Reaper Miniatures Bones: An Evolution Of Gaming Miniatures

Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 08:00 AM Pacific

I don't normally contact you about another company's products like this, but in this case, it was such a great project that I felt compelled to let you know so you wouldn't miss out!

Our friends at Reaper have been running a Kickstarter project to ramp up their Bones miniatures line. Bones is the line that takes their award-winning metal minis and makes them much more affordable by casting them in an amazing plastic material. (Like Reaper's metal minis, Bones are unpainted.) We have a number of Bones minis in the Paizo offices and everyone is amazed by them.

So why the Kickstarter? Well, the molds to make plastic miniatures cost a LOT more than molds to make metal. So even though Bones have been well received and are selling very well, Reaper has only been able to add to the line slowly—until now. Their Kickstarter project is going to allow them to jumpstart the process and make a lot more affordable Bones figures. They started with a very reasonable $20,000 goal that they quickly smashed through! They have passed the $565,000 goal as I type this—a truly remarkable feat!

So what does this have to do with you as a Paizo customer? I'm glad you asked! Reaper has just announced their first Pathfinder Bones stretch goal. The "We Be Goblins" stretch goal will bring nine Pathfinder goblin minis to the Bones line. Yep, you heard that right—nine!

The purpose of this blog is let you know about Pathfinder Bones, but it's also a heads-up from one gaming friend to another about this amazing Kickstarter. If you use miniatures at all in your game, you're going to want to get involved in this Kickstarter. You can support it at a number of different levels, but I really want to draw your attention to what Reaper calls the "Vampire" level, for backers who kick in $100. When this Kickstarter began, you got 30 Bones miniatures for that $100. Well, because Reaper keeps reaching more and more stretch goals, that $100 pledge currently gets you 132 Bones miniatures and a special metal Sophie (their iconic succubus) for that same $100 pledge! And it's only going to get better—the "Vampire" level is where the Pathfinder goblins will kick in!

When I personally got in on this Kickstarter, my $100 got me 44 miniatures. Now, because of the pledges of other gaming fans out there like me, I am getting the 132 figures plus the Sophie. And it is going to become even more because of the way the Kickstarter stretch goals work. As more and more people join into the Kickstarter at any level, but especially the Vampire level, we will pass more stretch goals and more minis will be added to my $100 Vampire reward level. At $605,000, we Vampire-level backers will all get 4 very cool demon miniatures, bringing our new total to 136. And then when the stretch goal after that gets hit—boom—NINE Pathfinder goblins added for the same $100 pledge. And each stretch goal gets you more cool minis.

You can see why I wanted to tell you about this. Right now, backers are getting Bones minis for well under a buck apiece—this is by far the best deal in miniatures that I have ever seen. And as more people join in, it gets better and better for all of us. And for Reaper, because they'll be able to get a whole bunch of new Bones figures out there.

There are nine days left in the Reaper Bones Kickstarter—it ends Saturday, August 25 at 6pm EST. If you are at all interested in miniatures, seriously think about pledging to this Kickstarter. What a great way to grow your miniatures collection AND help out a great game company like Reaper. (And I've been told that there is another Pathfinder stretch goal buried in that crypt somewhere. Can't wait to find out what it is!)

Yours in gaming...

Lisa Stevens
CEO, Paizo Publishing

And now a word from our friends at Reaper...

What Are Bones Gaming Miniatures?


Bones are the best plastic gaming models to hit the industry in the last decade. We've taken the best miniatures in the Reaper product line and converted them into plastic - high quality, low price. What more could you ask for? For more info, click here.

Why are we doing this Kickstarter?

Reaper Miniatures Bones Kickstarter is a project to ramp up the production of the Bones plastic miniatures line and to get you the miniatures you want now! And to make things even better, we're adding our officially licensed Pathfinder Miniatures line to our project!

Since the launch of Bones in March 2012, a full third of the figures we ship are Bones plastic gaming miniatures. We have eight pages of Bones suggestions going in our forum. It's clear that our fans want more of these Bones figures. And why not? They're awesome sculpts at a terrific price!

As it turns out, they're also really expensive to produce. The mold costs alone are astronomical. In order to grow this line, we can do it slow and steady over the next several years, or we can defer to you guys and launch a bunch of new ones as soon as possible. By the end of the year, we anticipate having 30 products in the Bones line. What this Kickstarter will do is at least double the Bones line to 60 total models: character models, new sculpts, big monsters... the sky's pretty much the limit.

All we need to kickstart this thing is your support.

What Do I Get For Supporting You?

We have a number of opportunities available for our supporters.

These include, but are not limited to, various apparel items, a chance to receive each of the new 30 Bones plastic models, a metal Kickstarter-exclusive Sophie model, Design-Your-Own-Miniature packages, not to mention some of the most valuable one of a kind Crown Jewel items from the Reaper archives. (And we have some incredible stretch goals in mind – we remain ever optimistic!)

Something for everyone who loves miniature gaming.

Now we're offering some of the most popular miniatures from the officially licensed Pathfinder Miniatures range. What do you have to do to get these Pathfinder Bones miniatures? Simple! All you have to do is pledge either the Vampire or Undertaker Levels from the Pledge List, and if we hit the Pathfinder Bones stretch goal, they'll be added to your Pledge Level at no additional charge! And if you want extras, simply add them to your pledge amount.

The first Pathfinder Bones stretch goal has been revealed. Go join in and pledge to the Reaper Miniatures Kickstarter project and bring them to life for everyone to enjoy!

The Kickstarter has funded, and in fact, it is now over $500,000 and at this point It has been running for over 20 days. There's just over a week left until the project closes on August 25th 2012 at 5:00pm CST. Hurry and get involved and let's see how many Pathfinder Bones we can uncover!

REAPERMINI.COM/KICKSTARTER

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Tags: Miniatures
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Sovereign Court

Very exciting news to wake up to!

And if you want to add more goblins to your pledge, it's 9 for each additional set you want (1 dollar each).

The Exchange

This is fantastic. So, what other monsters from the Bestiary would be ideal for the Bones line - things you need a heap of to put onto the gaming table? Kobolds would be good. Orcs are already there, as are skellies.

Sczarni

Defintely consider getting into this project.

Not only are they producing high quality gaming materials, they'll be doing it from Texas in the very near future.

US economic boost + awesome minis + great price = WIN!!!


And major Kudos to Paizo for throwing them a bone! har har har.

Bad puns aside, it's really awesome to see gaming companies supporting each other like this, and building off each other's successes. Tabletop rpg's, to me, are in essence meant to bring people together. That gaming companies can show the same solidarity only strengthens my love for the game.

Scarab Sages

Forgive my french. F****** A!!!! Thank you Paizo for giving a boost to what will be awesomely great lines.

Sovereign Court

I may have to up my pledge by $24...


Not t mention the awesome Wayne Reynolds Red Dragon that becomes optional when We Be Goblins is hit. I am looking forward to this stretch goal.


Backed it. Couldn't resist at this point.


These look great! But I have no idea how to paint mini's. How does it differ from metal to plastic?

Sovereign Court

$10 extra for the WAR red dragon!

Very cool.

RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

So... any chance for Reaper Pathfinder minis to find their way into Reaper's Legendary Encounters pre-painted plastics line?

Watching the Bones Kickstarter from afar is killin' me. It's a screaming deal, but there aren't enough hours in the day for me to start painting minis.


I recently got some bones models, and here's my experience:

1 - You don't need to prime the model. My paint went on fine, I just had to be sure the initial base colours weren't too watery. I have yet to put dullcote on one yet, but I anticipate no problems with that either.

2 - Cleaning up mould lines has to be done with a hobby knife rather than a file. The material is flexible enough that it resists filing.

3 - Green stuff works as well, so if you're into converting, feel free.

4 - Super glue is what you want for attaching the model to a base.

In general, painting is not a difficult thing. Being careful, and fixing mistakes gets you a better result than most pre-painted IMO. Taking the time to give your model some depth with a wash, and/or some highlights pays off in spades.

Practice is highly valuable, as is knowing when to stop. I can produce amazing 14 hour paint jobs, but I can get results I'm happy with in less than an hour. :)

Eric

Liberty's Edge

I have to admit, when this whole thing first began, I was philosophically opposed to the whole idea when looked at from a raising capital standpoint. Sorry -- but I just was.

HOWEVER, as time has wore on, this deal has got to be SO GOOD I just can't pass this up nor expect any other gamer to do so. Indeed, I'm at the point now where this could get entirely NEW people into the hobby as this is about as close to awesome a deal on minis as one is going to be able to find anywhere, anytime, any place.

I think there is a good chance that this deal will be so attractive that people who have never painted minis but have always been interested a little --- or who used to but have stopped for one reason or another (lapsed painters) will decide to jump back in. To paraphrase the Joker -- all they need is a little push.

It would be highly ironic that a Kickstarter initially aimed at core customers could prove to be so successdul that it becomes the greatest marketing / new customer outreach that the company has ever had.

Because right now? Looks to me like it just might be.

Sovereign Court

cthulhudarren wrote:
These look great! But I have no idea how to paint mini's. How does it differ from metal to plastic?

The only difference is that you do not need to prime these minis (most miniatures need a coat of primer to help acrylic paint stick). Just do your basecoat without thinning the paint with water (water beads on pvc).

If you head down to the miniatures subforum there are lots of folks who have experience painting and links to tutorials etc... It doesn't take much skill to get a paint job that looks better than the wotc prepaints. Pick 3 or 4 colours, base coat, wash, dry brush.

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/minis

This has been blogged and tweeted, will it be going out by email as well like the Steve Jackson announcement?

Sovereign Court

Joe Wells wrote:

So... any chance for Reaper Pathfinder minis to find their way into Reaper's Legendary Encounters pre-painted plastics line?

Watching the Bones Kickstarter from afar is killin' me. It's a screaming deal, but there aren't enough hours in the day for me to start painting minis.

They use the same steel molds, so there shouldn't be any technical problems. There might be understandable licensing issues with regard to Wizkids.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I seriously thought about the $100 level, because the price per mini for that is amazingly low. But ... I don't paint. I don't WANT to paint. In fact, I absolutely REFUSE to paint. I already spend too much time on game prep as it is.

So I pledged at the $15 level to get a batch of generic goblins, kobolds, and rats. Nobody cares whether your rats are painted or not. Maybe they're albino anyway.


@Tinalles - think about bumping up to the $100 and adding on a few dragons and what not - with all the free extras you're getting I'm sure you can bribe someone into painting some key pieces for you!


cthulhudarren wrote:
These look great! But I have no idea how to paint mini's. How does it differ from metal to plastic?

These minis are some of the least expensive you will find to practice on, and they are better quality than what you will likely find at a similar price point elsewhere.

Plastic and metal paints very similarly. A beginner probably wont notice much difference. Personally, I liked metal minis more in the past when I was primarily playing RPGs, but have recently come to favor plastics for wargaming. The newer plastics can get high detail that used to be exclusive to metal.

There are lots of guides for painting here and elsewhere. If you need paints, the Reaper ones in the kickstarter are fairly good quality.

Paizo Employee CEO

Robert Hawkshaw wrote:


This has been blogged and tweeted, will it be going out by email as well like the Steve Jackson announcement?

Yep. I wrote a personal email about it that should have gone out already.

Lisa


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Tinalles wrote:

I seriously thought about the $100 level, because the price per mini for that is amazingly low. But ... I don't paint. I don't WANT to paint. In fact, I absolutely REFUSE to paint. I already spend too much time on game prep as it is.

So I pledged at the $15 level to get a batch of generic goblins, kobolds, and rats. Nobody cares whether your rats are painted or not. Maybe they're albino anyway.

Skeletons are pretty easy too.

Straight from the acid bath, they are.

Dark Archive

I have been watching this kickstarter everyday and i have been very happy as they hit a new stretch goal every day and today it seems they are about to hit a second. If this continues even just at the speed it has been for the past week they should hit over $800000 which should give us at a good amount more minis YAY! Some of the add on minis, like the dragons and WAR's dragon, look great to.


The deal is so fantastic and it is getting better and better by the day (and now half day). If you will add to your pledge when x item is officially available, you might as well raise your contribution now (so that it happens faster). Since we have limited time, this will open more stuff sooner, ie more options and more freebies. You can always reduce your pledge at a later stage if need be (at least before the KS ends).

More velocity= more stuff= more new folks= more velocity= more stuff= more new folks= more velocity= rinse and repeat until the end which will be a glorious orgy of minis. The more velocity we have the bigger the orgy!

Sovereign Court

$45k until the goblins are in. Should be some time tomorrow! The reaper folks have also said that there will be more pathfinder stretch goals as the ks goes along.


Are there any companies offering a "send us your minis and we'll paint them for you" service?

Sovereign Court

There are a bunch of them out there, but it tends to be expensive. Try a google search for "commission minature painter" and they all pop up. You might have better luck asking around your FLGS for a local painter, or checking on minis websites like dakkadakka.com, coolminiornot or warseer.com for someone in your state.


I need someone in my country (Australia), I suspect. :(

I'll check those sites, thanks. If you happened to know of any companies offering the service (especially overseas), I'd appreciate some names/links. Cheers.

Sovereign Court

There is a sri lankan fellow. Let me find the link.

[edit]
Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka http://www.miniaturelovers.com/

Iron Halo in New Zealand: http://ironhalo.net/levels.htm

But there must be someone in Australia who does it.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

brock, no the other one... wrote:
This is fantastic. So, what other monsters from the Bestiary would be ideal for the Bones line - things you need a heap of to put onto the gaming table? Kobolds would be good. Orcs are already there, as are skellies.

I *might* be wrong, but I believe that all of the minis Reaper is offering up as Bones use existing sculpts, which means that any other Pathfinder Bones would have to come from their existing selection of metal minis—currently, there are 143 to choose from.


Robert Hawkshaw wrote:

There is a sri lankan fellow. Let me find the link.

[edit]
Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka http://www.miniaturelovers.com/

Iron Halo in New Zealand: http://ironhalo.net/levels.htm

But there must be someone in Australia who does it.

Thanks very much for your help. New Zealand is close enough if necessary and I can ask areound at the FLGS. Cheers. :)

Sovereign Court

Iron halo also sells some excellent scenic bases, that's actually how I know the website.

Dark Archive

Vic Wertz wrote:
brock, no the other one... wrote:
This is fantastic. So, what other monsters from the Bestiary would be ideal for the Bones line - things you need a heap of to put onto the gaming table? Kobolds would be good. Orcs are already there, as are skellies.
I *might* be wrong, but I believe that all of the minis Reaper is offering up as Bones use existing sculpts, which means that any other Pathfinder Bones would have to come from their existing selection of metal minis—currently, there are 143 to choose from.

Most are, but there are several new pieces, too.

This site offers a good of the miniatures up close, as well as their previous price point in metal. It's not totally up to date, though.
Link

Scarab Sages

Been in on this since near the start. Very nice to see it pop up here again as well. :)


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Caineach wrote:
cthulhudarren wrote:
These look great! But I have no idea how to paint mini's. How does it differ from metal to plastic?

These minis are some of the least expensive you will find to practice on, and they are better quality than what you will likely find at a similar price point elsewhere.

Plastic and metal paints very similarly. A beginner probably wont notice much difference. Personally, I liked metal minis more in the past when I was primarily playing RPGs, but have recently come to favor plastics for wargaming. The newer plastics can get high detail that used to be exclusive to metal.

There are lots of guides for painting here and elsewhere. If you need paints, the Reaper ones in the kickstarter are fairly good quality.

Agreed on being good to practice on. I've never painted a miniature in 30 years of gaming. Heck, I've still a few boxes of AD&D miniatures that have never even come close to a paint brush.

I'm in this kickstarter at the $100 level and I'm sure the first things I'll be trying out a paint job on are the mech warriors or something like that. But still, I'm sure I'll be able to figure out a way to incorporate them into a Golarion game some time!


Starfinder Superscriber

I have to give props to Paizo for listing this kickstarter. I'd have never heard of it if it wasn't for this blog and frankly I'm all in for it!


Since I started really paying attention to how fast the pledged amount was going up, this thing has jumped over $3,000 in the last hour. Please note, it's currently almost 3:30 AM eastern. Someone at Gen Con is doing their work getting the news out about this.

And yes, I just posted the link on reddit again.

The Exchange

Vic Wertz wrote:
brock, no the other one... wrote:
This is fantastic. So, what other monsters from the Bestiary would be ideal for the Bones line - things you need a heap of to put onto the gaming table? Kobolds would be good. Orcs are already there, as are skellies.
I *might* be wrong, but I believe that all of the minis Reaper is offering up as Bones use existing sculpts, which means that any other Pathfinder Bones would have to come from their existing selection of metal minis—currently, there are 143 to choose from.
Jadeite wrote:
Most are, but there are several new pieces, too.

I guess that I'll have to wait and see what the other Pathfinder related stretch goals are. Since the main point of Bones is that they are cheaper, it seems to make sense to make new molds (which resin requires) for things that they will sell a lot of. People tend to buy multiples of monsters but only singles of the iconics.

Vic - consider the above a vote for new monster sculpts based on commonly used monsters from the bestiary(s) then :)


GAH! This is driving me nuts! This is like the third or fourth time a great Kickstarter has come along, and I didn't hear about it till the last minute, and can't contribute cause I'm broke.

Wish I could scrounge up $100 for the pledge, but I've got bills to pay that are slightly more important.


Really considering dropping the hundred in, too bad next stretch after gobbos is for some paint. Thanks, but yer, more minis plzkthx.

The Exchange

Shifty wrote:
Really considering dropping the hundred in, too bad next stretch after gobbos is for some paint. Thanks, but yer, more minis plzkthx.

At least they are optional. The sooner the folks get their base pledges in, the sooner we'll get past them and see what the next tomb holds :)


Kicktraq suggests around 830k as a base figure at this rate...
http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-an-evol ution-of-gaming-min/


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Shifty wrote:

Kicktraq suggests around 830k as a base figure at this rate...

Kicktraq

Linkified.


ty!


Shifty wrote:

Kicktraq suggests around 830k as a base figure at this rate...

http://www.kicktraq.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-an-evol ution-of-gaming-min/

With yesterday added in, they are up to 920K as the low estimate. 840 is the trend, which is an average. The estimate takes into account the slope of the graph, which is wierdly accelerating on this kickstarter instead of decelerating


Pathfinder goal achieved, next up are more paint sets for cheap, then evil elves with the option of things that look remarkably like driders ;) (3 for $10)

Anyone have a party in need of several CR 7 creatures to play with?

Eric


Love that the 715k stretch goal will include 4 dark elves in the $100 pledge. That will bring the total up to 150 miniatures total for that level.

I've bumped my initial pledge up to $155 to include the $100 level (147 miniatures) and then the Orcpocalypse (20 pieces), "Mind Your Manors" (3), and the Ice AND Fire King and Queens (4 total).

89 cents per miniature.

And as I hit submit, the 675k stretch is only $4,722 from being hit.

EDIT the 675k stretch will be hit before noon eastern!

Sovereign Court

Hit the paint goal. The next goal is driders + drow, and then after that chronoscope marines + two fire giants.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

A lot of nice WAR inspired mini's coming up in the stretch goals.

Sovereign Court

Oh, if you are new to the kickstarter, remember to do all the facebook liking and tweeting and so on. Spread the word :)


A couple of points.
1) Even if you can't afford the $100 Vampire level pledge, throw some money at them anyway and with the lower level pledges there are still some options available for you (e.g. the paints) if you're thinking of buying that anyway. More pledges (even smaller ones) = more minis available for everyone!

2) After the Kickstarter has ended, all of these minis will be up for ordinary Bones sale anyway, so you can still buy them then. Albeit at a higher price point.

3) For those who don't want to paint. If you can put down a base coat of paint on a miniature (REALLY doesn't require a lot of skill) you can get very decent miniatures by using a technique called "Dipping."
There are several methods to this, including using washes (available from several companies) or more "traditional" dipping mediums (varnish-like shading).
Here's a Google search that'll help you on your way.


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

So I haven't tried painting a mini since the '80s. Can someone tell me if those $18 starter paint sets on the Kickstarter are good deals or not? Can I get decent paints cheaper elsewhere? [/newb]

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