The Airsoft Valise

[lokker]

Hi everyone. I hope this is the right place were to write this and I hope it is not considered as spam.

I know how many people would like to improve their games by creating a timer alarmed device so I have come across a solution and I am currently starting my little business.

As I am just starting it the orders will take a bit longer to process but every order will be fulfilled so I hope this is not a problem.

Please check out my website frequently or my Facebook page for news about my products. 

We are going to start take orders very soon so don't miss out on promotions.

 

WEBSITE: https://theairsoftva...altervista.org/

 

Pelican Model (Available)

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Link: https://theairsoftvalise.altervista.org/product/pelican-valise/

[Rogerborg]

Interesting product, I wish you the best of luck with it.  Given that the market is likely to be sites rather than individuals, are you marketing it to them directly?

[Tommikka]

Good luck with this 

 

There is a limited market with probably only site owners and event organisers as the customer base.

We have a wide variety of devices and functioning props from very simple to complex and programmable devices to use as part of a mission or be the main scope of an entire game.  We do have the benefit of an electronics professional in the team along with a collective of devious minds and inspiration from the players

 

These have been used in our own Paintball & airsoft events, in other organisers events, on our home sites and even on TV

[lokker]

What about individual groups of friends. Usually those are the ones that contact me to buy.

[Tommikka]

29 minutes ago, lokker said:

What about individual groups of friends. Usually those are the ones that contact me to buy.

If they’re interested then cool, (it would depend on what access to sites they have to use them - and perhaps because we’re running the props on the sites then the players who use ours don’t need to buy their own)

but don’t forget to balance off your time working on them & costs to build 

We’ve often had interest, but not when it comes to the cost they would have to pay

[Rogerborg]

It's a fairly limited market that you're selling into, is what I'd stress.  I'd imagine tens rather than hundreds of units until the UK market saturates. Bear in mind that many sites will already have some form of tick-tick-boom device: this isn't a new invention, although yours does look nice.

 

I'd view this as a one-off venture rather than a career, and would urge you to keep an eye on your costs, stock and prices so that you don't end up taking a bath when demand dries up.

[lokker]

For who is interested I have just released the first base model inspired a bit by CS:GO.

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Link: https://theairsoftvalise.altervista.org/product/base-valise/

[AshOnSnow]

 I would market this to individual sites.

 

However, don't forget the other areas of action sports and activity industry - Paintball, Zombie Experiences, Escape Rooms. It might even be worth letting your local area Police HQ know about it in case they may wish to purchase one or even a couple as a training tool (a local police purchase may help lead to MoD procurement - but even if this happens, you're only likely to shift a few units). Even if you sell to all of the above, you're still looking at tens of units, possibly pushing 100 but unlikely. Probably closer to the 30-50 range. So you have to go onto a spreadsheet, get excel-savvy, and put together calculations of how much time you're spending on it, how much you think your time is worth, how much you're likely to realistically sell, how much it's going to cost to make and ship, extra expenses (if you present one, do you need to travel up and stay in a B&B for the night if it's far away?) How much are you going to sell them for, and ultimately, is it an economically viable product?

 

This product won't earn you millions, and you have to act quickly - I'm sure chinese clone companies have people who look through these kinds of websites and can reproduce one within weeks at a fraction of the price. But if you want to pursue a career, this could be a great product for the portfolio (which, after 4 diplomas and a BA Hons, I have discovered is valued far more than qualifications ).

 

On a side note, if you take it with you anywhere, try not to leave it in a train station by accident 

 

 

[lokker]

You really made me laugh haha. Thank for your suggestions. I am thinking to make some money with it and then produce new different products that are not available usually. Like a remote controlled gun on a tripod and so on. Basically I want to open a business that produces items not yet available on the market. But this needs to work out first.

How come police might be interested in buying one? Also they probably want it to be CE certificated isn't it?

[Rogerborg]

Er, the police do training scenarios, although a more realistic device would be a Lidl bag with a bucket in it.

 

I'd urge you to consider that the total UK market for the valises is unlikely to exceed ten thousand pounds, gross.  That's thin gruel to feed a business with, and I hope that you're making a decent hourly rate as you go.

[lokker]

The thing is that I am considering selling worldwide so I don't see why are you guys only thinking about UK market. I am sure I can do more sells worldwide.

[Samurai]

I have met a few site owners and one thing in common was that they really like money and really don't like spending it. I wish best of luck because the product looks very nice, but I don't see much profit in it either. :/

[Tommikka]

1 hour ago, lokker said:

You really made me laugh haha. Thank for your suggestions. I am thinking to make some money with it and then produce new different products that are not available usually. Like a remote controlled gun on a tripod and so on. Basically I want to open a business that produces items not yet available on the market. But this needs to work out first.

How come police might be interested in buying one? Also they probably want it to be CE certificated isn't it?

Been there, done that, :-)

 

Remote guns are something that really sparks interest

 

I have seen two in the UK, one that we built and one which was at an event I attended 

(I can’t remember whether the other one I saw was when ours had just been released or while we still had wraps on it and hadn’t gone public)

At that event it didn’t get past the first day setting up and didn’t get used for the main day

 

Our advice on these is to heavily over-engineer the specifications. Our tech guy is a perfectionist and this contributes to why ours has been the only one I’m aware of that has successfully been used in events in the UK, and was featured on TV shooting Joel Dommet in ‘How to survive a disaster movie’ (and causing my starting role as ‘soldier vapourised by UFO’ in a segment of another episode)

 

Our man used software from RealSentryGun.com, but also worked with them and redeveloped their software to deal with bugs and add features that we wanted

 

http://www.realsentrygun.com/CustomerExamples.htm

 

We have used this in our own events, provided it for televising and provided it to other events

We have had offers to purchase them, but when it comes down to the money involved they’ve changed their mind and we’ve hired out our services

 

I have the honour of being the most shot person in the UK from a sentry gun, perhaps the world, from all the project testing and development, plus setup configuration 

 

Sadly Solaco (our sentry gun) died in the great fire of Ironsight, but there is a secret project to rise from those ashes

 

 

 

[lokker]

That sounds nice. I also have another idea. So basically yeah what happens when they see the money it takes to make it? I understand why they change their mind but what about event organizer or owner of gaming sites?

[Tommikka]

Some more of our stuff can be found in our event galleries here:

 

https://m.facebook.com/TaskForceDelta/

 

 

[lokker]

Wow. Did you also make that little RC vehicle? What does it do?

[Tommikka]

5 minutes ago, lokker said:

That sounds nice. I also have another idea. So basically yeah what happens when they see the money it takes to make it? I understand why they change their mind but what about event organizer or owner of gaming sites?

I am an event orgnaiser, but not a site owner.

 

To us it’s a valid expense for the games we want to run, we run games that we would want to play and began in the environment where dummy props were used but we wanted the props to work.

Site owners we have worked with love the props we bring for the gameplay and attracting players interested in using our props, the owner doesn’t want the expense of buying the props.

 

A site owner as a business man wants the props and functionality, but balances that with not wanting to spend the money - this needs it to justify the expense as a means of repeat business to keep customers attracted

Regular business is from the average punter who plays occasionally - they are playing airsoft, Paintball or an ‘experience’ once in a while, but from the general population.  They will be impressed by these kind of props, but the site could equally rig up a pretty timer prop and manually set off pyro etc 

We as airsofters and paintballers play more regularly and like things to keep changing  

[lokker]

2 minutes ago, Tommikka said:

I am an event orgnaiser, but not a site owner.

 

To us it’s a valid expense for the games we want to run, we run games that we would want to play and began in the environment where dummy props were used but we wanted the props to work.

Site owners we have worked with love the props we bring for the gameplay and attracting players interested in using our props, the owner doesn’t want the expense of buying the props.

 

A site owner as a business man wants the props and functionality, but balances that with not wanting to spend the money - this needs it to justify the expense as a means of repeat business to keep customers attracted

Regular business is from the average punter who plays occasionally - they are playing airsoft, Paintball or an ‘experience’ once in a while, but from the general population.  They will be impressed by these kind of props, but the site could equally rig up a pretty timer prop and manually set off pyro etc 

We as airsofters and paintballers play more regularly and like things to keep changing  

 

So what would you suggest me if I wanted to start a business like this one? And maybe later design new products. Thanks for your time by the way.

[Tommikka]

18 minutes ago, lokker said:

Wow. Did you also make that little RC vehicle? What does it do?

Our man made it, and it’s much bigger than it looks in the photo - named ‘the beast’

 

It can be a reconnaissance vehicle with cameras feeding to a screen viewed by players, and it carry’s pyro so can be an attack vehicle with whatever pyro we select (and deem safe to have players driving it around a site) it can remotely deliver bangs, smoke and SFX  

 

It can also drag a child around a field 

[Samurai]

3 minutes ago, Tommikka said:

It can also drag a child around a field 

I think you shouldn't advertise it with that slogan.

[Tommikka]

37 minutes ago, lokker said:

 

So what would you suggest me if I wanted to start a business like this one? And maybe later design new products. Thanks for your time by the way.

From what you’ve made you’ve clearly got the technical knowledge and ideas to use pyrotechnics technology and software/gadgets to do more than ‘the professional pyrotechnics  display’ industry is doing 

 

Our man is an electronics professional and works in the background of related industries making a lot of money, such as building TV studios and outside broadcast systems.

You could apply your skills that way

 

For these products there is a market, but as you can tell I’m saying there will be people interested but it’s a matter of if they are willing to pay.

If you can price it well then you can market as you are with a bespoke product to a small buyers market - a bit bigger by going internationally where viable to cross borders and laws.  Or there is the hire market but then you need to factor in the extra time and travel/accommodation 

I’d recommend against making too many, but as long as you have the basic resources ready you could build and configure a bespoke system to sell whenever you have a buyer - which adds value to them by being unique

[Tommikka]

5 minutes ago, Samurai said:

I think you shouldn't advertise it with that slogan.

Surely you meant ‘should’

[Rogerborg]

Whose child are we talking about?  My daughter's a bit of a mardy mare, a good drag around a field might sort her out.

 

 

The ultimate consideration is how much monetary value the players will put on the device.  That could be extra fees for a special event featuring a rented sentry gun, or it could be players choosing one site over another (or over a lie in) because it has a nice bomb prop.

 

Thing is, in the defuse scenarios that I've played thus far, I've never even seen the prop in play.  I mean, I know it's out there, and by gum am I going to try and find it, but mostly it's not where I'm looking, and when I do get near it, there are these rotters on the other team who keep shooting me and sending me back to respawn.

 

This contains two pieces of market information for you: it's not worth that much to me as a player, and the Depot / Nomad Woodland already has one.

[lokker]

39 minutes ago, Rogerborg said:

Whose child are we talking about?  My daughter's a bit of a mardy mare, a good drag around a field might sort her out.

 

 

The ultimate consideration is how much monetary value the players will put on the device.  That could be extra fees for a special event featuring a rented sentry gun, or it could be players choosing one site over another (or over a lie in) because it has a nice bomb prop.

 

Thing is, in the defuse scenarios that I've played thus far, I've never even seen the prop in play.  I mean, I know it's out there, and by gum am I going to try and find it, but mostly it's not where I'm looking, and when I do get near it, there are these rotters on the other team who keep shooting me and sending me back to respawn.

 

This contains two pieces of market information for you: it's not worth that much to me as a player, and the Depot / Nomad Woodland already has one.

That is actually a nice point of view. But if the site has a bomb prop with radiocontroller and fireworks that doesn't sound too bad isn't it? 

[Tommikka]

8 hours ago, Rogerborg said:

Whose child are we talking about?  My daughter's a bit of a mardy mare, a good drag around a field might sort her out.

 

They were our tech guys children, and was fully consensual - they want to be dragged around the garden!

 

I have held onto it with it pulling against me, but not at any power.  It easily tugs and it takes some bracing to hold steady (though knealt down holding onto it)

My knees are bad enough, I’m not going up against it with any revving !