completed Reaper Bones 4: Enthusiasm and Commentary Thread

[Nunae]

One thing I didn't even realize yesterday before going to sleep, bc so many new reveals: we get an elderly lady mage for the core set.

Estra is the lady in question. Can't wait to see her from different angles, as this one isn't the most flattering.

 

 

[OneBoot]

3 hours ago, SamuraiJack said:

I'm goingv to set aside funds in case something large and Double Dragony is in resin at RCon

 

Same here. That is the only figure to-date I've ever seen and immediately said "Oooohhh... I'd love to see that in resin!" 

 

Note: Reaper has not said they are making it in resin. But I'd LOVE it if they did!!! 

 

Huzzah!

--OneBoot :D

[Jessie]

3 minutes ago, Nunae said:

One thing I didn't even realize yesterday before going to sleep, bc so many new reveals: we get an elderly lady mage for the core set.

Estra is the lady in question. Can't wait to see her from different angles, as this one isn't the most flattering.

 

 

 

I agree she is a fantastic addition. I also like Erasmus. I suspect he is doing more of a Gambit thing with those cards but I can also see him having just been caught cheating in a card game and is holding up his other hand trying to explain himself and stall until he can get out of there, so he'd make a really good rogue too. Really like all the heroes there in that pathfinder group.

[pcktlnt]

21 minutes ago, Nunae said:

One thing I didn't even realize yesterday before going to sleep, bc so many new reveals: we get an elderly lady mage for the core set.

Estra is the lady in question. Can't wait to see her from different angles, as this one isn't the most flattering.

 

 

The 5 of them have been released in metal. There are some good shots and paint jobs in the reaper store.

Rivani - http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/60202/sku-down/60202 (Single Shot) [Link to inspiration gallery: http://www.reapermini.com/InspirationGallery/60202/latest/]

Erasmus - http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/60201/sku-down/60201 (Single Shot)

Estra - http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/60198/sku-down/60198 (1 painted version)

Zadim - http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/60179/sku-down/60179 (Single blur shot...)

Enora - http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/60178/sku-down/60178 (2 painted versions)

Edited August 20, 2017 by pcktlnt

[Pochi]

What do we want?

A cat dragon!

When do we want it?

Meow!

[Darsc Zacal]

So I added up the stuff listed with a price that I would like to have and I'm at $404, and that doesn't include the newly unveiled things like the dragons fighting.

 

I'm going to have to come up with a cunning plan to pay for all this.

[Baldur8762]

I don't know if this question has been asked or answered in another location but I am curious as to why/how Bones minis are "expensive to produce" and yet are so inexpensive? I mean I get the mass production of PVC products allow for cost efficiency, but what aspect is expensive? Is it the molding process? Is it the design phase? 

 

This is just pure interest, not a commentary or anything. 

[Nunae]

19 minutes ago, Baldur8762 said:

I don't know if this question has been asked or answered in another location but I am curious as to why/how Bones minis are "expensive to produce" and yet are so inexpensive? I mean I get the mass production of PVC products allow for cost efficiency, but what aspect is expensive? Is it the molding process? Is it the design phase? 

 

This is just pure interest, not a commentary or anything. 

I don't know the answer to this question, but my impression always was that there is a high initial cost to get the molds ready, and afterwards the material is relatively cheap so one can mass produce and sell them cheap.

But yeah, with so many new models the design and sculpt phase is probably also a factor, since they have to pay a lot of artists.

[TGP]

1 hour ago, Baldur8762 said:

I don't know if this question has been asked or answered in another location but I am curious as to why/how Bones minis are "expensive to produce" and yet are so inexpensive? I mean I get the mass production of PVC products allow for cost efficiency, but what aspect is expensive? Is it the molding process? Is it the design phase? 

 

This is just pure interest, not a commentary or anything. 

 

I do have a good idea what is involved. In the SWAGuesstimates below "n" is a single digit number.

 

Concept Art ..................... $n00

3D Electronic Sculpt ....... $n00

3D Print Prototype .......... $n0 to $n00

3D Sculpt Rework ........... $n0 to $n00

3D Print Master ............... $n00

3D Laser scanning, prototyping, rendering, and approval of digital file ... $n00

 

Casting and Machining two blocks of stainless steel from the approved digital file .... $n000 to $nn000

 

I do not know the real numbers but I have a good idea of their orders of magnitude.

 

So all in, to get to the point where there are two blocks of stainless steel locked into a machine, my guess is around $11,200 US Dollars. 

 

At that point, eleven or twelve thousand bucks in the red, it is possible to crank out PVC Plastic figurines. 

[Argentee]

Now, once the molds are made, the math flips. 

 

Metal is expensive, and the price fluctuates a lot. 

PVC is cheap and the price is more stable. 

 

Metal takes longer to cool than PVC and isn't in a large automated machine. So PVC you can produce miniatures faster. And when paying for workers and use of a factory, time -is- money 

 

Normally, to pay for a large initial expense, a company figures how many of a particular model they expect to sell over the next five years, divides the startup cost by that amount, and adds that to what they charge for a figure. So if startup costs were $15,000 for a model and they expect to sell 30,000 over the next five years, that is an extra fifty cents a model. If they expect to sell 5,000 over the next five years that is an extra $3 a model.

 

Amortization like this is risky for a company. Guess the demand is higher than it is, and the 'missing' money has to come out of your profits.  And price influences demand, so an extra fifty cents vs three dollars on the cost of a figure can make a huge difference in if someone buys a figure. 

 

After they have spent five years earning back the money spent making figure A, then they can spend that money making figure B. Now, companies will run this over multiple figures and stagger the years to spread out new models and the risk, but the theory still holds. 

 

However, if they do a Kickstarter and raise enough to pay for the molds and the manufacturing cost of the kickstarter models (including material, factory time, shipping cost from china, etc) They don't have that huge initial investment to amortize. It's paid for. Even if shipping or import fees go up, or something else throws their math a little off, they still have MOST of it paid off. (The difference between amortizing $1000 over 5,000 figures and amortizing $15,000 over 5,000 figures is the difference between twenty cents and three dollars. But remember, price influences demand. So we could be talking the difference between $1000 over 15,000 figures versus $15,000 over 5,000 figures because the figure just won't sell as well at the higher price point.) And by adding more new models they spread the risk around. If one model doesn't sell as well as predicted, another might sell better than predicted.

 

But Reaper is very good at the math. It is how they have stayed in business this long.  

 

And please note there are a lot of expenses I haven't even mentioned (advertising, packaging, salaries, property taxes, the list goes on and on...) and the numbers I used were ENTIRELY MADE UP and nice and round to make the math easy. 

 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2017 by Argentee
correcting typos.

[crejb]

Hi all, I've been following along since the very start, figured I would poke my head in to say g'day! This is my first bones KS, in fact fairly new to the hobby in general- the core set alone already contains more minis than I currently own
I'm liking the sets of kobolds and goblins but I think my favourite single model so far would be either the recently revealed hill giant hunter, or the 2-headed dungeon dweller, they both look fun to paint.
Anyone able to narrow it down to a single favourite model so far?

[Pochi]

2 minutes ago, crejb said:

Hi all, I've been following along since the very start, figured I would poke my head in to say g'day! This is my first bones KS, in fact fairly new to the hobby in general- the core set alone already contains more minis than I currently own
I'm liking the sets of kobolds and goblins but I think my favourite single model so far would be either the recently revealed hill giant hunter, or the 2-headed dungeon dweller, they both look fun to paint.
Anyone able to narrow it down to a single favourite model so far?

Favorite for just this kickstarter? I surprisingly really like the Small World chibis and Rocky the baby dragon. I have never painted a chibi but these are adorable! Of course the dragons at the end of the livestream video are pretty amazeballs!

 

Glad you popped in! Hope you stick around!

[Chris Palmer]

6 minutes ago, crejb said:

Hi all, I've been following along since the very start, figured I would poke my head in to say g'day! This is my first bones KS, in fact fairly new to the hobby in general- the core set alone already contains more minis than I currently own
I'm liking the sets of kobolds and goblins but I think my favourite single model so far would be either the recently revealed hill giant hunter, or the 2-headed dungeon dweller, they both look fun to paint.
Anyone able to narrow it down to a single favourite model so far?

 

Howdy! Welcome to the thread, and the crazy fun world of Reaper Kickstarters! 

 

I have to say my my favorites so far are the Dire Crab, and the Land Terrapin and his Handler.

[tidtil]

17 minutes ago, crejb said:

Hi all, I've been following along since the very start, figured I would poke my head in to say g'day! This is my first bones KS, in fact fairly new to the hobby in general- the core set alone already contains more minis than I currently own
I'm liking the sets of kobolds and goblins but I think my favourite single model so far would be either the recently revealed hill giant hunter, or the 2-headed dungeon dweller, they both look fun to paint.
Anyone able to narrow it down to a single favourite model so far?

 

Hiya, I'm fairly new here too. My favorites so far have been the statues. I see myself getting so much use out of them.

[Dr_Automaton]

5 hours ago, Jessie said:

Yeah kinda bummed we have 5 hill giants now, ALL male, ALL shirtless, ALL wielding clubs.

 

Really wish if we were going to have 5 nearly identically dressed dudes maybe one of them could have been throwing a rock or something at least. I guess all the lady hill giants are in the kitchen making sandwiches. 

 

I wasn't going to say it, but yeah, that was my initial thought, too (well, "cave," not "kitchen," but same intent).  I would super excited for a $10-15 add-on that was a set of Hill, Fire and Frost Giantess warriors.  Not "queens."  Warriors.  Not looking regal, not posing or reclining, but instead engaged in dynamic combat just like their Y-chromosome counterparts.  General purpose minis for use in gaming when players happen to encounter a female giant (I'm, like, pretty sure they exist in most F20 games).  The current Giantesses are fine, but when my group rolls out the Chessex mat, at least, it's for combat, not court politics.

 

It's not like I'm actually looking to fight for gender rights in my toys.  I don't need to see a 1:1 ratio or anything, especially when fantasy tropes usually depicts males as doing most of the fighting.  I would just like to see some more variety and more importantly, utility in the Bones giants' catalog.

 

(also, new Stone Giants, please)