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http://www.reapermini.com/News#713

To our valued customers,

Effective immediately, we are ceasing production of our P-65 Heavy Metal Miniatures line.

The incredible success of our Dark Heaven: Bones miniatures line has given us the opportunity to produce more affordable gaming and hobby options for the miniatures hobby. While P-65 was very successful for us, we have decided not to invest any further into P-65 Heavy Metal products and rather invest those dollars into Bones.

We are currently filling all orders with the existing inventory we have on hand, but we will not be casting any more P-65 products to fill these orders.

As of February 4th we will no longer accept any future P-65 order requests.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Thank you!

However, the P-65 Heavy Metal line appears to be a cheaper lead based (version of the pewter lines, so becomes redundant with the Bones material being much cheaper. Presumably the full range will still be available in pewter until they are ready in Bones.

Too bad but hardly shocking. Still its nice to see a company that looks to save us money huh?

It's weird to think that a time is coming when no major manufacturer will be producing metal miniatures.

I think there will still be smaller companies that produce in metal as they have existing molds and it wouldn't be profitable to have new molds made, but in 20 years or so we might not see any metal minis being made at all with the way materials costs keep going up.

I think it's important to note this is just Reaper's 'cheap' lead based metal line that's being discontinued

not their main metal line (lead free) which continus to grow


Now for those that are inclined to care the Reaper P-65 line has a few exclusives 65136, 65135, 65134, 65133, 65127, 65115, 65111, 65107*, 65100

*(there is an Open-mouth alternate sculpt of the same body in Dark Heaven, but the closed mouth version is exclusive)

Reaper Bryan has said some are likely to transition to Bones, BUT some may not although the could convert to the normal metal DHL line

" I would have to say that 65136, 65135, 65134, 65133 and 65107 are less likely to be released into Bones, as they have not been strong performers in P-65, despite exclusivity. We may see them in DHL, however"

so if you HAVE to have any of the above, maybe try and track them down now just in case

 bbb wrote:
It's weird to think that a time is coming when no major manufacturer will be producing metal miniatures.

I think there will still be smaller companies that produce in metal as they have existing molds and it wouldn't be profitable to have new molds made, but in 20 years or so we might not see any metal minis being made at all with the way materials costs keep going up.

They will still be doing metal - just not the P65 variety.

With P65 - because it contains lead, and because so many people are absolute freaks when it comes to lead...they had to maintain two separate manufacturin g streams. One for their regular lead-free pewter and one for their P65 pewter. This means an extra smelting pot loaded up with the lead alloy, molds cut for the manner in which it flows (high lead alloys flow different than lead free - so you normally have to cut the molds differently), packaging and all the rest of that stuff. As a lead material manufacturer - they probably also had a stack of OSHA and EPA related guff to deal with each year for compliance related issues. In addition to equipment and paperwork - there is also floorspace for doing the work and rackspace both on their sides for inventories and on the retail side of thing for a display rack for the distinct line.

Most models still exist in the regular pewter line though - granted, they are a bit more expensive. Hopefully though, this means they are that much closer to starting to cut the molds for Bones in house. I would love to see a Bones Kabaka Kwana:

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/gorilla/latest/03052

I have one in metal right now, and he weighs as much as some of my armies do.