However, I'm not quite sure I understand your reasoning when it comes to not wanting to announce in advance your choices for which new ships will be produced. For instance, the next Federation ship is apparently being worked on but its identity hasn't been revealed. I guess you don't want to risk negative online reactions to ship choices, but wouldn't negative reactions in this type of situation be informative? For example, if the new Federation ship was something like the Botany Bay, which probably would be very far down on most fans' want lists behind the Enterprise C, the Defiant, Voyager, etc., and fans made their displeasure known, wouldn't that help you guys to realize that a more profitable choice could be made? I would think that, in the instance of ship selection, you guys might welcome feedback before you made a final decision and went into the production stage?
Thanks for posting, Ensign, sometimes I feel like I'm talking to the same 5 guys.
When we decide on a ship to make, it is due to our perception of overall ship recognition/popularity (which does include input from online and Ask DST), understanding of the current Star Trek collectibles market, some input from our sales team, personal preference and cost/benefit. The last one is two parts: 1. would it work in our standard size/cost range (we can't pay to tool anything bigger than our current size and expect it to cost out, nor can we make something that is small and expect people to pay the amount we need to ask), and 2. are there multiple ships or ship variations in that class that we can plan on, as it is getting less likely (if it ever was) that there is any one ship variation that would sell enough numbers to pay for the entire production run (we usually need BD versions, refits, or other ships in that class that would share the tooling cost, or even use the same tooling).
When we announce a ship, we have decided that that fits all of our criteria. To announce a ship and then have people say "No, please do not make that ship," would probably not be anything we could act on. There is no way to accurately gauge the number of noisy dissenters against people who awould actually be interested in it -- after all, there is such a thing as a vocal minority. 12-20 people on this forum saying that they do not like a choice could represent a very small percentage in real life.
Heading off the next suggestion, "do a web poll" -- no web poll will accurately gauge the entirety of Trek fandom. We'd have to get over 50K votes to get any sort of useful reading -- and those voters are not necessarily buyers, so it's all theoretical in any case. The fans would need to vote on size, sounds, and all potential future variants to truly gauge which path would be preferable. And the winner would need to be ordered by the retailers, and if they don't have confidence in the vote, the ship or the product, then it's all moot. (We can't do it all direct.)
The next suggestion would probably be Kickstarter, to tie votes to dollars, but that's not really something a company with a budget does. It's meant to be grassroots, for companies with no capital. We have a development budget, financed by the previous ship in the line. If Hasbro is Marvel and Mattel is DC, then we're probably on a level with Archie, and Archie got a lot of flak for doing a Kickstarter campaign recently. Besides, we'd still be relying on orders based on artwork and photos, because if we were to prototype the ship, we would be more or less committed, as that is a significant time and money expenditure already, and a Kickstarter would be moot. As it is, Diamond Comics' Previews catalog is not too far off from a Kickstarter campaign. If the orders are not there (it still happens from time to time), the toy might not get funded.
Mainly, there is no way for a fan to know that they will not want a ship when they haven't even seen how the toy looks. It's bad eough with a prototype, which doesn't represent the final product, but a photo or still will never represent the toy in any way. A well-done toy may give a fan a new appreciation of a ship, whereas a poorly done toy of a ship they love on the screen may not ring their bell. Not trying to say "Let us tell you what you want," but maybe something more akin to "Trust us to act in your best interests, and the interests of the line."