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And we're back with more cool figures released with no rhyme or reason!

https://www.reapermini.com/newreleases

First off what with all the Bones and suchwot it's easy to forget Reaper made it start and continues to make use of God's own casting medium - METAL

first off a shirtless barbarian from the frozen wastes - Arik Axereaver!



Why he only reaves Axes is a mystery for another time.

Next up a chance to add some diversity to your undead forces with a Skeletal Samurai!



And proof that Snake People are not sexist with the addition of a Female Nagendra Warrior



You can see she's female because she has breasts much as real snakes d... oh right. OK, moving on!

Then a whole bunch of Dark Elfs.





I really never got why the elfs have to bring race into everything. Especially on Martin Luther King Day. Can they we just elfs by the pointiness of their ears rather than the color of their skin?

And a traveling Monk



And an elf of indeterminate gender


great figures all but averaging $8 a model, ouch.

On the Bones Black (there's that racial issue again!) side we get

A Rock Troll



Who with some work can serve as a Heavy Metal Troll or even a Synthapop Troll.

A female Efreeti for those days when you're tired of facing male Efreetis.



A female Genie to go with.



I believe I shall call her Willomena Smith...

Zombie shark do-do-do-do-do-do-do Zomb-BEE Shark.



And... OMG! A Flail Snail!



Of course it's not a Flail Snail but a "Thrasher Snail" because Flail Snails are of course (C) and (TM) Dungeons and Dragons.



(Yes of course I have a pic of Flail Snail handy, don't you?)

Bog Skeletons



Who with some conversion work can pass as Swamp Ghouls or even Marsh Wights, though that would require extensive green stuff work and should probably only be attempted by expert converters.

A bard and her dog Rufus, aw



Dark Dwarf Irontongue Priest, sigh. Bringing up both his skin color and his use of a prosthetic in his name?



A Female Andromedan Hunter, pragmatically dressed in her armored space bikini.



Caine Cyber Troll, is the Shadowrunner you can count on to post the very best dank memes and leave links to 9/11 conspiracy sites in MLP Message Boards. You can buy that for a NuYen chummer.



And finally a guy in a Volvo sized suit of power armor, carrying a sword, and with his head unarmored. Clearly they're taking lessons from the Industry Leader, Games Workshop.



And there we are. Come back next month when maybe we'll get a Zombie Were Shark, or Dark Elf Rapper or Savanna Skeletons. Because at this stage it's not like any of those would be a surprise.

I feel like I say this every month, but every time I see Reapers new releases, I imagine a dozen different games, scenarios, or encounters that would be amazing to use them for, then realize none will happen.

Like, who are these people playing games that need a zombie shark? How do I meet them?

I feel that Monk is fantastic. Real player character or major NPC vibes coming off him with that pose. You can easily see him standing in the middle of the road, daring someone to approach within bludgeoning range. The cross on his belt slightly limits his usefulness as-is for D&D/PF/other fantasy gaming, but that's an easy fix.

The cyber troll is a bit small to be a stormtrooper. Even next to IWP (Ral Partha) Shadowrun figs he looks like he's endangered of being trampled by fairies.

I do like the (almost) standardized round bases on the Bone Black stuff though. Saves me some washers.

The armored walker can be built with the head area covered, although it's a little tricky. (I think I had to trim some otherwise-inconsequential mold lines and maybe a bit of material from the chassis.)

I don't get why that troll has such a boyish face. It doesn't jive with the tough monster/big gun theme.

I am generally not a fan of 'buy stuff and some of the money will go to a good cause' since well, we could skip the middle man and give to a cause directly.

That being said Reaper is doing a promotion to support the animal victims of the Australia wildfires.

https://www.reapermini.com/australia

They'll donate $7.50 with the purchase of any of the minis below.

OH! And to their great credit they include a link to donate directly.

https://my.rspcasa.org.au/bushfires/Donate

Courage and Hope would be unique adds for Burrows and Badgers!

I recently got to compare some Bones vs. Bones Black and the difference is amazing. Black is way better material.

I always love Kid's commentary on Reaper's releases.

Interesting to see the Dark Elves in metal. I just made my first foray into Bones Black with the Sorcerer w/staff to use as, of all things, a European Elf come over to the USA in a Wierd West setting.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The armored walker can be built with the head area covered, although it's a little tricky. (I think I had to trim some otherwise-inconsequential mold lines and maybe a bit of material from the chassis.)

I don't get why that troll has such a boyish face. It doesn't jive with the tough monster/big gun theme.

The Troll was a fan creation that Reaper auctions off during reapercon (or use too at least). So it looks that was as that's what the person that won the auction wanted it to look like.

Good to see that the Reaper thread is back under the proper management this year.

Ah, the Flail Snail. Good Ol' Simon Tilbrook's contribution to the cause. Man did the Fiend Folio just plain suck.

Axereaver is actually spelled Axer-Eaver in proper English orthography. His Father was an Axer, and his mother an Eaver . Reaper is using the German convention of just jamming words together and calling the thing a new word. See this beauty Kreuzschlitzschraubendreher for example. Should be Kreuz-schlitz-schrauben-dreher, or Cross-slot-screw-turner, ie Phillips head screwdriver.

That monk reminds me of a Monk I have, from 1978-1979. Pardon the crappy paint job. W e didn't have all the cool paints BITD. Plus, I was a kid.

I too like the monk. With all the underwater stuff in the last kickstarter, somebody is going to run that aquatic D&D module someday.

Cybertroll looks nice. I haven't looked in a long while to see what Shadowrun-esque figs they have now.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

That is a dwarf who is serious about getting that tent peg into the ground.

Definitely a re-imagining of that figure, almost a perfect copy. I've been buying and doing lots of Reaper minis lately - most of my dungeon crawl actually. Can't wait to see more releases.

I'll never get tired of KK's affectionate commentaries on Reaper releases.

New month!
New releases!

Well actually these are from last month but hey watchagonnado right?

https://www.reapermini.com/newreleases

First up we have a Pizza Dragon and his animatronic friends from what I can only assume was Reapers attempt to compete with Chuck E Cheese's industry dominance. Because otherwise...

I mean the zombie shark (do-do-do-do-di-do) I can see a use for however niche. Animitonic trolls and kobolds working for a pizza dragon







And then another barbarian from the frigid north, who I can only assume is adjusting her wardrobe to account for global warming.



Nice paint job.

From the Bones like we get a mix of fantasy and sci fi.



The Malvinas Warrior fights for Argentine Sovereignty against British Imperialism.



While the Rach Soldier... Rach, Rach, sorry I got nothing.



While the Space Cowboy here makes me want to do a whole western themed Marine army. I could use the small revolvers from the Orlocks, the jumbo ones from the Goliaths as boltguns, get stetson heads from some third party and...

And on the fantasy side





My Thundercats-themed beastman army is taking shape, now who could I use for the Mutants to fight them.





This cannot be a coincidence.



The two-headed troll can simultaneously post Russian propaganda and 'research flat Earth' memes on two different social networks!



He also comes with your choice of a rock or a fat pig to throw! Man that pig just sells the model to me.



A moor troll can also be used as a swamp ogre, a marsh giant or even a quicksand ettin with a bit of conversion.



I have no idea who needs a sabretooth pug on their table, but somewhere that person is smiling.



For the more pedestrian among us, there's a conventional winter wolf too.




Frost giants get some reinforcements with a ranger and heroine, adding some gender and class diversity to your Frost Giant forces.



And finally a nice mystic porthole, suitable for just about any game of any era.

So there we have it, something for just about anyone!

Is it just me or are reaper figs overall (not all but many) looking outdating more and more with each passing year? Those remind me of great late 1990's/early 2000's sculpts with a few exceptions.

 warboss wrote:
Is it just me or are reaper figs overall (not all but many) looking outdating more and more with each passing year? Those remind me of great late 1990's/early 2000's sculpts with a few exceptions.

I know what you're saying and have some of the same feelings. I wonder if they're falling behind in tech somewhere along the line, whether it's because of using soft plastic and metal rather than resin or just sticking with the same sculptors.

The official D&D miniature line Nolzurs marvelous unpainted minis is very close in terms of price and material but the sculpts actually look decent. I doubt it's because of the material.

I think they just cast a very wide net...and aren't terribly picky about what they produce. Many of their catalogue pages include the "green stuff" sculpt of the miniature, and you can see some very poorly sculpted stuff on their page. I love Reaper, but I admit that 85% of their stuff doesn't even register to my eyeballs because of the mediocrity of the sculpts. The remaining 15% will keep me busy though.

I've noticed it too that their sculpts didn't change much over the years, meanwhile various other companies produce incredible up to date minis.
Metal is still excellent material for miniatures, Corvus Belli and Mierce for example make extremely detailed metal minis.

Reaper is not falling behind or dated, it’s just their style. That style has changed since they picked up the baton that Ral Partha dropped.

I actually preferred painting the first Reaper Bones minis over the Wizkids deep cuts minis. But some of those Bones sculpts maybe older than the purchasers. The Reaper stuff is a bit more cartoony, but a bit more characterful than the rather ‘dry’ Wizkids stuff. I still buy and paint both though.

TL;DR: It’s their style and if you don’t like it be happy you have lots of alternatives today.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Is it just me or are reaper figs overall (not all but many) looking outdating more and more with each passing year? Those remind me of great late 1990's/early 2000's sculpts with a few exceptions.

I know what you're saying and have some of the same feelings. I wonder if they're falling behind in tech somewhere along the line, whether it's because of using soft plastic and metal rather than resin or just sticking with the same sculptors.

I know it's a cop out but it's probably all of the above. They're employing sculptors who likely are traditionally sculpting models whereas the rest of the industry has moved onto digital sculpting and they're casting in one piece whereas most modern minis are multipiece. It's not all bad though but it feels to me like this mini is very outdated in feel



but this one has those classic elements but feels more modern.



It's all subjective but figured I'd mention it. I grew up in the hobby in the 90's (got into gaming in 1991 iirc) so I cut my teeth (and fingers!) on metal minis and have a fair bit of nostaglia for the style/type and Reaper in general as I've followed them since the beginning and even I feel this way. I can imagine some young whipper snapper turning up his nose right away at all of them with just a cursory glance.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Modock wrote:
I've noticed it too that their sculpts didn't change much over the years, meanwhile various other companies produce incredible up to date minis.
Metal is still excellent material for miniatures, Corvus Belli and Mierce for example make extremely detailed metal minis.

Glad I'm not the only one with a few folks also feeling the same. Commented a bit on others like CB above. Their minis are multipiece and digitally sculpted which helps to modernize them.

Obviously you are biased against trolls KK . It’s obviously trying to protect the pig from smaller carnivores by lifting it above its heads. For shame

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Is it just me or are reaper figs overall (not all but many) looking outdating more and more with each passing year? Those remind me of great late 1990's/early 2000's sculpts with a few exceptions.

I know what you're saying and have some of the same feelings. I wonder if they're falling behind in tech somewhere along the line, whether it's because of using soft plastic and metal rather than resin or just sticking with the same sculptors.

From the latest KS, there were some miniatures that had been sculpted by the same old Reaper sculptors and some that looked like they had been rendered in some 3D program and then (rescaled and) printed. The difference was pretty striking. The old sculpters sculpt like they are still competing against Ral Partha and Void, but the 3D designers are not really ready for prime time yet.

They seem to have bled some of their Tre Major-tier talent since the first KS.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:


From the latest KS, there were some miniatures that had been sculpted by the same old Reaper sculptors and some that looked like they had been rendered in some 3D program and then (rescaled and) printed. The difference was pretty striking. The old sculpters sculpt like they are still competing against Ral Partha and Void, but the 3D designers are not really ready for prime time yet.

They seem to have bled some of their Tre Major-tier talent since the first KS.

Make no mistake, I love me some Reaper but I think the cat people are really still and flat. Maybe they are old metals in Bones plastic.

The Nolzurs line of minis for D&D look nice in the renders, as do the Pathfinder Battle Deep Cuts, but the sculptors have yet to learn that they need to make the details deeper, especially on the human and smaller sized minis. This is something Corvis Belli did when they first made the switch to digital sculpting. CB has since learned and their minis are outstanding. Reaper minis have nice deep details, which makes painting them easier. The Wizkids stuff comes pre-primed. which depending on how it is done, can obscure the detail as well. I'd love to see Reaper continue to make the variety of minis, but to refine the proportions of the humanoid minis to something closer to realistic.

The pig-throwing troll-ettin. Nicely done.

The cats are indeed originally cast in metal, but last year or the year before, IIRC, fairly recently anyways. A decent bit of their Bones stuff shows up as a metal casting first, I guess as a test run? Pete the pizza dragon and the kobolds for instance was the headliner for the framing story for Bones V, and is coming out in bones, but just showed up in metal as you note. Works for me as I like the sculpts of the cats and such, but kinda feel for human sized models, metal's a nicer medium to work in if you're not doing converting or trying to do multipeice cross chest gun holders, due to easier mold line cleanup. Single piece models can get a little flat, but they're handy if you just want something weird to paint real quick.

I tend to like the Reaper "style", but do agree with many folks here, mostly because some of their first forays into Bones didn't translate well (shallow details, poor mold lines - didn't help that Bones wasn't as easy to paint as I'd originally hoped) and that affected my impression of them

Still, I'm liking the few Bones Black figures I have, and really bummed I missed out on the last KS (four, I think) that had the Stygian Barge, Tree of Despair, and a few other really neat looking terrain pieces (there's a ruined greek-ish styled temple that is just dang cool looking!) as well as the 2" x 2" dungeon tiles that probably would have matched up nicely to all the Dwarven Forge stuff I have!