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No problem just noticed all of the first KS stuff is now available general retail from Impacts! Store

http://www.impactminiatures.com/index.php?option=chibi

I have 1 picture. These are the ORCs with a conversion I did.



So I got a pretty hefty shipment of the first KS so here are my thoughts now that I have assembled about 1/3rd of them.

Here is my TL;DR review

Material: 9/10 Love Trollcast!
Bubbles: 7/10 Spincast means bubbles on undercuts, Less than 20% had bubbles, and those were easy to fill.
Mold Lines: 7/10 About 30-40% had lines which needed cleaning, but the material makes knife/cleaning and filing super easy. Also, lines were strategically placed not to harm detail.
Style and sculpts: 9/10 I like the big heads and eyes. Even models I were not happy with in photos and only bought 1 of have so much detail in person. The only Model I think needs a resculpt is the girl thief. Everything else is good.
Scale: 6/10 About 85% of the models have a consistent scale. A few models which were hand-sculpted early on are noticeably large. A few Digital sculpts are noticeably small. Monsters, size issues are not a big deal, but heroes stand out. Too Bigs: Wizard, Halfling, Paladin, Too Smalls: Elemental Lords (especially air guy)
Detail 9/10: Very detailed sculpts. Very happy with the details

Bottom-line: Of the 100 or so sculpts, I am super happy with almost all of them. The way they allowed us to pick what we wanted reduced the 'throw away' impact some KSs have when you get models you don't like or don't need. I will be placing a second order for a few more of select models pretty soon. I am overall happy with this KS and even with the issues relating to the owner's health, I felt informed and happy with the entire process and happy with the result. I even appreciated not doing a second KS until the first one was done.

If you are on the fence about these, I would recommend seeing if you can buy a few models of the current product line from Impact in order to get some 'in-hand' to judge the material, the cleanup, the scale, style and detail for yourself.

I am going to pretty much get an entire set of this KS as I feel it is totally worth it.

Some 'gems' I can recommend from KS1:
*Barbarian
*Ranger
*Medusa
*Orcs
*Mummies
*Pumpkin Heads
*Troll
*Gargoyles
*Flesh Golem
*the one-eyed demon guy

The project has now hit it's initial target

Update #5 Oct 12, 2013
Funded! Now let's go get those stretch Goal. Bashe up first!
1 comment Like 2 likes
We funded tonight ... yeah!

So let's go chase down those stretch goals to add-on more figures and improve the number of figures the backers receive.

First stretch goal up is the Bashe. The Bashe is a river dragon and has the long flowing body as a result. This figure is a Type 2 figure and is 50mm tall. Juan has already completed the 3-D sculpting for the miniature but we are waiting to reach this stretch goal to order the printing of it.

So rally the troops everyone ... let's go Stretch Goal hunting!

The Bashe:



Thanks everyone for helping us reach this point and I look forward to unlocking the Bashe for our backers and then moving on to getting you all more miniatures for your precious pledge dollars.

Tom and Chris @ Impact!

after that is the $20k stretch goal to add more miniature picks to Samurai level and up.

Yay! Glad it funded!

Do I buy Lo Pan now, or do I wait until they hit retail and I have money again to buy alllllllll the good stuff? Kickstarter problems.

Bashe is unlocked as a type 2 pick.

Next stretch goal $20,000 +1 pick to Daimyo and Shogun levels and +2 picks to Emperor level.

Update #6

Oct 13, 2013
Bashe unlocked in 1 day!!! Extra picks Stretch Goal #1 and Qilin up next
Comment

Thank you backers! We unlocked the Bashe just one day after funding. So now it is available to everyone to use 2 picks to include it as one of the figures for their reward.

EXTRA PICKS STRETCH GOAL #1 ($20,000)

We have a short distance to our next stretch goal which is at $20,000. At $20k we unlock the first of our Extra Picks stretch goal. For this one, we'll unlock one extra pick to Daimyo level ($150) increasing it to 33 picks; one extra pick to Shogun level ($200) increasing it to 45 picks and two extra picks to Emperor level ($250) increasing it to have 58 picks.

QILIN MINIATURE STRETCH GOAL ($24,000)

The next miniature stretch goal will be the Qilin at $24,000. I know there have been several people that have stated they wanted to be able to include this Asian dragon horse yokai in their reward ... so hopefully we can reach the goal soon to include it in the mix.

EMPEROR LEVEL NEW ADD-ON RULE

Yesterday we added to this KickStarter an add-on rule for the Emperor level. If you have pledged for the Emperor level you can add as many other levels to your reward as you want and if you are international there is no extra shipping charge. In addition, these add-on levels will gain the Extra Picks stretch goals as well. As an example: If you are at Emperor and live in Europe and wanted 100 picks as of today. You could pledge for Emperor ($250) + Int'l Shipping ($15) + Shogun ($200) for a total of $465. This would give you 100 picks and you would not need to pay any extra international shipping for the Shogun level. USA backers can also stack rewards levels on top of an Emperor level. As we hit stretch goals for extra picks stacked Emperor rewards will receive all the benefits. So in the example above, once we reach $20k, that pledge would receive 3 extra picks (1 for Shogun and 2 for Emperor) giving them a total of 103 picks for their reward.

UPDATED PLEDGE ESTIMATOR

Kenny has updated the pledge estimator to add in the stretch goals that have yet to be unlocked to help you determine your correct pledge level. Apologies to Kenny that with this update he has a bit of updating now to do again. Sorry Kenny.

Anyway ... Kenny makes some awesome pledge manager tools ... so if you are running a KickStarter ... seriously think about reaching out to him for a price to work on your project for you.

Here is the link again to Kenny's Asian Chibi pledge estimator: http://www.skykadia.com/impact/chibi_asian/

MORE 22mm STONEWORK BASES per a PICK

We've been working with Ed to create new moulds for some of our previously moulded items and the new mould for the Stonework bases allowed us to add in an extra 22mm Stonework base in for the same price. So going forward if you use a pick to get either the slotted or no slot 22mm Stonework bases, you'll get 10 of them instead of 9. (and yes I typed this before updating the image on the main page ... so I need to work on that ... but wanted to let everyone know since we were pushing an update today)

Been a great 24 hours ... let's keep it rolling!

Tom & Chris @ Impact!

Here is a link to a 'comparison' photo for a batch of the first KS's models next to other manufacturers for scale if anyone is curious.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/546976-Comparison%20of%20Impact%252FSDE%20Chibis.html?m=2

Coloured renders of the Kappa and Bashe

http://sketchfab.com/nlki32edcb
http://sketchfab.com/nlki2fe

Unfortunately this has slipped backwards in the last few days so the funding level is now below the Bashe amount however the Bashe has been commissioned so if for some reason it doesn't get back beyond $18k the Bashe will still available as a paid add on in the pledge manager (you just can't use a pick for it).

Impact! should have the type 5/6 they've had made ready to reveal tomorrow (it's not Asian Themed and fits more with the original KS stuff).

 DaveC wrote:
Impact! should have the type 5/6 they've had made ready to reveal tomorrow (it's not Asian Themed and fits more with the original KS stuff).

Do you think the theme making these minis less versatile is the reason why this campaign isn't doing as well as the first?

Everyone I've seen post about it online has been thrilled with the results of the first... the material was a great fit for these models, it was a relatively short delay compared to many kickstarters, the creators communicated really well... what isn't to love?

So, the only explanation I can see is that these minis aren't as useful / and thus not as popular?

Still, it's over the funding goal with over 2 weeks left to go, so definitely a success! Just wondering about your thoughts on that, since I know you keep tabs on these closely.

YAY! they released the fort!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/674003445/chibi-asian-adventurers-miniatures-w-ninjas-and-mo/posts/634120

I was glad they were able to cast it up. I hope people enjoy it.

I will post a photo gallery of the fort. It looks like they didn't have to modify much to cast it.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-7942-37077_Chibi%20Fort%20For%20Impact%20Miniatures.html




They have the original, mine are garage-casts. So it appears like they were able to get real casts.

As for the popularity, I feel like people are applying super scrutiny on a lot of the 'second round' KSs right now. People want 85 picks right out of the gate which makes models like 3.20$ a pick. 50ish makes them 4.80$, only a slight discount from retail. People are doing the same griping about bones and other KS.

As for theme... I dunno. Depending how people are using them could impact people. I would think ninjas would be hot regardless.

Well, go buy a fort! do it!

 RiTides wrote:

 DaveC wrote:
Impact! should have the type 5/6 they've had made ready to reveal tomorrow (it's not Asian Themed and fits more with the original KS stuff).

Do you think the theme making these minis less versatile is the reason why this campaign isn't doing as well as the first?

Everyone I've seen post about it online has been thrilled with the results of the first... the material was a great fit for these models, it was a relatively short delay compared to many kickstarters, the creators communicated really well... what isn't to love?

So, the only explanation I can see is that these minis aren't as useful / and thus not as popular?

Still, it's over the funding goal with over 2 weeks left to go, so definitely a success! Just wondering about your thoughts on that, since I know you keep tabs on these closely.

The theme won't be as useful or popular as before but then this is set up to be a smaller booster type project rather than what the first KS turned into, people can pick up a few of what appeals to them - that's why the movie and game references where thrown in as well to have broader appeal. The Asian theme was the next most popular theme mentioned in the last KS and planning had already started before that KS ended based on that feed back. The last KS brought in a lot of backers for the D&D nostalgia and the brony backers gave it a big push to - they aren't really catered for this time. It's funny how an unplanned KS snowballed from 6 miniatures to 103 but a highly planned one is struggling a bit. I think a lot of backers liked the interaction last time and getting miniatures they suggested added I know I got half a dozen or so of my request added, this time it's all planned ahead so that interaction is gone. I still think this will pick up and do well in the last few days when people have to commit or miss out and wait till later.

Not sure exactly what's happening here, the timing is unfortunate with Darklands, Bones and Mars Attacks all being on at the same time the plan originally was to go live first week in September and miss these projects but it got pushed back a month due to finalising deliveries Impact! didn't want to start another KS until every order they could fulfill had been sent ( there are still a few to be finished but surveys haven't been completed). They felt they had to go live now or it would be to close to Christmas and that might affect the ending and it might get bumped to next year - the sculpting is paid for so they need to recover the cost of that sooner rather than later. It's just been a bad week at it's mostly people backing at the higher levels and then pulling their pledge again there's a lot of indecision here - the fort seems to be mving things upwards again at least.

There's also been a few negative posts about Troll cast both here and on RBG KS which seems to be an issue people want to see final casts before pledging but without sufficient funds there won't be final casts. Tom and Chris are working with Ed to solve any issues even paying to reprint and remold miniatures where there are known issues. I've seen some of the images posted and yeah some are poor but it seems to a few isolated cases but of course people tend more towards complaint than praise I got 125 miniatures from the last KS only 1 of which I don't think is overly well cast but not enough to send it back and it's one of the ones to be remolded soon there's some flash and the odd small bubble but no more so than any other resin range it's very easy to clean up but some people aren't prepared to do any work they want stuff ready to go out of the box I can understand that but these are two small companies and they don't have the resources to produce miniatures like that I've seen posts saying why can't these be like Bones well your comparing a multi million dollar project to one that's hoping to make low 5 figures not really a fair comparison.

They posted the following about it.

Example of newest Trollcast molding and casting

One of the questions we've had is about what the castings of the Asian Chibi will be like as this KickStarter has no examples of a figure in Trollcast.

From the last KickStarter we and Ed at Trollforged learned a lot. We had never worked with 3-D sculptors before, the 3-D sculptors we were working with had never designed figures that would become production castings before (instead of only 3-D printed), Ed had never production moulded and cast a figure that was 3-D printed ... so at the end of the day all 3 folks involved with the Dungeon Adventurer Chibi had a lot to learn.

Fortunately we were apt to learn and adapt on all 3 fronts. On Impact!'s side we added more manpower to work with quality control and pre-cleaning most of the flash and gating from the figures before they leave to go to buyers. Juan (our 3-D sculptor) now has a much better understanding of moulding and casting and so the Asian figures are now sculpted so that they can be one or two piece figures normally and still look great (no more 4 piece Goblins). And on Ed's part .. he has created better ways to prep the 3-D materials for masters and has improved the materials used for moulding and the ways that the moulds are cut to improve the casting quality. In addition, Ed announced today on Facebook that he is working with a machine shop to create a spincaster that is designed to specifically work with the Trollcast rather than use a pewter spincaster with his material.

We are applying all of these lessons learned to the Asian Chibi to insure that they are the highest quality resin figures we can produce.

So how about an example. These images may mean more to you if you received a Chimera in the previous KickStarter ... but even if you did not it should show you what Ed's latest mould material and mould design methods are creating with Trollcast.

The images below are for the Chimera which was the most expensive figure we created with our previous Chibi KickStarter. Its size created some challenges to the moulding. We have been working with Ed to remould several figures from the Dungeon Adventurer Chibi to improve the overall quality based on all the lessons learned. Ed went back and reworked the masters for the Chimera and made a new mould out of a new material that he is now working with and these are the results.

Having handled over 500 Chimeras in the last 3 months ... I personally am really happy with the new mould and castings from yesterday and wanted to show these to you as examples of what to expect from the castings and Trollcast material for this KickStarter.

All of the Asian Chibi miniatures will be mold in organic rubber like the new Chimera mold.

That Chimera looks good! I have models from the RBG kickstarter in trollcast, and really like the material. You can't expect a higher production method like this to always turn out resin-quality parts, but everything I got was great. The only exceptions were really really thin weapons feeling too flimsy in the material- which is not a problem with the Chibi models or Ed's own designs that are being cast in the material (so far, grub worms and adult warriors have been shown cast, and they look great... spoilered below).

Spoilered pics of Ed's own sculpts cast up:

$740 left to unlock the Bashe (again)

going to run some updates together here:

More options for your picks

Good day Chibi backers.

Okay so with Fort sales so far online added in we are currently $800 away from unlocking the Bashe so that is looking good at the moment.

Update on the Fort and Tower: After talking with Ed at Trollforged they expect to start shipping the production cast Forts for me to have them in my hands by October 31st so it looks like anyone buying the Fort and/or Tower online should see those orders ship the first week of November (sooner than I had originally expected)

We also have made some updates to the other figures that you use your picks on to add in figures that were not part of our previous KickStarter and/or have an Asian theme behind them.

Here is the new graphic for the extra items you can use your picks on:



In addition to those new items, we have changes the material of one of our items based on a request by a backer in the comments section of this KickStarter.

Now the Monk Transporation pick option for the Cloud and Airball will be cast in frosted clear resin instead of Trollcast. These makes it so for some of you ... they'll be ready to use without painting right out of the box.



Thanks to all the backers for hanging in for the wild ride this has been ... we'll keep working these last 2 weeks to try and try and make this KickStarter better in any way we can afford and have the time to do.

Tom @ Impact!

We had a question from a backer this morning on the size and nature of the Chibi Fort that is best answered to everyone with a quick video.

Tom and Chris have rejigged things slightly they are now going to put $7,000 of their own funds to the project in order to move up some of the stretch goals. so they will now unlock at

$18k
$21k
$24k
$27k
$30k

Why haven't I listed miniature names well they've decided to let backers decide what order they unlock in so there's a survey running for about 24 hours to see what order they unlock in.

Full details here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/674003445/chibi-asian-adventurers-miniatures-w-ninjas-and-mo/posts/640582


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forgot to add they've added a Collector's pledge level for $225. the current value of it is $245 which will grow to $280 if everything unlocks.

COLLECTOR LEVEL: You recieve one copy of every new miniature unlocked or available with picks in this Chibi KickStarter that were not part of our previous Chbi Kickstarter. Currently 30 TYPE I, 7 TYPE 2 and 1 TYPE 5 but will increase as Stretch Goals are unlocked.

The type 1s above include the tower for the Fort, the Tengu Swordmaster and the Chinese Hobgoblin. The Type 2s include the Kodama (Treeman) and Unmei Kyubu (Doom Cube).

The following are excluded from that offer:
Tengu Priest, Dragon Monk, Monk with Weapons, all 3 Stonework bases options, Mini O-dokuro and Hanadaka-tengu

1 week to go the new order of the stretch goals has been decided by the backers votes here it is:



The Bashe will be available as a $10 add on in the survey if it doesn't unlock as it had previously unlocked but it won't be a pledge pick option until it unlocks again. The Qilin was by far the most popular of the 5 locked goals so it has been moved up to $18,000.

I've updated the first post.

Really impressed with this company, despite running a kickstarter they are still able to ship out their regular orders in a timely manner. Well done!

Joyboozer wrote:
Really impressed with this company, despite running a kickstarter they are still able to ship out their regular orders in a timely manner. Well done!

Thanks Joyboozer .... and its all one guy doing it. (sleep ... who needs sleep).

Good to see it made it over 18K it looks like there is an intermediate 20K stretch goal that adds selections to some pledges, and then the 21K stretch goal adds a new miniature (the update makes it sound still TBD as to which it is, as the poll is still open for voting?).

Yep there's bonus picks at $20k for certain pledge levels. Then the next miniature unlock is at $21k. The survey is still open but the Qilin is locked in now anyone that has voted can still change around their preference for unlocks 2 to 5 and new people can still vote. The order currently is still as I posted above and looks fairly unlikely to change much so the Bashe should unlock at $21k but that could change at any point up to the unlock if the Baku for example gets a rush of votes.

44 hours to go

Update #14 Oct 31, 2013
48 hours to go ... 2 reminders of specials
2 comments Like
We are entering the final 2 days of the KickStarter and want to thank our backers for all the support they have given us for our project.

2 special items to remind everyone from past updates.

1) Chibi Fort shipping to receive before Christmas. You can order the Fort from our online store and they will ship to you in November 2013. Otherwise, the Fort can be selected as part of your picks and will ship in spring 2014. Any Fort or Fort Towers purchased from the online store will count towards stretch goals for the project. To get your Chibi Fort early you can go here:

http://www.impactminiatures.com/index.php?option=chibi

2) We still have 19 limited edition pewter sets of 10 Asian Chibi left if you want to get one of them. The figures in the set are:

Samurai
Inugami
Ronin
Wise Sensei
Karate Master
Zenko Kitsune
Tae Kwon Do Master
Evil Sorcerer
Daimyo
Wuyu

The sets can ship out by December 15th if you wish.

Here is the pricing for the limited edition pewter sets:
$100 - we include the set with your reward when that ships
$105 - we ship the figure set to you as soon as it is finished to a USA address
$110 - we ship the figure set to you as soon as it is finished to a Canada/Mexico address
$115 - we ship the figure set to you as soon as it is finished to an international address

So if you want one you need to do 2 things.

2a) You HAVE to post to this thread that you want one (or you can ask for more than one if you want as well). Your post to this thread should contain two items ... How many sets you want and how much you are pledging extra (so I know if you are looking for shipping in 2013 or when the project is complete in 2014). So for example you would post: "1 set - pledging $115 to ship in 2013 to Europe" or "2 sets - pledging $200 to ship when my full reward is ready". If you want more than one set sent in 2013 ... you only need to add on an extra $100 for each extra set (ie 2 sets sent in 2013 to Canada would be a $210 add-on).

2b) In addition to posting to this thread ... you then need to increase your backer pledge by that amount so that we can verify that you've reserved the set. So if you currently have pledged $30 for the Peasant level and you wanted the set shipped to you in 2013 in the USA you would still stay pledged for the Peasant level but increase your amount pledged to $135.

We will keep a close watch over this project over the next 48 hours and make sure to get updates out as quickly as possible to let you know of any stretch goals we reach.

Tom and Chris @ Impact!

200+ people from the previous KS were Pony or the D&D only pledge, so that goes to 'theme'.

About 100 were casual backers with pledges under 10$ which goes to throwing support but not wanting product mostly.

You also have this KS appealing to a bunch of backers who are not wargamers (who do extensive modeling) but buy models 'pre-assembled' and potentially never paint them. If you are not a modeler/painter, these models may be too much for them as many are multi-pice and I assume will become moreso with the 3D designs.

And then there is theme. Dungeon fantasy is king and model sales are game driven... and having no game with the models, people have to rely on what they play which is mostly fantasy dungeon.

I hope we do see more chibi campaigns, but it may need to be Dungeon Part 2 + Ponies opposed to 'space' or 'other theme'. I am sculpting a 'Dragonquest-style Hero wagon' which will pony compatible for general objectives and such. So maybe more ponies (especially ride-able ones) would be good for NPCs.

19 hours to go and the $20k stretch goal is unlocked

+1 pick for Diamyo and Shogun levels +2 picks for Emperor

Next unlock type 2 Bashe at $21k then type 2 Baku at $24k

Twelve hours to go now, and only a little bit to unlock the rather delightful Bashe miniature;




Speaking of delightful miniatures, I feel a need for the Tiger Carp (Shashihoko)... and how often does one say that?

Shashihoko is a great mini it was on my maybe list but looks like it's definitely 2 of my picks now as Chinese Bowman and Hisgo might me to far away at this stage on the plus side I can get a few more Ninjas, Kappa, Oni and Jiang Shi.

$234 until the Bashe unlocks - they are counting $225 of Paypal Fort sales towards the total.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Bashe is now unlocked ($20,826 + $225 from Fort sales) next up Baku at $24k


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Project Update #17: Last 3 hours ... revised Stretch Goals ... let's have some fun
Posted by Impact! Miniatures ♥ Like

Just talked to Chris and we would like to make the last 3 hours a bit more interesting for everyone.

So we are going to dip a bit more into our personal savings and tighten up the Stretch Goals.

Baku will unlock at $22k

Hsigo will unlock at $23k

Bowman will unlock at $24k

Now that should make the final 3 hours a bit more interesting for everyone.

Tom @ Impact!

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Baku is now unlocked next up Hsigo at $23k.

Baku is now unlocked.

Hsigo unlocks at $23k and Bowman at $24k. Final 2 hours and 24 minutes to go!

Looks like things are moving! Good luck! (buy forts!)

Posting some pretty pictures;

And just like that the Baku is unlocked and can now be selected for 2 picks as part of your reward.



Hsigo unlocks next at $23,000.

From the Youtube channel, Baku



Hsigo

For anyone thinking of jumping in, do it! The quality of product and customer service offered by these guys is amazing.

Kickstarter ended with $22,342.

In case any one backed and missed it or will buy later the Hsigo and Bowman will be made any way but they will be paid add ons only (can't use picks on them) in the pledge manager - $5 each.

Now to work out my 45 picks