Is a Kickstarter for 6mm fantasy viable?

[lord marcus]

By one of the bigger names, microworld or baccus for example, to expand the ranges.

From what I've read, microworld depends on sales of current products to fund new products. This even when he has a pipeline of models that he wants to make a mile long.

In this instance would Kickstarter be a viable platform? To be perfectly honest if microworld or Bacchus did a centralized campaign based around either a new line of fantasy figures or an expansion, say hi elves for example , and backed by the relatively small but also extremely centralized 6mm community on this forum and a few others.....would it fund?

[RapierMiniatures]

Maybe.

Speaking with my 6mm manufacturers hat on, the issues are as follows.

With 6mm Historical you can get by with limited poses, in Fantasy the customer base is likely to want more variation. But, and here is the kicker, Fantasy will also likely want ones offs, heros, wizards, etc. These cost the same or more to produce as rank and file, but a player may buy 1000 rank and file orcs, and 1 hero.

This means that Fantasy tends to be a labour of love, that you hope will break even down the line.

We (Rapier Miniatures) have a small'ish range of classical Greek Fantasy already, and we are just starting our range of Fantasy aimed at Prax in the world of Glorantha in 6mm, but these are things we are doing for us, that we hope there are then other buyers for. On a purely economic scale, we have about 35 Historical armies that all should come first.

Kickstarters are very nice, but they have their own issues, you give up 6 weeks of your time to concentrate on that, but you still have the day job to do, all for something that at the end may not happen, so there tends to be a safety first aspect involved as well.

Now if you said: I want 2400 Elf Spearmen, and 2400 Elf archers, single pose of each with a shared 3 man command type, and I will pay up front with a 3 to 6 month delivery time, then we might be able to do it. On this we would not make any profit either, this would just cover the costs of doing it. Each Cavalry pose would need a pre buy of 1000 figures per single pose with a 3 man command. And a Dragon, 200 of them.

It is possible, but much more viable for a new starter to do it with KS, than an established Company, and you are in a very small (but thankfully growing) pool of buyers.

Not trying to put a downer on it, but to offer a realistic expectation.

[Stroezie]

Not certain if you're just thinking of fantasy in general or if you are trying to get a sense if a 6mm elves kickstarter could gain some traction.

If you're looking for more 6mm elves Microworld has some in the pipeline, tentative release first quarter 2018, you can check out the previews here
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=137&t=32061

The other problem with kickstarter is that a lot of people don't see it as helping to get a new thing started but as pre sale, give me huge amounts of stuff for next to no money, it better be cheaper than in the store... so you have to calculate that into it as well.

@ RapierMiniatures

I simply LOVE your Greek fantasy range, hands down my favourite 6mm fantasy figures but yeah, it could use a hero pack 
(easily assembled from amongst your exelent classical ancients line, where I got my heroes from)

Cheers,
Stroezie.

[lord marcus]

Maybe.

Speaking with my 6mm manufacturers hat on, the issues are as follows.

With 6mm Historical you can get by with limited poses, in Fantasy the customer base is likely to want more variation. But, and here is the kicker, Fantasy will also likely want ones offs, heros, wizards, etc. These cost the same or more to produce as rank and file, but a player may buy 1000 rank and file orcs, and 1 hero.

This means that Fantasy tends to be a labour of love, that you hope will break even down the line.

We (Rapier Miniatures) have a small'ish range of classical Greek Fantasy already, and we are just starting our range of Fantasy aimed at Prax in the world of Glorantha in 6mm, but these are things we are doing for us, that we hope there are then other buyers for. On a purely economic scale, we have about 35 Historical armies that all should come first.

Kickstarters are very nice, but they have their own issues, you give up 6 weeks of your time to concentrate on that, but you still have the day job to do, all for something that at the end may not happen, so there tends to be a safety first aspect involved as well.

Now if you said: I want 2400 Elf Spearmen, and 2400 Elf archers, single pose of each with a shared 3 man command type, and I will pay up front with a 3 to 6 month delivery time, then we might be able to do it. On this we would not make any profit either, this would just cover the costs of doing it. Each Cavalry pose would need a pre buy of 1000 figures per single pose with a 3 man command. And a Dragon, 200 of them.

It is possible, but much more viable for a new starter to do it with KS, than an established Company, and you are in a very small (but thankfully growing) pool of buyers.

Not trying to put a downer on it, but to offer a realistic expectation.

If that one pose could be replicated and produced in strips of 5 men, I'd save and make that purchase.

[robh]

I doubt it would be possible for a manufacturer to set up and fund a complete range (multiple units in multiple armies with suitable monsters and creatures) in a single KS campaign. The initial funding level required would likely be too high for a relatively limited pool of customers to achieve.
Sadly IMHO, much of the development and resource that should have gone into 6mm wargaming has been diverted to 10mm so there are now fewer people likely to be interested.

However a smaller campaign for limited unit options or a single army should be possible in traditional white metal. But it would likely be a "true" KS in that it raises the funds necessary to pay for the actual design and production of the figures with limited stretch goals.
It would require more trust and patience from supporters than seems to be the norm for KS campaigns post the CMoN/Mantic greed fests.

Difficulty is which army for which genre of Fantasy to do?  Tolkien/Gemmel/Feist/Moorcock and other Fantasy authors have different visions of the races, technologies and armies in their worlds, and those visions influence the forces their fans want to recreate in miniature. Not to mention the plethora of less mainstream  backgrounds that have been created.
I am a huge fan of 6mm gaming and am slowly picking up miniatures for gaming Moorcock's Runestaff Wars in the scale. But having chosen that specific aspect of fantasy; with its unique look and style, means a new range of Tolkein/Warhammer inspired Elves and Orcs, however nicely done, has no interest for me.

[lord marcus]

I doubt it would be possible for a manufacturer to set up and fund a complete range (multiple units in multiple armies with suitable monsters and creatures) in a single KS campaign. The initial funding level required would likely be too high for a relatively limited pool of customers to achieve.
Sadly IMHO, much of the development and resource that should have gone into 6mm wargaming has been diverted to 10mm so there are now fewer people likely to be interested.

However a smaller campaign for limited unit options or a single army should be possible in traditional white metal. But it would likely be a "true" KS in that it raises the funds necessary to pay for the actual design and production of the figures with limited stretch goals.
It would require more trust and patience from supporters than seems to be the norm for KS campaigns post the CMoN/Mantic greed fests.

Difficulty is which army for which genre of Fantasy to do?  Tolkien/Gemmel/Feist/Moorcock and other Fantasy authors have different visions of the races, technologies and armies in their worlds, and those visions influence the forces their fans want to recreate in miniature. Not to mention the plethora of less mainstream  backgrounds that have been created.
I am a huge fan of 6mm gaming and am slowly picking up miniatures for gaming Moorcock's Runestaff Wars in the scale. But having chosen that specific aspect of fantasy; with its unique look and style, means a new range of Tolkein/Warhammer inspired Elves and Orcs, however nicely done, has no interest for me.

Good points. I also think a one race Kickstarter is more ideal