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Is it me or is DHL kinda the forgotten child...


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This is a minor compliant but it seems like the Dark Heaven line is becoming the redheaded stepchild of Reaper. Most of the good generic fantasy figures are being based off Pathfinder art. There have been fewer releases in the past year. Whatever happened to models based off of Talin artwork or other artists? Could this be a sign that DHL is getting phased out with Bones, Pathfinder and other sets based off of existing systems being the major releases?

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Well, with more product lines to support than ever before (and Reaper sticking to a general formula that involves not overwhelming retailers with a massive number of releases every month), of course there are going to be fewer releases into all the lines. More to the point, although it's certainly easy to see where production of models for the DHL line has fallen off a bit, is it really indicative of something greater? I don't think so, at least not yet. Bones may change that in the long term (and in the very immediate short-term, since so much work had to be done to get the KS Bones out the door to China), but we probably won't see that until well after Reaper has brought production of Bones in-house.

 

~v

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Gods, I hope not!

 

I haven't really thought the line was being neglected so much as back-burnered for the moment. The bones line has a bunch of new sculpts now the KS has gone through (even those sculpts that were late and replaced for the vampire backers are eventually happening), and I'd bet there are things we haven't seen happening for DHL.

 

I agree with Shak, there may be some tapering of the line overall to make room for Bones, but I doubt it'll be that different on a minis-per-year basis. Now the bones flurry is over, we'll likely see some new DHL in the near future.

 

And, I bet Pathfinder makes more revenue for Reaper, so they want to focus on that a bit...more licensed minis now may mean they have the freedom-through-profit to do more random DHL sculpts in the future.

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This strikes me as the kind of comment we saw during the kickstarter where we'd show a character figure, then the next goal would be character figures, and the reaction would be "Reaper's not doing monsters any more!" It is true that there have been some inconsistencies - DHL tends to get 8 new models a month, and for August there were none. Mind you, for august, we released half the usual number of new figures, and spent most of our energy focused on KS.

 

Dark Heaven Legends is, and has continued to be since it's inception, our #1 product line.

 

It has continued to see more sculpts released in that line than any of our lines this year, and continues to receive top notch product.

 

All of our lines saw a minor cut in the qty of new figures released per month, as we are making room in our release schedule for Bones and more specialty models (a lot more 740xx bases and such have been introduced recently).

 

I'm not entirely sure where reasoning like this comes from, but let me assure you that DHL is and remains an important focus for all of us.

 

 

 

The sky is not falling. Move along.

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Bryan, don't forget to release LOTS OF METAL MINIS this year :devil::bday::ph34r:

 

Hmmm. Didn't you get the one-of-each-of-the-new-metal-minis-this-year in the Reaper Kickstarter?

 

A-ha! You have a vested interest in the health and success of this company!

 

You fiend, you.

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DHL is why I'm here. I'll occassionally dip into Warlord if the mini has enough base to not need its square (I got a loverly spare marilith that way, and I'm eyeing some of the mounted figures).

 

That said, I'd not especially mind if it got a slowdown - that'd give me time to catch up! (Buying, not painting - only nanorobotic gene therapy life extension could help me do that)

 

And anyway, harrumph, harrumph, I think all the best DHLs are pre-3000 anyways. I actually have the first hundred. And if'n you want to know the Secret Truth - I love DHL even better than my Parthas. It's just that Parthas have the virtue of being my first minis. If I'd gotten into the hobby in '95 or '96 when DH(Apocalypse) was first making its way onto the scene - instead of being in the process of leaving the hobby at that time - then I'd never have looked at another line. Period.

 

But me and Reaper only crossed paths for about two months before minis took a back seat to other priorities and it was nearly a decade before I found my way back.

 

So, yeah . . . Partha squeezes in for primacy of place based on nostalgia and the TSR license - but mini to mini? Strictly on quality? Dark Heaven wins, fatality. The line is quality, fun, interesting, imaginative, and if I ever find me a magic lamp I'm gonna demand the genie give me enough time on earth to paint every last one.

 

But for now, I'll concentrate on the first hundred.

 

Edit: Seems my memory ain't so good. Dark Heaven was the original name, not DH:A. That was a later wargame, I guess the precursor to Warlord.

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even those sculpts that were late and replaced for the vampire backers are eventually happening

 

Do you have a source for that? i.e. a statement from Reaper staff.

 

I'd be happy if it's true, but I've seen no indication of it.

 

I'm reasonably certain I saw it amongst the various comments and complaints near the time of the announcement of the switch. I will admit, it may just be my own wishful thinking rewriting my memory; however, the sculpts were "hung up at the sculpting phase," according to the KS update. That's a very different statement than, "permanently round-filed," which has never been said, to my knowledge. I would assume they are still being sculpted, they're just taking longer than Reaper could wait for the bones KS.

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I'm reasonably certain I saw it amongst the various comments and complaints near the time of the announcement of the switch. I will admit, it may just be my own wishful thinking rewriting my memory; however, the sculpts were "hung up at the sculpting phase," according to the KS update. That's a very different statement than, "permanently round-filed," which has never been said, to my knowledge. I would assume they are still being sculpted, they're just taking longer than Reaper could wait for the bones KS.

 

My recollection is that other people were saying they'd still be made. I didn't see a comment by Reaper staff to that effect. It may well make sense to do them anyway—they seemed to be fairly popular—I'm not sure we'll see them in bones anytime soon.

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