Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I wasn't talking about dragons when I used that phrase. I was talking about Reaper's "_________ Minis We Want to See" threads, which are full of things like "a half-gnome village idiot with a spatula riding a pignagel. (10 people like this post.)" Look at the posts that are just dozens of links to Reaper's most embarrassing mistakes.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. Reaper has a long history of actually fostering off the wall wishlisting from their customers - and the vast majority of them never come to light...but when you have a large number of people brainstorming what they might like, you often get a diamond in the rough which can then be polished by Talin and handed off to one of their freelance sculptors to create something new.

http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/47090-minis-we-would-like-to-see-10-fantasy-version/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/40170-minis-we-would-like-to-see-fantasy-version/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/36204-minis-we-would-like-to-see-fantasy-version-thread-seven/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/23924-minis-we-would-like-to-see-fantasy-version/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/21700-minis-we-would-like-to-see-fantasy-version/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/18839-minis-we-would-like-to-see-fantasy-version/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/16428-minis-wed-like-to-see/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/13279-minis-you-would-like-to-see-part-ii/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/7611-minis-you-would-like-to-see/

Just a handful of them. In addition to the general fantasy list, you have lists for Bones, Chronoscope and I think there is even one for Mouslings. Out of all of those though, going back all the way to 2003, you have things like you mention pop up from now and then. Most never come to light though. Occasionally though you might have something like this guy:

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/owl/latest/03579

Crazy as it is as a concept - a Leprechaun riding an owl? It ended up being a pretty neat miniature.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
And for the record, Verocirax is by far the worst dragon they've put up. Appealing to fans of GW's abandoned S-dragons is probably a lost cause, considering GW themselves have phased them out. The Big V looks like Pete's Dragon with osteoporosis and an eating disorder.

GW's most recent dragons have moved away from it - but they are still part of the core. Even the plastic high elf dragon is an S dragon in a flat pose. For whatever reason though, it seems to have a strong following still.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
But what do I know? I only got into minis in 2003, so much that came before that period looks tacky and sad to my non-rose tinted glasses. Also, I find that dragons should either look like the works of Elmore, Parkinson, Todd Lockwood, Bob Eggleton or Michael Whelan, or they should look like someone who grants Goku's wishes. GW S-dragons just look like a horribly confused mish-mash of two different creatures.

Didn't mean to come off too snarky, but in a GW dominated board, a lot of people look at the art from that period from that side of the spectrum. The artwork for D&D was more refined than what you saw coming from GW (compare the Red box cover I linked to to the first edition cover of Talisman - both were released around the same time).

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
GW's abandoned S-dragons

It's all in the "S" shape, really.



~iPaint

I'm getting more and more torn about staying in on this. But I'll hold out till the last day and see how it ends up. I think I'm gonna try and not look at anything for at least 2-weeks.

I'm with you Hulksmash. I mean, what I'm already getting may be worth $100, but then again its all extra junk I don't *need*. I'll leave my pledge where it is and pop back in towards the final week and see whats what. Currently pledging for Mars Attacks too, and I'll definitely drop this one first if push comes to shove.

Did someone badmouth O'Wolie the Owl-riding Leprechaun ?



cause them would be fighting words.

 Sean_OBrien wrote:

I remember for awhile "wyrms" being more popular than dragons. The Chinese dragon has this snakelike shape and I vaguely remember the early AD&D gold dragon as being oriental and snakelike. Could be wrong on that.



Grr... C'mon Google, where's your Small image size only menu selection...?

The AD&D 2nd Ed. Gold Dragon was more or less based on the oriental dragon style:

 Sean_OBrien wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I wasn't talking about dragons when I used that phrase. I was talking about Reaper's "_________ Minis We Want to See" threads, which are full of things like "a half-gnome village idiot with a spatula riding a pignagel. (10 people like this post.)" Look at the posts that are just dozens of links to Reaper's most embarrassing mistakes.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. Reaper has a long history of actually fostering off the wall wishlisting from their customers - and the vast majority of them never come to light...but when you have a large number of people brainstorming what they might like, you often get a diamond in the rough which can then be polished by Talin and handed off to one of their freelance sculptors to create something new.

http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/47090-minis-we-would-like-to-see-10-fantasy-version/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/40170-minis-we-would-like-to-see-fantasy-version/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/36204-minis-we-would-like-to-see-fantasy-version-thread-seven/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/23924-minis-we-would-like-to-see-fantasy-version/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/21700-minis-we-would-like-to-see-fantasy-version/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/18839-minis-we-would-like-to-see-fantasy-version/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/16428-minis-wed-like-to-see/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/13279-minis-you-would-like-to-see-part-ii/
http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/7611-minis-you-would-like-to-see/

Just a handful of them. In addition to the general fantasy list, you have lists for Bones, Chronoscope and I think there is even one for Mouslings. Out of all of those though, going back all the way to 2003, you have things like you mention pop up from now and then. Most never come to light though. Occasionally though you might have something like this guy:

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/owl/latest/03579

Crazy as it is as a concept - a Leprechaun riding an owl? It ended up being a pretty neat miniature.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
And for the record, Verocirax is by far the worst dragon they've put up. Appealing to fans of GW's abandoned S-dragons is probably a lost cause, considering GW themselves have phased them out. The Big V looks like Pete's Dragon with osteoporosis and an eating disorder.

GW's most recent dragons have moved away from it - but they are still part of the core. Even the plastic high elf dragon is an S dragon in a flat pose. For whatever reason though, it seems to have a strong following still.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
But what do I know? I only got into minis in 2003, so much that came before that period looks tacky and sad to my non-rose tinted glasses. Also, I find that dragons should either look like the works of Elmore, Parkinson, Todd Lockwood, Bob Eggleton or Michael Whelan, or they should look like someone who grants Goku's wishes. GW S-dragons just look like a horribly confused mish-mash of two different creatures.

Didn't mean to come off too snarky, but in a GW dominated board, a lot of people look at the art from that period from that side of the spectrum. The artwork for D&D was more refined than what you saw coming from GW (compare the Red box cover I linked to to the first edition cover of Talisman - both were released around the same time).

Well, I might have gone overboard on the snark, myself. I don't mean to be offensive. I just feel very disappointed in the last few Reaper offerings, and in conjunction with some adversarial encounters with their board, I see this as a result of their base harming the company. I mean, how many thousands of dollars are they going to sink into poorly-sculpted diaper dwarf, six-breasted weasel boo-boo and Puff the Flaccid Dragon? Certainly more than those miniatures will ever make with retail sales, unless there's some huge groundswell of appreciation I'm missing out on. Two of the latest five evil guys look like sad clowns. Reaper could be putting out much better sculpts of characters with the same race, class and load-out that they already have in their back catalog, but they are instead putting these out. I assume it's because they are listening to their inner circle of fans, people who openly state that they haven't moved on from Ral Partha and older companies. As someone who wants Reaper to succeed, the constant one step forward/one step backward is frustrating. As someone who wants enjoyable models as a reward for supporting Reaper, I find their choices are leaving me doubtful.


You know, I'm not really that upset over it, but I do feel the need to explain why I'm disappointed that Reaper is killing their own momentum to the point they need to beg people not to pull their pledges.

Well, the shipping guestimates are slightly better than the initial suggestion. I still dont like thay they are planning on putting the full value on the customs form though

I also wonder about local sales tax - is there any and can we claim that back

Regards the models - there is a real mixed bag at the moment - sadly filled with models which should probably be kept in the bag with a few rocks and thrown into a river...

Really hope they add a few good ones soon.

 SilverMK2 wrote:
Well, the shipping guestimates are slightly better than the initial suggestion. I still dont like thay they are planning on putting the full value on the customs form though

I also wonder about local sales tax - is there any and can we claim that back

Regards the models - there is a real mixed bag at the moment - sadly filled with models which should probably be kept in the bag with a few rocks and thrown into a river...

Really hope they add a few good ones soon.

I think the whole thing with customs is to avoid problems.. I mean think about it.. If you have a ton of packages going to the UK and they find out that reaper is fluffing the numbers to low they can turn away all shipments creating even more of a headache for everyone involved.. It kinda sucks, but they got smacked around for just putting the pledge amount on it last time..

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I mean, how many thousands of dollars are they going to sink into poorly-sculpted diaper dwarf, six-breasted weasel boo-boo and Puff the Flaccid Dragon? Certainly more than those miniatures will ever make with retail sales, unless there's some huge groundswell of appreciation I'm missing out on. Two of the latest five evil guys look like sad clowns. Reaper could be putting out much better sculpts of characters with the same race, class and load-out that they already have in their back catalog, but they are instead putting these out. I assume it's because they are listening to their inner circle of fans, people who openly state that they haven't moved on from Ral Partha and older companies. As someone who wants Reaper to succeed, the constant one step forward/one step backward is frustrating. As someone who wants enjoyable models as a reward for supporting Reaper, I find their choices are leaving me doubtful.

They are converting the metal minis to bones based mainly on past sales metrics and they've been pretty open about that:

Check out the top selling metal minis they have (top 100 dhl, top 50 chronoscope and top 50 warlord models)

http://www.reapermini.com/RetailSupport/RackContents/00140

http://www.reapermini.com/RetailSupport/RackContents/00201

http://www.reapermini.com/RetailSupport/RackContents/00552

They don't have a top 50 for the pathfinder stuff, but pathfinder stuff sells like hotcakes.

Most of them are going to get bonesed or got boneisized last KS.


Apparently, people online complain a lot about certain type of models - dragon stretch goals for instance but dragons in bones outsell everything else:

Over from the reaper forums:

three things: ONE in our last KS the Dragons were the single most popular add-ons - every dragon beat out every non-dragon. TWO at all 3 conventions we have done since the KS fulfillment concluded, we sold out of every dragon we brought, and online & Distributor sales are high. THREE: for the last year you people have been begging us to put every dragon we have in Bones to make them affordable.

and

We measure popularity in sales, not comments

That is because large plastic and resin dragons from other manufacturers are upwards of 80$+ and the bones ones are under half that.

I have been looking for a wyrm-like dragon and the cheapest ones I could find were like 50$.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Did someone badmouth O'Wolie the Owl-riding Leprechaun ?



cause them would be fighting words.

wow ive never seen the model before....its awesome

I have to say that I am getting more than a little annoyed with all the international backers whining and complaining about the shipping. You don't see this sort of behavior from that backers of UK or EU based kickstarters. Should I go whine and complain in the Winter War thread that EU countrys get free shipping and I have to pay?

Shipping overseas is insanely expensive as well as complicated. Reaper took it in the shorts big time with their first Bones Kickstarter. They would have been up well within their rights just simply refunded everyone's money and said we can't do this. This is not a charity this is a business.

The cold hard truth is that they simply don't need International customers. The bulk of their business is and has always been the American market. The fact that they don't have international distributors and such pretty much proves this out. That they are even willing to do international shipments speaks very highly of them and their commitment to their customers, regardless of where they are. Yet we have people here spitting virtol because Reaper refuses to ( figuratively ) stick a loaded gun to their head by lying on customs forms with respect to the shipment value.

I would not be surprised that if there is a bones 3, they exclude international shipments in entirely given how much grief this one has caused.

Verocithrax is interesting....I'm going to mess around with the Bones I have, to see how effective reposing can be. I think the model may be better (and better supported) if you coil it up and have a lower profile.

However....I'm hoping they do a new huge living dragon. Aside from the Pathfinder dragon, Kalandrax, Nethyrmaul and Wyrmgear (eg, the new dragons) are the best of the bunch.

 Phobos wrote:
I have to say that I am getting more than a little annoyed with all the international backers whining and complaining about the shipping. You don't see this sort of behavior from that backers of UK or EU based kickstarters. Should I go whine and complain in the Winter War thread that EU countrys get free shipping and I have to pay?

Shipping overseas is insanely expensive as well as complicated. Reaper took it in the shorts big time with their first Bones Kickstarter. They would have been up well within their rights just simply refunded everyone's money and said we can't do this. This is not a charity this is a business.

The cold hard truth is that they simply don't need International customers. The bulk of their business is and has always been the American market. The fact that they don't have international distributors and such pretty much proves this out. That they are even willing to do international shipments speaks very highly of them and their commitment to their customers, regardless of where they are. Yet we have people here spitting virtol because Reaper refuses to ( figuratively ) stick a loaded gun to their head by lying on customs forms with respect to the shipment value.

I would not be surprised that if there is a bones 3, they exclude international shipments in entirely given how much grief this one has caused.

Actually you do on (all) larger KS

The smaller the KS the less you see,

both because it's more niche (so those that seek it out Really want to back), and because there's only 1 or 2 moaners who give up and go away (on large projects you can have 10's to 100's of folk complaining once or twice and the comments end up flooded)

(and yes the folk moaning are, in general, being daft)

The only thing worse then whiners is whiners who whine about whiners.

 ulgurstasta wrote:
The only thing worse then whiners is whiners who whine about whiners.

Just where is our future, the things we've done and said!
Let's just push the button, we'd be better off dead!
'Cause I hate you!
And I berate you!
And I can't wait to get to you!

The sins of all our fathers, being dumped on us – the sons.
The only choice we're given is how many megatons?
And I eschew you!
And I say, screw you!
And I hope you're blue, too.

We're all bloody worthless, Just greedy human scum.
The numbers all add up to a negative sum.
And I hate you!
And I hate you!
And I hate you...too!

..?

@Phobos: Well researched.
Winter war-kickstarter has free shipping worldwide!

the postage issue has been talked to death. Needless to say there are other options to shipping than doing it all from bum***, texas.

 adhuin wrote:
@Phobos: Well researched.
Winter war-kickstarter has free shipping worldwide!

the postage issue has been talked to death. Needless to say there are other options to shipping than doing it all from bum***, texas.

UPS, Fedex, and DHL are all more expensive than USPS.

I propose freight shipping; it's much cheaper for international backers. It'll just take about 2 months

 judgedoug wrote:

 adhuin wrote:
@Phobos: Well researched.
Winter war-kickstarter has free shipping worldwide!

the postage issue has been talked to death. Needless to say there are other options to shipping than doing it all from bum***, texas.

UPS, Fedex, and DHL are all more expensive than USPS.

I propose freight shipping; it's much cheaper for international backers. It'll just take about 2 months

Correct, cheaper but longer. And this has all been covered before. In a few days their shipping calculator will be out. Best wait till then.

Some of the moaning is daft, and some is legit. Reaper shouldn't necessarily change their plans for either, but that doesn't make people wrong to complain.

Bones Kickstarter is about getting a pile of miniatures at a huge discount. There's going to be models you either don't like, or will never have the time to deal with just by the grab bag nature of the kickstarter. For a lot of Euro/Aussie backers, the shipping when combined with the likely duty being charged just destroys the value proposition. They're unhappy because it ceases to make sense for them, so why shouldn't they voice that unhappiness?

And there definitely is a perceived unfairness in the shipping prices. It's been explained well enough. It's real. I'm assuming $10 per capita is less than what it will cost to fulfill US orders, particularly when you realize that they don't have an increase for extra add-ons. Almost all of the complaints would be removed by reducing the quoted international shipping by $10.

And the hassle of sending stuff internationally is being overblown. No chance there's anything near that level of hassle when you're sending almost 4500 international packages (25% of the previous KS was quoted). You figure a system and you pump out labels. That's all there is to it. Maybe there's an extra label for it, but you don't need to spend half an hour per backer or anything. Comparing to experience sending a single international package just isn't a fair assessment.

The other thing Reaper should look into is getting a shipping discount. Not sure USPS does shipping discounts, but all the private companies do, and for the volume Reaper is shipping, they should get more than enough discount to be cheaper than USPS, at least internationally. Here's a discussion with some details, though it's a few years old:
http://forums.oscommerce.com/topic/74335-discounted-shipping-rates-fedexups/page__st__20

Reaper is probably right to run a tighter ship this kickstarter. This kickstarter is a lot more expensive comparatively - particularly when you factor in no Sophie/$25 trade value. The shipping, for a lot of backers, is another large increase. There's also a lot less models in the deal at a comparable dollar value. Overall, there's just a less crazy deal.

Last kickstarter made Reaper a bit of profit in the end, but not enough to really invest in the stateside Bones production in a meaningful way. This KS, even if it stalled out right now and didn't make another dollar, probably puts more money in Reaper's pockets for that purpose. That's smart from Reaper - and probably good in the long run, but that doesn't make it any better of a deal from the consumer point of view.

Looking at the value proposition, you also should factor in that you aren't getting anything for a year. That's earlier than stores, but still - if you pick and choose your favourite models, you can get them probably 4-6 months after the kickstarter.

For me in Canada, it's still probably a good deal, but I'm hoping for some really great add-ons.

Do UK kickstarters have to collect VAT on euro and UK pledges?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

decker_cky wrote:

The other thing Reaper should look into is getting a shipping discount. Not sure USPS does shipping discounts, but all the private companies do, and for the volume Reaper is shipping, they should get more than enough discount to be cheaper than USPS, at least internationally. Here's a discussion with some details, though it's a few years old:
http://forums.oscommerce.com/topic/74335-discounted-shipping-rates-fedexups/page__st__20

Reaper has said a couple of times that USPS won't give them a discount (and packages for bones don't qualify for the super cheap bulk mail). They've also said that at their volumes fed ex and UPS are more expensive than USPS for international stuff. I'll go dig up the quote.

There's more than volume and number of packages involved in the discount you get from Fedex and UPS. Rather than worrying about the specific volume, you phone up the rep and say "I'm interested in shipping with you for my second multimillion dollar kickstarter. We had 13,000 domestic and 4,500 international backers last time, and expect that number to increase. What kind of price can you offer?" Do that for the different companies. As I mentioned, USPS doesn't really provide discounts I don't think, but there's heavy discounting for the private companies.

edit: By Reaper's graph, they spent about $445k on shipping last kickstarter. There's pretty much no chance they can't get hefty discounts with that quantity of shipping.

 Phobos wrote:
The cold hard truth is that they simply don't need International customers.

Volume, volume, volume (economically, not just girthically (:

It's unfortunate that America's so darn big. I think it's less that the postage rates internationally are high, it's that domestic prices for US companies are so low. US taxpayers subsidize the USPS, and the competition has to lower its prices to be, well, competitive -- within the United States. You're also not going to hear an international complain that a KS is in USD, yet one of the first guidelines for non-US KS is to find some way to offer their KS in USD because, otherwise, the Americans won't look at your KS. If you look at Mantic, a UK based company, its KS says "Halethorpe, MD" -- and its currency is in USD! I also notice the division is between US and international. Yet, for the US, there is only one currency, only one set of postal forms to fill out, while, internationally, there are, what, hundred of countries? Everyone mentions shipping costs, but the postage overhead of 100 customers in *one* country is much less than than 100 customers in a hundred *different* countries. I'd also bet that the *time* it took to handle the international shipments took disproportionally longer than domestic, delaying the launch of KS2. Heck, Reaper even had a representative of UPS (?) for Canada (?) at their site, and they didn't get the forms right!

I put the blame more on our governments than Reaper. Protectionism... customs... VAT... postal forms... they're all barriers to international commerce, which, imo, ultimately benefits consumers worldwide.

decker_cky wrote:
"

edit: By Reaper's graph, they spent about $445k on shipping last kickstarter. There's pretty much no chance they can't get hefty discounts with that quantity of shipping.

Do you think they forgot to phone their rep or something? They got a quote from UPS last time and used it for us Canadian folks instead of USPS.


Having a hard time tracking down the quotes, that kickstarter comments section is a pita to search.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

ced1106 wrote:

 Phobos wrote:
The cold hard truth is that they simply don't need International customers.

Volume, volume, volume (economically, not just girthically (:

It's unfortunate that America's so darn big. I think it's less that the postage rates internationally are high, it's that domestic prices for US companies are so low. US taxpayers subsidize the USPS, and the competition has to lower its prices to be, well, competitive -- within the United States. You're also not going to hear an international complain that a KS is in USD, yet one of the first guidelines for non-US KS is to find some way to offer their KS in USD because, otherwise, the Americans won't look at your KS. If you look at Mantic, a UK based company, its KS says "Halethorpe, MD" -- and its currency is in USD! I also notice the division is between US and international. Yet, for the US, there is only one currency, only one set of postal forms to fill out, while, internationally, there are, what, hundred of countries? Everyone mentions shipping costs, but the postage overhead of 100 customers in *one* country is much less than than 100 customers in a hundred *different* countries. I'd also bet that the *time* it took to handle the international shipments took disproportionally longer than domestic, delaying the launch of KS2. Heck, Reaper even had a representative of UPS (?) for Canada (?) at their site, and they didn't get the forms right!

I put the blame more on our governments than Reaper. Protectionism... customs... VAT... postal forms... they're all barriers to international commerce, which, imo, ultimately benefits consumers worldwide.

Yeah, it took UPS a couple of tries to get us our packages in Canada.

Technically speaking though, VAT isn't a barrier to trade. That's why those free-trade fanatics at the OECD love VAT taxes.

As a consumer in Canada, I can either buy reaper locally, and pay GST, or buy from reaper directly and pay GST on the parcel once it crosses the border. As long as the tax is implemented across the board and not selectively my choices as a consumer shouldn't be distorted by the tax.

It may change my mind about whether to spend the money at all of course. I could decide to save it or something.


Hmmm - even more technically speaking, there is a school of thought in the US that considers VAT to be a "free trade barrier", because they are the only developed country in the world who doesn't have a VAT tax and instead goes with sales taxes and other none rebateable taxes. But the WTO, the OECD, NAFTA etc... beg to differ


-----



Anyhoo, the next stretch goal apparently has fewer than 5 heads and more than 2 eyes, according to a teaser from the reaperpeeps. Some type of calvalry?

Maybe Cerberus? Or a spider.

There is that giant spider mini.. http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/spider/price/03180#detail/03180_p_1_mr


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A bit more on why reaper is charging shipping now rather than waiting a year:

Reaper Miniatures 14 minutes ago

@Scott - here's some of why we won't be able to wait for postage - We had a significant number of non-responses to the pledge manager last time, which has caused some problems. We anticipate that not everyone takes the time to educate themselves about the precise requirements, so a number of backers will either never realize, or forget, that they need to reply to our e-mail notifying them to pay shipping now. We will hold their parcels, waiting for payment, which takes up space, and requires a lot more labor than "pre-paid, ok to ship the instant it is ready". A number of those backers will be more uspet that we have come back and "demanded" more money, and they will report us for fraud by taking their money and refusing to ship.

I know that's unfair, and it may only be 1% of overseas backers, but our experiences with the previous Kick starter showed us that not everybody is reasonable about these things, and we have to make policies that are simple, easy to understand, and clear. It hurts the ones like you, that take the time work with us and understand, and for that, we apologize.



Reaper Miniatures 19 minutes ago

@Scott - We will not be able to introduce a mechanism to wait for shipping until then - here's the quick & dirty version.
If we charge today $50 and it becomes $60, we eat $10 per backer, which is far better than we did last time, and is well within our calculated margins of error. Last time we ate several hundred thousand dollars because of both gross under-calculation and rate hikes.

What Reaper really should have done is estimate. The basic package is free for US, $25 for Canada, $50 for Europe and $60 for Australia. Something like that - Reaper should have a feel for how much the overall total will be in the end.

Then have various additions cost a bit of extra shipping. If a model is going to weigh over a kilo, charge $5-10 on international shippers for it. For everything they screwed up in their KS, having extra shipping per item was something that the Trollforged kickstarter has done very well - and it's all built into their calculator.

Doing something like that would be much more "simple, easy to understand, and clear" than the current shipping. It would also come off as much more fair, whether or not the end number was any different.

Bit of an answer as to why they aren't using a european distributor / reshipper:

Reaper Miniatures 2 minutes ago

@Hubert: We have looked into that kind of possibility - and it works very well if you have 1 or 2 items. We have complex orders, which can have dozens of items. In a nutshell, the fee they charge you to fulfill orders for you increases as the # of possible items in the orders goes up. We could have done so, and limited EU backers to Core Set Only, but felt that even more unfair than a variance in shipping rates. We knew coming in to this that it would hurt us with overseas pledgers, and would be unpopular. I should note that we appreciate that you are opening a dialogue with us, instead of the ranting that we sometimes receive. We are more than happy to talk about our reasons.