FINAL FANTASY XIV Player Character[ACTION FIGURE]

Hello all,

While looking at the Square Enix Store and all the figurines it got me thinking why hasn't a

FINAL FANTASY XIV Player Character[ACTION FIGURE] been made available for purchase?

I'd be more willing to spend $100+ on one of these versus a NPC.

Do you mean the standin for your character in the cinematics? like Ardbert?

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Originally Posted by MilkieTea

Do you mean the standin for your character in the cinematics? like Ardbert?

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No, the one you make during Character Creation.


https://www.gematsu.com/wp-content/u...eate_10-24.jpg

That's money on the table for Square, though maybe the cost would be too much? I think with how better 3D printers are getting it's doable?

Simple. Cost.

They have 1 mold for each npc. For player characters. there would be so many combinations. Even if it was just the head that changed, and certain bits of the body, that's still expensive. You said $100+... Think more like... $500+.... This is why. Its cost prohibitive.

that’s an impossible request. even if they were 3d printed, they’d have to mold a 3d model in a specific program, and 3d print this model (which takes about anywhere from 10-70 hours), clean the model up, hand paint it, etc etc. they’d have to do this on command for EVERYONE who ordered this, and because it’s an artistic endeavor rather than something that can be manufactured and trained, each model would have imperfections and slight differences to each other in terms of quality depending on who painted the model, who cleaned it up, etc etc.

and if it weren’t 3d printed that means it would have to be hand molded, which would be hundreds of hours of manpower per player character.

these would have to be custom made, and would take a lot of effort to put a figure together than looks like your player character. If they were to do one it would have to be very expensive to be worth the effort put into making one, likely considerably more that 100$.

Would probably be a PR disaster for Square. Remember what happened with the faces of the Omega statues? Imagine that, but for your avatar you're invested in. Yikes.

When WoW was really big during the late 00's/early 2010s, there was a decently sized cottage industry of people who started up their own small businesses to make statues of WoW player characters/avatars. I'm surprised that it hasn't already happened yet with FFXIV. Then again, maybe WoW lends itself better to the statue thing, given their overall more squat and cartoony character designs that are easier to model. FFXIV's characters are more lean, and have more smooth, animesque faces, which I don't see really see being modeled out of clay. Also, a lot of WoW's fanbase (at the time) was descended from old, hardcore Warhammer nerds, who were into having expensive miniatures. The FFXIV fandom definitely doesn't have that cross over. Maybe the hardcores will pay for a wallpaper commission from an artist on twitter/deviantart/artstation/pixiv and that's it.

The only way it would give a profit for SE would be if they were insanely overpriced to make up for costs. Or that you essentially buy a generic "Hyur Warrior" "Lalafell Black Mage" "Viera Dancer" statue, which would be easier to make a mold of and just mass produce. But making a figure, especially a POSABLE, action figure, of a very customizable PC with hundreds of Hair/Face/Outfit combinations? Yeah, that's specifically a "crafstman" sort of thing, not a "big corporation maximizing profits" thing.

There was a thread on this forum that ran for a number of pages done just after ARR's launch that requested official 3D printed minatures of player characters, and SE responded that the idea was intriguing and that it would be forwarded onto the development team... but alas nothing further came of it so I can only assume it was quietly abandoned as "too costly/difficult to implement."

Which is a shame as I would so pay for a minature of Enki in WHM or PLD AF at the very least, if not wearing her current PLD glamour. :D (I tried looking for the thread but it's a difficult proposition).

EDIT: found the thread in question, it's listed here: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ank-you-please.

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Originally Posted by MilkieTea

that’s an impossible request. even if they were 3d printed, they’d have to mold a 3d model in a specific program, and 3d print this model (which takes about anywhere from 10-70 hours), clean the model up, hand paint it, etc etc. they’d have to do this on command for EVERYONE who ordered this, and because it’s an artistic endeavor rather than something that can be manufactured and trained, each model would have imperfections and slight differences to each other in terms of quality depending on who painted the model, who cleaned it up, etc etc.

and if it weren’t 3d printed that means it would have to be hand molded, which would be hundreds of hours of manpower per player character.

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Can confirm this is the reality. I have a ton of experience working with 3D printers (I have 3 currently in my house). It would be a ton of work for whoever got handed the task because they'd have to:

Create the model first
Send it to the printer
Pray to everything holy that the print/printer doesn't fuck itself up during the actual printing process and cause you to restart
Clean it up (i.e. remove all of the excess plastic sticking out of places)
Paint it & finish it

I doubt SE would pay people properly for these efforts either. Also, it would probably be more than $100 for each figure in my opinion, since they'd be charging for plastic costs, manpower and they also have to make a profit.

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Spoke to someone else who is more in the business than I am (ironically enough was here working on a print) and he said that it would 100% cost more than $100 and for the detail that we would want, Square would have to use liquid resin rather than normal printing plastic and is also extremely expensive. So, you're probably looking more into the $500-1000 range for everything once all is said and done.

Heroforge can do something similar for a reasonable price.

What you need are the STL files for a 3d Printer and it should be possible for SE to provide this.

Looks like I'll just have to commission something...
Ah well, that's never a bad option.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

There was a thread on this forum that ran for a number of pages done just after ARR's launch that requested official 3D printed minatures of player characters, and SE responded that the idea was intriguing and that it would be forwarded onto the development team... but alas nothing further came of it so I can only assume it was quietly abandoned as "too costly/difficult to implement."

Which is a shame as I would so pay for a minature of Enki in WHM or PLD AF at the very least, if not wearing her current PLD glamour. :D (I tried looking for the thread but it's a difficult proposition).

EDIT: found the thread in question, it's listed here: https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/...ank-you-please.

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Thanks for finding the post, maybe we can spark up enough interest to get an answer :D

I know WoW has (or had) something similar through Figureprints, but the wait times were pretty long with them being custom made. It wasn't an official Blizzard service either. I'd imagine it'd be a bit simpler in house to set up but it would still be very time consuming and resource intensive.

You best best is a lot of work. You could use freelancer sites to request a 3D modeler to render and pose your character, and have them export it as a stl or other file that a 3D resin printer can use. This step can be very expensive depending on who you use. Then use a 3D printing service of your choice. Then either paint it yourself or find someone else to do that part too. It will most likely set you back $500 or more easily unless you want to do a lot of it yourself.

The raw character files in game aren't really friendly for assembling into something useful for 3D printing.

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Originally Posted by Doki

You best best is a lot of work. You could use freelancer sites to request a 3D modeler to render and pose your character, and have them export it as a stl or other file that a 3D resin printer can use. This step can be very expensive depending on who you use. Then use a 3D printing service of your choice. Then either paint it yourself or find someone else to do that part too. It will most likely set you back $500 or more easily unless you want to do a lot of it yourself.

The raw character files in game aren't really friendly for assembling into something useful for 3D printing.

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I agree, quality always requires a lot of work and I would be definitely willing to compensate for the work accordingly. That being said, I'd much rather purchase something official from Square Enix.

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Originally Posted by LianaThorne

Can confirm this is the reality. I have a ton of experience working with 3D printers (I have 3 currently in my house). It would be a ton of work for whoever got handed the task because they'd have to:

Create the model first
Send it to the printer
Pray to everything holy that the print/printer doesn't fuck itself up during the actual printing process and cause you to restart
Clean it up (i.e. remove all of the excess plastic sticking out of places)
Paint it & finish it

I doubt SE would pay people properly for these efforts either. Also, it would probably be more than $100 for each figure in my opinion, since they'd be charging for plastic costs, manpower and they also have to make a profit.

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Spoke to someone else who is more in the business than I am (ironically enough was here working on a print) and he said that it would 100% cost more than $100 and for the detail that we would want, Square would have to use liquid resin rather than normal printing plastic and is also extremely expensive. So, you're probably looking more into the $500-1000 range for everything once all is said and done.

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I hear what you're saying, but Hero Forge exists.

Someone did this and posted it on reddit 2 years ago.
https://i.imgur.com/wA4P5ej.jpg

They (HewieAlbino) said it took them about 5 months to do in their spare time.

Link to reddit post
Link to imgur that shows multiple angles and their process

Hewie also did one of their friends PLD too:
https://i.imgur.com/TUGIyD9.jpg
Link to reddit post
Link to imgur that shows multiple angles
Link to imgur showing the process

Sinclair_Faye posted this 1 year ago on reddit:
https://i.redd.it/fdqypry5qxa31.jpg

They had it commissioned for about $850 (the 3-D modeler cost $400, 3D printing it cost them $250, and $200 for someone to assemble and paint it) and it took 6 months.
Link to reddit post
Link to imgur

Just one more for now... >w>

Irissss posted this a year ago:
https://i.imgur.com/ngyJ03Y.png

They did this themselves, saying it was 2 months worth of work done in 6 months during free time.
Link to reddit post
Link to imgur
Link to imgur showing some WIP stuff

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

I hear what you're saying, but Hero Forge exists.

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True but hero forge just makes tiny little tabletop miniatures.

It would be a lot of work but not as much as people in this thread seem to think it would be... If it's a system similar to figmas and nendoroids, mix and matching faces, hair, bodies, etc, definitely sounds like an investment that could be worth it for SE.

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Originally Posted by ZedxKayn

It would be a lot of work but not as much as people in this thread seem to think it would be... If it's a system similar to figmas and nendoroids, mix and matching faces, hair, bodies, etc, definitely sounds like an investment that could be worth it for SE.

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I think it'd mostly come down to the materials. There's only so many options when it comes to the character model, so I don't think that reproducing the base models would be the biggest issue.

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Originally Posted by Bright-Flower

True but hero forge just makes tiny little tabletop miniatures.

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I'm not sure what point you think you're making—no one in this thread is arguing that the size of the miniature is the limiting factor (and it isn't).

My point is that people in this thread are arguing that the logistics of custom-printing miniatures are impractical—Hero Forge is an ongoing concern that does exactly that. It may well be the case that the upfront costs wouldn't be justified for Square Enix, but the argument that it can't be done would appear to be wrong given that it currently is done by Hero Forge.

Again, this might not be profitable for Square Enix or just not something that the company would want to get involved with for any number of reasons, but the argument that it couldn't practically be done at scale seems weak to me given the evidence to the contrary.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

I'm not sure what point you think you're making—no one in this thread is arguing that the size of the miniature is the limiting factor (and it isn't).

My point is that people in this thread are arguing that the logistics of custom-printing miniatures are impractical—Hero Forge is an ongoing concern that does exactly that. It may well be the case that the upfront costs wouldn't be justified for Square Enix, but the argument that it can't be done would appear to be wrong given that it currently is done by Hero Forge.

Again, this might not be profitable for Square Enix or just not something that the company would want to get involved with for any number of reasons, but the argument that it couldn't practically be done at scale seems weak to me given the evidence to the contrary.

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people are responding to the main thread - which asks why square enix hasn’t done it in a way that implies that the real question is a request for square enix to do it.

the argument isn’t that it can’t be done, it’s that it’s an impossible request to SQUARE, and that if square were to do it, it wouldn’t be $100+, but more so $500+, possibly edging towards the $1000 mark.

Didn't blizzard do something akin to this many years ago.

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Originally Posted by Awha

Didn't blizzard do something akin to this many years ago.

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Someone mentioned Figureprints on the previous page, but was there another?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

I'm not sure what point you think you're making—no one in this thread is arguing that the size of the miniature is the limiting factor (and it isn't).

My point is that people in this thread are arguing that the logistics of custom-printing miniatures are impractical—Hero Forge is an ongoing concern that does exactly that. It may well be the case that the upfront costs wouldn't be justified for Square Enix, but the argument that it can't be done would appear to be wrong given that it currently is done by Hero Forge.

Again, this might not be profitable for Square Enix or just not something that the company would want to get involved with for any number of reasons, but the argument that it couldn't practically be done at scale seems weak to me given the evidence to the contrary.

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My point is that what hero forge does likely isn't anywhere near the scale or level of detail people would want for action figures based off of their characters. Especially in terms of stuff like face detail etc. Hero forge is good for what it is, but I think what people are wanting here is going to be a lot more expensive. Hero forge as is can be a bit pricy even considering the limited detail and size they work with.

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Originally Posted by Equitable_Remedy

I hear what you're saying, but Hero Forge exists.

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So why does this thread even exist then if that's an option?

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Originally Posted by LianaThorne

So why does this thread even exist then if that's an option?

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Because Hero Forge makes minis.
Like, D&D or Warhammer miniatures.
The thread is specifically asking about figures.

5.55's MSQ made me think of this thread... >w>
You know the part... >w>

bump to support!

It would be possible if someone or SE makes a model viewer like the glamourer mod. You can then mix and match your character data to make a model of your WoL and export the data into an .stl file for printing.