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I was wondering what the fine posters of this most excellent forum did with all of their Robotech Tactics, HeroClix, Babylon 5 Wars, etc, games that either gave up early, or faded into obscurity over the years?

I've started looking at KS / indie games and wondering if I'm just investing in books that will take up shelf space and boxes of miniatures that will be relegated to the closet.

I attempted to ebay some of my stuff, but obscure games aren't great sellers...

What do you do with all of your unused plastic crack?

Dead games minis sit in boxes, collecting dust.
Same with boxes of dead CCGs.

Some old game books are still on the shelf. They have enough fond memories attached to them that just seeing them there is a touchtone to better days.

I've got a few dead games sitting around. I've got like 5 teams for Guild Ball (although I've heard somewhere that they might have revived that one), a starter set for Dark Age, the starter for Dreadball Xtreme, and a bunch of old CCG stuff (Star Trek, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings, all by Decipher Inc.). I've also got both starter sets and a couple of extra teams for Godtear, which I bought mostly because I liked the models even though they are likely just closet fodder. And in addition to all that, I've got a couple thousand of the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars miniatures from that collectible miniatures game they did for a while (the game was in production from like 2004-2013 or something, including some 16 sets). Some fond memories attached to those; my brother and I and a couple of our friends from church must have spent a few hundred hours playing that game!

Edit: Maybe I should pay attention to the topic question. As for what I do with them, sadly they are just in "cold storage" collecting dust, awaiting a day when I might get them out and at least look at them again. Maybe if I ever have kids I'll have something fun to share with them, or at least if my brother and his wife make me some nephews and nieces (I'll be that strange but fun uncle with the toy soldier collection).

I've been collecting miniatures for about 25 years, and space has always been a bit limited—especially since I tend to move every couple of years. I worry a lot about keeping my models safe, particularly the ones I actively game with. Buying the cases to transport and move them can also be pretty costly.

So, when it comes to miniatures from games that are no longer supported or played, I do end up tossing them out. I know that might sound a bit controversial, but if the game’s dead and I’m not playing it, chances are I won’t find someone who is—and I wouldn’t try to convince someone to start collecting for a game that’s no longer supported.

I build a community and keep playing them. Not as often as i like sometimes, but they are not truly dead if the fans still support them.

Games i still play no longer in production-

DUST 1947-i own 5 armies a friend of mine has 2-cults 3d has STLs of all the official minis no longer in production as well as fan made "dustified" normal WWII vehicles.




B5 wars-i own narns, shadows and earth alliance i have friends who have vorlons earth alliance ange league of non-aligned worlds, additionally i use star trek attack wing and star wars armada with the converted B5 wars rules.





Victory at sea 1st edition-own a British and IJN fleet. friend of mine has pretty much everything else. we use all the old axis and allies fleet action minis.



Battle tactics-WWII large scale (1/32 scale)-forces of valor made this skirmish WWII game that has 6 pages of rules to market for the toy line. i own both a german and russian force i play every now and then.



then there is of course the GW games no longer supported, i think by now the fact our group still plays 5th ed 40k is well known, but aside from that we do BFG and epic-

Dead games (or at least dead to me):

RPGs
These take up the bottom shelf of one of my bookcases. I keep telling myself I might one day I might do something with these.
SW (d20),
World of Darkness - Hunter,
Star Frontiers (complete run),
Rogue Trader RPG (from about 10yrs ago?),
D20 Modern,
Hero System,
Ars Magica (2e? only the main book),
Metamorphous Alpha - modern reprint
Everquest

Minis
If it's a game I've no intention of playing again any minis from it I'm keeping get sorted & go into labeled storage totes.
They get recycled into other minis games or RPGs as I find a use for them. Could be used as whole minis, might become bitz.... Their rules get tossed.

Board Games
"dead" is not quite an accurate description for BGs. But, over the years, there's been a few that turned out to be duds/unpopular in the groups I play with.
While I don't mind having a shelf of dead RPG books, or several totes of orphan minis, dud boardgames take up alot of space.
So they get culled pretty quick. 1st I offer them up on the groups Discord/at the shop, etc. If nobody wants them? Then they get dropped off at the local Good Will.

CCGs
Other than Magic I was never much into CCGs.
My Magic (all 1993-2k sets, + Cold Snap, Time Spiral block, the D&D sets, & the 40k decks from a few years ago)? Sorted & stored safely - with the $$$ cards from the early sets secure in a safety deposit box.
Any other CCGs I tried for a bit back in the 90's? All long gone. Some given away (Mech Warrior), others just binned.

Video Games!
Buried in the rear of a closet I've got an Atari 2600, Intellivision, NES, Sega Genisis + add ons, an N64, a Game Cube, PS1, PS2, and an XBox 360 + games & all cables etc for each.
As far as I know all still work. Though I don't know if some of them could be even be hooked up to my current TV system....

GW games:
There's only 2 GW games in my collection I'd consider "Dead" - Warmaster & Man-O-War
For WM I've got a complete Kislev force + rules
For MoW I've got the rules + a complete Dark Elf fleet (at least 1 of everything beyond the basic ships)

 aphyon wrote:
Battle tactics-WWII large scale (1/32 scale)-forces of valor made this skirmish WWII game that has 6 pages of rules to market for the toy line. i own both a german and russian force i play every now and then.

That's awesome! I'd love to play a WW2 game in that scale. I have a big collection of King & Country metal figures and resin vehicles in that scale - they are rather fragile, however.

As to the main topic, like others I tend to throw out games that never get played. Apart from space, an issue for me is that Hong Kong has a very humid climate, which is murder on anything that uses cardboard components. My copies of Heroquest and Space Crusade basically became unusable. I have all the Zombicide Black Plague boxes, plus most of the add-ons, and I'll keep them till they fall apart, but most other stuff ends up as landfill. I'll be moving soon, so I am going to throw out virtually all of my GW books apart from the RT and 3rd Edition stuff.

I'm much more of a hoarder when it comes to the models. I still have most of the models I painted for RT and 2nd Edition.

I created a thread about what is a "dead game" some time ago. In the end no clear answer; unless someone is a "GW-head", in that case discontinued=dead (which are not the same but anyways...).

 aphyon wrote:
I build a community and keep playing them. Not as often as i like sometimes, but they are not truly dead if the fans still support them.


then there is of course the GW games no longer supported, i think by now the fact our group still plays 5th ed 40k is well known, but aside from that we do BFG and epic-

Cool!! Epic. For example it is easier for me to get an Epic Armageddon (discontinued) game than for example Warcry, TOW, or Spearhead (not discontinued). But it is clear that Epic Armageddon is dying, and moreso after the release of Legions Imperialis.

ccs wrote:
Dead games (or at least dead to me):


GW games:
There's only 2 GW games in my collection I'd consider "Dead" - Warmaster & Man-O-War
For WM I've got a complete Kislev force + rules
For MoW I've got the rules + a complete Dark Elf fleet (at least 1 of everything beyond the basic ships)

Warmaster resurrected (a bit) thanks to the 3d revolution and the designs from Forest Dragon. But yeah, very much dead...

Also, what is a dead game in your neck of the woods might be thriving here.

I saw a bunch of guys playing OGRE three weeks ago. I thought that game had bought the proverbial farm 25 years ago.

That's why one thing I like about forums is that if you hear about someone playing a game you haven't touched in a decade, you can always sell/donate the stuff to someone else.

Dead doesn't matter to me. If I have the minis and the books I can play the game. So I keep my stuff and will get rid of it only if I can't ever see myself playing the game.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
Also, what is a dead game in your neck of the woods might be thriving here.

Yep.

So, what I do with LOCALLY dead games, is I sell the minis. If not able to sell them, I give them away to someone I am pretty sure is going to make good use of them.

Most games I keep to some degree or another. I'll generally try to get them to more of an "out of the box" playable state and store them as such. At least a couple factions or forces ready to go but taking up as little space as possible. These things tend to come around and get brought back out for one reason or another. I definitely have a few I should really cut completely, but the hard thing is that kind of stuff really lacks a market to offload them to.

It depends! I've sold painted armies for games that I didn't like (WFB, 30K) or that were dead in my area (Warmachine). I've even sold painted stuff for 40k when they become redundant or have an old paint scheme.

but for the valueless, unpainted stuff? Some is kept, some I give away on the flimsiest pretext, and some I keep. Usually if I can see a potential use some day, either for the intended game or another, I keep them.

I will say that usually I sort of accumulate stuff, and then when I have to move or something, I do a cull. But I'm far more of a collector of painted forces than a player.

Games might die (though that is debatable) but minis are forever.

Our club has long centered mostly around Miniature-Agnostic Wargames. If a game dies or the rules become un-fun we change rules and when other folks dop a game it's just one more source of cheap figures for our armies. The miniatures don't become obsolete if the game dies.

Examples:

-Fantasy miniatures of a few dozen manufacturers/games still find a home in our games of Kings of War, Song of Blades and Heroes, Age of Fantasy, Dragon Rampant and others. At last week's installment of our Song of Blades and Heroes campaign we had minis from WHFB, Confrontation, Ral Partha (AD&D and regular) Reaper, Grenadier, Harlequin, and several other brands I can't remembe. Most of these have or had a game associated with them at one time.

-Sci-Fi minis of all types have found a home in Grimdark Future, Space Weirdos, Mech Attack (28mm) etc.

-Our 10mm Sci-Fi Gaming (Mech Attack, Alpha Strike, PZ8 Sci-Fi, etc) is mostly done with rebased Mechwarrior clix. We bought buckets for peanuts when the game died.

-Several different lines of WWW2 and WW2 minis found a home in Konflikt 47 and might see use in other rules in the future.

That's not to say I keep everything. I do sell off batches of minis when I lose interest. However, as a result of buying cheap and/or minis I own becoming scarce, I'm usually able to recoup my investment.

All this to say buy the minis you like, play the games you like and use the backgrounds you like. It's your game!