Dwarf Kickstarter!!!

[Adrift]

1 hour ago, GamerPrincess said:

I don't know this company from adam

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”

-Shakespeare 

 

22 minutes ago, Knight of the Dinner Table said:

 

Um ... there is a difference between "advertise" and "spam".

Indeed. I got the impression that the guy running this company was a sales guy who decided to get into the minis market as a side gig. 
 

The sculptors are greats, the minis look good, but I just don’t need more generic fantasy dwarves; this past 1-2 years the market has been inundated with fantasy dwarves of just about every variety. I have so many minis that something has to be stylistically fresh and unique to pull me in, and I know I’m not unique in that philosophy on this forum. 

[Nunae]

I've backed a lot of smaller creators (and so have most people active in this part of the forum) so it's not a case of prejudice against smaller companies for me personally. But there are a lot of dwarves already available, there was a trend of dwarf kickstarters last year or so and somehow you end up with a bunch of dwarves in all the fantasy sets anyway even if you're not looking to buy them. Personally I'm also full on dwarves.

Not saying they shouldn't do dwarves, as this kickstarter is obvious supported by some people, just trying to explain why some kickstarter regulars on here might go "nice sculpts, don't need it though". 

Otherwise I agree that spam and advertising isn't the same, especially if they send a lot of messages to the same pool of former customers who probably noticed that they had a new project the first or second time.

[Knight of the Dinner Table]

42 minutes ago, GamerPrincess said:

Knight where do you think Reaper and Wizkids make there minis?  Its in China.  I get your point, just opt out of there emails.  Have a great day my friend

 

As I already have written above: There is resin, metal and plastic. (Cheap) Plastic miniatures are most of the time made in China (this applies to Reaper Bones miniatures, too, because as far as I know, they produce the huge amount of minis to fulfill the Kickstarters in China ... the plan was to move production to the US, but I don't know how far that has progressed), but resin and metal are most of the time NOT made in China (or as often not as they are). I'm pretty sure Reaper's pewter miniatures are not produced in China, but in Texas (and if Reaper's FAQ is up to date, it supports that idea).

Wizkids minis are cheap plastic and therefore it's not a surprise that they are made in China. There is also HIPS plastic, which very often is NOT made in China (one of the leading factories for those kind of minis is in the UK).

[haldir]

6 hours ago, GamerPrincess said:

Knight where do you think Reaper and Wizkids make there minis?  Its in China.  I get your point, just opt out of there emails.  Have a great day my friend

 

Um metal minis from Reaper are made in house.

 

While I like all 3 sculptors & I consider them friends, I will not be backing this one. I have so many dwarves, heck I've got a current KS for a dwarves stl right now. My biggest problem with this one, is not fulfilling a previous KS before starting a new one.

[Kalibak]

Okaaaaaaaaayyy I'm relieved now. I was feeling a little left out that you were all getting these emails and I wasn't. haha Even if none of you wanted them.  I guess I can look forward to getting spammed when their next KS starts.

 

A few people have mentioned that these dwarves seem generic to them, but what initially attracted me to them was that they actually seemed kinda unique. haha (Revealing my newness to miniature collecting here.) I haven't seen many Dwarf wizards and monks and rogues for example. What were these recent Dwarf Kickstarters that I missed out on?

[Dan d'Lyon]

16 hours ago, Adrift said:

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks”

-Shakespeare 

Especially considering the only things she posts about are Tomb Guardian KS projects.  How....coincidental.

[haldir]

7 hours ago, Kalibak said:

Okaaaaaaaaayyy I'm relieved now. I was feeling a little left out that you were all getting these emails and I wasn't. haha Even if none of you wanted them.  I guess I can look forward to getting spammed when their next KS starts.

 

A few people have mentioned that these dwarves seem generic to them, but what initially attracted me to them was that they actually seemed kinda unique. haha (Revealing my newness to miniature collecting here.) I haven't seen many Dwarf wizards and monks and rogues for example. What were these recent Dwarf Kickstarters that I missed out on?

 

The one I'm backing is this one:

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/epicsnstuffs/epics-n-stuffs-the-dwarves-v2

 

While some don't like the style of them, I like em + being a patron of this one as well, I'll get a couple that aren't available as well. I figured with the KS, get em all so I don't have to worry about them in the future.

 

Anther stl KS is this one:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/miniaturesofmadness/hold-my-dwarf

 

I love the style of these, but the core set price is a bit more for stl files + again I have enough dwarves to hold me over for awhile.

 

[Thoramel]

Well, I was in for this. But then they got folks excited by letting them vote on a new miniature and now the only way you can get it is by bugging your friends into backing it also? Nope. That's not happening. I'm willing to put down good money to get what I want, but I'm not jumping through any hoops to get something exclusive. And yeah, the spam like communications really turn me off as well. So looks like I'm out.

[haldir]

1 minute ago, Thoramel said:

Well, I was in for this. But then they got folks excited by letting them vote on a new miniature and now the only way you can get it is by bugging your friends into backing it also? Nope. That's not happening. I'm willing to put down good money to get what I want, but I'm not jumping through any hoops to get something exclusive. And yeah, the spam like communications really turn me off as well. So looks like I'm out.

 

Yah I don't mind the social goal thing (put on "social media platform" & if we get enough we'll release this.....) but spamming friends is a bit much.

 

I will say even thou they haven't fulfilled their last one, when I ordered a couple of minis from a recent sale they had it was quick & efficient. I'll order again, after the KS I'm backing get fulfilled.

[Knight of the Dinner Table]

Apart from the Bones core sets that always have dwarves, I backed this one here that really had great minis with awesome detail (yeah, if you've just joined the hobby, it was a bit too long ago):

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/raffaelestumpoart/dwarves-kings-and-legends/description

 

 

[Kalibak]

1 hour ago, Thoramel said:

Well, I was in for this. But then they got folks excited by letting them vote on a new miniature and now the only way you can get it is by bugging your friends into backing it also? Nope. That's not happening. I'm willing to put down good money to get what I want, but I'm not jumping through any hoops to get something exclusive. And yeah, the spam like communications really turn me off as well. So looks like I'm out.

 

I totally agree! I’ve probably been the poster in this thread who’s been most interested in / excited by this KS from the start (besides “No. 1 Tomb Guardians Fan” Gamer Princess of course ), and then, after hyping up this vote for a “free” miniature AND the one I voted for being the winner, they suddenly add in this last-minute clause!  This is really annoying! I don’t have any friends into miniature collecting/painting so there’s pretty much no way I can get that figure. (Unless someone in this thread wants to be my friend and pledge. )

 

This company needs a much better customer engagement planner. Besides all the recommendations I’ve already posted in this thread, this competition should have been handled much better. Number one is that all of the rules should have been explicitly stated up front. Number two is that the competition should have been launched at the start of this KS and therefore run longer, building natural excitement. Launching on the random day that it did and then only being open for what? four days? always seemed weird to me. How many people never even knew about it because they only pay attention at the beginning and end of a KS?

 

I’m still in this KS for now but I doubt I’m going to upgrade to the much more expensive “Complete Collection” like I’d been considering. 

 

1 hour ago, haldir said:

 

The one I'm backing is this one:

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/epicsnstuffs/epics-n-stuffs-the-dwarves-v2

 

37 minutes ago, Knight of the Dinner Table said:

Apart from the Bones core sets that always have dwarves, I backed this one here that really had great minis with awesome detail (yeah, if you've just joined the hobby, it was a bit too long ago):

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/raffaelestumpoart/dwarves-kings-and-legends/description

 

Thanks for the links. I’ll check both of them out even if just for future reference. 

[Lidless Eye]

I'll be honest; I like a lot of these sculpts.  Dwarves in Kickstarter are waaay overdone; look at how many projects were Dwarf-only...heck, one of the first and then one of the most recent Kickstarters I backed were Stonehaven Dwarf Adventurers.

 Some of these sculpts seem unique, and they are, but we're not in the 80s and 90s anymore where finding a race/class/sex combo was as hard as it used to be...  Combine that with how they promote themselves, and it's been easy for me to skip.

[Kalibak]

OK That was fast! 

 

Tomb Guardians have dropped the “refer a friend” clause and are now including the winning figure in all pledges above a certain amount. 
 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tombguardians/28mm-fantasy-dwarven-miniature-collection-ii/posts/2936792
 

I was pretty critical of them this morning so I have to give them props for listening and responding to our complaints so quickly. That’s good customer service. I’m actually starting to find the “growing business missteps” of this company sort of charming. And the figures are very nice of course. I hope they don’t get discouraged by these stumbles and hang in there. 

 

 

One thing I find interesting though is that this turn-around was in response to “everyone that we have upset over our announcement this morning.” But there don’t appear to be any complaints or upset people in any of the commentary areas on that KS. In fact, the only place I’ve seen people upset about the “refer a friend” clause is in this thread. So it seems there might be someone reading/posting in this thread who has some connection to the company. I wonder who it could be? 

[GamerPrincess]

Well they seem to be listening to there supporters and non supporters.   They just apologized and announced that they are including the Death Knight in their collection of $36 or higher. 

 

That works out too, 19 miniatures in the base set and only $1.89 per miniature.  

 

Looks like Bobby Jackson is going to be the sculpture

[SamuraiJack]

<mod> Please stay on topic for this kickstarter.  If you'd like to discuss other Dwarf kickstarters, please start a new thread.