Nunae

Yes. We paid 20% extra in the PM to get our packages imported into the UK. From the UK they were shipped to the European countries (not just EU countries, some like Switzerland aren't in). Not sure how it worked out for the "not-EU" countries, but for me it worked out fine. We got lucky the Brexit got delayed back then though, no idea what would have happend with us paying UK VAT and the UK then leaving. This time we only payed the normal rates, so ofc at some point VAT has to be added. Death and taxes and all that.

I prefer Reaper for unit building (so my Kobolds, Orcs, Goblins, ...) and I like that a lot of the Reaper figures have a lot of character/fun to them. Wizkids is great for the more obscure creatures and if you just want something that really fits the official art. Before painting, a lot of my miniature-uninitiated friends and my boyfriend are way more drawn to the Wizkids stuff though, as Bones look soft or undetailed to them. Personally I didn't have much trouble with flat faces or mitten-hands more recently, but it was really bad on some of the earlier releases. And, tbf, earlier Bones can be droopy and bendy and have bad moldlines as well. Overall I still prefer the Bones style though. I can understand that the D&D/Pathfinder Logo paired with miniatures that are quite readable in the box might be attractive to some retailers. Very excited for the HIPS though, I really want to know what they'll come up with. I've read a speculation that it might be based on adventure modules (so a big box with everything for LMoP oder something) and that'd be genius. Or maybe they finally increase the variety of their Orcs/Goblins/etc.

It's a difficult one for me. I already got my Fantasy Series 1, and I like them, but I also got a huge amount of Bones and Wizkids and Bones V coming. The miniatures I have from them are fine and the price is ofc great, but it's a lot of fantasy staples that have collected themselves over the years already. I really appreciate the way they dress their female heroes, but I don't really need another huge box of player characters. The horde types are fine, but not super thrilled about having 5 of the same. It's okay with animals I think, but especially bandits look kinda weird to me, if they're all posed the same. Hopefully I'll find the time to take the knife to my Fantasy Series 1 models this week to test weapon or headswaps. I really do like the hydra and the chimera, I have neither. Giant/ettin/cyclops look nice, I just hope they will be integratable with my existing groups. The hill giantess from part 1 was really tall, the Bones hill giants go up to her hips. I'll most likely use her as a cloud or storm giant who kinda got the wrong memo for the costume party or something.

I can remember constantly spamming about Brexit around Bones IV fulfillment ^^ It was pretty much "ah, we'll see what happens, don't worry guys" then as well. I was especially nervous back then since we had pre-paid VAT in that KS. The situation was only resolved by the EU und UK moving the deadline. Generally, I like that Reaper seems to be a very laid-back, family-and-community kinda business, not overly corporate or anything, but if it comes to my own money, and rather a substantial amount of it, I'd really prefer some more direct and clear communication. A lot of smaller KS handle this better. And while it might be true that Reaper mainly serves US customers, even just losing 14% (I heard that number in the thread, even if it's 10% the point stands) of your backers is quite a drop. I'm fine with paying VAT and even the import fee, I understand that the world has been in a chaotic place this past year. I'd still have prefered to learn about the issues with securing an EU hub earlier in one of those many updates. Sure, some people would be miffed either way, but having a nice KS update about the state of EU fulfillment that explains the situation would've really smoothed over things with backers like me. Yeah, the main campaign site always said, we'd have to pay VAT when in doubt, but helping us swallow that pill would've been nice. I'm looking forward to hearing what they'll come up with for Bones VI, Irish hub seems like a good idea. But I'd like to see that being a reality and not "coming up, mostly, likely, really planning on it" during the fulfillment period. Other than that, hopefully we'll hear from the UK bound containers soon, still excited for my box of toys ^^

I contacted them about the missing miniature, and they should send it. A bit annoying, since I have received 3 KS recently, each with minor parts/a single miniature missing. So I'm gonna get lots of little packages send internationally xD But happens, I guess. Going through them again, I'm quite stunned at the quality of their casting. Little to no clean up and some of the detail is just stunning. I'll definetly pick up more of their stuff in the future, even though the bigger monsters are a bit out of my price range.

I received my pledge. Very nice board-game plastic miniatures, packaged like a board game. Little clean up required. Whether or not I back the next one will depend on the creatures offered, I own quite the collection of relatively inexpensive plastic creatures for D&D by now. Still not too thrilled about having exact copies for the baddies, but a lot of them will mix in nicely with my existing collection. Might try cutting some apart later, to repose or salvage for parts.

Well, option A would still be preferable to me (and many other backers, apparently), since it takes handling fees for the agents and package carriers wouldn't have to be paid in that case. We'd also know exactly how much each item will set us back for. If the individual customs agent sees the items as toys or some sort of collectable could also make quite the difference (4,5 to 7% I think, plus 19% VAT). Also, the fear of this being labeled as a commercial order is real for many backers, not just Spanish ones. You're not allowed to just sneak commercial orders in through the private postage system, so we might have to explain ourselves (happend in the past to my boyfriend who ordered multiple T-shirts from the US). Having a giant box filled with tons of plastic figures isn't that common, and I even understand people thinking "there is no way she needs all of these and wants to store them in her home".

I also assume temporary admission (my fear about paying VAT twice was if we were to pay VAT in the PM and then still get stuff shipped through the UK, which hasn't happend). But even with that, these are the two options in comparison: A) The seller charges VAT/fees upfront and solves the import paperwork for you. We pay something like 20% (Bones IV rate) on top of the usual item prices, but customs will let our packages slide right trough. B) We handle fees on our own. That's the gamble part that highly depends on your country. In Germany, I'll pay 19% taxes for any item I buy + x% for the type of item (like clothes, toys, alcohol, ...) + y% for country of origin of such items + handling fees + service fees to the carrier. I say gamble bc the customs agent might decide that my Reaper Bones are toys (4,5%) or something else with a higher cost associated. I actually had this discussion with a customs agent when I picked up my Darkswords Kickstarter. And that assumes that they're fine with the declared value and this being a "private" order (in some cases the huge boxes and hundreds of plastic figures might lead to questions). Some fees are waived depending on country on smaller orders, so people might have ordered less to keep under those values. Added to those fees the customs agencies want (and would have gotten in any case!) most carriers also charge you extra these days for dealing with customs. This might be a flat rate (like 6 Euro) or also percentage based. Problem with this is, the moment the carrier is at your door it's too late to say "I don't want this service! I'd prefer to pick up my package myself!" so you have to pre-register with each carrier (at least in Germany) for them to leave the package at the customs office and not give you this "service".

After sleeping over it, I'm mostly fine since, yeah, it was to be expected that we had to pay VAT at some point and, other than with Bones IV, we didn't do so already in the pledgemanager (and pledgemanager is closed now, so it was unrealistic that they'd still charge us there and prepay for us). But besides VAT, which we in Germany at least have to pay for rather small orders as well, there are import duties to pay, and people might have tried to stay under that threshold to avoid those fees. Since my order is above 150 Euros (and I guess that's true for a lot of people) it's gonna be 19% VAT + x% depending on what category of items the agent interprets Bones being. The percentage might vary greatly based on them categorizing the items. Also, those agents might get a bit difficult if you tell them that that giant box of plastic is indeed for your personal use, not commercial. For the uninitiated it might be hard to understand that I, an adult person, need so many plastic toys. Apparently some person in the comment also has had a problem with Reaper not declaring the shipping costs on the paperwork, which meant the agency assumed a (way higher) shipping cost and calculated fees based on that. And on the topic of shipping: what carrier our Bones will be given to might also be important (and we need information on that beforehand!) since some carriers charge absurd service fees at the door for the "service" of prepaying your taxes and then make you pay cash (without telling you beforehand how much cash you'll need to have at home) or give it to their package shop anyway. You can try and opt out of those services though, which some people might want to do. Personally I don't think I'd have changed my purchasing decisions, but for some other people this information might have influenced them to stay under certain totals. Also, prepaying fees and then just getting your package without wondering on what amount the post man will want is just way more comfortable. A lot of bigger kickstarters handle this better these days.

Soooo, I'm through medical rehab at this point (idk how to translate it, you're basically in a facility all day for 4 weeks in which you're doing lots of sports, physical therapy, get massages and the likes) and I'm feeling a lot better. Still have to continue doing sports at home since fitness studios and the likes aren't open, but it definetly helped. Besides the good (and kinda known) ideas to do some stretches at your desk and strength training for the upper back/shoulders on the regular, setting up the heights of my work station helped a lot. Since I'm petite (and even 4 cm shorter after the accident) an ergonomic footrest has really helped me to curl up less, since I'm not fishing with my feet for the ground. The work-place-ergonomic-person liked the idea of having a higher armrest for miniature paiting so the hands get stabilized. Physical therapist in that place said that we shouldn't use a yoga ball (or similar pillows) as a chair replacement, but only sit on them for 20-30 minutes and it'd be a common misconception to just sit on them for hours. They're training equipment and especially if you're not used to it, your core/smaller back muscles will just get overworked and crampy. I'll definetly get a yoga ball anyway though, since they're a great tool for exercises to strengthen those smaller backmuscles that help with balance.

Thank you for this information. Having critical information like this in a stream, that happens at the middle of the night for the people concerned and not repeat it in an official update is a mistake. I tried to keep up with streams for some time, but they're too many these days and my life has changed so I can't be up that late anymore. Today's update should have been called "EU/UK shipping information" and should have contained: - the info that everything is going to get shipped from the UK - UK is getting the containers directly from China this time (that's good! I think) - Are there even containers on their way/being planned for the UK right now? Will they be shipped from China when the US has all their stuff? - What happend to the 'alternate hub' - Ideally also information on what shipping partner they're going to use and what the country of origin will be on the paperwork (China or UK?) These things can make quite an impact on the fees, as I'd like to make sure that no parcel carrier will try and cash in absurd service fees for prepaying my duty fees. You can usually opt out of that and pick the package up yourself. This isn't some small indie company with three people in a trenchcoat fulfilling a KS with 20 miniatures total. This EU update affects over 2500 backers, and a lot of them might not have backed international KSs before/might not have imported orders of this magnitude from outside the EU. Giving us more than 2 sentences in some side paragraphe would go a long way to feeling more respected as backers and more understanding towards the company.

The sad part to me is that EU shipping and hubs were almost never talked about. It was a "Nobody knows what Brexit gonna bring, but sure, we'll take care of you! Maybe a hub in Germany" during the KS and then almost nothing afterwards. Why were numerous questions about that (for example in this forum or on KS) not answered? A more transparent system or them collecting duties upfront would have helped us calculate our savings on the KS or if it's a better idea to buy other products/retail Bones from EU resellers. It's really disappointing that we kinda get a throw-away sentence or two in an update about shipping times (that doesn't even contain when our containers will be in the UK). I mean, it's titled "More Containers Inbound", nothing about the importance to EU backers in it's content. Might be a minor detail, but to me it really speaks to the lack of importance this issue seems to have to whoever is running communications. When was this decision made? What happend to that mysterious hub in Germany? Will there be additional fees (over just us importing stuff from the UK) bc the figures originate in China?

Has someone here assembled their burning godess? I'm kinda confused by her parts.

I got mine today, but the young elf archer wasn't in the box

This is getting rather complicated, I recommend checking the customs offices' websites of the countries involved. There are definitly EU and UK consumers being charged when receiving packages from "the other side". According to the German customs office, the UK is being treated as a non-EU country but with some preferential treatment, when it comes to "goods originating" in the other area. From my limited understanding this seems to aim at EU/UK manufacturing industrie e. g. UK company makes car parts, sends them to Germany where they are used in cars. There are many such agreements with many countries, for example also EU-Japan, but that doesn't mean you never pay taxes or duties when receiving packages. Reaper is an US company and Bones are made in China, so I don't think any preferences apply here. And even if they would, some taxes (19%?) would apparently still aplly which is the "the tax or charge that would be imposed on like goods when destined for domestic consumption" . Added to that, the whole process of getting wares out of the UK is suuuuper slow right now, which is another reason to get them from the US directly. I might not understand the details completly, but the important information is that EU citizens are being charged for packages received from the UK and that my countries' duties office specifically points out that it is very likely that the consumer will be charged when ordering from the UK.

During the original KS it was brought up that Brexit might be an issue for EU backers (it was also brought up during Bones 4, but the Brits played into our hands back then). Back during the Bones 5 KS it was said in comments and on Twitch that EU backers would be taken care off if Brexit would make it disadvantageous for us to get our KS delivery through the UK. The idea of using a partner in Germany was brought up by Reaper themselves and calmed a lot of nerves. If we want a follow up now that's only natural. For me personally the worst situation would be to have my stuff send to the UK (and pay import duties on that, as we have for past kickstarters) and then send to Germany by the fulfillment partner and pay fees again to the authorities here bc I imported a package from the UK. I fully expect to pay some fees at some point (and I'm fine with that!) but I'd like to know for sure that they will send my package from the US directly if they don't have an EU mainland partner. The same goes for European, but not EU, countries like Switzerland, who would also be better off getting their stuff directly from the US hub.

This will be done in 4 hours. Currently working on unlocking alternate bridge parts. The Wightwood Abbey stuff is available as an AddOn (and a lot cheaper than on their webstore) but only during the campaign, no pledgemanager.

I also backed Fantasy and wasn't tempted by Horror at all. Not super thrilled with the duplicates of bandits and similar stuff in Fantasy either, but at least I see the point. 5 butchers just seems pointless outside of the specific game sold with it. Don't know if they had great stuff planned but didn't get there due to lack of SGs unlocked. Horror is in itself more niche as well and if I'm not mistaken they already have stuff like Vampires, Werewolves and common Undead types between Fantasy 1 and Altar Quest (therefore satisfying the need for the Fantasy RPG/Horror crossovers that happen more frequently).

There are a lot of stretch goals unlocked as we're heading towards the final 48 hours. The vote for the final SGs is currently open.

Sry, I forgot. And then I saw your post and thought "sure, I should get on that" and forgot again Original Umberhulk hulking forwards on the right. On the left I cut off both of the left extremities and reangled them. The leg was most impactful since he can now stand upright, opposed to the original pose. The arm makes him kinda look like he is from one of those fantasy football games ^^ From the left side. You can't really tell with the shiny undercoat, but the arm and leg are mostly glued down in their old socket. There is almost no greenstuff for his arm and a bit more for the leg, but overall I'm fairly happy.

A lot of the initial stretch goals have already been met, and right now there is the first vote for the next stretch goal set. They plan to continue doing that for the bigger stretch goals (called encounter sets) while smaller stuff that seems to slot more seemlessly into the core set stuff is already set as stretch goals.

They offer the Abbey from the first KS at a reduced rate to retail. Right now it is a bit expensive, it seems to be a KS that hopes to unlock a lot of stretch goals. It was kinda ridiculous what their first KS offered in terms of value.

I'm kinda hoping they'll make their Wightwood Abbey set available as an AddOn in this kickstarter. I'm really kicking myself that I skipped that one, now that I have a 3D printer.

Immobilizing parts of your body also isn't great for the muscles. It's pretty scary how much your stamina and strength disappears after a relatively short time of bed rest followed by minimal movement. Since the fracture is confirmed to be stable I'm supposed to use my backmuscles (but avoid certain movements). Yes, it's mostly laying in bed, but walking is also good. Sitting and standing still is allowed, but should be limited. It has been six weeks since my accident, so it's not super fresh anymore, and the boredom is somewhat kicking in. But even after I'm fully healed I should be mindful of my posture and back, so this topic has longterm relevance to me ^^

The horse tripped herself and then waited around with me wailing and all, so we're cool Standing is kinda troublesome as well atm (walking is great though!) so that's more a future thing. I didn't know those chairs existed, but it looks interesting. From reviews they seem to tire out your core/back muscles rather quickly though, and since my muscles really suffered from the underuse and I'm just training to get them back to normal (with PT, which is great but exhausting) probably also more of a future thing. Apparently back braces aren't used as much with such injuries anymore, that's at least what the doctors said. I was surprised by that, too, since it just feels wrong to walk around a week after you broke your spine with no stabilizing measures. Forcing myself completly passively into a good position has the side effect that I don't engange my muscles that much/at all (which makes them regress even more), so the chairs or self-control-measures written about below might be a better long term solution. Seems similar to the backwards chair (and I've actually done that in the past with my computer chair). Another type of chair that I've never seen, but it might work for me. Especially since I tend to pull my legs up to my chest to get comfortable, and that wouldn't work with such a chair. It's a compression fracture in the thoracic area, about the height where the shoulderblades end. But the pain goes up to the shoulders and down to the lumbar area as well, since my spine is now shorter and has a wrong bend, which means the rest of the back has to work more than it is intended to.But I'm also glad it's not bad enough to get straightend with screws and metal plates, that didn't sound fun at all. We got all the pre-surgery talks and waivers and I'm just glad I was too high to really get into those. My boyfriend has a comfortable gaming chair in which you can lean far back, my problem is that I sit up as soon as I actually want to paint, I'm not sure I'd stay back in a reclining chair. My desk is slightly higher than that (if I did the unit math correctly, 29'') but it's on the high side. If I want to use keyboard/mouse or a drawing pad I have to push the chair up to a height where my feet can't get planted to the ground anymore. And I just got 4cm shorter This seems to be in the same vein as the armrests recommended by Talespinner, and to me it seems like a good idea. I do stabilize my wrists on the table edge for detailing, which is a big no-no, so something along those lines should help. This sounds like a really solid plan. I have a little table-thing for eating in bed, so I could at least put my pallet and brushes up a bit higher. Or put the airbrush box on there. Thanks for all your time and ideas, I'll try to get something like that arm rest and a visor soonish and will try out some chairs when I'm in better overall shape again.