How has the miniatures business been doing, post-pandemic?

[MGibster]

I can't speak for the tourney scene one way or another, but PP have had a load more problems than purely pandemic-related in recent years.

I bought a few Warmachine miniatures from my local game store a few years back. I used to see folks playing it here in Little Rock, but shortly after my purchase the game pretty much dropped off the face of the Earth in my neck of the woods. Other games that have pretty much disappeared includes X-Wing, Star Wars Armada (I see it's out of print now), Star Wars Shatterpoint, but Star Wars Legion appears to be selling well.

This was me, back in the day - I have hundreds (thousands?) of minis, mostly from GW, but can count on one hand the number of times I've actually played any of their games.

It's probably worth noting that I finally kicked that habit 15 years ago, so it's not exactly a recent example.

I'm getting to that point as well. I've got the money, the time, and love to paint the miniatures but the game isn't that good. Worse than that, I can't keep up with the rules changes and don't even have a good way to build an army. I don't object to the price of the miniatures (much), but I feel as though GW has no problem nickle and diming me and it's annoying.

 

[teitan]

So my understanding with mini companies is that outside of GW its been slowly slowing down. Sales still up but receding. Some want to blame 3D printing on it but that is such a small and niche market that I doubt it at this point.

Reaper is doing well but Otherworld is bowing out as the owner is retiring, selling off stock and then selling off his molds. Reaper has slowly withdrawn their metals in favor of Siocast and Bones Black for smaller miniatures and using Bones Classic for larger ones. I figure they will be phasing out Bones white for anything but their larger minis.

Ral Partha Legacy is cranking out "new" models as they revive the old Tom Meier sculpts and Jacob offers some fantastic deals on his products. Iron Wind really doesn't get enough credit with Battletech and how they have kept the metal models cranking out with Catalyst doing plastics for about the same price.

A lot of my local stores aren't in the Wizkids game like they were. Nolzur's and Pathfinder Battles seem to have slowed down a lot in not just release schedules but the pre-painteds are really nice and we started buying them randomly again. The sets of "encounters" are great. Frameworks turned out to be priced too high for the market and they haven't really been pushing it that I can tell. If I see them they are at least 50% off.

I backed Bones 6 and Dungeon Dwellers RPG. I don't think I will be buying a lot of minis in the future unless it's Dunkeldorf or Bequest.

 

[Clint_L]

I backed Bones 6 and Dungeon Dwellers RPG. I don't think I will be buying a lot of minis in the future unless it's Dunkeldorf or Bequest.

I'll keep backing Reaper. Bones 6 wasn't as good as the previous ones, IMO, but compared to everything else it is still the best value around, especially coming from a company that is such a known quantity.

I wanted to add that a growing source of miniatures is in the board game category. There are a LOT of really great miniatures that are being made in conjunction with board games right now, some of them with really huge Kickstarters. I backed the most recent C'Mon Games Cthulhu KS for this reason.

Also, keep an eye on Archon studios. They are interesting because they are not just designers, they also own the factory and produce their own stuff. Their Dungeons and Lasers line consistently produces high quality miniatures and terrain that reach backers ahead of schedule, typically in less than a year, which is extremely fast in the world of miniatures and terrain. It's HIPS stuff on sprues, though (like Games Workshop), so you have to be up for doing a bit of work.

 

[MGibster]

Reaper is doing well but Otherworld is bowing out as the owner is retiring, selling off stock and then selling off his molds. Reaper has slowly withdrawn their metals in favor of Siocast and Bones Black for smaller miniatures and using Bones Classic for larger ones. I figure they will be phasing out Bones white for anything but their larger minis.

I generally take it as a good sign when a miniatures company switches to a superior material. Within the last few years I purchased some metal miniatures from Reaper and it didn't take me long to remember why I prefer plastics.

A lot of my local stores aren't in the Wizkids game like they were. Nolzur's and Pathfinder Battles seem to have slowed down a lot in not just release schedules but the pre-painteds are really nice and we started buying them randomly again.

WizKids games like HeroClix were pretty popular in my neck of the woods for a while in the 2010s but have pretty much disappeared. I still see its sold but I can't remembe the last time I saw anyone playing it.

 

[Clint_L]

WizKids games like HeroClix were pretty popular in my neck of the woods for a while in the 2010s but have pretty much disappeared. I still see its sold but I can't remembe the last time I saw anyone playing it.

Heroclix still has its fans but it's very much a niche these days. WK has been trying to launch Onslaught as a more D&D5e oriented tactical miniatures game, to take advantage of the official license, but from what I can tell it hasn't really caught on.

Over the past few years, WK has shifted its pre-painted miniatures line (PPM) to focus more on high end premium miniatures and boxed sets, right up to $400+ products like Tiamat and the Tarrasque. To me, this suggests a shift towards the business model of parent company NECA, who specialize in high-end collectibles.

I have a few metal miniatures from Reaper; they throw one in as a bonus for every $50 you spend (I think; it's been awhile since I bought from their shop). I like them, but they're not any more detailed than high quality plastic as far as I can tell, and they are much more prone to wear and tear on themselves and other miniatures. I also have a ton of old metal GW miniatures, some of which I've rebased for D&D. Same story. High quality plastic is the way to go, IMO.

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

Also, keep an eye on Archon studios.

That. Their stuff is good quality at excellent prices, especially the large dragon kits.

If we're down to discussing individual companies instead of industry trends, some others particularly worthy of mention include:

Northstar Military Figures - Despite the name, they offer a wide mix of figs rather than just wargaming minis. They're doing particularly well with their modular hard plastic kits for Frostgrave/Stargrave/Ghost Archipelago, which just keep getting better as they refine their skills. I would put them far ahead of even the best GW plastics in terms of versatility and cost, and if you haven't tried building and painting a box or two you don't know what you're missing. And those are just the tip of the iceberg for a large and varied catalog that has something for just about anyone, including a great array of reasonably-priced metals and resins for those who prefer the heft. I'd credit a lot of their success to their strong customer outreach, with regular newsletter updates full of new releases and "Nickstarter" discount preorder deals.

Alternative Armies - These folks are another company with a huge catalog and weirdly little market presence in the US. In addition to some excellent and ever-growing 28mm, 15mm and 6mm ranges for multiple genres, they're steadily bringing back vintage 25-28mm sculpts from the 70s and 80s that have been hard to get for decades now. They run modest ~20% sales on a regular basis (one concludes today, for ex) that make the massive bite of overseas shipping for non-UK gamers a fair bit less painful.

Brigade Models - A much smaller operation in the classic "two guys casting in a warehouse" style, they still have a quite large range of primarily 15mm, 6mm, and aeronef/starship minis, including licensed Hammer's Slammers ranges. Their smaller-scale resin terrain ranges are also very nice, and they dabble a bit in some rather quirky fantasy and historicals. They've been very proactive about retiring and replacing older sculpts and shifted to 3D printed masters earlier than most small casters. I'll be a little surprised if they don't wind up transitioning to selling printed figs and STLs eventually. They're also probably the most likely company to wind up with the massive Ground Zero Games catalog if Jon Tuffley ever retires, as the two businesses have been on good terms for years and they're fairly close geographically. I like Brigade (and GZG) a lot for demonstrating than there's still room for little "garage shop casters" in the modern industry.

 

[MGibster]

Over the past few years, WK has shifted its pre-painted miniatures line (PPM) to focus more on high end premium miniatures and boxed sets, right up to $400+ products like Tiamat and the Tarrasque. To me, this suggests a shift towards the business model of parent company NECA, who specialize in high-end collectibles.

I've seen a few Onslaught products at my FLGS but I don't know if many people are buying them. I did purchase the unpainted Gargantuan Red Dragon from WK a few years back because my LGS had it on clearance for about $200. It's a completely impractical model being so large I'm going to have to paint it in the garage, I won't have a place to store it, and even as a gaming piece it isn't going to work.

I have a few metal miniatures from Reaper; they throw one in as a bonus for every $50 you spend (I think; it's been awhile since I bought from their shop). I like them, but they're not any more detailed than high quality plastic as far as I can tell, and they are much more prone to wear and tear on themselves and other miniatures.

I remember decades ago I disliked plastic miniatures in general because of the lack of detail. Bones White were terrible miniatures with the only thing going for them being their price. I think the Bones White miniatures are worth it but the regular sized ones just don't look good.

 

[Clint_L]

Alternative Armies - These folks are another company with a huge catalog and weirdly little market presence in the US. In addition to some excellent and ever-growing 28mm, 15mm and 6mm ranges for multiple genres, they're steadily bringing back vintage 25-28mm sculpts from the 70s and 80s that have been hard to get for decades now. They run modest ~20% sales on a regular basis (one concludes today, for ex) that make the massive bite of overseas shipping for non-UK gamers a fair bit less painful.

I'm a huge fan of these guys and wish we could get their stuff at more reasonable prices in North America - I'll check out that sale! I browse their catalogue all the time, sometimes getting as far as the shipping page, and then the prices just stack up too high for me.

 

[Clint_L]

I remember decades ago I disliked plastic miniatures in general because of the lack of detail. Bones White were terrible miniatures with the only thing going for them being their price. I think the Bones White miniatures are worth it but the regular sized ones just don't look good.

Because of this conversation I was going back through my old GW stuff, which includes some of their very first plastic miniatures, a set of wood elf archers, circa 1990. They are so basic compared to what we get today, with very little variation (two different head choices; that's it) and minimal detail. Still, they are cool to have and represent an important step in the hobby. Their design has come a long way since and are the gold standard in HIPS miniatures, IMO.

Bones white is another important stepping stone, but their new miniatures are miles better with the higher quality plastic. Bones white works okay for large and huge miniatures, but just doesn't have the resolution for small and medium figures, and is ridiculously bendy. Wizkids' small and medium figures have better detail but are almost as bendy; I very much think they need to upgrade to keep up with the competition.

 

[Clint_L]

Archon Studios Tarrasque. Wizkids charges around $400 for their unpainted Tarrasque; Archon gave this one to backers for free as part of their Dungeons and Lasers Encounters KS. IMO it's a better model: