I was entering Elegab lottos a few times before I realized that you need to include IG, but only if you are a new customer. After I included it, I won for the first time. He also complimented my photography and asked me to share pics of his toy. I thought it was very sweet.
I want the big toys back! I never got that tsunami kaiju, I thought he'd release more versions of it.
He will definitely continue releasing the large figures, but probably just a few times a year. Yeah, Namira is an amazing beast. I'm hoping for a cherry red one eventually...
I do agree with you @taviq the bigger toys are dearly missed. I’m very excited over these new princes no doubt and really like to see more prince line sculpts. But it was with Nari-sama’s bigger work that I fell in love and I would love to see more of them coming.
Elegab just posted this on his blog at http://elegab.blog.fc2.com/ I gotta applaud the transparency here. While personally I think the numbers are a bit off (I don't like the idea that people who try to buy everything get preference, it negatively penalizes people who are in more difficult financial decisions since they get a smaller chance of a run because they can't afford it perhaps), it's pretty crazy that the Kaiju Prince is starting to potentially turn Elegab into flip central (1000 emails for one lotto? Jesus), but I really appreciate his honesty and directness for how he handles things.
This is interesting, and I too appreciate the transparency. I would fall into the 2nd bucket myself. I mentioned it above, but it bears repeating. If you have yet to win an Elegab sales lottery, make sure you include your IG. It does not state to include the IG account on the same place in the form. I'm speaking anecdotally of course, but if you are a new customer and not including your IG, you will not win.
Lets put more toys in the hands of flippers while penalizing the average collector. I was a pretty regular customer for a while and really appreciate still receiving his lottery email notifications even after not buying in over a year, but this does not make sense.
I appreciate that he is willing to increase the production numbers of his more popular items, like the Kaiju Princes.. more money for the artist and he gets the figures into more pairs of hands. Additionally it will probably retard the inflated resale prices for that particular item.. resulting in Elegab keeping his ever-so reasonable retail pricing. Excellent strategy by this guy! Perfect example of how it should be done.. unlike some other hypebeast artists who are charging insanely ridiculous prices. We aren't talking $15 dollar a pop Target toys here either - Narita's toys are still at a relatively high but respectable price point for hand-crafted toys (8000yen for three minis, 7500 for a standard if I can remember correctly?).. which I consider to be completely fair and a good refection of the quality of his work.
My understanding was that he was always doing this way, but that he just now decided to talk about it.
Yup - the lottery format has been this way since 2009. I don't think he has had to consider huge increases in production numbers until recently though.. I mean a 1000 entries for some of these recent Kaiju Prince releases is staggering (although I'm guessing maybe half that amount are genuine.. still huge though) Anyway - glad to see Elegab continues to keep it real unlike some of the other hyped guys making toys atm.
Yeah this is good news honestly. Will make them harder to get at for me since I've only entered for a couple of lotteries but hey, behind the scenes a lot of artists seem to basically do a less formal version of this anyway
To your point, if half of those are not entries that's still 500 entries for a large run of 100, so 80% of people are out of luck. I'm sure a lot of that is to your point these are very affordable: less than $100 shipped It is kind of irritating to me that not buying every single release can hurt your chances. Personally I think it's a bit unfair that some rich super collectors can effectively hoard runs while others who are might not have as much money and/or simply want to manage their collections and space a bit get dinged. I often pass on entering lottos just to give other people more of a chance and share the love. I genuinely wonder if other artists effectively ding fans who don't try to buy everything
This seems pointless. If you like the toy, try to buy the toy. No artist is going to think, "Oh, Kid_Miracleman loved the toy, but he didn't enter so MadMax can get one. I best be sure to give to Max because of his generosity!" If 50% are for monthly customers and 40% are for previous customers, I don't think your chances are really hurt.
You're 10% less likely to win than someone who enters every month. That's probably true for most makers who put out regular lotteries anyway. This is happening behind the scenes and way; Nari-san just put the numbers up.
You totally are And yeah, it's a 20% difference. Worse but hey, chances are the most dedicated fans come first here. If I had mad money I'd just get them aftermarket if I lost instead of piling up toys I don't necessarily want every month.
But that isn't really the point. I'm not skipping out on toys I absolutely love to give someone else a chance. It's just that I don't think the "OH MY GOD GIVE ME EVERY TOY EVER PRAYER HANDS X 100000000 MUST HAVE" mentality is ultimately a very positive thing for the scene, especially when a lot of people are full of *hit about it. I can say emphatically a lot of people enter lottos and figure out if they actually want the thing later because hey, better to have it and not want it than want it and not have it. A ton of people are entering Hirota lottos with the exclusive thought it's basically soft vinyl gold they can use to get something else they want. I'd rather see 25 loyal fans with good collections than 10 with ridiculous ones. I can't force toy makers to adopt that policy, but I can certainly not contribute to this downright Gollum-like behavior some people exhibit.
I agree with this. I have a relatively large collection but it is quite diverse. I am always trying to think hard about what I really want before I send an email/agree to purchase. I understand though that it can be hard when time is of the essence. On some lotto you may have a week to decide, and on others you may have no time at all.
How do you think flippers maintain a steady supply of toys to flip? They are "regular customers" who are not found out yet or they get them from "regular customers." Everyone having an equal chance is the only "fair" way.
I do get why artist will make sure that their toys goes to people they trust and know will truly enjoy them. Reading the post I wasn’t surprised at all. I have understood since long that I’m in a better place than most when it comes to Nari-sama’s creations. I’m not big money wise and can be going months and months without any entries at all. So I guess I’m in category 2, but I can’t say that that have punished me in any way at all. As much as I worry about missing out as more interest have arisen around the net. I understand that I have gotten more than I deserve already. I’m not a creator and can’t claim to know how one would feel and think about the situation as it is today. But I do get if you would grow more suspicious towards new comers. All the love and praise you get overflown with on IG may only be a way to get noticed and not really be heartfelt. To stick with the ones you’ve delt with for years and that still stick around. Can’t say anything about that (I know it’s easy for me in a privileged position to claim so). Sure there’s Elegab toys on the second hand market, but I rearly see the latest drops getting sold (The Diskkappa got more going). But we will see if this new hype that’s building will bring change.