Needless to say I was excited to see Reaper Miniatures come up with a Kickstarter campaign for their Bones Miniatures line.
Am I being hypocritical now that there is a Kickstarter that interests me? No, I am not, and here is why.
My big complaint about Kickstarter is.....well I don't need to go into it. You can read about my thoughts here and here. What I like about this particular campaign is that it is generally a fundraiser for actual investment capital in a more traditional expense. To a large extent Reaper doesn't need the money. The are capable of growing the Bones miniature line organically. The only issue in doing this is that it will take time to siphon off the appropriate resources to build the line a miniature or two at a time. This line is very popular...Reaper really has a hit on its hands. If the end consumer/fans want the production of the line sped up they have an opportunity to contribute the capital needed.
These miniatures, to some extent aren't exactly new. The overwhelming majority of the sculpts already exist, it is just that Reaper needs X amount of dollars to produce the new molds needed to create the old minis using a new material. They aren't in the process of inventing something or want the money to take time off of their day job on an artistic/creative endeavor.
The money is required just to speed up the process already underway.
Another reason that I like this particular Kickstarter is because they aren't deliberately screwing over their retailers. If a game store wants to get in on funding this project, they have a specific way of doing so....one that has rewards specifically oriented to these businesses.
Lastly.....the rewards given to backers is closely tied to the project itself. Instead of saying that once you give at a certain reward level that is all you get, as the amount raised grows, the rewards grow. For example, this is a picture of the original rewards given for the Vampire level ($100 donation):
Not too shabby, especially when you consider the price-point for these figures is approximately $2.50 to $5.50. The Sophie model is collector's figure just for this campaign. I'm guessing that if you wanted to buy all of this stuff you'd be looking at a minimum of $130...if you were lucky.
Now as the campaign progresses and more money for molds is being raised, that means there will be more figures. Since Reaper doesn't know how much they will raise, instead of making higher contributions get a larger array of figures, they've set bonus goals that everyone benefits from. As of the time of this blog post, this is the set of miniatures that a Vampire-level contributor will get:
If you contributed $100 at the start of the campaign and never bothered to even check up on it you will still get another 39 figures!
Some of the bonus figures, not pictured here (yet) require some additional contributions, but only if you want the bonus figures. The next set of these pay-for bonus figures, should the campaign reach $340K (the original goal was $30K) are some dragons that will cost an extra $15.
Those things are huge! They'd have to come in at least $15 a piece if you bought them later. The cool thing to me is that if you increase your pledge to pay for any of the bonus figures, then that amount increases the total amount of the Kickstarter campaign and makes it more likely you get more free bonus figures!
It looks like the wife and I are getting each other this Kickstarter as our 10th Wedding Anniversary presents. I'm not one to have to hold to those traditional shopping lists, but I think that the RPG Geek 10th Anniversary should be miniatures.
If you have a RPG gamer in your life, this could make one helluva present. There is a ton of bang-for-your-buck on this one. There is a bit more that two weeks left, so don't delay!
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