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 Afrozombie wrote:
Your right Alex it is a miniatures-specific version of a Loot Crate or surprise crate.

I love the idea of ‘Loot Crate’, ‘Zbox’, ‘My Geek Box’ and all these Geek and Gamer subscription boxes but nothing in this category exists yet for the Table-Top gamer and I think it’s about time!! The idea of receiving a subscription box that is guaranteed to save me a few pounds and contain at least one awesome miniature and lots of other table-top goodies is exciting. And with so many new Miniature and Table-Top games on the market, it would be a hard task to give each of these the fair chance they deserve, but with the ‘Mini-Crate’ this will allow us as a community to sample a large variety of these and insure your brush never gets bored with painting Space Marines, Orks, Hordes or War machines.

With your help I hope that ‘Mini-Crate’ becomes the great platform for the Table –Top community I know it can be.

You can check out the kick-starter here;

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1625281219/1095842773?token=5b8283dc

Spikey bits in the US do exactly this, however they offer a sponsored box each time, which might be GW, PP, FFG etc.

Ah, right. Mantic does this as well.

A "bitcrate" might be amusing. Every two months you'd receive a $5 USPS box packed full of bits that you can use to convert models or use as basing.

Hi, I have made a few changes to the KickStarter.

We now have MANTIC games supplying us miniatures from two of there fantastic games!

DreadBall and Kings of War

We are going to have a total of 11 miniatures in this first surprise crate!

 Afrozombie wrote:
Ok guys,

so if I drop the 54mm miniature and swap with an other 25mm along with dropping some of the vallejo paints and instead of three Army painter brushes I bring it down to just 1. I think I could bring the crates down too about £20.

so thats two 25mm miniatures, a paint, a brush, a dice, meeple, discount codes and an art card for - £20

2x random 25mm miniatures and some random garbage for AU$40 plus postage? This is possibly the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. Also, we tend to use 28mm figures, and that - along with your valuations make me think that you're not familiar enough with miniatures painters or miniatures gamers. I can choose and purchase all of the above for less - from a local store or via mail order.

Please stop spamming other threads with your product. Especially since you still don't have a solid idea of what you will finally put in each box.

Hi

The Mini-Crate is now £25 plus postage, and includes Eleven 28mm scale miniatures from Mantic Games,. both from thier 'DreadBall' range and 'Kings of War' range

Many thanks for the updates in this thread, much appreciated and fine and dandy.

It would be better if you would refrain from reposting the same info in other news/rumours thread.

Thanks.

Oh, good luck too

Hi reds8n, Thanks, and sorry I just thought with the Mantic Kings of War connection it would be worth posting into the Kings of War thread.

Won't happen again man.

Quite understandable.

No real harm done.

Bear in mind there's -- potentially -- a lot of crossover or compatibility with different mins etc in different games and if everything is crossposted then it all gets a bit muddles.

No biggie though, fret not.
A link in your sig etc is fine btw.

So is it now JUST 11 random Mantic minis, or does it still contain things like paint, dice, tokens, etc?

HI 'Nostromodamus'

This first Mini-Crate now contains 11 Mantic minis along with other table top goodies like, paint, dice, tokens, discount codes and more!

 insaniak wrote:

I think the big thing you're going to struggle with here is that most people are going to see everything in the box that's not a miniature as essentially worthless. It's nice to get a bunch of stuff, but a random pot of paint is not worth anywhere near as much as a pot of paint that I actually need. Many painters are quite picky about the brushes they use... so having a random brush show up in the box is also not a drawcard, unless there's something particularly special or unusual about it. Counters and dice are things that most gamers have as many of as they need, or again, have specific requirements for, so these things are essentially worthless unless they're particularly awesome.

I'll try a new brush, but odds are I'll just abuse it and make it into a drybrushing or even stippling brush. I agree with most of this.

So what it comes down to is that your box has to be either really cheap, or really fantastic and filled with unusual and exciting things that people wouldn't necessarily encounter anywhere else.

A good example of this would be to drop something like a couple of ModCubes into the box, or objective markers, or resin cast bases, or flock, etc.

For paints, look at specialty ranges - receiving a pot of, say, crackle medium or weathering pigment is going to be much more interesting than receiving a bottle of Vallejo Unexpected Majenta.

hehe, Unexpected Majenta.

My serious question is this: why aren't you getting wholesale prices on this stuff? The way I'd envision a minis loot crate to work would be that the creator gets a couple of companies on the line for ~1000 models (probably something one piece that they can churn out, but are also representative of their overall lines), and get them for roughly half retail, if not less. You drop them in a box, toss in some other goodies, and mail it. With your low overhead, you can charge well under retail, the consumer gets an interesting range of minis from companies they might not have bought from, and those companies get some exposure while breaking even on the transaction. (I'm going to guess that really successful crate companies are buying direct from manufacturers at the distributor rate, which is even lower)

I think about the Adepticon Swag bag: it's got coupons, a sci-fi and fantasy mini from top notch companies, bases, and maybe a pot of unexpected magenta. (I'm leaving out the PP starter box). Other years, it's also included plastic sprues from new games, or additional minis. That's provided as part of a $50 con registration. For me to buy it straight up, I'd expect a few more minis, but the experience of getting random stuff is pretty cool.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Afrozombie wrote:
HI 'Nostromodamus'

This first Mini-Crate now contains 11 Mantic minis along with other table top goodies like, paint, dice, tokens, discount codes and more!

I don't want to sound negative, so I'll just focus on how I'm impressed at your chutzpah in trying to sell a dreadball team and sprue of mantic elves for 35 pounds plus shipping. I wish I had that kind of spunk.

 Polonius wrote:

 Afrozombie wrote:
HI 'Nostromodamus'

This first Mini-Crate now contains 11 Mantic minis along with other table top goodies like, paint, dice, tokens, discount codes and more!

I don't want to sound negative, so I'll just focus on how I'm impressed at your chutzpah in trying to sell a dreadball team and sprue of mantic elves for 35 pounds plus shipping. I wish I had that kind of spunk.

Agreed, Mantic is not consistent enough in quality or subject matter that I'd ever want to see them in a lucky dip not curated by someone I know shares my preferences. We've seen what happens when Mantic has the opportunity to fill up a grab-bag with Mantic product, and it's not pretty.

who needs "illustrative purposes" when one can have "illustration prepossess"?!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Each box contains
- miniatures you would never buy knowingly
- those paints that never sell from the rack
- D6s because you probably have none
- a brush, which actually could be useful so we'll take that out
(Brush is for illustration prepossess only)

I think this is a decent idea, but not quite done right. I think a figure subscription service would be cool and open folks up to lots of minis that they might never find.

I think if might be cool if it were done kinda like Loot Crate, but focused on highly detailed boutique minis from around the world. No paints or other stuff, just like 5 really nice minis that figure collectors and painters would like to have.

Is there any background information on the person running this? This sounds like a scam which pops up every few years in the Dakka community. Like this:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/90/350652.page
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/390/347070.page



A Faceless fresh poster with a 'business model' pops up, does a few good transactions, suckers everyone in and runs away with the money.

Also...Mantic models? Why does this sound like we would get a box of terrible restic, cathorses, dragon riders and any other garbage models Mantic can't move? If there was a miniature company to say 'be excited! you gonna get this!' Mantic is the last company I would do.

Phew, afrozombie can't win for losing.

Some pretty harsh criticism here. I think it's great that the model count was increased, and although Mantic is usually derided for quality I was under the impression they have a fantastic undead range?

I would assume that they're not all human sized models, with a few larger ones included to increase the value of the package. So I would be okay with 11 various miniatures.

Custom dice, even d6's are cool with me. I've got several from Gencon, and they're nice little collector's pieces to commemorate the years I've been.

As someone has already mentioned a brush(even unwanted) will find some use if just for applying glue to base. That's something that's fairly useful to have.

Random paints- really depends on the type. Odd stuff like Metallics, Inks, and such I would appreciate.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Phew, afrozombie can't win for losing.

Some pretty harsh criticism here. I think it's great that the model count was increased, and although Mantic is usually derided for quality I was under the impression they have a fantastic undead range?

I would assume that they're not all human sized models, with a few larger ones included to increase the value of the package. So I would be okay with 11 various miniatures.

Well... the problem is that Mantic itself does a much more generous box every year (although this year was generally seen as a disappointment). 11 miniatures could be anything from a Sprue of Elves and a Dreadball MVP to a really cool collection of the restic and metal models from their range.

My concern is that all the ogre sized restic models (Ogres, Trolls, werewolves, angels, etc.) are packed in bags of three, which makes it unlikely we'll get a single model from those. I could be wrong, of course.

The thing with samplers is that they need to be put together by people with deep connections in the industry. Get good prices on high profit margin items, bundle them, and sell them for a modest profit. It works in plenty of areas, but this isn't a sampler. It's a blind buy of Mantic minis! If I wanted a dreadball team, I would have bought one for $10 when Minimarket was having a fire sale.

I always liked the subscription box concept, but never the stuff that comes in alot of them. It's always a Chibi/super-deformed figure I don't care about, and some other stuff that I may or may not like. Since usely in these things you get one sort of "big" item and then some smaller ones.

I feel tho that the crates are to "large". It would cost me £34 pounds a month witch at current exchange rate is $65.62 CAD. For that kind of money I could just buy what I want.

Maby you are putting to much in the box?

edit:

 Necros wrote:
I think this is a decent idea, but not quite done right. I think a figure subscription service would be cool and open folks up to lots of minis that they might never find.

I think if might be cool if it were done kinda like Loot Crate, but focused on highly detailed boutique minis from around the world. No paints or other stuff, just like 5 really nice minis that figure collectors and painters would like to have.

More or less this. 5 nice mini's at a lower price point is what I would want.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Some pretty harsh criticism here. I think it's great that the model count was increased, and although Mantic is usually derided for quality I was under the impression they have a fantastic undead range?

Some of the undead, yes (the vampires are consistently terrible). But that doesn't help if those aren't the models in the box, or if you happen to be one of those people who aren't eternally excited by more bloody zombies.

 Polonius wrote:
I think about the Adepticon Swag bag: it's got coupons, a sci-fi and fantasy mini from top notch companies, bases, and maybe a pot of unexpected magenta. (I'm leaving out the PP starter box). Other years, it's also included plastic sprues from new games, or additional minis. That's provided as part of a $50 con registration. For me to buy it straight up, I'd expect a few more minis, but the experience of getting random stuff is pretty cool.

Good idea! If the KS doesn't fund, hopefully the OP can look into "insourcing" swag bags for miniatures-related conventions. Reaper's swag bag is so popular, you can buy the bag without attending the con.

 Polonius wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

I think the big thing you're going to struggle with here is that most people are going to see everything in the box that's not a miniature as essentially worthless. It's nice to get a bunch of stuff, but a random pot of paint is not worth anywhere near as much as a pot of paint that I actually need. Many painters are quite picky about the brushes they use... so having a random brush show up in the box is also not a drawcard, unless there's something particularly special or unusual about it. Counters and dice are things that most gamers have as many of as they need, or again, have specific requirements for, so these things are essentially worthless unless they're particularly awesome.

I'll try a new brush, but odds are I'll just abuse it and make it into a drybrushing or even stippling brush. I agree with most of this.

I bought a set of AP brushes, because I expected them to be decent - because their paints are. The Small Wargamer Drybrush was/is good - very much in part because of the angle of the bristles (it's a diagonal wedge) but the others are sadly and very disappointingly crap. There are cheap sources of W&N Series 7s out there (£5.74 for a 000 W&N S7), along with other pure Sable sources.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
The other problem is that "miniatures" are not in any way created equal.

Mantic's figures are uneven in quality. Some are good, some are great, many are awful, but the majority of them are merely pedestrian. - Some are made of HIPs plastic, which are many of their better models (undead, lizardmen, etc), sub-par ones (dwarves) and also some of their almost universally derided ones (elves) and worse (Basileans). HIPs is very cheap to produce and also are typically some of Mantic's cheapest models at retail. So not a good deal in a blind-buy random grab bag.

Their metal models range from excellent to garbage, as do their resins. Their restic (resin plastic) models range from surprisingly good to garbage, but people almost universally hate the material. Their PVC (boardgame plastic) stuff also runs the gamut of quality and bendiness. Along with being heavily warped at times. I'm not even going to mention their hybrid kits.

That's a huge range of quality in both sculpt and material from just Mantic. I've actually got quite a lot of their models, and speaking from experience - I in no way am willing to buy their own crazy (random) boxes at this point, and they come with a gakload more than is on offer here.

Now, people here know that "A Miniature" does not equal "A Miniature". This applies across price, perceived value and quality. Forge World ≠ Citadel Figure ≠ Mantic ≠ Mierce ≠ Warlord Historical ≠ Warlord Gates of Antares ≠ Reaper ≠ Bones ≠ Scibor ≠ Avatars of War ≠ Perry ≠ Raging Heroes ≠ Artizan ≠ Otherworld.

This is why people did not react positively to "2 miniatures for 20 quid" and also why they are not reacting positively now to "12 Mantic Miniatures for 20 quid". But again - it seems like you should know ALL of this if you want to sell miniatures to Miniature Wargamers or Miniature Painters - which in turn reflects badly on yourself as someone who wants to sell random miniatures to us...

What Azazelx said!

Yeah, sadly mantic minis, have been severely devalued by their Kickstarters and the frequent sales, to the point where I don't think most people would even pay money to buy Dreadball minis... Let alone random ones. Their extremely inconsistent sculpting and QC makes the issue even worse.

 Mymearan wrote:
Yeah, sadly mantic minis, have been severely devalued by their Kickstarters and the frequent sales, to the point where I don't think most people would even pay money to buy Dreadball minis... Let alone random ones. Their extremely inconsistent sculpting and QC makes the issue even worse.

We had a league in Phoenix last year and COULD NOT GIVE AWAY free Dreadball teams to get people to even play a single game.

 privateer4hire wrote:

 Mymearan wrote:
Yeah, sadly mantic minis, have been severely devalued by their Kickstarters and the frequent sales, to the point where I don't think most people would even pay money to buy Dreadball minis... Let alone random ones. Their extremely inconsistent sculpting and QC makes the issue even worse.

We had a league in Phoenix last year and COULD NOT GIVE AWAY free Dreadball teams to get people to even play a single game.

That's a shame, it's a brilliant game.

 Necros wrote:
I think this is a decent idea, but not quite done right. I think a figure subscription service would be cool and open folks up to lots of minis that they might never find.

I think if might be cool if it were done kinda like Loot Crate, but focused on highly detailed boutique minis from around the world. No paints or other stuff, just like 5 really nice minis that figure collectors and painters would like to have.

A couple of blokes (including myself) ran a serious look at this a few months ago. We couldn't figure out how to keep a margin (however thin) with boutique minis and paints and brushes. Our box ran into the high 80s regarding cost, and an informal survey showed that very, very few people would be willing to pay that, especially on a subscription basis.

Maybe we got it wrong (I'll be the first to admit that we almost definitely got it wrong in some places), but I really want to see this succeed, to determine if there's a solid business case behind it.

Mini-crate is now LIVE on KickStarter!! Come check us out and spread the word This is going to be a great campaign and can't wait to see what you all think.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1625281219/mini-crate-a-box-full-of-tabletop-surprises

I do have to say your campaign's video and graphic design is really snappy! Project isnt for me (at least until I see a sample box), but good luck!

Bossk_Hogg wrote:
! Project isnt for me (at least until I see a sample box),

There's a sample box pictured on the Kickstarter page.