Thursday, August 23, 2012

Reaper Bones: Too Good to Pass Up?

The sheer thought of adding 200+ unpainted figures to the queue is laughable really, in my neck of the woods anyway. Not to mention adding all of those figures in one, single shot. The Reaper Bones Kickstarter however may be too good to pass up.

For the 'Vampire' level you get all of the figs shown here on the left, by the time lunch rolls around here on the eastern seaboard there's a good bet owlbears and griffons will be included as well. This brings the total closer to about 220 figs, or about .45 cents each.

I've got a bit of geekin' out money squirreled away and I was eye-balling Super Dungeon Explore, which is a fun, light boardgame that comes filled to the gills with 52 cool looking miniatures. A game I can play with friends and family, and a lot of figs to paint. An extra thirty bucks and I get three times the number of figs with the Reaper deal.

A hundred bucks could also buy the excellent boardgame Eclipse, one of those games that you're always glad your buddies own because normally you wouldn't drop a hundred bucks on a single game.

Bah, I don't know. I'm an impulsive buyer, but often suffer buyer's remorse as well. I'm a minis gamer, but also not painting a lot of minis right now. There's other boardgames that have been on my wishlist for some time like Dominant Species, Eminent Domain, Alien Frontiers...heck, I could almost get all three of those.

So I don't know, with the Reaper deadline approaching (about 57 hours) I do have a little breathing room to think about it, but I still don't have a clue. The figs would be a great haul, and at a great price. Some boardgames would get more use though, without a doubt. Super Dungeon Explore solves both issues to an extent.

What do y'all think?

47 comments:

  1. I could not resist (and have pimped it continuously on my blog.) The add-ons are what really pushed it over the top for me. Dragons for $10. What madness hath Bones wrought?

    My definition of restraint here is not buying two of them.

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    1. I like your definition of restraint in this case. And yeah, $10 buck dragons? Forget about it!

      For some reason I wasn't following your blog, I was, but then I wasn't. I fixed it and am back in the fold. Dunno what happened.

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  2. The deal had me ready to plunk down... Its so good! However the last thing I really need is 200 unpainted mainly fantasy figures in a different scale to what I normally collect. I took a look in my unpainted lead boxes and resisted.
    Super dungeon explore looks like fun, I might pick it up at PAX Prime if I can fit it in my luggage...

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    1. I told Jon I wasn't going to back and he said "why the hell not?".. And then there was an Owlbear.. And then I folded. It's an irresistable offer!!!!

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    2. Ha! You were my rock! Now I'm going to have to blame you!

      I've got an idea for us all once these minis start rolling in too...

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  3. If you could get use out of a number of them, do it. As Mike says, the extras like the dragons are really the kicker.

    For me, I started adding up the figures I saw that I already knew I wanted, but haven't gotten yet at $5+ each in metal and quickly decided it was worth it. Add in $10 for a $50 dragon...and more dragons...and more stuff...yeah.

    You can also now trade out the metal Sophie for $25 in options (ie 3 dragons or a figure case).

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    1. I'm a Wayne Reynolds super-fan, and all of those pairs of fire and ice giants at ten bucks a pair is awesome.

      I saw that about trading in the metal Sophie, umm yes, no question about that!

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  4. As I already own Eclipse, it was an easy choice for me. BUY MOAR MINIS!

    But if I had to choose...man...Eclipse is an amazing game that folks actually request I set up time to play (as it ain't a short game!). It's amazingly put together and soooo much better than the other 4x games.

    But 200+ minis???

    I don't envy your choice!

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    1. Eclipse really is an awesome game, having only played it twice I can say I'm hooked.

      But Eclipse isn't going anywhere, they can have my hundred bucks anytime, this ship sails soon!

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  5. I'm having the same dilemma. My worry is, like many here, having about 200+ miniatures that just sit unpainted.

    However, what I think I'm going to try to do is to go in on it *with* someone, and then divvy up the miniatures. 100+ miniatures in my box doesn't seem nearly as daunting. If you can go three ways, then you'd have 66+ miniatures. Each of these divisions, too, comes at a more affordable price point. 100+ dollars in one thing. 50 dollars? Not bad. 35 dollars? No brainer.

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    1. Especially at the one third "level", that's a lot of cool minis for next to nothing.

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  6. Have some of the similar worries above, plus you know that everyone and his mother will have these figs - they will be worth nothing so I'd want to be sure of getting $100 of value out of it because nobody will pay for them afterwards - not like if you bought a GW box and decided later it wasn't for you, you can get some $$ back for that.

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    1. What I was thinking is setting up informal 'painting league' or whatever. A bunch of us on the same page who pitched in and got these. One month it will be "paint all the Elves" or whatever and then all post up pics on all our blogs at the same time or something.

      You're right about them soon being a dime-a-dozen, but I'm okay with that as long as I have my dozen!

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  7. I probably can't resist. I want some of the bonus models too. Since I do single mounted warband skirmish in fantasy(writing own rules) these fit in well. I am just gonna get them for a late xmas present from the wife.

    I lucky(maybe, maybe not)that 200 unpainted minis is not even 1/20 of the unpainted lead I have now, so it is insignificant in the numbers game. As they say, when a mini painter paints his last fig, he dies. Well I look at it as ensuring a nice long life.

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    1. "When a mini painter paints his last fig, he dies. Well I look at it as ensuring a nice long life."

      This is all that needs to be said!

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  8. Additional bonus: If the kids even get the urge to paint something, there will *always* be something to paint.

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  9. All the above. It is an amazing deal...but exactly how much fantasy gaming do I do?

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    1. Song of Blades and Heroes in Sarterra...it's a shoe-in!

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  10. That is an incredibly amazing deal. But alas i do NOT have the money for it. If i did though, $100 for all those minis is amazing. All those minis would be great to have, unpainted or not, just to know you have them. This is one of those things where i really wish i could do it, but i cant for the simple reason of not enough funds.

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    1. Well, you're keeping your eye on the prize too, which is really admirable. Hopefully you and Rucht will get something worked out, sounds like you're pretty much there anyway.

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  11. I'm with Andy. It's a great deal and all, but those minis would go to the very bottom of the figure pile. Despite the fact that I really like the look of Reaper figs and they paint up great, I just don't do any fantasy stuff anymore.

    My vote is more Vikings for Saga!

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    1. Ha, case in point, I still need the Saga rulebook!

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  12. Looks like a good deal but I wonder about the scale of the figures. The only fantasy figures I have right now are the WOTC Chainmail(probably about 100 minis) of which I have all of the first 2 series and am working again on getting the 3rd and 4th but those appear to be going for prices I am not willing to pay.

    Now I rarely get to play anything and mainly just collect things. Tristan notes that these appear like the will be super mass produced for these types of products.
    I know that I will never paint them and probably be unlikely to use them for anything in the near to moderate future. Anything I could use them for I could also use my plastic playing pieces from the 3 DnD Coop Games.

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    1. You've got a good point with using the boardgame minis you already have for whatever dungeon needs might come up.

      As for scale, I have a ton of Reaper stuff already and it is solidly in the robust 28mm scale. Obviously some stuff will be bigger or smaller accordingly and what have you.

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    1. I'm still resisting!

      Err, failing...

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  14. I guess I'm coming at it from a different perspective. I can already see the use in about 30% of the figures, right off of the bat. So that makes it worth it for me, especially if I can get someone to go in with me.

    For example, I can already think of uses for the sci-fi figures. A lot of the dungeon monster figures and the skeletons I can put in a bag or box unpainted for a long while - they'll just be sword-fodder when playing D&D games.

    Finally, some of the figs that I would most covet would be the dungeon dressing mini furniture of all things!

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    1. Honestly, when they added the Chronoscope line to the mix I was kind of sold right then and there.

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  15. I'll just have to pass. Too many unpainted figs already.

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    1. I hear what you're saying John. I hear the sounds of your words, see the mouth moving to make the sounds, but something isn't registering in my brain.

      This is going to be the first global minis hangover we've ever seen come this Sunday. Could we define this as a singular minis-gamer cultural moment?

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  16. Sounds a good deal but then again I have ASL where I spend over $100 far to often just for expansions. I do play it a lot though so that make it alright (I think)

    Ian

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    1. You've been on fire with Advanced Squad Leader, so yeah, these figs could be a quarter each and it not make too much of a dent in your resolve.

      Then again?

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  17. >Too many unpainted figs already

    Hmmm...individually, I understand each of those words. Put together like that, though, it's just Greek to me.

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    1. I know! I was like, "Did I turn on a language filter? What does this mean?!?!?!"

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  18. It's one hell of a deal, almost too good. Are they going to suffer from "seller's remorse" after they realized every sale lost them money?

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    1. That's an excellent point Aaron. At this point in the game they've gotta be losing money at every Vampire Level sold.

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  19. Keeps getting better. I watched the mantic kicker starter for Kings of War closely but I find this more interesting.

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    1. I got on board with Gunship First Strike mainly because it was helping a friend of a friend (luckily it turned out to be an awesome game to boot). I kinda of skipped Zombicide on purpose just because I knew people in our group already got it. I TOTALLY missed Sedition Wars somehow, and I would've got that one in an instant. But now this, it's interesting indeed, a little too interesting.

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    2. I think they have time to reach 1 or 2 more stretch goals. If I would buy in I would have to drop an extra 50 or so for some of the additions like the driders, and dragons.

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    3. While I am in the process of selling like 60 dollars of excess blood bowl minis, I also just bought like 130 dollars in more blood bowl minis (GW CD Team, Old School Metal Lizardmand Team, and 3 current big guys). This money would have to come from my christmas budget. Strangely yesterday my wife was asking to take some 100 dollar online scrap book class.

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  20. You know how I'm thinking about this? These are approaching Gameboard distribution liquidation prices...I am kind of tapped out at the moment, but I think I will pull the trigger.

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    1. Andy, Witchfinder General and I are looking for another to go split 3 ways. It would amount to about $30 on your part and you can pick a third of the minis

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    2. Talking with my wife about it she said, "Those other boardgames will always be around to buy, this is a one-time thing."

      These prices are now just silly. It's like that Penny Arcade strip, at the Vampire Level you get a new car too!

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  21. Looks like they added 4 more levels since your image. Next level at 2.44M is pretty far off but will probably make it in the last day.

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  22. I had to give in and get the deal. Getting close to 3M total.

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    1. Ha! I'd say there were a lot of people on the fence like you...until now! All said and done, no add-ons whatsoever, and you walk away with 240 figs, just .42 cents each for 28mm figs, with plenty of larger figs thrown in for good measure like critters, griffons, giants, etc.

      Mind you, trading in the metal demon biker chick gets you a LOT in trade-in value to boot, which is what I'll be doing.

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