Alchemy Works Prehistoric Scenes line / Availibility

[Alcnemy Works / Mike Evans]

I have been asked by several customers about my decision to drop the line, so I thought this would be a good place to address this.   Simply put, they are not selling and I need the space.   Alchemy has produced more PS scenes kits than all other companies including Aurora combined and there are some fantastic pieces that even though the molds are old they are still  almost new... eg:  the awesome Dunkleosteus and Elasmosaurus by Jeff Johnson , the super Kronosaurus and Brontosaurus by Chris Lynch... to name just a few.   Other kits have sold well and the molds are almost worn out...and the fact is I need the space that storing these non productive molds take up.  

Anyway to those of you that have supported the line for so long, thanks very much !!   It has been a fun series for me to be associated with.   To others who are on the fence and wish to buy place the order soon if there is anything you want to pick up.

Best wishes to all you resin heads!

Mike

[prescenes2]

Well said Mike!
I am glad I got a few of your items so far. Hoping to gain a few more before times up. We'll shall see how things work out.
well wishes to you too!

[malinkh]

Hi Mike,

I can understand where you are coming from... My only wish was that before you made the decision to stop selling the line you communicated what you were thinking and why? Maybe more of us would have put a higher priority on acquiring different kits if we knew you were not generating enough sales. Or if you told us that that you were thinking of ending production on a couple kits at a time, it would be easier over time to acquire all of the ones that we were interested in. By stopping all of them (or at least most of them) all at once it makes it very hard to acquire all of the kits that I was personally interested in. I don't have those kind of funds to purchase everything I wanted all at one period of time. Just some thoughts to consider... In the end you need to do what you feel is in the best for your business. I do thank you for making these add-on kits available to us. If you would consider lengthening the time to eliminate some of these kits, and communicate which ones but what time, maybe some of us will help you generate more sales for some of the kits (molds) that you still have....

Whatever you decide to do, thanks!

Ken

[TAY666]

Well, to be fair, he did put the word out. Back in April.
prehistoricscenes.proboards.com/thread/384/alchemy-add-ons

6 months is a decent amount of lead time.

But I do understand how you feel. There are a lot of pieces I would have loved to get eventually. But there just aren't enough funds for everything I would like to have. Such is life.

[scooke123]

How true - there are a lot of kits I'd like to get but with limited funds I need to pick and choose. If I can't get something I don't sweat it - I have more than enough models to keep me busy for a couple lifetimes. Plus Mike has to do whats best for him financially and produce what will make him money. I thank him for producing such nice add-ons and kits for as long as they wer out!
Steve

[malinkh]

Hi Tay,

The message I wrote applies back to April. At that time, Mike said he was dropping most of the PS line. Obviously, he didn't come to that decision over night. My point is only prior to that decision, if he had posted his concerns about sales, or mentioned certain kits that he was thinking of retiring, maybe more of these kits would have been sold and he wouldn't have felt the same way about retiring them. I don't know that lack of sales necessarily means lack of interest. It is probably more of prioritizing funds for the kits. My main point is that over time I could have acquired more of the kits that I wanted. Even over six months, that is not a lot of time to generate the funds to get all of the things I eventually wanted to purchase. But like you said, such is life... I am not picking on Mike. I appreciate what he has done for the hobby. But, maybe he could reconsider his decision, and see if there is enough interest if he dropped them at a slower pace by letting us know which ones he was focusing on, instead of most of them all at once?

Mike, is there any chance of that happening?

Ken

[TAY666]

Unfortunately, this is the nature of garage kits.
Personally, I was surprised at how long some of them have been available. 7 years is an eternity in the garage kit world. With some producers, 6-8 months and they are ready to call it done. Others limit production. (I just bought a kit that was limited to 12 castings). They don't want to bother with it after the first batch of castings is done. They want to move on to other things.

Mike casts a lot of kits. And I do mean a lot.
Not only does he have all his own kits to cast, but he does tons of casting for other producers.
To get an idea of the size of his operation, check out some of his youtube videos.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6rpD4_AW6E
(I recomend watching all 3 in this series if you want to see how much goes into one kit)

While you watch this one
www.youtube.com/watch?v=z53Ng3U0VG4
Check out all the molds he has stored all over in the background.
Then you can kind of understand why he needs to clear some space every now and then.

(BTW - malinkh - I didn't post this to belittle your points. I just figured it would be educational. And the better people understand how things work, the easier it is to understand some of the thinking behind decisions being made.
Doesn't lessen the disappointment of not being able to get a kit you might want, but it does at least put things in perspective)

[artdecovampire]

I am sad that I never had the opportunity or cash to buy some of these kits. The ceratopsian heads in particular looked good. However none of us have lost the art of scratch building and kit bashing have we. We can put some new stuff together ourselves and start the ball rolling again. I've seen home made stuff in the gallery that's truly professional so loosing a range of kits isn't going to kill off PS is it? We lost our main line when things went bad for aurora but we are still here. It won't be long before some hobbyist somewhere starts something new for us to buy.

[malinkh]

Hi Tay,

I appreciate your comments. I did watch a number of videos related to the links you provide to me on resin castings. I found them very informative. Thanks for bringing in some other perspectives into the discussion. There is a lot of work involved in creating the original sculpture to creating the molds for casting. I thank you for sharing this with me.

Ken

[eradicator178]

I was blessed that over the years I was able to get most of the ones Mike made. Including the last two, the watering hole and the other little alligator looking creature. Although I do like Star Trek ships also, my main group of kits like to collect are the PS add ons and what if kits. The original kits first started coming out when I was 8 years old. My dad would buy me one when I made good grades in school. So these hold a special place in my heart and I will be a devoted customer to Primeval Plastics (now Aroara) Jurassic Arts and Prehistorix. I hate to see Mike close this segment of his business but I know he must do what it takes to make his business profitable. To the other companies as long as you keep producing these kits and bases that I loved as a child you will have a devoted customer. Now if Dencomm would do something!!