Introducing Alan

@andrew, you appear to have an axe to grind here... Your attempts to tarnish or degrade the amount of effort that's gone into ALAN almost seems personal. You mad bro? You speak of business sense but then attempt to slam @will due to the implied level of profit he's taking on some of the rewards. The best price for anything, for the merchant to list a product at, is the one people purchase. Certainly you'd agree that consumer prices aren't simply cost of goods + some small amount for overhead. If you believe you're right, why not keep your mouth closed and wait for the implosion? What are you gaining from this at this point?

@will, I'm mostly a lurker but If was one of, if not the first backer of the project. I've increased the reward level I originally I signed up for. I upgraded to the gold level. Hopefully my message will speak louder than @andrews.

Keep up the amazing work.

first of all. I love Alans design.

@A84M yes, the price is extremely high. the biggest problem.. a 3D scanner. one day someone share the part-data online for free.. then nobody need this parts from the usa. thats the same like ez-robot parts. you can print all by yourself. for china servos, ez-robot controller, camera, a few leds and coloring you pay 400,00 dollar + 100 dollar for the parts-printing. = 500 dollar for a complete alan without rubber mask. 3500 or 500 .. what you wanna pay ? before I saw the prices, I thought.. uhh, only a few robot-builders want Alan. now I think only rich robot-builders want Alan.. so its not possible to make a big business with this robot-bust. its more expensive as aldebaran pepper or a Sony AIBO at the beginning.

its really high priced. the animation is like a movie-robot but not the material.

in movies the most parts are metal, aluminium, high quality servos and masks. it's the same as compared wowwee dinosaur with the Jurassic Park robots.

Alan is a very cool looking product but the perfect calculation is 1000 dollar for a colored version and not 3500. I think the production-costs are to high at the moment and this will be breaking Alans neck in future.

at the moment Alan has 19 supporters, it's hard to say but I think the most are from this forum ^^!

I will let myself be surprised and wish all the best.. I hope this idea bears fruit.

Seanb, if you think I'll take some kind of perverse Joy from the KS campaign failing, you're mistaken.

You're perfectly entitled to call me mad, jaded or whatever else you imagine, that's your right. But this debate doesn't boil down to 'whose right' & 'whose wrong', more so 'what's right' & 'what's wrong', but I suppose that comes down to what Williams vision is for ALAN and progressing Robomodix's business activities, that is OF COURSE, up to him. If he wants to provide to a niche market and/or university institutions that is perfectly fine.

Forgive me if I've suggested an alternative route to market of which is more beneficial to EVERYONE.

Ps, you should maybe negotiate on your GOLD level pledge to get it 'Unassembled' but with the tablet PC in leu of the assembly/labour costs.

Regards, Andrew

Here is my view point, not that anyone cares...

A kickstarter is used to get funds to build a product or company. ALAN is no exception. Will has every right to charge what he believes is right for his product and has the right and responsibility to protect his design for all of those who invest in his endevor.

ALAN is the most advanced humanoid platform available on the market today. The head is just the beginning. My hope is that Will will be successful in this first stage of marketing.

ALAN is an expandable robot platform. By this, I mean that the head is just the first part of the overall product. It is also able to be expanded upon by those who support the kickstarter and receive their product. It isn't tied specifically to the EZB controller. Other software can drive the robot head. With most kickstarter for robot platforms, there are multiple levels with one of these levels being a developer version. ALAN is the developer platform level of the product and as such should carry the costs associated with this level of product.

Every good design will be copied and will be given away eventually. There is no way to protect from this happening. Will could spend many hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to protect from this but he is smart enough to realize this inevitable outcome. He and I have had conversations on this topic in the last year. There is nothing wrong with him trying to profit prior to this occurance. The amount he will profit will be up to his supporters and his advertising.

The software to drive this robot can cost as much or as little as the builder is willing to pay. What this robot ultimately does is up to the builder. Will has been nice enough to put his design out for sale and ultimately copied. If it wasn't a good design we wouldn't be having this conversation, but he has done so not to make a huge amount of money, but to further is work on this project. $125000 isn't a crazy amount of money for a company to start up on. It is really pretty low, and I know this doesn't cover the cost of the equipment and time spent over the last 2 years to develop ALAN.

Ultimately, it is Will's product to do what he sees fit to do with. I support will in other areas of this project other than the KickStarter because I believe it will be beneficial to both of us.

Could he have released the stl files, sure. Is it good business practice to do so, doubtful IMO, but it is just that, my opinion. By all accounts this is an awesome product that many people want to own. Ultimately all that matters is that Will proceeds the way that Will sees fit to proceed. Everything else is just bytes stored in a database and displayed on a forum.

Express your opinion, and then know it was expressed. That's about all it amounts to and Will will proceed with what he believes is best. These are his decisions to make and he is the one with the information to make the decission.

@Cochran I totally agree!

@Smarty Pepper costs about $1600 + a mandatory contract which lasts a minimum of 36 months and costs another $440 a month. Meaning that in 36 months you pay roughly $17,600. It is a completely different product from Alan as its value is largely in the delivered software. My personal feeling is that Pepper is not used for much more than conversation for which Alan is a way more affordable alternative, especially if you want to try out your own software.

I agree that 3D scanners are an unavoidable issue. You can see 3D scanners slowly creeping up in for instance the Warhammer hobby world where Chinese websites offer 1/5th of the price for miniatures compared to Games Workshop. However, this does not instant-kill Games Workshop. Most people try to buy at least some products from GW in order to support the hobby.

Also, with respect to @A84M concerns about costs, I believe that there will always be people (like me) who'll buy from companies like Robomodix so that these companies can further develop products and release awesome new ones in the future. Such people won't mind paying extra for the initial development costs of the current product and for partially funding future developments (or indeed for some general profit). If @fxrtst can find 160 such investors through PR this month, then he's done

Given how many people spend over $1500 on gadgets like drones, copters, games PCs, etc, I wouldn't be surprised that there would be at least 160 people out there willing to spend that amount on a fantastic looking robot bust and invest in its further development.

Will, a fantastic product! You have to be very proud of what you have accomplished. I wish you nothing but success.

@CochranRobotics.com "ALAN is the most advanced humanoid platform available on the market today. " Alan is a printed bust, all technologie and software is from EZ-Robots and a animatronic bust you find in all holiday parks, halloween shops and in japan supermarkets since 20 years. without the hardware its only a filament PLA/ ABS or another PVC statue/ bust. It is a 3D printed artwork.

Alan is a cool looking robot-bust like NS-5 from the I-Robot movie with more details. I love the design! Yes, Will has every right to charge what he believes.. but! If Will want a successful company, he needs other prices.

first a head and later a complete body.. Google gives billions of dollars on robotic technology.. "Will" have only a animatronic ez-robot head.. without ez-robot "Will" never build this toy. If all people want a EZ-Robot Bust.. how many years you need to build it ? at the moment one ez-robot needs two months for shipping from china to europe or usa. there is a logistic problem. the InMoov project is very cool, but how much people have an InMoov worldwide ? 200?

it's a visionary project with lot of dreams but no business-man will invest in this bust, because its only a printed bust and you need own technologie or ez-robot hardware for a full working robot. 700 for a printed head is expensive - all normal people will agree with me.

I know what kickstarter is and I hope this visionary product has a chance on market. It's always hard to make money when you are dependent on other people.

If EZ-Robot goes away.. or has a financial crisis.. then alan is only a bust without any technologie.. and then ? you think you sell thousand of bust-parts without color for 700 dollar worldwide ? I dont think so. for 99,00 dollars, yes but not for 700 :-) and then you earn no money or not enough.

@Smarty, you don't know all of the details. Yes, if you buy just the manufactured parts (resin parts by the way) you are correct. It is artwork. Again, Will chose to use the EZB for many reasons, but this product is not tied exclusively to the EZB. It is up to the buyer to make it what they want it to be.

Btw, artwork carries a high price tag.

The motors you add make it what you want it to be. These are built by master builders with many years of experience in the movie industry. They are not slapped together in a factory in China that has no care for the quality of the final product.

What you want is the mercades at Kia prices. This is a very high quality product hand made by master craftsmen who get paid a lot of money to do what they do by major motion picture companies. Will is not willing to sacrifice quality manufacturing in order to produce poor quality products. I applaud him for that.

If DJ has an issue with Will using their products and software to make money, that is their fight, not ours. You could say the same thing if Will used arduinos and sketches posted on the internet. Would that make it any better for you? Still the craftsmanship comes with a cost. Customer satisfaction has very little to do with cost. Of you paid 100 dollars and it was a pile of junk, you would be upset. If you pay 1000 dollars and everything fits and works properly, you appreciate the craftsmanship, and you have a working product for years to come. This makes a happy customer.