home & dry.

This approach will also have the inherent benefit of all backers who back at $125 level beginning to build, experiment, improve, eval out any unknown issues, posting their builds keeping all bronze, silver, gold & titanium backers eveloped with the project while you're busy fulfilling their pledge levels, plus additional benefit of the 1000+ lower tier backers build experiences.

MHO, ALAN's success now resides in its community now you're ready to release him into the wild. The question is whether a community of 100+ is better than a community of 1000+.

What does weigh heavy in this approach is, if a $125 tier is offered, will all the current backers drop from bronze, silver, gold & platinum level to the lower tier? The answer is Likely yes, probably a large percent. But does this then have the knock-on effect that the campaign is successful, but high-level backer numbers are too low to handcraft,mold, assemble & ship, & still be commercially viable?

whatever happens I do genuinely hope & wish this campaign every success. The level of painstaking detail getting this far, failure isn't an option!

Kindest Regards, Andrew

@A84M How are you going to keep the stls from being shared illegally after the kickstarter? Why pay $125 when you can just wait until the stls become available as a pirated download?

@bas, Thank you and i will check and see if it went thru..let you know shortly!

@nanomole40, thank you so very much for your pledge.

@Alan, Thank you so much...I love me some B-5'ers

@warpig! Thank you thank you!

@richard..its going well...fingers crossed....apparently 80% of projects are funded if they meet 30% of their goal by the end of the first week...hmmm !?

...and lastly @a84m, I hear ya buddy. There are so many things to say to respond, so I will try and approach like this. Because we are hand making Alan the labor costs are extensive for the amount of time to produce all the ALANS (also the $125,000 goal). If there were some way to pressure inject these intricate parts in CHINA i would need $1.5 million dollars upfront and everyone would have to wait for 18 months for a product with no hardware and no software or electronics to go with it and the price would be ridiculous.

We have well thought out that this is the best way to get ALANs out into the field for people to build in a timely manner and then we can concentrate on all the upgrades to ALAN. All the proceeds go back into the evolution of ALAN into ALANA the female face and many many other additions. We believe this is a very special product and we are not just moving on after the campaign is over.

You kinda answered you own question, many backers would drop off and go with the stls and it also would not be long before there are duplicate molds and parts and stl's flowing freely (will happen eventually) in the market place. The only way to move forward with ALAN is to place him in a low volume high demand market. This way, ALAN, his parts and evolution will not suffer from desegregation in quality.

Will, first of all, may I giv you congratulations on your achievement! I would love so much to be part of the early birds who will build it! In fact, I was waiting so much to be a backer... But unfortunately $700 dollars is too much expensive for me. Specially this days when half of the world is in a big economic crisis and the dollar reaches stupid value in foreign currency.

But, I wish you all the success. I'm sad I can't be in your backers list.

If, at some point you find a way to allow a lower contribution... I'll certainly keep my enthusiasm about the project. Best wishes.

Tevans

Sorry, after watching KS video IT looks like you've already the molds which was no doubt very time consuming/expensive. If that is the case then you needn't worry about being commercially viable if there aren't many high-level backers, it just means less manpower to deliver (heavily cutting down costs/increasing amount out of $125k you pocket)!

Answering what is stopping the stl's being freely distributed you are right on point. But with the advent of cheap & easy methods of 3d scanning objects there is also nothing preventing, and I should add, somebody definitely will 3d scan a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum reward ALAN. This is the unfortunate reality of the 21st century.

Believe me when I say I understand your concerns, especially when you have laboured as arduously as you clearly have. When your soo focused on what you're working on, making it the best, with your own vision of where you want it to go/to achieve, it's hard to accept people will try to copy your work, it's not fair, rude & offensive. But it cannot blind you to the objective reality of the following possible outcomes;

A) If you did offer the lower level tier & the campaign is successful, you have opened lowered the barrier to entry to hobbyists who otherwise could not afford it & have bolstered a much larger, livelier & contributing community simultaneously keeping high-level backers interest peeks during their wait period, also drastically reducing the man-hours/money required delivering to them, also giving ALAN a greater chance of being released into the wild.

B) No lower level tier is offered however campaign is still successful, all rewards require manufacturer, more man-power required, less money remains from $125k (-kickstarter %), many very interested backers prevented from becoming involved with ALAN, despite being extremely interested in project, shortly after 2016 release there's still possibility ALAN will appear somewhere in stl form.

Inversely, possibilities;

C) lower tier is made available, KS doesn't reach $125k, no stl files are released to anyone (nothing ventured=nothing gained)

D) no lower tier is made available, campaign continues as is, KS doesn't achieve $125k, you're left with molds (time/money invested in) not being cycled, many backers desperate to have own ALAN disappointed at not having one to look forward to working on next year, & probably some people you had in mind for helping deliver with no work to provide, possibly some stock already inhand now surplus to demand.

Please appreciate I mean no offence in my comments, everything I've said is obviously of my own opinion & I cannot stress how much I hope the ALAN project succeeds. I just genuinely see possibility A) as the most positive, best result all round, and appreciate how it can be difficult to think more objectively when you are soo absorbed in a labour of passion.

Warmest Regards, Andrew

@tevens,

I thank you for your long time support and kinds words. When we use the word "affordable" its all relative to each person and their place in the world. As a world traveler I can appreciate those who work hard and struggle to make it financially through each day and month.

Again thanks for the support!

@a84m Absolutely none taken.

I wish the single mold you saw was the only mold to be made. Haha. That was the mold for the prototype. We have 22 molds that have to be built and duplicated to the amount of 10, so thats 220 molds. Then we have all the equipment including pressure pots to cure the parts under pressure, and degassing machines to remove the bubbles from the liquid plastic, then we have to add pressure injection systems for the silicone faces. Mold making alone costs are 4 men for a month to create 220 molds, plus materials and equipment. Then there are the eyes. Every single eye has to be 3D printed, so say we sell 200 units, we print 400 eyes. Trust me when I say there is VERY little left over to go back into ALAN after its all done. But if it was easy then everyone would be doing it. But what it will do is begin the demand for ALAN. And that can only mean great things.

I'm speaking from the perspective of ALAN and keeping a standard on my product. You are a user coming from the perspective of not being able to afford one. And thats ok. There are alot of people who cant afford an Apple product, but that doesn't force Apple to release cardboard $10 versions to quell those consumers.

As Richard suggested just wait for the pirated stl's to hit the market in a year or so and you can print your own.

I appreciate your perspective though. There is nothing wrong with debate.

Edit: Lets face it robotics in general is an expensive sport/hobby. That's why the good stuff is at DARPA and at University...