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Dear WGA - have you thought about releasing hero sets in HIPS (and without the integral bases)? What I mean by that is a kit that will allow to build various RPG/wargame heroes. It would consist of let's say 5 very different bodies which will allow to build very different minis with different loads. For example, a body for a a thief/assassin etc., a body for a wizard/druid etc., a body for a knight/paladin etc., a body for a bowman/crossbowman etc., a body for a man at arms/guardian etc. There would be various weapons/accessories there to allow players to customize their minis. If there will remain some space on a sprue then you cannot go wrong with a dog

Sounds like something that would overlap with two HIPS ranges, Wizkids Frameworks and D&L 5.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Sounds like something that would overlap with two HIPS ranges, Wizkids Frameworks and D&L 5.

Need to check them. still think it would be nice to have more variety.

frameworks is wizkids HIPS D&D line (but pretty expensive)

https://wizkids.com/dd-frameworks/

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
frameworks is wizkids HIPS D&D line (but pretty expensive)

https://wizkids.com/dd-frameworks/

Thanks for the link. It looks like all heroes are a single mini per box so it would not overlap with my idea of 5 heroes box from WGA.

Something like the old Mordheim / Empire Militia kit from GW (or their wizard kit, which I think is still available, but expensive) or the various Frostgrave kits (only without their unusually small figures and horrid puddle bases) seems like a gap in the market at the moment. Just generic guys (and girls) in medieval-ish (or renaissance-ish) clothing with a good selection of arms holding weapons, bottles, bags, and torches / lanterns. Probably need one kit each for robes, jackets, and mail (since each would have distinct sleeves) with possibly only a few bodies per sprue. Price point can be relatively high, since 'characters' are seldom needed in large numbers.

A reasonably priced alternative to Wizkids frameworks would be a nice thing, especially if it offered up multiple bodies.

You make it generic enough you might get the more hobby- inclined DM types wanting to bulk up on basic character archetypes to harangue their players that way too.

Or crazies like us who just want to build weird stuff.

Not an official thing, but this is sort of already available from the many resellers of separate sprues from WGA, North Star, Mantic, etc.

You can buy one sprue for $5-9 bucks that gives you a whole bunch of options for creating several characters from a particular race/theme/etc.

An "RPG Party" kit does sound like it has potential though what's the set look like? Could you fit 5 characters on a sprue with alternate torsos (like the quar models) for male and female figures, and enough weapons to keep folks interested? However, would someone want to buy a box with 4 or 5 of those identical sprues?

At this point it seems better to mix and match 5 separate sprues from various lines. That's going to run you $30-45 bucks and will get you around 25 figures and a ton of options.

A company like Recreational Conflict or McDougal Designs will sell by the sprue.

 Eilif wrote:
However, would someone want to buy a box with 4 or 5 of those identical sprues?

I meant the box with max 5 bodies but multiple options to build them = max 2 sprues, one of them being options only. That is why the bodies needs to be very different like in my example above but they need to have plenty of arms (with and without the weapons/objects), heads etc. etc. to make wide variety of heroes from that kit.

About a year ago I did a mini review on the WA forums of the d&d Patchworks. Hudson Adams responded saying:

Hudson Adams Moderator

"How much interest is there out there for character figures on the sprue do you think? We've been talking about a range like this with the Classic Fantasy types and/or possibly a sprue that lets you customize to have your RPG character at different levels. Any interest in that type of product? What would you want for how much $?"

You can see the discussion here: https://wargamesatlantic.com/community/xenforum/topic/68229/dd-part-works-minis

Also a couple threads suggested pretty much what you are, a 5 hero set...

Such as this one: https://wargamesatlantic.com/community/xenforum/topic/78277/future-fantasy-sets-hero-options

Hudson responded in a couple... and it sounds like he wanted to go the single figure route... but since the last discussion was over a year ago I doubt there has been any real progress on it.

EDIT: Actually, re-reading he said "1-3 figures"

As Reaper finds, the more options you give people the more reason the find not to buy something that isn't perfectly matched to what they have in their head

the so called 'ranger with a bow' problem

so while a generic set of bodies with plenty of options should sell well, especially to RPG players it seems it's pretty tricky to get people to actually buy them, especially if they're packaged with something else that the player doesn't want 'i'm not buying that perfect wizard because it's got a familiar on a separate base with it and my wizard doesn't have a familiar'

that said i'd be interested

Frostgrave and stargrave i think struck a decent halfway point for customization vs getting useful amounts of figures per sprue/box. Especially with how much each set can be mixed with the others.

I would love if there were WGA hero sprues along the lines of Frostgraves wizards:


(Yes, I know I gave her a WGA head and a converted quill, but the rest is all from the Frostgrave lady wizards.)

Imagine a sprue with maybe two male bodies, two female bodies, a bunch of heads, multiple arms that fit with all bodies, and a ton of accessories.
Do a generic fighter, generic cleric, generic wizard, explore maybe a gnome or dwarf set (so hard to find modular female dwarves).

So WGA just did a KS where the expected buy-in was somewhere north of 20 sprues.

How many of these single pose heroes you folks gonna buy?

I guess I'm spoiled by McDougall designs selling me a sprue at a time as needed. So I might buy only two or three of any given proposed hero sprue. But sometimes I don't need a whole regiment of something. The Frostgrave wizard boxes hit a sweet spot for me as it's a total of 8 models with a billion bits.

Yeah, I basically just want Frostgrave models without the scale issues and puddle bases. I don't know if there are enough people who want FG-like models but are also fussy about those specific details to make it a viable business model now that everyone who isn't fussy about them has already invested in FG models.
On the other hand, you can presumably also flog them to FG players, so long as the price is close enough.
I guess one option would be to go with an aesthetic quite dissimilar to Frostgrave; maybe more of a Boris Vallejo / Frank Frazetta sword-and-sorcery look with plenty of exposed skin. Cheesecake seems to sell well, but is badly served by the current market. GW try and do some, but their inability to do good human anatomy usually gives grotesque results. Northstar prefer to keep their women well-covered (possibly because their big fantasy game is set in a very cold place).
However, WA seem like they are more interested in imitating Northstar than distinguishing themselves from them. Apart from the lizardmen and ogres, their 'classic fantasy' models have puddle bases and an aesthetic which fits in well with Frostgrave and Oathmark.
If I was in charge of WA and interested in breaking into the roleplayer market, I'd probably focus more on monsters to start with, because those are something GMs might want to buy large numbers of. Simple wild animals (wolves, bears, big cats, snakes, crows, bats, rats) are weirdly hard to find even in metal and resin, let alone plastic. Many of them could easily be given head options to turn them into prehistoric / fantasy / alien / mutant / cyborg versions too.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
So WGA just did a KS where the expected buy-in was somewhere north of 20 sprues.

How many of these single pose heroes you folks gonna buy?

The Command box is probably right in line with the premise with the number of models and the amount of options (presumably as nothing solid has been shown yet))

I posted what I ordered... and am still planning on going in for another 5 boxes if I can allocate more hobby budget before the PM closes...

Incidentally, I found this image on Pinterest and now want to see if I can convert some damned in to fantasy..

It's going to be a long wait, I know. But every time I see this thread updated I keep hoping the Damned's Beastmen are done.

Really excited to have some Beastmen traitor guard to kitbash in hard plastic. Now if they'd just make that mutation sprue in hard plastic too, life would be perfect.

 Perfect Organism wrote:
Simple wild animals (wolves, bears, big cats, snakes, crows, bats, rats) are weirdly hard to find even in metal and resin, let alone plastic.

Told them about those months ago, and they said they will think about it. Hopefully they will be made some day.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
frameworks is wizkids HIPS D&D line (but pretty expensive)

https://wizkids.com/dd-frameworks/

Wild! I have literally never seen these before. They look neat.

 Scottywan82 wrote:

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
frameworks is wizkids HIPS D&D line (but pretty expensive)

https://wizkids.com/dd-frameworks/

Wild! I have literally never seen these before. They look neat.

Yeah, but as mentioned they are very expensive, no matter if a single mini or a squad. Shame as some of them are really nice.

 Smokestack wrote:

 lord_blackfang wrote:
So WGA just did a KS where the expected buy-in was somewhere north of 20 sprues.

How many of these single pose heroes you folks gonna buy?

The Command box is probably right in line with the premise with the number of models and the amount of options (presumably as nothing solid has been shown yet))

I posted what I ordered... and am still planning on going in for another 5 boxes if I can allocate more hobby budget before the PM closes...

Incidentally, I found this image on Pinterest and now want to see if I can convert some damned in to fantasy..

That would indeed be awesome. Just need mor3 heads and melee weapons

 Shadow Walker wrote:

 Scottywan82 wrote:

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
frameworks is wizkids HIPS D&D line (but pretty expensive)

https://wizkids.com/dd-frameworks/

Wild! I have literally never seen these before. They look neat.

Yeah, but as mentioned they are very expensive, no matter if a single mini or a squad. Shame as some of them are really nice.

They don't seem to be. It's like $15 for a character, which sounds cheap to me. Maybe I'm just too used to GW pricing.

 Scottywan82 wrote:

 Shadow Walker wrote:

 Scottywan82 wrote:

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
frameworks is wizkids HIPS D&D line (but pretty expensive)

https://wizkids.com/dd-frameworks/

Wild! I have literally never seen these before. They look neat.

Yeah, but as mentioned they are very expensive, no matter if a single mini or a squad. Shame as some of them are really nice.

They don't seem to be. It's like $15 for a character, which sounds cheap to me. Maybe I'm just too used to GW pricing.

Narrator: "He was too used to GW pricing..."

On a related note: GWs $35 clamshell characters today is the spending power equivalent of selling characters for $20 USD in the year 2000...

OT: I too would be interested in better sculpted and scaled Frostgrave type generic fantasy with tons of bits. And no puddle bases!

Echoing the other calls for Frostgrave character type sprues with better sizes and non- puddle bases.

I really liked the Captain and Wizard sprues and would love to see more along those lines!

 Scottywan82 wrote:

Maybe I'm just too used to GW pricing.

There is no cure
BTW from the local retailers I could get both GW characters and squads cheaper than those D&D ones. Maybe in my country they are priced too high but paying for example for a box of 7 kobolds more than twice than for 2 boxes each of 20 GW goblins is too much for me.

Since WGA has partnered with Reptilian Overlords for their Spacenam models i'm really hoping that they'll eventually do their Mercenaries and Militia STL stuff in hard plastic. Its basically their version of the old Empire free company kit with a gak load of options, they've also got a pretty cool sci-fi expansion set with some new torsos and gun arms that turn the models into Feudal guard.

https://reptilianoverlords.com/product/mercenaries-and-militia-stl-set-1/

Yea that would be swell

I do like the sci-fi version of the Reptilian Overlords not-empire. However I would assume that regarding a WGA fantasy version, they're not likely to do very resized, slightly different plastic version of a kit they already sell.

https://wargamesatlantic.com/collections/renaissance/products/conquistadors

todays newsletter teaser is plastic skellibobs on clip clops