I'm not seeing the distinction you're drawing here. TM spent $1m of their R&D budget to develop NGRS, and recouped that by amortising the development cost over the NGRS it sold. They might not be saying "exactly $67 per rifle" but I assure you with absolute certainty that their budgeting includes amortising overheads in the cost of their products. Products that were more expensive to develop are sold at a higher price than ones that weren't. The price of every TM product will be part raw materials, part development budget, part operating costs, part worker salaries etc. just like the price of every other product from every other manufacturer.
Can you elaborate on what the difference you're seeing is?
It's pretty simple really:
Big company product cycle = make product A - sell product A at a profit - take 10% of overall profit and return it to R&D department - develop product B - sell products A and B at a profit - etc
Small company product cycle - develop product A - raise capital from external investment/remortgaging your life - calculate cost of product as total cost of development and investment payback and divide by the number your business plan says you can achieve - sell product A at that price - hopefully sell enough to turn a profit then plough as much of what's left after you pay the investors off back into product development.
The difference is that a large company with an established product portfolio will make profit from its existing sales that can then be spent on developing new products, effectively the old stuff will subsidise the new stuff. A small startup company doesn't have that catalogue to draw on so either they sell at a realistic price that will provide turnover and cash flow or they try and recoup the entire project cost by jacking up the product price. The latter will always run the risk of alienating the customer base unless the product really is just THAT GOOD.
Personally I think that TM are taking the piss with the price of the NGRS but the market lets them get away with it because it's TM, just like Apple does.
As far as Odin go, they have continued to develop their product, to the best of my knowledge nobody else has copied the rubber silencer insert as yet, plus they have got more models at least to the prototype stage so they've not actually "died". By partnering/ licensing with Tippmann and EMG they have done exactly what I suggested earlier which is to get in bed with someone with an established product range that allows them to subsidise production and sell at a more sensible price point.
You are absolutely correct that we should support small companies and shop local and everything else but as with all things, budget restrictions (and in some cases ITAR restrictions) stop us doing that.
Full disclosure - I bought a cheap knock off Sidewinder and it was shit. The winder fell apart, the mag latch fell out but it still worked. At the time the original Odin was still in the £65-70 price bracket which for me (and clearly a lot of people) that was just too much. I have now caved and a genuine Odin M12 in (appropriately enough) "drama-free blue" is on it's way to me now.
