They're a little weird about joining before access is granted to see the goodies and get involved in the group buys and so forth. I've been meaning to get started on a styrene laser cut but... life, infinite number of things to do, its warming up outside so I'm more motivated to daydream about my electric bicycle conversion plans so maybe next winter, etc.

I don't see the point in spending $600 for anything but a 1:1 scale model, and conveniently you're looking at "high three figures" for styrene unlike the $2K or so for all aluminum. Also a lot of cost depends on insistence on perfection delivered today vs "ah I'll put that detail on next winter" attitude. There's a big cost difference between "I'm building a droid that looks like its in the R2 family from 50 ft away" vs "I am making a droid that is so good that it could be used in a hollywood movie as a prop if not main character"