We're talking about pre-painted plastic miniatures.
That process almost certainly has to be done by hand, because it wouldn't be worth tooling up a robot capable of the feat.
To hit the relatively low price points (i.e. painted plastic minis that are cheaper than unassembled miniatures from other lines), the labor input for the painting has to be very close to zero dollars.
So I wouldn't be surprised, at all, to find out that the people employed to do that painting, in whatever Asian country the factory happens to be in, are probably effectively indentured.
I wouldn't feel as guilty about buying these like I'd feel guilty about buying South Asian seafood -- where ACTUAL slaves are forced onto fishing boats (and killed and thrown overboard at sea when they don't obey) or where ACTUAL slaves are forced to work in horrific conditions in shrimp processing plants.
So I don't mean to cheapen the plight of real slaves with that original comment.
But I don't think it's a stretch that the extremely cheap labor involved in producing prepainted minis would be pretty damn close to slave labor, by western standards.
EDIT: updated my other post to not exaggerate their plight with the inappropriate use of "literal" for dramatic effect -- sorry
Oh, no, I wasn't saying that to accuse you of exaggerating or misusing the word "literal"or anything, I just wasn't aware of the situation. I haven't played any games that would require the miniatures you and Default are talking about, so I was just trying to get a grasp on the situation. No malice intended at all.
Oh, no, I wasn't saying that to accuse you of exaggerating or misusing the word "literal"or anything, I just wasn't aware of the situation. I haven't played any games that would require the miniatures you and Default are talking about, so I was just trying to get a grasp on the situation. No malice intended at all.
Basically, what I was hinting at would apply to almost anything that has to be hand-painted, or otherwise hand-tooled, on a large scale.
It's just that with miniatures, since I have long enjoyed the hobby of painting them, I have a sense of how much time it can take, per mini, to do even the shitty job that those D&D minis had.
So I have a better sense of how little they must have been earning to hit the final price points, more so than something like factory garment workers in Bangladesh, where I have no idea how long it should take a skilled person to assemble a t-shirt.
I haven't really done it for a long time but back in the 90s I did anime kits, star wars kits, tanks, planes, just about anything. Right now i have a 1950s cruise missile to finish and a Testor's set of Soviet and US ICBMs. I want to make a display with fake launch keys for them. I wasted a ton of money on models over the last few years only to give the things away as i don't have the space for them. I did put together a Ghost in the shell kit i got for christmas though.
I would do model cars and military equipment when I was a kid. I didn't have the patience as a child to do good paint jobs. I sucked with a spray paint can doing the bodies and didn't take the time with a fine brush to make the details look good like with gauges and small parts. I was always so eager to get to assembly that I'd end up with them well built but sloppy paint jobs. I always used testors tube of glue which in hind sight is not a great choice. Lots of unwanted blobs of glue and glue strings. The glue in a bottle with brush is a better way to go. I actually was going to work on my son's B25 bomber with him today, but we ended up taking naps instead. lol It's a fun hobby no matter what you are building and you can really customize however you want. You don't have to follow the instructions step by step unless you want to. You can pick your own paint colors or even put parts in an oven on low heat to make the plastic soft to create battle damage. Be prepared to not be real happy with the first few you do. But you really can become a craftsman.
Last one I have to do for now is a 1/170 Macross Gerwalk model, but it is pretty plain without being painted. Going to use it as an introduction to the painting process and I'm looking forward to it!
I had a love/hate relationship with these things as a kid. I always enjoyed building stuff. I'm an engineer by trade and it's shouldn't surprise anyone who knew me as a kid. I'd always tear things apart trying to figure them out and when I reached around 10, I started teaching myself processes for taking things apart and building systems so I could get them back together. Still, I've never had steady hands.
So, models would seem like a natural hobby for me, and it was, but I often found myself extremely frustrated because I'm also a perfectionist. I'd want really good looking models but I'd always manage to get glue finger prints on them and I can't paint worth a flip using a brush. Most of my models ended up being finished but never painted. Decals weren't much better. I'd try so hard to stay steady and apply them in straight, even lines but it never failed. Plus, I'd end up breaking the decals or buckling them trying to fix the errors. Ugh, it's stressing me out just thinking about it.
I extensively build and customize models, mostly starships, aircraft and movie cars. At the moment, my big project is all five versions of the DeLorean from the Back to the Future series, followed by a kit bash of the Ecto 88 from Ready Player One. I plan to add a segment to my blog regarding modelcraft.
Tanks are fun builds. I prefer aircraft, myself. I have several old Tamiya kits sitting in my garage somewhere that I'll get to...eventually. At the moment, the top shelf of the closet is full of my "back log," consisting of starships and movie cars. I love the peace I derive from building kits, so I try to make time for it every chance I get.
I bought a Zoid over ten years ago and put it together, though when it didn't walk like it was supposed to, I ended up throwing it against the wall in anger. The experience turned me off the franchise for years. However, around 3 or so years ago, I ended up buying, on two separate occasions, the miniature and full sized version of the Zoid that looks like the White Tigerzord from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (or if you are a Sentai fan, like Won Tiger from Gosei Sentai Dairanger). These weren't models, though; I don't think I can ever journey down that path again.
I bought a Zoid over ten years ago and put it together, though when it didn't walk like it was supposed to, I ended up throwing it against the wall in anger. The experience turned me off the franchise for years. However, around 3 or so years ago, I ended up buying, on two separate occasions, the miniature and full sized version of the Zoid that looks like the White Tigerzord from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (or if you are a Sentai fan, like Won Tiger from Gosei Sentai Dairanger). These weren't models, though; I don't think I can ever journey down that path again.
I had a similar experience with the wind-up walking not moving on surfaces as it should, but I just brushed it off because I enjoyed building it and prefered the models as they were without movement. I never cared, and simply preferred the process of assembling them more.
Comments
Wait, what?
We're talking about pre-painted plastic miniatures.
That process almost certainly has to be done by hand, because it wouldn't be worth tooling up a robot capable of the feat.
To hit the relatively low price points (i.e. painted plastic minis that are cheaper than unassembled miniatures from other lines), the labor input for the painting has to be very close to zero dollars.
So I wouldn't be surprised, at all, to find out that the people employed to do that painting, in whatever Asian country the factory happens to be in, are probably effectively indentured.
I wouldn't feel as guilty about buying these like I'd feel guilty about buying South Asian seafood -- where ACTUAL slaves are forced onto fishing boats (and killed and thrown overboard at sea when they don't obey) or where ACTUAL slaves are forced to work in horrific conditions in shrimp processing plants.
So I don't mean to cheapen the plight of real slaves with that original comment.
But I don't think it's a stretch that the extremely cheap labor involved in producing prepainted minis would be pretty damn close to slave labor, by western standards.
EDIT: updated my other post to not exaggerate their plight with the inappropriate use of "literal" for dramatic effect -- sorry
Oh, no, I wasn't saying that to accuse you of exaggerating or misusing the word "literal"or anything, I just wasn't aware of the situation. I haven't played any games that would require the miniatures you and Default are talking about, so I was just trying to get a grasp on the situation. No malice intended at all.
Oh, no, I wasn't saying that to accuse you of exaggerating or misusing the word "literal"or anything, I just wasn't aware of the situation. I haven't played any games that would require the miniatures you and Default are talking about, so I was just trying to get a grasp on the situation. No malice intended at all.
Basically, what I was hinting at would apply to almost anything that has to be hand-painted, or otherwise hand-tooled, on a large scale.
It's just that with miniatures, since I have long enjoyed the hobby of painting them, I have a sense of how much time it can take, per mini, to do even the shitty job that those D&D minis had.
So I have a better sense of how little they must have been earning to hit the final price points, more so than something like factory garment workers in Bangladesh, where I have no idea how long it should take a skilled person to assemble a t-shirt.
What amazes me is how expensive kits are these days. They were pricey in the 90s but nothing like now.
No joke. I think I paid $65 on sale for the B-25 model I bought my son.
Strike Zilla (Techno Zoids), SD Gundam (Exia Series), Peti'gguy (Gundam Build Fighters), and Demon Lizard (Techno Zoids):
Last one I have to do for now is a 1/170 Macross Gerwalk model, but it is pretty plain without being painted. Going to use it as an introduction to the painting process and I'm looking forward to it!
So, models would seem like a natural hobby for me, and it was, but I often found myself extremely frustrated because I'm also a perfectionist. I'd want really good looking models but I'd always manage to get glue finger prints on them and I can't paint worth a flip using a brush. Most of my models ended up being finished but never painted. Decals weren't much better. I'd try so hard to stay steady and apply them in straight, even lines but it never failed. Plus, I'd end up breaking the decals or buckling them trying to fix the errors. Ugh, it's stressing me out just thinking about it.
I bought a Zoid over ten years ago and put it together, though when it didn't walk like it was supposed to, I ended up throwing it against the wall in anger. The experience turned me off the franchise for years. However, around 3 or so years ago, I ended up buying, on two separate occasions, the miniature and full sized version of the Zoid that looks like the White Tigerzord from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (or if you are a Sentai fan, like Won Tiger from Gosei Sentai Dairanger). These weren't models, though; I don't think I can ever journey down that path again.
I had a similar experience with the wind-up walking not moving on surfaces as it should, but I just brushed it off because I enjoyed building it and prefered the models as they were without movement. I never cared, and simply preferred the process of assembling them more.