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@Male_M3dia**
I hear what you're saying but the problem I see can be summed up in the first thing you pointed out:

"You know there weren't any teen characters for Gen 4 right?"

• An opportunity then?
• Why not fill that gap instead of vending for a vendor-flooded figure?

I appreciate that you might look to or like to partner with other vendors in order to achive your product goals as a vendor.  But whenever there is a shortcoming, there's surely an opportunity for vendors to fill it.  I've lost count of how many times people complain about the lack of products available for the Poser figures, and every time I see it, I wonder why they are blind to the opportunity it presents to them.

I think you need to read my post again. The issue is vendor support... where every single poser character released in the last 3 years have failed, the male versions especially. Although someone can build a figure, whether it succeeds or not depends on the support it receives from other vendors as well as customers.

The opportunity I saw was creating a teen to fill a gap in the Genesis 2 line. That way I can create teens of different sizes and races, and still have access to all of the clothing so I don't have to ask other vendors to make items for me. And because of that product and the two other items I released this year, I've already made what I made last year and it's not even april. So I consider that a successful project, and it filled a need that's been ignored for a while.

Would I have the same luck with a Poser-only product?  Absolutely not. You can look to Tyler and Rex to see what type of support you would get with the male products. And really there are too many one-off characters  just sitting in a lot of people's runtimes that they bought with the hope of support.

 

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Put it this way, I'm facing the very real prospect of having to become a vendor myself.  One the one hand I'm up for the challenge because I like to design.  But on the other, I'm dreading it because I have no idea whether the effort involved would even put food on the table (and that's a problem when your income is zero).

Faced with even that situation, I would not consider vending for a DAZ figure before at least vending for a Poser figure.  I'm not against DAZ or their figures, I just think that products made for the DAZ figures should be designed and tested strictly for DAZ Studio, and that Poser figure products should be aimed at and designed strictly for Poser.

Well the first piece of advice that I'd give you is: Don't quit your day job. Starting out you're not going to make money.

Then look at the marketplace and see what's out there being sold and check out trends. Make sure you know the difference between filling a need and selling to an empty market.

Lastly, expect your current hopes to be crushed once you release a product and you find that market isn't what you thought it was.