Mecrob AMA(Ask Me Anything)Recrod
Q:How did you get into making these figures or puzzles? I think it’s super cool and I love them. Totally looking into getting more. But just curious how the idea came up?
A: This is a long story.
Our CEO, 张一巍 (AKA 一哥), grew up in a rural village in Northeast China. When he was a kid, he couldn't afford to buy fancy Lego or Meccano sets, so he had no choice but to play with the scrap metal that he found lying around. This sparked a love for metalworking that he's had ever since.
Later on, he became a designer and stumbled upon some amazing metal sculptures at an art show in Guangzhou.When he saw those metal sculptures, it was like a total 'wow' moment for him! He suddenly realized that scrap metal isn't just a bunch of junk lying around, but it could actually be used to create anything you can dream up. He started drawing inspiration from all sorts of things, like movies, sci-fi novels, and even his own childhood memories. It's amazing to see what he's been able to create with just a little bit of scrap metal and a whole lot of creativity!
This realization also brought back a flood of memories from his childhood, inspiring him to start creating his own metal models.
And that's the whole story of how we got into making these amazing metal figures and puzzles!
Q: Roughly how long does it take to go from a concept to a finished product (one we can purchase)?
A: Usually, it takes us about a month to turn an idea into a real product that we can sell. We spend two weeks working on the design, another week making sure we have clear instructions in English, and then we test it out on places like Reddit and Discord for a week to see how people like it. If it does really well, we'll apply to make at least 50 models for our first round of testing. After that, it takes about a week to actually manufacture the product. It's a lot of work, but it's so rewarding to see our ideas come to life!
Q: Also, what's the general process like for creating a model from a concept? Is the concept art refined so it better represents workable pieces? Are any forms of 3D modeling software used to plan out the model? or is it simply constructed through trial and error?
this process seems very interesting, id love to know more
A: Basically, our designers take inspiration from different sources, such as the concept art you mentioned, or from movies, or even from custom orders. They don't necessarily need to use 3D modeling; sometimes they just construct things through trial and error until they get it right
Is the concept art refined so it better represents workable pieces?
Yes, we definitely refined our concept art so it better represents workable pieces.
It also reminds me of some answers from the concept artist i’ve interview.
“ I think the core concept of your product is to match his work's style, not to copy all the details from his art. The same thing happened here; it's hard to bring enough details from my works into your product, such as small cockpit, weapon system, or something like a door and hatch. But maybe we can try to build some ideas in the future.”
Q: Wasn't Mecrob a thing Cartman said in South Park?
A:When we were thinking about our brand name, we had never watched South Park. Basically, Mecrob is a combination of 'Mechanical' and 'Robot'.
Q:gotta admit they are cool looking, but 50$ for 10$ in hardware is a rough sell....
A:This is the answer from our customer: packaging, labeling, shipping, pay wages for employees, payroll tax, advertising, research and development…. It would also cost well over $50 to source everything if you tried to make one of these from scratch. I would expect these to be much more expensive honestly.
Q: Do you guys make the kits? They’re all over alibaba, so it’s confusing who makes things vs who is a reseller/authorized dealer etc.
A: We did some collabs with moyustore/enginediy/Alibaba and We did B2B business and wholesale to other brands for dropshipping as well,They are all our wholesalers as you could check their website,Some of items are ours,but we will end these collabs in Jun.