The end and new beginnings of Dredd

[robh]

I think the fact the brand owners going in so deep with them suggests they have proper plans for Dredd that are hopefully more serious / cultish than plastic board games.

That would mean prices that wargamers will not pay for limited run resin models, almost certainly not in 25/28mm sizing. Beautiful to own and paint but never to see action on the table.
The revenue to be had from the skirmish wargamers market is tiny compared to the collectables market so if it were to be a new range it would not be aimed at buyers like us.

[Ulfhednar]

ThreeA do a different thing to how wargaming miniatures are, but they're a certain type of Company, the fact the brand owners have gone with them says that they're not willing to sell Dredd out. As a brand, compared to all the increasingly recently invented / plastic American action heroes, it has huge value because of how old / original it is, how politically incorrect it always was, it's not in anyway manufactured. The manufactured Dredd film (Stallone) did ok at the box office, never became cult, had no legs. The recent Dredd film failed at box office but has become cult and it's giving the whole thing momentum, because it's uncompromising and not sold out. Who knows what they'll do, but I think there's as good a chance it will finally come good, they'll do it properly (for enthusiasts and gamers to keep it cult).

edit - yes the figures are delicate and detail is lightly defined so they are harder to paint and not necessarily best seen on mass and at distance like in wargaming. But in the range there are whole combat units, like Citi-Def with uniformed officer, hvy weapons, medic, jaegar scout & jaeger sniper, the Judges in light & hvy holo-suits (like 40k terminators) the Brit-Cit judges, there's enough to create a proper Meg-1 fighting force with allies. And there's the East-Meg force and reinforcements that can be augmented with other ranges, same with the Cultists and also the Zombie blister (really good mixed with Pulp Weird Science figures, affordable quality metal figures). They've also licensed a Mars Attacks Dredd (it looks ace), and the Mars Attacks plastic figures are cheap and straightforward to paint (uniformity, simple design, plastic bubble helmets make average painted models look good), could create huge enemy force with that (led by a Martian Dredd, it has giant robots, flying saucers etc). Yes Warlord's Dredd range needs loads more to reduce figure repetition, and some more solid figures as unit builders, but it was a big step in the right direction (compared to what existed before, only Citadel & Foundry that was very limited) and judging by the Meg-1 combat units muted at the end of the Rogue Trooper kickstarter, hopefully where this is still heading.

BTW Martian Dredd (that I think is metal despite most of range being plastic), is much cheaper from Wayland or Element games than on Ebay. Don't know if they or Warlord sell the Martian grunts, giant robots, flying saucers, laser cannons etc and at better prices too, but ebay shows the range is big, cheap and potentially useful for fun wargames against MegaCity-1. Same with the troops from the Terminator game, or all the plastic zombie hordes, or if there's an Aliens game with plastic figures around yet etc, or old 40k plastic Tyrannids off that Space Hulk game). I think the Dredd range would work well as a hub to loads of fun affordable Sci-Fi wargaming. I'm going to try to take from the Dredd game rules, just use it as reference for special troop and character types and put it into Warhammer40k (just cuz it's easy and works).

[n815e]

I think it was in a good position, considering the more modern trend of charcter-driven, low-model count, skirmish games on smaller tables.
The oddball stuff is great.  I can get gangers or mutant standins from many companies to play with, but where else would I get sky surfers or bat gliders, kleggs or the iconic judges?
Those were the elements that made the range worth buying into.

I hope that whomever has the license will do something with miniatures, even if it isn't going to continue with these.  I know not everyone agrees with me, but I think it is a shame that these look like they are disappearing.

[mcfonz]

It will be a miniature license that Mongoose / Warlord had.

Interestingly, it is Mongoose that is not renewing/losing the license so as has already been said, it is quite possible that Warlord get it.

In which case I can see them keeping certain models from the range and ditching others.

[Andrew May]

So who do we think has the licence now?

Warlord?
Mantic?
CMON?
GW?

[mcfonz]

Not wishing to sound patronising but Mongoose still has the license at this point in time.

The sale is because the license is coming to an end. When it ends, they can't sell the miniatures at all. So the sale is to get shot of as much stock as possible by then.

Again, if we go back to the quoted email:

"As our license on Judge Dredd has almost reached its end, we are currently planning the future for its range and game and re-negotiating our agreements with the brand owners. This may mean that we may decide to modify the way the models will be available.

Please stay tuned on our website pages and newsletter for imminent news on Judge Dredd developments!" (He included the exclamation mark, not me)!

Now, if this is correct, it would appear that Warlord effectively took over the responsibility of the license from Mongoose. This would have been done with the agreement of the license holder - but probably would have been until the end of the original license term.

I am most intrigued about "modify the way the models will be available". Now, this is just me, but I wonder if that means they recognise that the range is patchy in terms of quality and continuity and that they will pick the models they feel have longevity and perhaps slowly replace the others. Perhaps quickly replace?

[n815e]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1990654819/judge-dredd-miniatures-game-block-war/posts/1723782

This seems contradictory to the Warlord email and I wish someone would give us a clear idea of what is going to happen.

IMPORTANT: There is a cut-off for this - November 25th. Moulds are being destroyed, so we will not be able to fulfil any missing items after this (not because we don't want to, but because we simply can't).

[jetengine]

Anyone actually E-mailed Warlord about this ?

[Ulfhednar]

I did respond to the email Warlord sent me and asked if they were going to become available again at some point but didn't get a reply, which probably wasn't unwise of them considering I'd have blabbed it. But I can't help thinking there's too many figures only become available for general sale for the first time since it went into a flash sale, there's still unreleased stuff, there's too much unrealised potential / money waiting to be made. I think it must be Warlord taking over, and as others have said maybe reworking / limiting the range. It seems tied in with what's happening to Rogue Trooper KS, can't believe they'd abandon that it has really decent potential.
 
(And I've found a new enemy for my Mega-City 1 force to fight, anti-fascist Spectrum (Time-Lift) Agents (Captain Scarlet, and Captainess Pink), from Crooked Dice. Maybe helped by their Mk2 Cylons. I can't believe how many good figure ranges there are about these days).

[mcfonz]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1990654819/judge-dredd-miniatures-game-block-war/posts/1723782

This seems contradictory to the Warlord email and I wish someone would give us a clear idea of what is going to happen.

That's Mongoose's statement though isn't it?

[Andym]

I think it was in a good position, considering the more modern trend of charcter-driven, low-model count, skirmish games on smaller tables.
The oddball stuff is great.  I can get gangers or mutant standins from many companies to play with, but where else would I get sky surfers or bat gliders, kleggs or the iconic judges?
Those were the elements that made the range worth buying into.

I hope that whomever has the license will do something with miniatures, even if it isn't going to continue with these.  I know not everyone agrees with me, but I think it is a shame that these look like they are disappearing.

Just to point out what I was talking about earlier. As an example Judges are easy, you could take a box of plastic GW Cadians and add these heads from Puppets of War...



Or use GW Adeptus Arbites...



There's 2 options without even trying. I think you just have to have a wee look about the interweb to find them and not just stick to official stuff!

[jetengine]

Those arbites are pretty rare though so its not exactly an easy option.

[Ulfhednar]

Judges are a super elite force though and a tiny proportion of the Meg-1 population, so is it reasonable to have an entire wargaming army made up of only Judges / the Justice Department? I'm going to use them as either a small super elite vastly outnumbered force, or for a larger more balanced game, as officers / attached specialists for larger units of Civil Defence troops, and / or as specialist support units with only small numbers of Judges in. Maybe augment the Civil Defence force with adapted 40k Imperial Guard (if they are in scale, haven't checked yet). They have an eagle, maybe I could class them as Justice Department deputies / militia. (I think the Texas Judge could do with a posse of deputies, maybe made up of converted Imperial Guard, or sci-fi cowboys if I can find them, would work as an ally unit). There's even Kromlech Imperial Highlanders, they could be led by the Cal-Hab Judge. And it can all be augmented by units of robots, maybe those plastic conversion heads could be adapted to be Judge style robot heads and fitted to robot bodies to make mini-mechanismo's? I remember in the Apocalypse war series, the Judges were an elite in a much bigger MegaCity-1 resistance force.

There's loads of options cuz the canon is so inclusive & loose, Judge Dredd / 2000AD is proper pulp fiction, it can be whatever you want, it's just a theme / theatre. There's enough in the range to make it work in fun ways already, it was getting better all the time, it just needs for the range to be available to buy and to not be disappeared :-)

edit - but I'm definitely adding Sarah the Grim Reaper and Monica (Fury) Dunkledorf off the Lead Adventure shop to my Angel Gang. I'm going to have a proper Cursed Earth trailer trash mini army.

And again depending if the scale fits, GW's 40k space marine Sisters of Battle would make a great unit of fighting nuns to go with the Vatican Judge. And those Crooked Dice Time Lift Agents (Spectrum / Captain Scarlet) would work painted in their correct colours as a Department Store / Wealthy Block's security supporting (or fighting against) the Judges, or painted in a different uniform colour as general block security. Loads of options if you see the Judges as elite in a larger force.

And (again depending on scale) Blackballs AE WW2 American Buffalo would work well as a Holo-armour type thing for Citi-Defence.

[n815e]

Sure, with a bit of work I could make proxies for things, but I prefer the genuine article.
I could call my bicycle a Harley and put baseball cards in the spokes, but that's not quite the same to me.

[Ulfhednar]

:-) But as long as you've got the core of a valid Justice department & Citi-Defence force (which this Warlord range offered) wargaming it is viable, cuz it is totally inclusive sci-fi pulp fiction.

Just looking at Wargames Foundry, in old Citadel they have a pack of at the time non released Rogue Trader troops from 1987, that would work fantastically well as East-Meg SCS (or I guess KGB). Although looking at their badges in the photo, could be a double headed eagle, if so may still fit with Russian (as elite SCS), but could make an evil German Vril-Cit force (in evil Axis with the Vatican judge), augment them with original Rogue Trader space marines (with matching nubby paldrons) and Alt / sci-fi WW2 German stuff. And Foundry's Street Violence range vastly increases the Warlord perp / gang forces, and in that range their Mercenary Fire Team would work perfectly well as East-Meg militia or a Meg-1 street gang supporting East Meg (and they can be augmented with Soviet hvy infantry from Konflikt 47, that again have the star moulded onto them). Blackball AE WW2 do a ball tank that would work great as an East-Meg thing. edit - and Hydra's Robot Legionnaires would would fit in too. And, Wargames Supply Dump, Dick Garrison figures has Khonpian Guards that would work well as support troops for the Banana City Judge, another cool robot and even a load of Alien soldiers that look like Tharg for another enemy force (you lot may already know all this, but back to the miniatures hobby after so long, it's amazing how much good diverse stuff there is and that would work as proxy for obscure things no one will ever manufacture).

But it is obviously dependent on this proper Dredd Warlord range becoming commonly available again, I think it offers too much potential, fits too well into the mix of sci-fi pulp fiction skirmish wargaming for it to be abandoned. It's proper money to someone.

edit - properly on topic, looking back at Warlord's comments on the game & figure range they seemed to think it's a massive deal (they claimed Dredd / 2000AD is exactly their kind of thing having named themselves after Warlord comic, apparently), so hopefully they are going all in and this will just be a gap as Mongoose are dropping out.