FINAL FANTASY XIV Player Character[ACTION FIGURE]

[Atlentor]

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.

[Coombah]

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. (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.

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

[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.

[Vahlnir]

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.

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.

[LianaThorne]

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.

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.

[Equitable_Remedy]

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.

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

[Bright-Flower]

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

True but hero forge just makes tiny little tabletop miniatures.

[Equitable_Remedy]

True but hero forge just makes tiny little tabletop miniatures.

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.

[Bright-Flower]

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.

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.

[ItMe]

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