Reaper to produce pre-painted Plastic minis - Non-random

[Pbartender]

AWAKE, MY UNTHREAD MINION!

There's been a few interesting tidbits posted on the Reaper boards since this thread died, so I'd thught I'd cross-post some answers to questions that have been since answered...

The shape of the bases will be:

Oval

On production schedule:

If we are really lucky, we will have them here for Reaper Con... and if they are not, nothing will be "up". We just won't have them yet.

We've paid the money, they are in contact with us about the progress and we will be receiving a few production blanks (unpainted) of a few models for our approval very soon (like today I hope) as they have been shipped to us.

We have ordered the blister cards and we will be ready to package when they hit the dock.

We have ordered a promotional flier and it will be going out within two weeks or so.

We also have the next two releases ready to go as soon as this one gets here.

We know everyone is as excited as we are, but they are looming on the near horizon and they will be released in June (barring hurricanes, tidal waves, or nukes going off).

I should think that we will have them in by the end of May (early June at the latest) and be able to show them off (a lot) then.

People attending Reaper Con (May 17th-20th) will most likely get to see the proto-types, if not the production pieces (best case scenario).

They will be the same size as Reaper always makes minis... heroic scale.

It is getting darn exciting around here!

Even if the paint jobs on the production pieces aren't quite as good as the proto-types (and they should be dang close), the quality of the models will make up for it. If they get close to what they sent us for paint jobs, they're gonna’ rock--and we have no reason to think they won't.

On future releases:

The next 2 sets of Legendary Encounters Releases will include Goblins, Zombies, A Gnoll, An Ettin, A Demoness, Kobolds, A Bathalian, Ghosts, A Succubus, and A Giant Worm. Would those be helpful?

And apparently, According to ReaperRon, I should have said Gnolls. There are going to be 2 in the late 2007 release (think 4th quarter), one with a bow and one with a melee weapon. I don't know whether that means axe, sword, polarm, or whatnot.

 

[Hawkshere]

AWAKE, MY UNTHREAD MINION!

Thanks for the news update! Much appreciated.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I wonder what price point would change the tune of those enthusiastic? Expecting less than metal minis current prices is certainly being over optimistic. A $3.50 orc is probably as cheap as can be expected. What if they are priced at $7? $10?

Considering you can go to ToysRUs and pick up a McFarlanes Dragon for 9.99, I don't see why a troll/ogre/minotaur in DnD scale would be $7.

DS

 

[frankthedm]

Considering you can go to ToysRUs and pick up a McFarlanes Dragon for 9.99, I don't see why a troll/ogre/minotaur in DnD scale would be $7.

DS

Hasbro has the manfacturing set up to do that. Reaper does not. Mass market toys cost much more to set up, but if enough units will be sold, the prices still can be quite low. A nich market can't support such pricing setups.

For a smaller company, it was usually cheaper to cast figures in metal than plastic.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Hasbro has the manfacturing set up to do that. Reaper does not. Mass market toys cost much more to set up, but if enough units will be sold, the prices still can be quite low. A nich market can't support such pricing setups.

For a smaller company, it was usually cheaper to cast figures in metal than plastic.

So why doesn't Reaper sell its cool "action figures" at ToysRUs to open a new retail path? There is no fundamental difference between molding and painting a skeleton as there is to molding a painting a Homie(tm) that I can buy from the bubblegum machine for .50 other than the mini is a little bit bigger. Round up your .50 to 2.00 and there you go.

http://www.streetgangs.com/homies/hoodrats.html

There you go....10 prepainted plastic modern RPG wererats for $8.

DS

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

http://www.streetgangs.com/homies/hoodrats.html

There you go....10 prepainted plastic modern RPG wererats for $8.

DS

Sadly, Homies are not 28mm scale. I know this because I have a bunch of them I only use with other Homies for "special" modern era games

 

[rgard]

Hasbro has the manfacturing set up to do that. Reaper does not. Mass market toys cost much more to set up, but if enough units will be sold, the prices still can be quite low. A nich market can't support such pricing setups.

For a smaller company, it was usually cheaper to cast figures in metal than plastic.

QFT.

 

[rgard]

So why doesn't Reaper sell its cool "action figures" at ToysRUs to open a new retail path? There is no fundamental difference between molding and painting a skeleton as there is to molding a painting a Homie(tm) that I can buy from the bubblegum machine for .50 other than the mini is a little bit bigger. Round up your .50 to 2.00 and there you go.

http://www.streetgangs.com/homies/hoodrats.html

There you go....10 prepainted plastic modern RPG wererats for $8.

DS

You need a large volume of sales to get back the initial cost of setting up production. It's hard to find a grocery store, Walmart, Kmart or Toys R Us that doesn't have gumball machines selling homies. Stocking all of those machines (10 of thousands across the US) means being able to claw back the initial cost of the sculpts, steel molds (metal minis are produced with rubber molds that are significantly cheaper) and software set up to paint the figs.

Really, comparing gumball products to our niche market is not a valid or realistic exercise.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[JiffyPopTart]

All you have to do is go through their site and look at the individual minis pics. It'll take you an hour or so to start, but after that initial run through, you'll only need to look at pics of the new releases.

Alternately you can pick up the catalog and thumb through that in your spare time before bed.

DS

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Here's an orc with a spear for 34 cents:
http://cgi.ebay.com/D-D-Miniatures-...QQcategoryZ2537QQtcZphotoQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Actually, thats an orc with a spear for $3.34. Shipping isn't free and part of the downside of the secondary market on ebay is the shipping per individual mini. Sure you can save a lot on shipping by ordering a lot of things, but what if I really only want one orc with a spear this week?

DS