11 replies to this topic

[greyhaze]

How many copies of each mini are made for each run of the LE line? I'm wondering if we're on the 4th print of the skeletons and each run is a repaint, is it likely we'll be able to get matching minis from a shop/storefront for squads.

[cutebutpsycho]

I'm going to guess that this is going to fall under proprietary information. Whether or not your FLGS will have the particular paint job you want is anyone's guess as it depends not only on when they ordered, but when their distributor ordered.

[greyhaze]

Just wondering if it's 1,000s or 10's of thousands. 1,000s would be ok, slim chance that I could get my hands on similar looking squads unless I order all at once, while 10's of thousands would mean I could risk spreading out my purchases (in theory).

Yah, I guess there's no actual way to really guess this, so I'll assume they have to be purchased at once or I'll miss my shot.

[Dr.Bedlam]

I have it on good authority that Bryan cranks them out on a little vacu-former thingy in his garage, and dips them in multicolored paint. Therefore, anything you don't like about the LE figures is entirely his fault.

[greyhaze]

Yes, but how many does he crank out in his garage??

[Dr.Bedlam]

Nowhere near enough, and nowhere near FAST enough, if you listen to one customer in particular...

[Reaperbryan]

I'm going to guess that this is going to fall under proprietary information. Whether or not your FLGS will have the particular paint job you want is anyone's guess as it depends not only on when they ordered, but when their distributor ordered.

CBP is correct, the numbers for the runs are proprietary information. I might also add, to complicate the matter further, that not every print run is the same size. For instance, the first run ever was smaller than the subsequent runs, because we were cautious and didn't know what consumer response would be.

She's also dead-on about the specific color a given store might have in stock.

And Doc Bedlam isn't quite right. I don't make them in my garage. Dozens of unpaid, undocumented child laborers make them in my garage, while I watch The Simpsons.

[greyhaze]

Oh great! Different sized orders... murggle, so some are rarer than others... :P

[vejlin]

Oh great! Different sized orders... murggle, so some are rarer than others... :P

gotta catch 'em all!

[Reaperbryan]

We're not really going for some sort of 'rarity'. We're trying to offer variety. Our thought process is that the exact same paint job would stop selling after 5 or so years, so each year we try to vary it up.

We've always said we will go back and revisit old color schemes, at least ones that we felt 'worked'. There's no rule that we can't decide in 2012 to reprint the 2007 designs. There's no rule that we will, either. But we have no aftermarket, and no collectibility factor to worry about, we're making marketing decisions.

[greyhaze]

It's not a bad design choice. I think the variety is great in many ways.

But, let's say I buy a model with paint scheme A; I'm not going to know if it's going to be reprinted later on, and I won't know how "rare" the paint scheme that I have is. I'm not too worried about it, just a curiosity at this point. I like to buy in squads of 12-16 units and usually buy them all at once.

[Dr.Bedlam]

...how rare can a paint scheme BE, when I can just repaint the mini any way I want? This is one of the reasons I don't pay a lot of attention to the LE minis, except the big ones that would be too expensive in metal. Generally, when I buy a mini, I wanna paint it proper, and I can usually do a better job than the factory LE standard.

That being said, if Reaper was to start releasing those frost giants in prepainted plastic, I wouldn't say no.