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http://www.fireindustries.com/

So much for more resin AT-43 minis... and I was supposed to order 3 Overseers and 3 Golem units next month.

Oh my gawd... this is terrible, awful...

Um...

Sorry who were they again?

Rackham's answer to GW's Forgeworld.

Ah.

Did they produce anything or were they closed before they launched?

They sold some stuff at one point. Is this because of
Rackham Legends?

Rackham...

Whatever.

Never really got off they ground really. They produced a very few items of tangential interest, but they did little promotion, and being resin (and therefore low volume and relatively costly compared to plastic/metal) they were a micro-niche market at best. I guess they could have picked a sounder proposition than Rackham to hang their tails on.

Can't say I'm surprised.

What they did do (resin Therians) was sculpted nicely though. But some of the more promising stuff - terrain elements and vehicles never really materialised.

The ridiculous speed rackham creates/kills something these days makes me wonder if its all planned or just random fishing for some results... Unfortunatly for me its to late to take the bait.

FI was a company the got a licence from Rackham to produce stuff. They were an independant company. So Rackham has nothing to do with FI going out of business.

Still, them going under so soon makes Rackham look bad (IMHO).

So... are they Grey Matter Figures now?

This sounds less like an 'Out of Business' and more like 'Rackham pulled our license'. Fire Industries is a TM of Rackham (it's their M.Ind fictional company that makes the U.N.A. walkers). This smells like a parting of the ways more than anything else.

And is it just me or is that a large scale Unreal Tournament dude on the Grey Matter website?

Indeed Achilles that was my first impression on this premature closure also, but we could be wrong.

Its just another smelly decision with rackham name in the middle of it, bah!
Next time they try to lure anyone to a new product, business, game... take it with a bucket of salt!... because in a few months all could be closed/discontinued etc. This will continue to do wonders to rackham credibility... well at least they are coherent

The Dragonfly jeep like scout vehicle and the bendy cables on the Gray Matters site were on the FI site as well...

I figured I would take a moment to log in to respond to this.

FI has closed, and I don't think it was because Rackham pulled the license or anything. I think it was more FI's decision to do so.

Here is a quote from the AT-43 forums regarding the closure:

fire industries wrote:Afternoon,

Without going into detail the license agreement that was on the table, and the conception of the Legends line, made it difficult to justify long term investment.

It was decided that the team behind Fire Industries would be better utilized in development of our own IP and products.

We have no ill feeling towards Rackham and wish them continued success

Thanks
F.I.

Rackhams new in-house Legends line has basically made Fire Industries redundant.

Do you think FI will make any money off of selling resin storm golems if Rackham is just going to do it themselves in resin or metal? I am sure that Rackham will just produce all of those larger scale resins that FI made for Confrontation as well, so I doubt anything that FI was licensed to produce for Rackham will be gone for good.

Yup saw that piece of info yesterday also, and its precicely whats to be espected from rackham these days... a stab in the back. I guess claiming rackham had nothing to do with with this its just wishfull thinking for some yet totally untrue. No surprise there either.

I do wish best of luck to FI fellas and may they prove they dont need R licences and come up with interesting ranges of miniatures.

*Curtain draws back*

F.I.: "So your stuff is pretty cool... we'd be interested in doing low number production resin models for you."

RK: "Yeah! Sure! We'd love that! Here's a license."

*fade to black*

*six months later*

*curtain draws back*

F.I.: "So we're getting a lot of interest in the line. We're producing some vehicles for the U.N.A army and we're wondering about a timeline for the rules/release..."

RK: "Yeah... people do seem interested. I bet that means they'd spend money on that kinda stuff..."

F.I: "Well yeah... money is usually what's exchanged for goods and services..."

RK: "Really? For serious? Money?!..."

F.I: "Er... yeah. So about the rules for the U.N.A jeep we're doing... and the final proofs for the resin Storm Golems..."

RK: "Yeaaaaaahh.... we'll be needing that license back."

F.I: "*#%)#$#$#?!!!"

Actually the Jeep was out of proportion compared to the rest of the AT line. So no big loss there. And the "building project" was a joke but nothing more. The good products they had were either produced by Rackham already before FI brought them out or took quite long from announcement to release. The therian were scheduled for January but showed up much later. And as it turn out the jeep is fully their IP since they sell it now under a different name.

Hm... This all makes me wonder just a little bit. I've been put off by Rackham since they announced their pre-painted Confrontation line (way to smother the biggest pull to actually play Confrontation).

I mourn every time I walk by new Confrontation products in my lgs.

I wonder if Rackham is really suffering right now. They've essentially dropped most of their hard-core players, and I wonder if they are picking up new ones or not. I have a hard time wanting to pick up a Rackham game right now since they may very well kill everything I like about it (despite the Legends).

Slowly but steadily they pick up new players.

The problem I find with pre-paints is it breeds no 'culture'. Gamers tend to take less ownership of something they simply took out of a box, rather than lovingly assembled and painted.

I dunno, just seems like a radical shift to me.

And owning something like 300+ metal confrontation models like I do... I gotta say these guys are certainly no longer the 'forefront of quality' that they could once reasonably claim to be.

Dozens of bendy therian blades and mold line covered infantry later, I'm not buying that line.

I just wish they'd be honest about who they're turning into- mass marketeers.

Achilles wrote:I just wish they'd be honest about who they're turning into- mass marketeers.

How are they being dishonest about it?

Well they still call themselves the producers of the world's finest miniatures... which is something that I guess just sticks in my craw personally when I'm soaking my UNA army in Nail Polish remover to take the vinyl off them, then cleaning a ton of mold lines.

It's just that they're in a different market now. Have you seen the new Dirz Clones? I have a Dirz army... and no way would I put them next to my metal stuff in a game.

Just all feels like a step back to me.

Of course this is all biased by the fact that I'm an enthusiastic modeller, and Rackham's wonderfully detailed metal models were what attracted me to the company in the first place. It just feels like a bit of a betrayal after something like 7 years and a few thousand dollars spent on a variety of armies.

I don´t have seen less care for their armies with the players of AT and AoR. Nice theory, but does not work out in reality. They repaint and convert miniatures like players of any other game do.

Rackham has improved the painting standard of the plastic miniatures steadily. Amittedly AoR ist still not on the same level as AT is, but should improve in the coming months.

Don´t forget that their first metal miniatures were nice but nothing special. Rackham has ventured into an area where no other company before has dared to go. Some have tried, but e.g. Mongoose have given up. It´s still a trial and error process since noone really has any long-timr experience, simply because it has not been done on such a scale before. Already the new AoR are improving, but it takes some time.

@betrayal
Would it have been better if Rackham would not have cared for the future and produced further metal miniatures, while knowing that producing metals would ruin the company? They could have communicated the issue in a better way, but they did what they could to ensure that Rackham is still there in future times. A game without a company producing miniatures dies rather quick theses days, no matter how much the fans do for it.

@painting and mold lines
The painting is hair-thin and mostly burnt in, so you will not have much luck removing it. By now I have seen several thousands of AT miniatures and mold-lines are at an acceptable level. They can´t be completely avoided, but if you really want you can easily remove them with needle files in minutes. And the bendy parts can be easily cured with a short hot/cold-water bath.

Your opinion is your own dude, and as you're the equivalent of an Outrider for Rackham (and I'm pretty sure involved in their German translation team, IIR some of your older comments) then I understand your need to argue your points.

I never said anything about the people enjoying their new Rackham models. I'm more concerned about the shift away from what I'd bought into for 7 years... that Rackham was going to continue to provide me with high quality metal models I could build, paint and play a skirmish game with.

It's not the end of the world. AT43 is a fun (if decidedly simple) game and I'm enjoying playing it. I'm not trying to pick a fight, and I totally understand you waving the flag of the company you're affiliated with (it's of course, the wise move for you).

Besides, lots of ExPat Rackham designers are still doing great work that I'm enjoying buying, and there are still lots of cool games out there that fulfill my skirmish needs (although I'm currently shopping Helldorado for Fantasy... as Warmachine has grown out of the skirmish stage). Infinity is a great Sci Fi skirmish game and I'm looking forward to the Wyrd one.

Again, not looking to pick a fight Duncan. You've clearly been around since at lease Warzone so I respect your view (and your affiliation).

Keep posting those New Releases.

Actually I am working as a freelancer for all companies in the business.

I am not waving anyones flag but I respect decissions if they keep a company in business. I´ve seen my share of promising companies floating belly up. And for Rackham it was: We produce metal only and die sowly or expand and produce metal and plastics. You can buy metal if you want via Rackham Legends, and the others can buy their plastcs, so most folks should be happy in one way or another.

Besides it is the ugly second nature of skirmish games to sell quite well over some years and then hit the curb after 5-7 years when most of the gamers have their share of miniatures. By now only a few new gamers and collectors/painters were buying the game, partly due to the rules, which in the beginning never were intended to support such a complex system of cards with rules on them. I applaud them for making the necessary break, fully aware that they will make some customers angry but in the long run helping the company to survive. It´s actually the kind of break many expect form GW with regard to 40K. Many AT gamers are also 40K gamers.

The way GW does it is the right way if you want to stay alive as a company, though some of their decissions are sometimes rather stupid. But they are still around.

The problem isn't necessarily what Rackham has decided to do, but rather how they handled it.

I know here in Canada, EVERY retailer is dumping their Metal Confrontation stuff at 50-75% off.

Good for me in the short term, bad for me as they're likely never to carry the product again. You'll likely know what I'm talking about when I say if feels like the year that Warzone/Chronopia died all over again. People (by which I mean retailers) are grumbly... and grumbly people tend not to pick up new prepainted products (especially those burned already by the Mage Knight dump fiasco).

I'm not super pissed... I'm just dissappointed.

They definitely could have handled it better, but trust me, we have and will see worse happen. Especially with some companies that were hailed as the "new Rackham".

I rather spend a small fortune gettting superb miniatures from a company that delivers quality products for a couple years than spend one cent on what rackham is delivering now for a x time frame.
Im no share holder or work for any company so im only interested in the product itself in a costumer prespective... so if a company feels it needs to flood people with substandart products to survive its their choice and not my problem since my money is aimed elsewere.

I totally understand your grief Achilles and yes all Rackham behaviour stinks and has been debated to death... good thing is theres no surprise on what to espect from them.

Again good luck to FI