A problem with the miniatures industry.

Sacrosanct · Oct 17, 2019

Today I was at the FLGS looking for a miniature. I have hundreds of them, and I didn’t have one that would work. So I went to the store. They didn’t have one that would work either.
So what is this elusive mini I was looking for?

one of the players in my group is gender neutral. Their character is also gender neutral. Finding a mini that would work is near impossible. The only minis that appear androgynous or gender neutral are covered from head to toe in robes with deep hoods. Every male PC is super male, and every female mini have the same sized breasts. Did you realize that? I didn’t until today when I looked for a mini that could pass as gender neutral and literally every female mini has a C cup. Every one. Finding a feminine mini with no noticeable breasts is near impossible

in this day when Mattel has released a gender neutral doll lone, and with geeks being pretty progressive, I was a bit surprised that there aren’t really any options for PC races that are androgynous. The best you can do is use an elf male and sorta try to use it.

Hussar · Oct 17, 2019

Sacrosanct said:
and with geeks being pretty progressive

LOL. That is funny.

But, yeah, you have a point. I searched the Reaper Minis site and got exactly one hit for a "neutral" mini:

Reaper Miniatures

www.reapermini.com

Yeesh.

ccs · Oct 17, 2019

It's not a problem with the miniatures industry.
1) It's simply the realities of business - cost vs sales. The big companies, Reaper/WK/etc won't sell enough of them to justify making the mold.
(And I guarantee you that the moment gender neutral Barbie fails to sell enough Mattel will stop producing it. Quietly, but it'll go away.)
2) On every female having C cups.... well, mostly it's design based on the scale of the figure. You're only talking about something around 1.5 inches tall. That's generally going to be seen at 2-3 ft distance. So if you're sculpting a female human etc, making obvious breasts makes it clear what the little thing is at that range.
3) BUT! 3d printing is a thing nowdays. I recommend Hero Forge. You can adjust the measurements of your fig.

ccs · Oct 17, 2019

Hussar said:
LOL. That is funny.

But, yeah, you have a point. I searched the Reaper Minis site and got exactly one hit for a "neutral" mini:

Reaper Miniatures

www.reapermini.com

Yeesh.

Ok, so I stand corrected. Reaper did make a mold. And given that that's a pretty awful sculpt I bet they don't sell many....

Dioltach · Oct 17, 2019

How about using an elf?

(Note that I'm not being entirely serious here. I agree that minis tend to be lacking in diversity.)

i_dont_meta · Oct 17, 2019

Not to be a shill, but you should give Hero Forge or some other similar site a visit and see if you can't just make your own.

Sacrosanct · Oct 17, 2019

ccs said:
It's not a problem with the miniatures industry.
1) It's simply the realities of business - cost vs sales. The big companies, Reaper/WK/etc won't sell enough of them to justify making the mold.
(And I guarantee you that the moment gender neutral Barbie fails to sell enough Mattel will stop producing it. Quietly, but it'll go away.)
2) On every female having C cups.... well, mostly it's design based on the scale of the figure. You're only talking about something around 1.5 inches tall. That's generally going to be seen at 2-3 ft distance. So if you're sculpting a female human etc, making obvious breasts makes it clear what the little thing is at that range.
3) BUT! 3d printing is a thing nowdays. I recommend Hero Forge. You can adjust the measurements of your fig.

There are literally thousands of human fighter type minis out there to choose from. They could make sculpts of androgynous figures with little problem instead of churning out more human male fighters. I mean, right now Reaper is running their Bones V campaign on kickstarter, and one of their figures is dragon holding a pizza wearing a chef's hat. I'm sure gender neutral PCs would be in higher demand than that. After all, anyone could use a gender neutral PC to represent their gendered PC if they like the sculpt. It's not like only gender neutral players are the only ones who can use it.

Not to call them out, but I'd like to hear @Gradine point of view on this, since they are much closer to the issue than I am.

darjr · Oct 17, 2019

i_dont_meta said:
Not to be a shill, but you should give Hero Forge or some other similar site a visit and see if you can't just make your own.

It’s a good suggestion, done for shilling or not. But I think it would be nice to have more available generally. Though I see it might be tough market wise. But there are specialty dog adventurer minis. I see a spot in the market that a specialty mini manufacturer could fill.

Undrave · Oct 17, 2019

I couldn't even find a simple friggin' Dwarf Druid at my FLGS so I don't doubt it must be pretty hard to find a decent gender neutral figure.

Like Sacrosanct said, nothing precludes you from using a gender neutral sculpt for your gendered character. It's just a question of varied body type.

Good luck Sacrosanct!

Sacrosanct · Oct 17, 2019

Hero forge is great. Seriously. An awesome tool. But it's sad that someone who is gender neutral has to pay $20-$50 just to get one mini to represent them. Especially when we have the aforementioned comic dragons with pizzas, or dire cabbage, or pumpkin kids out there.

All I'm saying is that maybe instead of the 943rd mini of a human fighter with C cup breasts, they diversify a bit to better represent the people who are playing the game. Not just gender neutral, but different body types