Reapercon Report

[Clearman]

15 minutes ago, Mckenna35 said:

I guess y'all just about cleaned out his stock of Lucid Eye figures!

 

I was not one of them because I already had most of what he had on the rack,  but I'll be checking him out for future Lucid Eye purchases.  I've been buying everything direct, but I hate the lag with shipping from the UK. 

[buglips*the*goblin]

41 minutes ago, Mckenna35 said:

 

In  the FWIW category, Warlord was there because Ed talked to him at AdeptiCon earlier this year and convinced him to come down, since he lives in OKC.  He said he did really well, and will definitely be back next year.  I guess y'all just about cleaned out his stock of Lucid Eye figures!  I told him I though they'd do well at this Con!  Fates willing, I'll be helping man the booth next year.

 

Right, but Mario and him are friends so I figure what Mario told me is also true and helped seal the deal that his booth would do well.  

[Heisler]

10 hours ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

 

Tabletop Plus and Happy Seppuku weren't there this year.  I don't think miniature case guy was there either.  Hanger 18 was a venus flytrap with their discount, we got ensnared every time we walked by.  I'll miss them, too, now that I'm familiar with their cool stuff.

 

I found selection better than last year but that's only because both years I was on the hunt for Warlord Games stuff and this year Warlord had a booth.  I dropped a lot of money in the 6 feet between Frontline and Warlord.   Mario at Frontline told me my spending spree with him last year for Warlord stuff was at least some of why Warlord came this year.  My list of wanted items split just about 50/50 between what stock they each had, so I was able to share the love.  

 

Outside of my specialized item hunting, though, it did seem like the miniature-related booths were thinner.  

 

Table Top Plus had indicated early in the year that he would attend. But he never responded to any emails after that. Happy Seppuku is officially out of business so we won’t be seeing them any more. 

 

29 Vendors paid for space, 28 showed up. Of those 10 would fall into my definition of Miniature companies. 3 would be miniature support companies and the rest fall into the hobby zone. I don’t know who the miniature case guy might be, that one is not ringing any bells for me. I have tried for years to get Tableware Designs to come out with their cases.

 

I would love to get more Miniature companies in attendance but it’s not easy. I am open to suggestions, just PM them to me and I will add them to my list.

Edited September 4, 2019 by Heisler

[Inarah]

2 hours ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

The award ceremony needs to start earlier now that it's so long.  By the end I felt like I was on a different planet.

 

A zombie planet.

 

24 minutes ago, Dilvish the Deliverer said:

The award ceremony goes faster when you drink through it.  That wasn't minis in my swag bag under the table.  Next time swimg on by and have a tipple.

 

I was hanging out in the lobby noticing the steady stream of folks coming out of the awards and heading for the bar, then going back with drinks.  Someone even had pizzas delivered in the middle of the awards. 

 

Overall I thought the vendors had a good selection and variety, Bobe's booth gets stuffed with more goodies every year.   I waited until Sunday to shop at the Reaper booth and they only had about half what was on my list which was disappointing.  I love to grab the new releases at the con but didn't see a bunch of it this year.  Oh well, something to put in my basket come Christmas. 

 

[buglips*the*goblin]

3 minutes ago, Heisler said:

 

 

I would love to get more Miniature companies in attendance but it’s not easy. I am open to suggestions, just PM them to me and I will add them to my list.

 

I can't remember the name but it was the company that had the plastic carrying cases we got as part of the 2017 swag.

 

I don't really have any suggestions, since if Mario and Warlord are back for 2020 they will probably devour most of my money.  But since I did most of my shopping there and had only scant visits to other booths I didn't want it to sound like just because I made out like a bandit that everything was perfect.  If those two booths were all that was there I'd have been just as happy.  

[Crowley]

4 hours ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

The award ceremony needs to start earlier now that it's so long.  By the end I felt like I was on a different planet.

 

A zombie planet.

Yeah...  Though doing bunches together did help a bit. 

 

1 hour ago, Dilvish the Deliverer said:

The award ceremony goes faster when you drink through it.  That wasn't minis in my swag bag under the table.  Next time swimg on by and have a tipple.

^^Truth. 

[SamuraiJack]

That was Active Minds Games and his X-Case.  I'm not sure how many sales he was getting.  

 

It would be nice if Darksword was there..  

 

So my .02

 

The Good: A lot more classes this year and a lot more options.  All the MSP entries and the Bones 5 previews.  Seeing folks again after a year.  Prices in the auction seemed to return to normal.  You had a shot at something with 3000 reaperbucks, and it didnt require 8 people to pool together to get a lot of items.  Having a food truck helped.

 

The bad:  All the entries.  I'm thinking they need to limit people to 3 per category going forward.  They need to encourage diorama and ordinance more.  Now that they have Beginner, intermediate, advanced levels for classes, they need to designate classes as Tabletop or Competition level.  I learned a couple things in my classes, but two were more clearly geared towards Tabletop/arm's length quality than Competition pieces.  The auction seemed REALLY long and they stopped raffle prizes too early in the process.  the bar wasn't serving the awesome steak tacos this year and the free beer was only Bud light or coors light. :(

 

With the current growth of attendance, and the holiday weekend, they may want to consider more classes on Sunday and having the auction later with tear down on Monday.  Sure, some people are still going to leave on sunday and it might be early and not all the artists can stay, but they are going to need more programming.  It also seems like there are additional meeting rooms to use that were used by other groups down the hallway from the classrooms.  

 

 

[kristof65]

1 hour ago, Heisler said:

I would love to get more Miniature companies in attendance but it’s not easy. I am open to suggestions, just PM them to me and I will add them to my list.

It will be a couple years before I can attend again, but I'd love to see some of the smaller minis game publishers attend.  The guys who mostly sell their rulesets online, and via POD, for use with anyone's figures. 

 

Guys like Andrea at Ganesha Games, or the guys from Nordic Weasel. 

Maybe not as full fledged vendors, but perhaps a whole demo games booth/area where they can show off their rule sets, and how Reaper minis work well with them.

ETA:  Mario at Frontline has a bunch of games he should be demoing - perhaps he could be roped into helping with that?  

 

Edited September 4, 2019 by kristof65

[SamuraiJack]

Other Vendor suggestions:

 

Tomb Guardian Miniatures

Fat Dragon

Effin Cool Miniatures

 

[buglips*the*goblin]

The VIP line for entries wasn't so great.  I used it, but I wasn't thinking when I saw the VIP sign and figured that's where I had to go - my brain is still in travel mode and that's how I navigate airports.  Couple that with a VIP with a ton of entries and it's a miserable experience for everyone else left waiting.

 

When I was in line the non-VIP lady next to me was clearly in distress, shaking and looking about to fall down.  I was rather sternly told that she would go ahead of me.  I didn't appreciate the tone because I would never have had it otherwise, but whatever - the important thing is she got relief.  The dude ahead of both of us had an enormous number of entries.   God only knows how long that poor lady was there before she got processed.

 

I don't think the VIP line really worked and if I'd had my full wits about me would have taken the normal line.  

[Clearman]

6 minutes ago, SamuraiJack said:

Other Vendor suggestions:

 

Tomb Guardian Miniatures

Fat Dragon

Effin Cool Miniatures

 

 

I will add:

 

Impact Miniatures

RBJ Game Company

First Legion

Stonehaven Miniatures

3d Printcraft

[SamuraiJack]

It didn't seem like the VIP line granted anything since they always seemed to take one VIP, then one non VIP..

 

that said, they were mighty overwhelmed with all the entries..  I suggested to Kit they use a self registration system that gives you your entry numbers before you get in line.. and then you can just say 'I have entries 4551 and 4552' and they print out what they need to.. 

[Mckenna35]

Would there be interest in Terrain vendors (Warsenal, Things from the Basement etc...)?  How's Reapers relationship with Secret Weapon? Litko Basing Systems has a ton of interesting stuff...

[buglips*the*goblin]

2 minutes ago, SamuraiJack said:

It didn't seem like the VIP line granted anything since they always seemed to take one VIP, then one non VIP..

 

 

 

That was a later change they made after several complaints.  At first it was any VIPs and then non-VIPs, which meant very long waits if VIPs kept showing up. @LordDave had that experience.  

[LordDave]

26 minutes ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

 

That was a later change they made after several complaints.  At first it was any VIPs and then non-VIPs, which meant very long waits if VIPs kept showing up. @LordDave had that experience.  

Yeah, I wasn't too bent out of shape about it until I started approaching the start of my class time.  I entered the line and was like 4th back from the start, just when a wave of VIPs came through.  I stood there for about 30 minutes with a considerable weight, my entries included a Traukzuul, patiently mostly as I understood the VIPs go first.  But when the 9 or 10 VIP went before any of the normal line went, I just couldn't risk being late for the class I had to teach seeing 4 more VIPs entering that line.  I understand the situation was resolved and later I caught the entrance with an empty line, so no harm done.  I wasn't salty or anything just a bit time crunched.  Hope it didnt read as me feeling cranky.  

That said, this year's Reapercon experience for me was 99% good.  the only bad was that I slightly did more than I should have.  Hard to put into words as teaching is my favorite part of Reapercon.  All 6 classes were great and seemed to be well received, and the kids game was epic, but I sacrificed a considerable amount of "hanging out" time with good folks that I wont see for a year.  Next year, maybe one less class, or a better organization of start times.  That 1% was all self inflicted, but I really enjoyed teaching all of the classes and the time I did get to hang out

Also, before we head down a wromg path, kudos for the 3 folks that managed to inprocess nearly 1000 entries in like 10 hours.  we must not forget how fast the line was moving.  entering in all those entries must have been tough.