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Stretch Goals to $4 million. Current amount $2,643,071



and the coloured minis image from the prior page link

I want those Dread Warriors!

Even if I need to buy them separately

Don't know how much I care for the new Abominations, but that Dragon looks nice, as do the Warriors and Sorcerer!

Hasbro is doing a Q&A on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/heroquest/status/1321876064830935043

rox wrote:
Don't know how much I care for the new Abominations, but that Dragon looks nice, as do the Warriors and Sorcerer!

Those Abominations are in place of the Fimir, a change no doubt made to separate this from GW's IP, GW having made the original games minis. I'm definitely going to have to find some appropriately sized Fimir.

 aka_mythos wrote:

rox wrote:
Don't know how much I care for the new Abominations, but that Dragon looks nice, as do the Warriors and Sorcerer!

Those Abominations are in place of the Fimir, a change no doubt made to separate this from GW's IP, GW having made the original games minis. I'm definitely going to have to find some appropriately sized Fimir.

I actually don't have a single problem with the change to the Abominations. I actually like the one they have been showing off with the base box. Not particularly a fan of the stretch goal one however, though that could change after seeing it in hand. The biggest issue for me is the posture. The one holding the spear/trident seems more dynamic. I would say I have the same problem with the gargoyle, but I don't think either of them have the best positioning. Past that, the transition away from GW IP does not both me, and I think they have done so appropriately with both the Abominations and Dread Warriors/Sorcerer.

Always Board Never Boring and Board Game Coffee got some samples. The miniature seems to be made of a very rubbery plastic there's a lot of bend in the axe head.

At first glance, it looks like the same plastic that the prepainted D&D miniatures are made out of, though the paint job is much better than I've seen on prepaints. I don't remember there being an option for getting the minis painted, so that's a nice little "collector's" item.

I hope the dice are as crisp as shown in the video - they look really, really good too. And that dice box is boss.

Hmmm, guess they did a trial batch to finalise the mould design and sent them out as promos? Because if they just wanted to send out promos from the render, you’d just 3D print it, surely?

 DaveC wrote:
Always Board Never Boring and Board Game Coffee got some samples. The miniature seems to be made of a very rubbery plastic there's a lot of bend in the axe head.

That's put me right off it, I would have preferred hard plastic. I'll wait for the finished product before handing any money over.

Frankly, it’s kind of alarming the way people are falling all over this, and the Haslabs Star Wars BS. People here have a good time ragging on GW, but they are small fry compared to the corporate greed and evil that emanates from Hasbro. They have no business at all running Kickstarter model projects for stuff they know will sell. Meanwhile they Scrooge McDuck in their billions, while you fund their no risk projects. They’re not your friends, and they would step over your dying corpse in the street if it would save them a penny.

NO product is guaranteed to sell (ask GW about Dreadfleet, for example), if they want to do a kickstarter-like program for a dubious boardgame, that's their business. It's not on Kickstarter anyways, they're running it from their own platform. If you think it's worth the price, invest in it. If not, stay away. It's a pre-order-plus system, nothing more. I think retailers would be smart to do this more often - we wouldn't see shelves cluttered with junk that won't sell so much.

I'm not Hasbo's friend, nor do I expect them to be mine. What I do want is for them to produce a product I will buy, at a price point I think is sane - and I feel that is what they are doing.

If that lets you sleep at night, so be it. Hasbro is vile for doing this, and I’m surprised people don’t need to immediately need to shower afterwards. And if GW was using this tactic, they’d get the same criticism. You’re going easy on a slimy business tactic. Expect more of the same, until you’re the one getting bitten. Then see how much they care about you and your support.

> Hasbro is vile for doing this

Hasbro is vile for providing a product boardgamers have been clamoring for 30-some years and meeting them halfway to provide them a hobby-level product -- when they could just spit out another Disney-branded Monopoly tie-in.

You're free not to buy it, you know??

Yep Hasbro is doing the sensible thing. Provide a requested release via a means guaranteed to clearly succeed or fail rather than risk millions on something “everyone” wants only to see that it was a vocal internet minority not prepared to actually pay for it either - as has happened with some Transformers releases that the “community” (a term that, in fandom, rarely means what it should) demanded.

It’s a luxury. It’ll get a retail release eventually. Sure, for a lot of people £150 is a lot upfront especially before Christmas and during the current ongoing crisis. But, you only have to look at Kickstarter to see a lot of people throw far more money at projects by far lesser known companies.

Hasbro could have done the base game, no extras, for £150.

I guarantee some of the haters will be pushing up the eBay prices come release.

I don’t hate on GW, I just exercise my annoyance with their pricing sometimes by not buying , or finding the best deal or buying second hand.

£150 for a board game, plus at least two expansion packs and a metric ton of models that can be used for various RPGs (once we’re free to game again)? That seems like a pretty good deal to me.

And yes, there’s the question of “does a big company need to use crowd funding”, but if it’s the difference between getting a cool but financially risky product or not, then I’m all for it. Bear in mind that this is probably going to be getting a retail release afterwards, so this information will inform them as to how big a production run they do for that and how widely available they make it. I’d bet good money that they’re also looking at whether to make additional expansions further down the line and the level of popularity here will determine whether they think that’s worthwhile (hopefully yes, based on the current performance!)

Big companies chase big rewards for investment, they want the greatest potential return for the money they spend. So sometimes they have resources to do great things ,but won't do it because its too niche or the estimations of sales aren't in line with the profits. They'd rather spend that money on another Starwars board game or other product because that has a far higher chance of generating a greater profit than a 30 year old board game that "might" have a market.

Remember there's a big difference between what people want to buy and what people are willing to justify spending money on.


Crowdfunding is no different to pre-ordering save that it happens earlier in the process (typically but sometimes its done purely to generate capital for the orders). If anything a big name like Hasbro is a very safe project to back, far more so than Dave and Diana who are doing their first KS and making a brand new board game having never made one before.

Crowd funding might have started as a concept to allow smaller businesses to start new projects, but its equally valid for big firms to start niche ideas or even major projects. So long as they deliver everyone wins.

Also, they’ve got fully worked up designs for all of the elements and, given those promo miniatures, they’ve been doing some pre-production, so they’ve actually put a fair bit of investment in already. I guess this crowd funding is just to determine the size of production run.

 Jadenim wrote:
I guess this crowd funding is just to determine the size of production run.

I agree with that. The core of the game is already done and it's pretty much clear they're not touching it. Only the additionnal characters and quests are new stuff, the miniatures are just a different design.

Hasbro never needed a crowfunding for this game - which is why it's guaranteed to go to retail. It's just a question to probe the numbers, to me.

And yeah, they're no saints either. It's another nostalgia game preying on old people to relive their childhood and making money out of it, in the end. Yet it's still nice to see Heroquest again.

 totalfailure wrote:
If that lets you sleep at night, so be it. Hasbro is vile for doing this, and I’m surprised people don’t need to immediately need to shower afterwards. And if GW was using this tactic, they’d get the same criticism. You’re going easy on a slimy business tactic. Expect more of the same, until you’re the one getting bitten. Then see how much they care about you and your support.

There are a lot of vile things - and people in the world, but a toy company running a preorder on their own website is one. And of all the crap going on in the world, a toy preorder is probably the last thing that would keep me up at night. If it’s at the top of your list of worries, you’re living a charmed life in 2020.

Having thought long and hard about it, I've bailed on the crowdfunder.

The project seems to be well handled by Hasbro and Avalon Hill, and the value for £150 is impressive and probably worth the wait. The models are fantastic and quite frankly would have been blown away by them as a child. Sending out the "thank you" to channels is something to be commended, although I do hope that they have also sent one to Bardic Broadcasts for obvious reasons. Nothing but good will on that front.

That all said, it was the release I was hoping for this Christmas, not next Christmas. The only time I tie up money for that length of time is in shares. While it'll be a shame to miss out on the hero variants etc, so long as they eventually release the main game and the expansions - thats all I asked the universe for regarding Heroquest. For the time being, I have Castle Ravenloft that continues to scratch that itch, along with a Raspberry Pi acting as an Amiga with the excellent home computer adaptation of Heroquest and Return of the Witchlord installed. Also, I've decided to take the plunge with Blackstone Fortress and the odd expansion.

While I still believe that the game didn't need a crowd funder, there is a silver lining that is seeing what else beyond the core game that Hasbro & Avalon Hill have in store. We could have just received the core game with little idea if they would go as far as Return of the Witchlord and Kellar's Keep, nor the insight into what their thoughts were on additional models and heros. Whether the extra bits see the shelves or not at some point, we know from the start what they have in mind for Heroquest.

 totalfailure wrote:
If that lets you sleep at night, so be it. Hasbro is vile for doing this, and I’m surprised people don’t need to immediately need to shower afterwards. And if GW was using this tactic, they’d get the same criticism. You’re going easy on a slimy business tactic. Expect more of the same, until you’re the one getting bitten. Then see how much they care about you and your support.

I think you're overdramatizing the seriousness of the situation a smidge there, Mr. Failure. Your entire "Wake up, sheeple!" schtick is as tired as it is misguided. You're not some lone voice of reason in the wilderness.

As excited as I was for a HQ rerelease, that soft bendy plastic dwarf has my finger over the cancel pledge button.
For the price, these should be better quality plastic that’s at least a little firmer.
I feel like the only person that finds this alarming. That looks like cruddy Wizkids plastic to me. I might put my money elsewhere despite wanting this reprint for 30 years.

 Ghool wrote:
As excited as I was for a HQ rerelease, that soft bendy plastic dwarf has my finger over the cancel pledge button.
For the price, these should be better quality plastic that’s at least a little firmer.
I feel like the only person that finds this alarming. That looks like cruddy Wizkids plastic to me. I might put my money elsewhere despite wanting this reprint for 30 years.

I would only be concerned if I intended to paint them, as the bendy plastic could result in cracking the paint job.

Otherwise, the designs are fantastic compared to the originals and assuming they are similar to the soft-bendiness of the D&D tile-board game models, they are more likely to survive accidents.

> Remember there's a big difference between what people want to buy and what people are willing to justify spending money on.

Hooboy, that. Beasts of War (and other forums, of course) were up in pitchforks when Hasborg didn't have EU shipment. Then, when they did, they saw the price tag and said NOPE.

Yeah, I'd like to be -- er, know -- the suit who argues for EU sales then finds out that -- whoopsie -- that sales there are a lower ROI than NA. There goes the corner office, VP title, and Christmas bonus.

For large companies, it's not just a matter of making money. It's a matter of best allocating your company resources so you make the most money, know how much risk you're taking, and minimizing that risk. You get none of that listening to a vocal minority (unless they pay up front).


> I feel like the only person that finds this alarming. That looks like cruddy Wizkids plastic to me. I might put my money elsewhere despite wanting this reprint for 30 years.

In hindsight, it makes sense. At least in theory, said vocal minority said they'd be playing the game with their kids more often than painting them. I don't think Hasbro has much experience in high-quality plastics. Hopefully, you'll be able to find a copy of the original HQ at a more accessible price. HQ mini's paint up nicely, and can, of course, be proxied with more detailed miniatures.

 Jadenim wrote:
£150 for a board game, plus at least two expansion packs and a metric ton of models that can be used for various RPGs (once we’re free to game again)? That seems like a pretty good deal to me.

And yes, there’s the question of “does a big company need to use crowd funding”, but if it’s the difference between getting a cool but financially risky product or not, then I’m all for it. Bear in mind that this is probably going to be getting a retail release afterwards, so this information will inform them as to how big a production run they do for that and how widely available they make it. I’d bet good money that they’re also looking at whether to make additional expansions further down the line and the level of popularity here will determine whether they think that’s worthwhile (hopefully yes, based on the current performance!)

There's a two-edged sword with doing a retail release after a KSque entry - you run the risk most of your buyers got their copies through the KS, leaving only a small, non-profitable group to purchase the retail version. If you doubt this, just look at what happened with the Robotech KS.

> There's a two-edged sword with doing a retail release after a KSque entry - you run the risk most of your buyers got their copies through the KS, leaving only a small, non-profitable group to purchase the retail version. If you doubt this, just look at what happened with the Robotech KS.

*Which* buyers, though? HQ certainly would not be able to be sold at traditional big box stores. No way is Mom and Pop gonna spend $100+ on a boardgame for junior for Christmas, even if they'll do so for a console. It took a company like Asmodee to even bring $50 Eurogames to the shelves.

OTOH, I'm not familiar how Hasbro sells to collectors. I hear with the Star Wars merchandise, they can get collectors to jump through a lot of hoops.

As for Palladium, unless you're talking about the hardcore hobbyists as the target audience, I don't think is a good example to use with *this* crowdfunding project. The Robotech hardcore hobbyist target audience is not the same as Hasbro's casual toy buyer big box audience. You *are* correct that it's often the case that a KS and its retail market overlap, and I've read that some FLGS refuse to carry KS games in their stores.

Don't forget a KS can also flood a market with a lot of cheap products from resellers (either those who bought into it with that intention, or those who bought into it, wound up with too much and had to sell).

Because a lot of KS often provide the product at a much reduced rate, its possible to buy into the big ones and sell what you get and profit and still be selling less than retail. So the retail market ends up competing with a huge glut of stock on the secondhand market - all of which is brand new and cheaper. This can stall local sales, esp if, as noted above, the core market also bought heavily into the KS.

Whilst heavy discounts in KS help drive higher sales; they can also damage followup retail market sales.

4 days 20 hrs left. Blaze those stretch goals!

Hoping for a strong finish to reach the extra abominations and dread warriors.

We really needed them to sort out European shipping. Not sure how they expected us to reach 4mil without them.

SamusDrake wrote:

 Ghool wrote:
As excited as I was for a HQ rerelease, that soft bendy plastic dwarf has my finger over the cancel pledge button.
For the price, these should be better quality plastic that’s at least a little firmer.
I feel like the only person that finds this alarming. That looks like cruddy Wizkids plastic to me. I might put my money elsewhere despite wanting this reprint for 30 years.

I would only be concerned if I intended to paint them, as the bendy plastic could result in cracking the paint job.

Otherwise, the designs are fantastic compared to the originals and assuming they are similar to the soft-bendiness of the D&D tile-board game models, they are more likely to survive accidents.

I’ve e been painting and playing with miniatures for over 35 years.
That was the intent. With any plastic it’s easy to avoid breakage - it’s plastic.
This soft rubbery crud they appear to be using here is the lowest end of the scale material.
And they’re asking a premium price for it.
If I can’t paint the stuff, or there isn’t much point due to the material, the value proposition drops off a cliff.
At least paying a premium I get a higher value for time vs dollars spent because of the painting time commitment.
Without that, it’s just another dungeon crawler flooding the already crowded genre. Only with shoddy plastic for their models.