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The story of the Santa Mouse began some thirty years back. Wife and I were, of course, poor as church mice while we Worked To Better Ourselves and finish up our Bachelors, get our certifications, and, y'know, have money and food and things. That was, of course, the Christmas that our little girl wanted the Advent Calendar, this thingy where each day before Christmas, you'd open a little door and there'd be a little treat behind it, as a buildup for Christmas. And, of course, as many of you who have been parents will know, Christmas is a heckuva time for parenting, because the kids have to have the Christmas magic, and yet the rest of the world wants PAYING for it, a thing which, at the time, I was not well equipped to do. There was a tree, there were presents, there was a dinner -- we had the basics covered -- but durned if this advent calendar thing didn't throw me for a loop, because it wasn't inexpensive, and I had no budget for it, and why they stick that stuff out there to tantalize the kids AFTER all the budgeting is done? And lacking funds, I fell back on ingenuity, and had her write a letter to the Santa Mouse. My darling little girl cocked a cynical eye at me and said, "Santa Mouse?" "Yeah, write a letter to the Santa Mouse." "And this Santa Mouse is distinct from Santa Claus? In what way? Elucidate," she said. I might mention that while my little girl was a sweet little toddle-darlin' with stars in her beautiful big brown eyes, she might have been a bit precocious. "Well, sweetie," I began in the proper dadly way, "You know Santa Claus. He's the Big Guy, with the big job of manufacturing toys, as well as brokering deals with major toy companies for specific high demand items, and operating mass delivery systems via reindeer, UPS, Amazon, and the post office, and the like. But like any big corporate deal, he has subcontractors." "Right..." said my little moppet. "And that's where the Santa Mouse comes in," I said. "Bein' a mouse, he is ill equipped to bring bicycles or Barbie's Malibu Dream House to your stoop; that's not his job. What Santa Mouse does, now, is he handles the small stuff, spaced out daily from Christmas, and then on Christmas Eve, he rides with Santa to deliver the last small item, and assist with cookie eatin' duties and suchlike." "Small stuff, spaced out daily," said my little girl, having immediately locked onto the salient facts in the narrative. "So, basically, chocolates, small toys, and suchlike?" "Yups," I said. "So Santa Mouse serves the same function as an Advent Calendar?" "Pretty much," I said. "But he's not the mass operation that Santa is. You have to contact him directly, and contract for the services." "And what criteria are in the contract?" "You have to write him a letter, care of Santa Claus, and ask. You have to give mommy and daddy a kiss before bed, and you have to be good, as per Section C of your Santa contract. And you have to leave the Santa Mouse his own cookie (or a piece of cheese) on Christmas Eve before you go to bed, to conclude the contract." "That doesn't sound particularly tough." "I leave it to you, my little darling." And so she wrote Santa Mouse and asked if he wouldn't please include our home in his daily routine, and gave me the letter to mail, because even though she was far from stupid, she WAS still a child, and certain observances had to be met. And so, the next day, I informed her that Santa Mouse had faxed me his response (it was the eighties, gimme a break,) and that daily services would depend on her ability to locate the Santa Mouse icon that he had provided me; he would be hiding it every night, somewhere in the living room, and it was HER job to FIND the thing and lay claim to the provided goodies what would accompany it. "Was this included in the contract?" she said doubtfully, examining the fax. "I assumed you were agreeing to the terms when I signed off on it as your proxy," I said. "Don't you remember our conversation about contract negotiations? If you didn't want to authorize me as your proxy, you shooda said so." And she sorrowfully agreed that one should always read the fine print before signing anything, sure. It's never too early to start on certain life lessons, you know? "So what do I need to do?" she asked. "Just leave the little Santa Mouse figurine in front of the TV," I said. "Each night. If it's there, he'll pick it up and hide it somewhere, and in the morning, you can hunt for it and see if he left you anything." And my little girl dutifully did just that, and upon searching the living room the next morning, found that the Santa Mouse figure was over on the bookshelf with a Fun Size Snickers bar, a thing she found quite acceptable... …and our rather odd December commenced. Now, at this point, the reader is no doubt wondering what the heck is going on. This is because I haven't explained it yet. Y'see, a while back, Reaper Miniatures began the manufacturer of these lovely little Santa Mouse pewter figurines, right? And as a collector, I bought and painted one, and this is what Little Darlin' was putting in front of the TV every night, and her mother and I would hide it in the living room along with whatever candy or goody I could scavenge from someone's candy dish at work, or whatever was in the bottom of her mother's purse, or whatever I could get out of a gumball machine with the coins I could find in the couch cushions. I make no apologies. Any poor person will tell you it's easier to come up with thirty bucks gradually on a daily basis than it is to do so all at once for a dumb overpriced advent calendar. Each day, she’d clamber out of bed and begin an examination of the living room until she found the little red Santa Mouse sitting atop a Fun Size M&Ms bag, or a pack of gum, or whatever. I did have a bit of a skid one day, when Santa Mouse was sitting atop a Happy Meal toy from McDonalds; I’d grabbed a quick bite there the previous day and had saved the toy for just this purpose. “It seems curious that Santa Mouse would reutilize secondhand merchandise,” my daughter mused. “The little plastic bag was still sealed,” I replied. “It was new merch, purchased from McDonalds, no doubt; even mice have to eat. McDonalds is, after all, the number one toy distributor on the planet. And when one is benefiting from a localized magical phenomenon, it is unwise to question the mojo, yes?” She had to agree with that, and the matter was dropped. As December went on, she did ask about Santa Mouse’s methods of operation. Did he use a sleigh? Perhaps he used Santa’s transport and tackle, to warm it up for Christmas? How does a mouse manage a full sized sleigh? I replied that he did not, that he instead used a gold plated roller skate, repurposed as a mouse sized sleigh, and pulled by a friendly enchanted pair of skunks, who could not only fly, but keep predators at bay while Santa Mouse did his job, as no sane predator would mess with skunks. “And how does he manage all the candy and toys on one roller skate?” “Same as Santa Claus does: magic bag.” “What are the skunks’ names?” “Barney... and, um, Clyde,” I said, thinking fast. Fortunately, she did not question this, and the conversation turned to other topics. By the time Christmas rolled around, Wife and I were pleased to note that we had spent under ten bucks on Santa Mouse, less than a third of what they wanted for the advent calendar, while providing hours of amusement and fascination for the child. And we were greatly touched when on Christmas Eve, she insisted on making a special little sandwich for Santa Mouse (Squeezy Cheez and Swiss on Ritz Cracker, with parsley sprig) to fulfill her contract with this strange and magical entity. I WAS just gonna eat the thing, but Wife insisted that I uphold the magic, and therefore I ate about half of it, and then made a great many little mouse sized bites out of the remainder with a hole punch, which I later had to clean the Squeezy Cheez out of, to my slight irritation. But it galvanized the Sproglet the next morning to see that Santa Mouse did indeed take tiny bites, as opposed to what Santa’s daddy-sized dentition took out of the Oreos. And thus a tradition was born. Years later, in college, she got around to asking me, “That first year with Santa Mouse?” “Eeeeyes?” I replied over my book. “Santa Mouse was all over the living room, hiding candy and toys?” “It would seem so.” “How many cats did we have at that time? Five?” she said, eyeing me for a reaction. “As I recall, Santa Mouse has a posse,” I replied smoothly. “Barney and Clyde, the magical skunks, specifically to keep cats at bay.” “What about Mr. Magoo?” she asked, referring to a cat we had had at the time. “Magoo was dumb enough to think he could make friends with a pit bull, and was in love with one of your socks. You think a couple of skunks would have slowed him down?” “Well,” I said, “what was the second lesson we took away from our experience with Santa Mouse?” The Kid frowned at me, and recited: “Always read the fine print?” “The SECOND lesson,” I said. She frowned again. “When one is benefiting from a localized magical phenomenon, it is unwise to question the mojo.” “She remembers,” I said with a smile. “Plainly, I have fulfilled my purpose as a parent.” And I guess I did. ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** Funny thing about this story? It's largely hooey. Anyone who knows me can check the dates, and say, "Dude, when your little girl was a little girl, Reaper Miniatures didn't exist yet. And by the time Santa Mouseling was in production, she was in college already." And this is true. But one year at work, I gave out hand painted Santa Mouselings, and they went over quite well, until someone wanted to know the STORY behind them. And, durnit, I can't turn down a request for a story, just because there actually isn't one, particularly when I'm already three cups into the spiked eggnog. So the first version of this tale was born. And now, every year at work, the Old Hands watch me like a hawk to make sure the new hires, at Christmas time, get their little Santa Mouseling and a printout of the story; it's a tradition now. And durn, I sure wish they'd start making Santa Mouseling in Bones...

Some mouselings having fun in the snow :)

Started with the Christmas decorations.

After 5 years I finally found the time and motivation to paint. I still had a group of mouselings that were already primed.

Well, the story's seven or eight years in the making, but we finally got married. Now we just need to get Gene Van Horne to sculpt a bride and groom mouseling. Or a zombie bride and groom mouseling. Or a bride and groom mouseling with chainsaws... http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/44574-zombie-mouselings-a-love-story/&tab=comments#comment-616402

Totally new to the Reaper brand, so forgive me if this is mentioned somewhere else..... When I look at the Mousling line of minis, I see a few different models that are listed as 2 separate SKUs and 2 different prices but there's zero information about them so I don't know what's up with that. For example with SKU 03744 it's $7.49, while — SKU 77290 is $2.99 (Mousling Druid & Beekeeper). I've also noticed this with the King & Princess, Ranger & Yeoman, etc. The cheaper models are shown with a B next to them on the table as well. The only other difference I've noticed is release dates. I saw one thread mention different SKU's for different materials but it didn't mention the 03XXX SKUs. Can someone help me? I want them all but don't want to buy the same thing at two different prices if they are, in fact, the same thing.

Howdy all! I'm going to start a Mouse Guard group for kids (around 5 to 7-ish years old) soon. I have the mouseling minis for the mice themselves, but I need minis for a wide variety of NPCs and enemies. This is the tentative list I've come up with, based on the core book and the size chart that I attached. I'd like to stay within Bones, but I'm totally okay with spreading out into different Reaper brands. If you folks have any suggestions, it would be much appreciated. I'm mostly looking for miniatures that fit the size categories and look similar to the creature intended (i.e., the Dragon Tortoise for a snapping turtle). If the animal has (Int) in front of this, it has its own society in the world of Mouse Guard, and thus would be wearing clothes, wielding weapons, etc. Thanks for the help! (Colossal-Gargantuan) Bear--Schleich Grizzly Bear 14685 Moose--Shleich Bull Moose 14781 (Huge) Wolf--Schleich Wolf 14741 Wolverine--Schleich Wolverine 14646 Deer--Schleich White-tailed Buck 14709 (Large-Huge) Coyote--77202: Warg (Int) Otter/Sable--Harrek - Otter Cleric - DSM8083 and Otter Knight with Sword and Shield - DSM8087 and Otter Ranger with Bow DSM8089 and Otter Rogue with Loot - DSM8088 and Otter Mage with Staff - DSM8090 and FL13 Otter Mercenary and FL11 Otter Rogue (Large) Fox--77202: Warg Badger--Safari Ltd. Badger 295429 and FL05 Gnarls and Thug, Shrew Slaver and Slave Badger (shows an intelligent badger but way better scale than anything else) Raccoon--Safari Ltd. Racoon 223029 (Int) Marten--Harrek - Otter Cleric - DSM8083 and Otter Knight with Sword and Shield - DSM8087 and Otter Ranger with Bow DSM8089 and Otter Rogue with Loot - DSM8088 and Otter Mage with Staff - DSM8090 and FL13 Otter Mercenary and FL11 Otter Rogue Cat--77341: Lions (2) Snapping Turtle--77334: Dragon Tortoise (Medium-Large) Skunk Beaver Hare Whistle Pig Porcupine Owl--77156: Owlbear (Medium) (Int) Weasel/Mink--Wererat matriarch: 77296 and 01429: Shoatima, Otter Ranger (sadly no longer in production) and BB20 Weasel rogue and FL01 Drunken Weasel and BB11 Ferret Rogue Mole Squirrel Rabbit--Schleich Wild Rabbit 14631 Flying Squirrel Snake--03676: Giant Snake (not bones) Bullfrog--02665: Killer Frogs (not bones) Lizard/Newt/Salamander--77371: Basilisk Crow/Killdeer/Blue Jay-- (Small-Medium) (Int) Mouse--Mouselings!; Evil Mice: BB17 Great Brown Rat and FL02 Black Rat Witch and BB16 Rat Warrior and BB18 Rat Assassain and FL04 Black Rat Rogue Bat--03795: Giant Bats (3) (not bones) Chipmunk (Int) Young Weasel--Wererat matriarch: 77296 and 01429: Shoatima, Otter Ranger (sadly no longer in production) (Small-Tiny) Insect--77126: Vermin: Spiders (2) Baby Snake Tadpole

I had planned to do a bunch of mouselings in november and december.. but work got in the way. I never had a more busy and stressfull december than this year. But in the end I managed to finish two sets... just to late to hang in the Christmas tree.. 😊

I always start my WIPs too late. This is my first scenic thing, normally I paint/build for game use exclusively, but my wife wanted a little scene with the mouselings from Bones II. This is somewhere in the done to done-ish range, but I've not convinced myself yet. I think maybe the tree needs more bulk and I'm mixed on the grass. I feel like a few tufts of color wouldn't hurt. Maybe some flower tufts? I still need to stain and seal the rim obviously, but I'm waiting until I'm finished so I can tape those sections off and give a light spray coat to help things stay put. Is there maybe something I could do to the bush/tree material to give it more color depth? Will it take paint well? It's the Woodland Scenics stuff usually used for model train terrain. Any other tips or advice would be most welcome.

The tavern is complete and the mouselings are having a opening party. This was a lot of fun to build and paint and I am super happy how it turned out. The outside of the tavern was not planned at the beginning, but I am happy that I added it. Planning and creating the interior was a lot of fun. The working lights and fireplace really add a lot, this is night time picture with only the lights of the tavern itself. You can find the build process here: W.I.P. I want to thank everybody who commented on the wip thread the nice comments and suggestions. Bart

So I'm gonna add the ArtistCon Mouseling mini to the Moat House dungeon for ReaperCon....somewhere. Curious if anyone can think of stats to give him. I'm sure there is something in there that I can use for him, but figured I'd brainstorm the forum. What I'd like are old school D&D (or in this case Sword & Wizardry) creature creation for levels 3-5. Let see what everyone can come up with!!

After a few years of almost no painting I wanted to start again with a new project. The mouselings looked fun to paint. After I received the set I started thinking about making a display for the mouselings. The plan is to make the interior of a tavern in a box. On one side the bar and on the other side a stage for the musicians. The front of the box wil be two stories high with a sloping ceiling to the back. This is the test layout.

So I was rummaging through my miniatures hoard as longtime collectors are prone to do from time to time, and I came across the Terror!! On Planet X Mouseling set. Was surprised to see it was actually from the 2011 Reaper Artist Conference, had forgotten that although I do remember it had limited availability, and this brought a couple of questions to mind. Have any other Artist Conference sets been made since then? None come to mind and the Mouselings from the Planet X set were the only result I had when searching the online store. Just how limited were the production numbers on that tentacled beastie that was included in the original set. Curious minds want to know. Also. Reaper should have made a mini of the retro rocket ship shown in the cover art. Although its general egg shape and aesthetic does remind me if the one Patrick Keith produced since for his Counterblast line.

So I let the mouse out of the bag in the ReaperCon forum that I'm gonna run a S&W version of Hommlet at RCon this year. Now I asked earlier about adopting Mouselings to a D&D race, but what you do think for S&W. Obviously since S&W gets its rules from D&D they should be quite the same but I don't want to over-power the mice compared to the other races. Granted, the mouselings replace the human race in this game with other animals replacing various race (ie no traditonal PC races). I was thinking the following ideas: +1 DEX, -1 STR (thou the muscle-bound barbarian mouseling mini will get +2 STR -1 INT -1 DEX; He built his muscles vs his brain & mobility LOL) 20' movement rate thou I'm playing with a sudden burst movement similar to how mice move, maybe once per combat, add 10'? infravision thou I'm not sure of the range right now. I don't want it out to 60' like normal characters as everyone has it, maybe 30'? For thief skills I was thinking +5% Climb Walls +5% Move Silently +5%Hide in Shadows Any ideas?

So, now that we have recovered from GenCon, I thought it time to show off my horrible excuse for painting a Mouseling at GenCon:P Others are welcome to show off and post pics of their Speed Paint entries from GenCon 2013, too:) Mine came in as Honorable Mention(AKA Fourth Place) in my round. Third Pic didn't come out so good. So what did everyone else paint and how well did it do? GF