[Effincool Minis] Kobold Press Bestiary / Tome of Beasts Minis Kickstarter!

[Marc Radle]

This is a pretty cool Kickstarter!

Kobold Press Bestiary - A Collection Of Fantasy Miniatures

A collection of 28mm scaled miniatures based on the Midgard campaign setting as well as the Tome of Beasts from Kobold Press!

Kickstarter just launched yesterday and already funded in under 24 hours!

[DSXMachina]

Yeah, I backed Eastern Front's Kobold Press Midgard Mini's that were meant to deliver in July 2013... still waiting that :(

Of course this is by Effincool, the one KS of theirs I backed was good (there were slight customs issues, doubling the shipping costs at least). The mini's were pretty decent, especially for the price.

Talking about price, I see that the 'All-In' is pretty ridiculous... $17+ per mini at the moment. I really dislike the method 'early-birds' are done here. If they get to $56,500; only then will it be easier than a fiddly pledge manager and that's very annoying. It clearly discourages new backers or more casual ones, whilst 'rewarding' early backers in a way reminiscent of the bankrupt CSM's KS's.

If somehow it doesn't stall out soon and gets to the 'final goal' of $67,000 then some backers will be paying $6 per mini, whilst others of a similar level $2.... which is frankly daft. A more stable early bird progression would be better, maybe with the final stretch goals being 'Add-On' if needs be to make the finances work. Heck, even doing 2 or more KS's to get the range of figures is better than a plan like this.

I expect it'll slowly stall (during the KS's usual slow period), maybe with a few new mix-n-matchers if they're lucky. Then at the end the last few 'early-bird' levels will vanish or down-grade (since for even the $200 early bird to be viable the total needs to be $20k.... which it really won't hit without some very rash or optimistic backers). Thus this KS will probably end up around the $9,000 mark.

I'm only commenting on this because I want it to succeed, but I believe some of issues are deeply problematic to a smooth KS.

[Marc Radle]

Interesting observations!

FYI, the Kickstarter is over $14,000 after just a few days (more than double the initial funding goal) and has already unlocked a couple stretch goals

[DSXMachina]

That's good, glad to see optimistic backers - since Effincool is a good company (from my limited) interactions with them).

[John Popson]

@DSXMachina thank you for your support on previous Kickstarters! What I can say at this point is that we structured this KS the way we did for a reason. All of the "Early Bird" slots were limited to open the project. As we described in the text of the Kickstarter, we plan to keep opening Early Bird Slots up as it goes. We also plan to create new funding groups so that if by some weird chance we dont unlock all of the stretch goals, people will still be able to get all of the unlocked minis at a decent price point, and not just drop down.
As far as any comparison to CSM, it is not the same beast at all! Center Stage radically underpriced all of their minis to try to be viable with a market that they could not compete in, namely the "Reaper Bones" market. We cant even begin to try to compete with those kinds of prices, as the total backer group for Tome of Beasts was 2,312 people, with only a portion of them interested in miniatures. While by comparison Bones I had 17,744 backers based on loyal followers of a great ccompany in business for 20 years at that point. Its really just apples and oranges.
We cant compete!! :-)
Hope none of that comes across a smug or nasty, because it is not meant that way at all, and I want this to come across in the manner that it is intended, which is purely explanation.
Thanks again for starting a conversation about it, and if you have any questions about the campaign or anything miniatures related, dont hesitate to message me on Facebook!
John
BTW we are at $17,235 right now 1 hour into day 5 of the KS!!
There are Dragons on the horizon and Kobolds at my heals sir!!!

[DSXMachina]

I also backed the Kobolds EFS KS too :P

But I understand why you've structured the stretch goals the way you have. I just believe that Stonehaven have a better system of allowing more mini's to be created, whilst still making it fair for new backers.

Early bird levels where some are $360 and some $200 for exactly the same pledges are a trifle.... unfair. Maybe a small bonus for those that helped fund it quickly could be fine, but $160!

In the current KS climate people aren't looking for the super-cheap deals necessarily, I believe they are happy to pay a reasonable price for quality miniatures (like yours).

But I see the stretch goals are not just the $7 price of the Core Set. This does somewhat relieve my doubts about the break-even point.

Anyway, I hope you reach the final stretch goal :)

[Marc Radle]

Still a week to go!

The Kickstarter has tripled their funding goal and unlocked a ton of awesome stretch goals!

If you want a bunch of cool and unique minis (whether you use the Tome of Beasts or not!) you owe it to yourself to check this out before it's too late!

Kobold Press Bestiary - A Collection Of Fantasy Miniatures