A problem with the miniatures industry.

[Jadeite]

Their are usually two motivitations for creating a certain miniature (or any other piece of art): a desire to create it and getting paid for creating it. So, either find an artist that is willing to create what you want or start modelling yourself. Create a Kickstarter for stl files, printed minis or both. If you are afraid of being unable to fulfill too many orders, make it a limited run.
If you are succesful, you can propose your idea to a manufacturer like Reaper or WizKids, being able to present actual demand instead of hypothetical one.

 

[5atbu]

I agree that people would like minis that represent their demographic. People of colour and sensible women were missing from my fantasy minis box.

However.. this is fantasy, and I wanted to be able to offer minis to anyone to play "anyone".

I want to play a black female halfling with hob-nail boots..

 

[Jadeite]

I agree that people would like minis that represent their demographic. People of colour and sensible women were missing from my fantasy minis box.

However.. this is fantasy, and I wanted to be able to offer minis to anyone to play "anyone".

I want to play a black female halfling with hob-nail boots..

You're in luck, desktophero3d and HeroForge is offering exactly that and resin has gotten quite affordable. Some health hazards remain, but there are also print services.

 

[5atbu]

28mm Female Halfling rogue oathsworn-miniatures.ashop.me

www.oathswornminiatures.co.uk

Paint her dark

 

[5atbu]

Shall we do a petition? An open call to the mini makers politely expressing our demand.

 

[5atbu]

28mm Realm of the dragon #3

Realm of the dragon #3

introducing high quality 28mm/ 32mm miniatures for fantasy roll-play and tabletop games

www.kickstarter.com

these five high quality miniatures are our night hunters, a group of highly skilled women whose calling is to hunt down and destroy the dark creatures of the night, vampires,demons witches are all in there sights. each figure has been designed in house by sarah wills who also brought you our maidens of the dragon set, we decided at the start that wont be offering scantily clad female miniatures and sarah has done a wonderful job with the overall design and concept of these miniatures.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I once tried to make a mini for a character with a prosthetic leg and boy was that a pain

Hard Eight have tonnes of one legged dwarf minis for sale!

 

[Glamcrist]

I cast Raise Thread!
Anyway. I pledged a Kickstarter(unfortunately closed at this point) which has a set of non-binary heroes, as well as a set of heroes with disabilities. I actually found this thread because I was curious about what other examples might be out there. Spoiler alert: I couldn't find any that weren't Legos. This thread was really the only one of it's kind I came across, and I figured it would be an early hit for anyone searching for such minis in the future. While the purpose designed minis won't be available outside of the Kickstarter for a while, a significant number of their previous Kickstarter's heroes are pretty androgynous.
Heroes

 

[Nikosandros]

Oops, I failed to look at the dates. Someone will be wondering why they were getting XPs for old posts...

 

[MGibster]

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

I realize this post is more than two years old at this point. I actually had a similar problem when I was searching for a miniature to represent a androgynous Warlock for the D&D game I was playing and I ended up settling on a female model from WizKids (see below). Oh, boy. I'm cringing at that paint job right now but at the same time I like how festive it is.

Logistically speaking, there are some challenges when sculpting miniatures.

1. Scale: Most miniatures designed for RPG use these days are in 28-32mm scale. i.e. A 6ft tall person would translate into a 28mm miniature. When using these pieces on the gaming table, you generally want someone to be able to identify certain characteristic while they're three feet away. That's why a lot of models have oversized weapons, teeth, or other features. So we can easily see it from a distance while playing. If I have a female NPC, I want everyone to see that the miniature I laid down is a female. (Though it's certainly not necessary to have battle action cleavage visible.)
2. Representing Androgyny: This is related to scale, but how can you effectively represent an androgynous character in 28mm? Most people would likely interpret such a miniature as male, or, if there are other secondary characteristics like clothing, hair style, etc., etc. we typically associate with women then it'd be interpreted as female. The larger the scale the easier it is to add a little detail. i.e. You can pack a lot more detail into a 75mm bust than you could a 28mm full body miniature.