Old vs. New Bones

[ShortHistorian]

Hi all, I got into painting minis with the very first Bones Kickstarter and followed that up by pledging to the second and third as well. But then I went to graduate school and no longer had time for painting or D&D so I packed them all away. Now I'm back.

Many of those early Bones are... not great. Swords and staffs are noodle-like. Other figures are totally squashed or contorted and detail is not always super crisp. What is the status of the Bones line today? Have the baseline Bones been changed over the years? What's up with the new Bones USA and Bones Black lines? How do they compare?
Apologies for the newbie questions, I've been out of the loop for a while!

[Joshinminn]

The Bones USA and Bones Black lines are both pretty spectacular, in my opinion. Much better than the earlier generations. Buy one and try it out!

[Grumpy Cave Bear]

Especially the Bones USA line.  The details are spectacularly crisp!

[Serenity]

Reaper is now making more than plastic bases at Reaper HQ.  Bones USA is the process that has made plastic production more affordable, so that plastic production can be done locally.

 

This is a recent Reaper video describing Bones USA with Ed and Ron: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5bphwkZgK0

 

[ShortHistorian]

Thanks! I'll definitely have to try out some figures from the new lines.

Has the original white Bones line been reformulated at all since ~2016?

[Maledrakh]

Every kickstarter has shown improvements in the "bones classic" formula, from the Bones 3 KS and out I think they found a formula that consistently works well, and that is what, six years ago now?  They have also tinted the plastic to a light grey in recent years. If the bones model is grey instead of white you should be safe that it is a newer formula.

 

The bones black variant was introduced for many minis in bones 4, and has the potential for detail similar to metal models. The bones USA is a different sort of plastic, with potential for detail similar to resin models. They make the Bones USA minis themselvs in the USA while all the other bones are cast in China.

 The 2022 release schedule includes many older bones and metal minis being remade in the Bones USA material, thus reducing Reapers dependency on China.
 

[ttuckerman]

That said, but the detail is at the expense of being more brittle.  It is not as bad as resin but not as forgiving as Original bones.