Rev Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 http://www.rexplastics.com/faq.php#06 Interesting info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntellivisionDude Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 http://youtu.be/rnbDA4wKrg0?t=37s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I really hate to see the wheel being re-invented at such a tremendous cost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 There are at least two moulds for Intellivision cartridges. The LTO shell and the one pictured below. The one below has not had a run made. Nobody seems interested in it at $2 a shell. It seems to be too much for the end users. However, moulds cost a lot and are part of that price. There have been enough sales of LTO shells to completely pay for engineering and mould costs. I cannot speak for LTO, but I am guessing that they could do a bit better than $2 a shell for bulk purchases. I've heard that Collectorvision is also doing one. If people balk at buying the below shell at $2, I don't see how doing another mould is going to shave off any more per unit cost. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Its not particularly the price at this point, its availability. EBay lots seem to be drying up. The Left Turn cart is only available to games that are 'official'. (No disrespect Joe!) I am paying 2.00 per Mattel cart in a huge lot right now. Willy, you have piqued my interest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 The one below has not had a run made. Nobody seems interested in it at $2 a shell. It seems to be too much for the end users. That clear shell with the angled front end looks awesome! I'd be happy to pay the "extra" $2 per game, but we all know that's not how it ends up working at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Wow! Surprised to hear how little a person would have to put in for a great shell like that. If you told me it was $5. to pass that shell along on top of the price of a new game I wouldn't blink. If I let $2. get in the way of anything I do, then i am pretty much doing nothing. Anyone spend more than $2. on fast food this week? That is here and gone. A Clear shell at $2. will last forever and can be played over and over. Great value to me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Moulds are in the $10,000 range. If you make only 40 cents a shell after costs it is going to require 25,000 sales to pay for the mould. Prices typically are affected by quantity and how many colours are required each run. Clear versus opaque are not much different in cost. When I say $2 a shell, that is for a fairly large order. So, want to order a few thousand Wolfy? I passed on buying the mould because my offers of selling for $3 a shell (to pay for the mould) were thought to be 'too high' by people I consulted with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+save2600 Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I passed on buying the mould because my offers of selling for $3 a shell (to pay for the mould) were thought to be 'too high' by people I consulted with. $3 is all we're talking now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Point is, that until moulds are paid for prices are based on how quickly you want to pay off the mould not just the cost of production. To put it bluntly, a while ago, I was going to buy the mould (that has already been made) and was trying to determine the price that I could charge. The price that people were willing to pay unfortunately was below MY cost, and that didn't take into consideration the $10,000 mould. So, I didn't bother buying the mould nor did I do a run. I know that currently no run has been made with this mould. I have no control over the price at this time, since it doesn't belong to me. However, when people aren't willing to pay what it costs to produce a shell, let alone a shell with mould costs added on, it would have been folly for me to purchase the mould and do a run. Nevertheless, I personally think it is foolish to keep using recycled shells when cost effective new ones are available. The only problem is, that orders have to be in the thousands of units. That adds up when they are even 'only' $2 a shell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Correct me if I'm wrong, but with all of the various titles being released in a given year, it's safe to say that "thousands of units" are produced. Certainly in 2-3 years max! Wouldn't it be cool if everyone could get together and agree on something? $3/shell seems like peanuts to me. Charge $63 for your homebrew CIB instead of $60 if it's a dealbreaker. I don't know if people are aware, but the original Mattel plastic is starting to degrade in some cases. I've had a few carts in recent years that the screw posts (or the pressure tabs for non-screw shells) have basically snapped on them. I don't know how much stress is caused by unscrewing and rescrewing (awkward word choice) or if I've just had some that sat in the sun too long, or what. I've not really seen this kind of degradation with other systems - yet. To me it just makes sense to order a fuck-ton (official measurement) of new shells, distribute between the half dozen people releasing games, and everyone's a winner. But it's easy for me to spend other people's money and tell others how to run their business... this paragraph not aimed at you, William, I just wish everyone could get along. We're such a tiny community as it is, agreeing on simple things like this should be easy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Nevertheless, I personally think it is foolish to keep using recycled shells when cost effective new ones are available. The only problem is, that orders have to be in the thousands of units. That adds up when they are even 'only' $2 a shell. Hmm... $2.00 x 300 recycled shells = $600.00 Build and sell about 300 units and be done with it. $2.00 x 2,000 new shells (or minimum order) = $4,000.00 Build and sell about 300--maybe even 500--units and get stuck with about 1,500 units in your closet. Not really all that foolish for runs in small batches. Perhaps when new games start coming out faster, the dynamics of the market will change. -dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Hmm... $2.00 x 300 recycled shells = $600.00 Build and sell about 300 units and be done with it. $2.00 x 2,000 new shells (or minimum order) = $4,000.00 Build and sell about 300--maybe even 500--units and get stuck with about 1,500 units in your closet. Not really all that foolish for runs in small batches. Perhaps when new games start coming out faster, the dynamics of the market will change. -dZ. Perhaps a bulk order by MANY people would be the way to go, and not just one individual order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 (edited) Perhaps a bulk order by MANY people would be the way to go, and not just one individual order. Thas' wha' I said - in my usual long-winded fashion Edited January 22, 2015 by freeweed 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Thas' wha' I said - in my usual long-winded fashion I just glanced at your novel..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Perhaps a bulk order by MANY people would be the way to go, and not just one individual order. Maybe. That requires planning, coordination, and commitments; none of which are trivial when large sums of money are concerned, especially among people who have never met each other. Again, this is not insurmountable, just another challenge. dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Hmm... $2.00 x 300 recycled shells = $600.00 Build and sell about 300 units and be done with it. $2.00 x 2,000 new shells (or minimum order) = $4,000.00 Build and sell about 300--maybe even 500--units and get stuck with about 1,500 units in your closet. Not really all that foolish for runs in small batches. Perhaps when new games start coming out faster, the dynamics of the market will change. -dZ. The foolish part comes with the fact that LTO shells are in ample supply at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 The foolish part comes with the fact that LTO shells are in ample supply at the moment. LTO shells, as I understand it, are not available for projects that may potentially infringe on someone else's content, no matter how minimally. While I highly doubt Activision is going to sue over "Copter Command", I suspect that qualifies as enough infringement to preclude use of these shells. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 The foolish part comes with the fact that LTO shells are in ample supply at the moment. I've already contacted Joe. Thus why Im looking to produce a new shell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Tarzilla Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 What would be nice is if there was a single, independent entity where the parts for anybody's CIB release can ordered, instead of the current lone gunman approach. I don't mean one place that does shells, pcbs, and printing all in house, but a co-ordinator that can leverage 10 CIB releases from 7 different people in order to be efficient on the multiple boxes per print set-up, can pull 2k+ of carts at once, etc. Hopefully the middle man would still be able to make a profit while driving the over all cost down for the publishers. Doubtful, I know, but if you had told me 2 years ago that I would be playing games I wrote and for the Intellivision (and ColecoVision and 2600) and on an actual cartridge, I would have laughed in your face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DZ-Jay Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 The foolish part comes with the fact that LTO shells are in ample supply at the moment. It seems shells from LTO come with strict conditions or strings attached, still not a foolish decision to roll your own. This is the same reason we were rolling our own boxes and manuals for Christmas Carol before Elektronite came along, because the supply chain was not--shall we say--transparent and accessible enough. I'm not saying it's a good situation, but such is life in a small community. dZ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I'll be talking to the mould owner this evening and seeing how much he would sell the shells for and what the minimum order number is. The money would probably have to be paid up front. However, the person is trustworthy. Perhaps a group order is the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freewheel Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 What would be nice is if there was a single, independent entity where the parts for anybody's CIB release can ordered, instead of the current lone gunman approach. I don't mean one place that does shells, pcbs, and printing all in house, but a co-ordinator that can leverage 10 CIB releases from 7 different people in order to be efficient on the multiple boxes per print set-up, can pull 2k+ of carts at once, etc. I would LOVE to see this happen. Unfortunately I am just about the furthest thing from the diplomat required to get everyone's differing priorities and egos aligned. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Games For Your Intellivision Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 I'd be interested in about 500 clear shells of the Mattel clone type. Probably clear greyish. We might be able to get the entire order shipped directly to Rev and then have him package up the smaller orders and forward them. By the way, the 3rd shell that exists is the Intellivision Productions shell. It works with JLP 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfy62 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 it is awesome to see everyone trying to work together here to make this happen! Yay team Intellivision!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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