KickStarter thread

[Illithar]

Reaper Miniatures has started a new Kickstarter to get the Bones line of plastic (PVC) miniatures cranking.


A $60 pledge gets you one of each of the above - with more being added as Stretch Goals are passed.

They are currently about $100 from their first goal, being funded is not much of a question now. A bit more than halfway to their first Stretch Goal of $50,000.

I don't know if I have mentioned the Bones figures here much, but they are, well, cheap! A purple worm sells for just under $3 US. Six kobolds or goblins run about the same.

For a while Reaper has been making noises about the price of tin becoming unsustainable for miniatures - the Bones line is part of their response to that.

All in all, I am quite happy with the Bones miniatures, and will be watching this with interest.

*EDIT* Oh, dear.... one of the add on pledges is a figure of Sophie the Succubus on motorcycle. For three dollars more she forgets to wear clothes.... Oy! The sad thing is that I would rather she be wearing more clothes - leather jacket, jeans, and stompy boots instead of the short shorts that she is wearing (if she is wearing anything at all....)

The Auld Grump

Hoo boy, that's a dangerous one for me, thankfully it isn't funded until after another payday

I don't own any of the Bones line of mini's and I actually hadn't heard about them until now. I knew about Reapers pre-painted mini's but not these. I may just have to pledge on this, it's an awesome deal for the number of minis you get. Looks like one of the stretch goals may even be some paints.

[TheAuldGrump]

There is good and bad about the material used - PVC.

The good is that it is a heck of of a lot less expensive than tin, and the price is also much more stable than that of tin.

The material is flexible, but paint adheres to it well - I have not yet had any paint flake off, even on some of the most pliable models.

For the most part priming seems unnecessary, just wash the figure with soap and water, then let dry.

Modding is easy - I turned one of the Purple Worm models into a small Cthonian by adding tentacles from one of their critter parts packs.

Over all, pretty happy with them, a lot more than I originally expected, actually.

List price for the Dragon is going to be $25 - so the Kickstarter price is less than half.

Reaper has been saying for a while that the price of tin for miniatures is unsustainable - I guess if they can't put their money where their mouth is then they are willing to put other people's money there. They currently have fewer than a dozen varieties of Bones - but they are now a third of Reaper's sales....

The Auld Grump

[Sletchman]

You said "good and bad" but didn't give any examples of the bad.  What's the downside?

[ludomastro]

You said "good and bad" but didn't give any examples of the bad.  What's the downside?

Based on my industrial experience with PVC, it has a tendency to become brittle over time and  reacts ... poorly ... with certain chemicals.

[TheAuldGrump]

You said "good and bad" but didn't give any examples of the bad.  What's the downside?

Sorry, the bad is that the material is flexible - if parts get bent too much paint could be broken off.

While I have not had it happen, yet, I can see something happening if I were to start wobbling the flail on the gnoll around while going 'wub, wub, wub'....

I have done exactly that with the gnoll's flail, complete with 'wub, wub, wub', but not much since painting it. As I mentioned, I was distrustful of the material at first.... So, I tested it, but not to destruction - but enough to see that under normal use/abuse it would not be a problem, though there are some players that I would watch around them. Being able to 'wub, wub'

One other possible downside is that standard plastic glue does not adhere to it at all. Super glue works just fine, though.

And, finally, when using a knife to clean the mold lines, cut, don't scrape. While it cuts easily the PVC resists scraping, a knife works better than a file. A file leaves the area slightly 'fuzzy'

PVC is the same material used for plastic pipes, pretty solid. Just 'wub, wub'.

I would really suggest seeing if you can find any of the Bones and looking them over.

Here is a review of the Bones Ghost - another figure that has a great deal of 'wub, wub'.

The Auld Grump

*EDIT* As for PVC getting brittle, the main culprit isn't chemical, it is sunlight - UV can turn PVC yellowish and brittle. Under normal gaming use, I do not see that as a big problem. The number one suggestion for protecting PVC from UV is painting it.... (I actually had to look that up - I was not aware of PVC growing brittle, and I have seen PVC pipes that were decades old that were not brittle, but, yeah, there are circumstances where it can happen.)

[Sletchman]

Cheers.  I hadn't seen any PVC miniatures before, so I was certainly curious.

[TheAuldGrump]

Cheers.  I hadn't seen any PVC miniatures before, so I was certainly curious.

Yeah, I was curious a few months back, which is why I bought my first few (Gnoll, ghost, purple worm, 'nother purple worm, kobolds, more kobolds, werewolf).

Of them, the purple worm is hands down my favorite, followed by, well, pretty much everything else. There were no real duds in the bunch, and being able to buy twelve kobolds for six bucks (from The War Store, I think) was pretty nice. (I wanted them for Pathfinder.)

They were much better than I had expected.

The Auld Grump

[ludomastro]

*EDIT* As for PVC getting brittle, the main culprit isn't chemical, it is sunlight - UV can turn PVC yellowish and brittle. Under normal gaming use, I do not see that as a big problem. The number one suggestion for protecting PVC from UV is painting it.... (I actually had to look that up - I was not aware of PVC growing brittle, and I have seen PVC pipes that were decades old that were not brittle, but, yeah, there are circumstances where it can happen.)

Indeed.  UV light is the enemy and painting is a reasonable solution for that problem.  There are some chemicals - solvents mostly - that will also cause the PVC to degrade.  I bring this up because some people have that perfectionist streak and decide to take off "ugly" paint with some type of solvent.

There's no *wub, wub* when the model melts. 

[TheAuldGrump]

Ah, I see. Yeah, solvent based paint removal might do a number....

Fortunately the Bones figures are supplied unpainted, so the only paints would be put on by the customer.

The Auld Grump'

*EDIT* After the BBEG comes -

[TheAuldGrump]

And after the Giants - pointy eared gits!

The Auld Grump

[TheAuldGrump]

Giants are go!

Up after the elves - paint sets, roughly half price when gotten through the Kickstarter:


I paint enough undead that the second set is tempting.

Also, these can be added to any Pledge level, so if all you want is some paint and a hat....

The Auld Grump

[Mister Andersen]

You know, when this exists



It's hard to see why there isn't an equivalent option with paints.

[TheAuldGrump]

Reaper does have a wide range of fleshtones - from Negroid to Caucasian, from Drow flesh to Olive skin tones.

I will grant that they do not have a flesh color pack, but they do have a myriad of flesh tone triads. (color, shade, highlight).

After the paints comes....

Hi ho! (Yeah, a lot more enthused about dwarfs than elves.)

The Auld Grump

 

[Number Three]

For those of you that can actually make it to Gencon, you can help the "D20 Burlesque" troupe make it to Indy to perform.  If you want a review, I went to their show at Dexcon, and I enjoyed myself.  The ladies are sexy, IMO, and they have quite a sense of humor.

[MilitiaJim]

For those of you that can actually make it to Gencon, you can help the "D20 Burlesque" troupe make it to Indy to perform.  If you want a review, I went to their show at Dexcon, and I enjoyed myself.  The ladies are sexy, IMO, and they have quite a sense of humor.

I was very bummed out when the room they played at Wicked Faire filled up well before I could get a seat.