Tariffs Claim first Crowd Funding Project : Longbox Heroes Kickstarter Canceled

The escalating trade tensions and newly imposed tariffs are already wreaking havoc across numerous industries, and the geek community isn’t immune. Fresh Monkey Fiction’s highly anticipated Longbox Heroes Kickstarter, aiming to fund a new wave of figures featuring beloved indie comic characters, has been forced to cancel its campaign due to the prohibitive costs brought on by these tariffs.

Despite raising a respectable $50,166 from 481 backers, and boasting a track record of seven successful out of ten previous Kickstarters totaling over $301,000, the project was deemed unsustainable in the face of the new economic realities.

The core issue? The recently implemented tariffs would have driven consumer prices to an unacceptably high level. Fresh Monkey Fiction explained the situation in a heartfelt message to their backers:

A Message to Longbox Heroes Fans:

“We wanted to share an update about our latest Longbox Heroes Kickstarter. As many of you may be aware, recent policy changes have significantly increased tariffs on goods imported from China. These new policies impose a tariff of 50% on our manufacturing costs. Unfortunately, this cost is not absorbed by China—it directly impacts us as manufacturers and, ultimately, you as fans.

This means a single figure would now cost roughly $40 for Kickstarter backers once all tariff and shipping & handling fees are factored in. We don’t believe this is a fair price for the type of figure we are producing, and we know many of you would share our concerns. Given these circumstances, we have made the incredibly tough decision to cancel the Kickstarter campaign.

We had high hopes for this line and have invested a great deal of time and effort into securing the necessary licenses and fine-tuning these figures. However, with so much financial uncertainty, we do not feel comfortable moving into production under these conditions.

No one is more disappointed by this outcome than we are, but we remain committed to finding a way to bring these figures to life at some point in the future. We deeply appreciate your enthusiasm, support, and understanding throughout this process.

Thank you for believing in this project as much as we do.

Best, Bill & Jason”

This cancellation serves as a stark reminder of the real-world consequences of economic policies on small businesses and passionate fan communities. With manufacturing costs skyrocketing, projects like Longbox Heroes are facing an uphill battle. This is likely just the beginning, and we can expect to see more projects, both crowdfunded and otherwise, facing similar challenges in the coming months.