The end and new beginnings of Dredd

[stone-cold-lead]

I assume there must have been a financial partnership between Mongoose & Warlord over the game and they've liquidated all the stock and apparently the assets of it too (like the studio painted miniatures) in fire sales in various places, to settle that partnership that is ending as the licence does and for whatever reason isn't being continued by at least Mongoose. They seem to be selling off more than just Dredd stuff though, Traveller stuff too, and that Rogue Trooper KS is apparently in same boat as Dredd before it even happened.

I don't know if Mongoose selling off the studio miniatures indicates they have no further use of the promotional photos of them they need to sell them to the public. If Warlord was taking the range (licence masters moulds etc) on, I'd have thought they'd have agreed a price with Mongoose for the existing stock and taken that on too, and the Studio painted miniatures in case they added figures to the range and wanted to picture them to existing ones to weave them in.

Selling the painted models off may well suggest that Mongoose's line is done and isn't being picked up by anyone else. Those paint jobs will not have been cheap (did Duff do them?) and flogging them off may recoup a bit of that cost. If anyone else is going to license Dredd I'd imagine they'd want to do a modern range of sculpts.

[Ulfhednar]

I can see someone would want to upgrade the Judges figures quality and impact, but Citi-Def were fine, the Lawmaster bikes were really good, ABC Warriors were excellent. They sold the studio painted ABC's off today, suggesting no one has plans for them, and if not them then I can't imagine any of it (at least the branded stuff, more generic characters like Oola Blint or Cultists etc, whose painted figures haven't been sold off far as I know, I guess might reappear rebranded in other pulp fiction ranges).

So quite possibly end of this Dredd / 2000AD range. Maybe some manufacturer (and/or the brand owners) want to move the image onto the recent film version, with grotty gangers and different Judges uniform & bike, less sci-fi comic more near future urban warfare?

[n815e]

It isn't off of the US site.
They sent me replacements for things I bought in the sale.  Stock clearance would strike me as a 'buy as is'.
They announced the sale as a birthday celebration, as opposed to Mongoose's clearance.  If they are taking over, it makes sense to want to clear out the Mongoose owned stock.
What Mongoose does with its studio miniatures has no bearing on Warlord.  Warlord was a producer and distributor for Mongoose, not a co-owner.  Although Matt wanting to ditch products from his collection just because he is no longer producing the line shows what kind of attachment he has to his professional accomplishments.
They emailed someone further up thread that made it seem like they are going to reorganize it, probably drop the poorer sculpted models.
They haven't removed the Dredd section of their forums like Mongoose has.
Their webstore lists products as out of stock, rather than removed altogether.

None of these things definitively shows Warlord keeping it, but it makes it seem likely.

[Ulfhednar]

I checked just now you are right, my mistake it is still on their US store, I must have missed it when they downscaled the link from top of their homepage page to lower down.

Yes I saw they announced it as a birthday celebration sale in their newsletter, which is why it came as a shock when I later read Mongoose had said moulds had been destroyed, which I guess could be explainable by them being duplicate sets and masters and it's just their copies gone and Warlord still have sets or at least master figures, but I can't make sense of them going on to sell the painted ABC warriors off.

I think that Warlord email was maybe my post, what they said was very encouraging and did make it sound like they were intending to take it on. But since then Mongoose have sold off so many of the painted miniatures from the range, and maybe the best of the sculpts like the ABC's, it's looked less hopeful all the time. And they sold off the studio painted Nort and Souther units from Rogue Trooper before they've even launched that range and game, far as I know before they've even taken pictures of them with the other models from / that are intended for that range and posed in scenery / scenario to promote the game. And they are really excellent wargaming figures, true 28mm rather than heroic so slightly smaller than Dredd series, but fit with Warlords Konflikt 47. I'd have thought Warlord would have at least wanted them.

edit - But I hope Warlord are intending to keep it on are at least part of it, they did seem very committed to it all along. And them doing that is probably my only chance of ever getting East Meg reinforcements or an Oz Judge trike.

[dieselmonkey]

I'd have thought Warlord would have at least wanted them.

They may have wanted them, but I doubt they'd have *paid* for them, hence the reason Matt's shifting 'em all on eBay.

[rob_the_robgoblin]

I wasn't, look at the casting and striations on this turd, it's bloody awful...



I made the best of it I could, but as the rest of the range left me so thoroughly disappointed, I decided to use it for my Necromunda Arbites, I can't see myself doing anything with the drawer of lead I got through the KS, let alone starting the MC1 table I'd planned on.

http://port-imperiale.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/the-blue-turd-arbites-and-mine-least.html

My word, that is awful!!! Must have been a really cheap printer. Looks about 250-300 microns - maybe even a filament printer. Can't believe the cast either, missing handles, bubbles, really bad misalignments. Maybe it was a cheap job too...

[Ulfhednar]

They may have wanted them, but I doubt they'd have *paid* for them, hence the reason Matt's shifting 'em all on eBay.

I guess it makes sense if Warlord are only going to carry the figure range (like Foundry do some old Citadel stuff) and don't intend to add to it. They've still got the existing photo's, they'd only need the painted studio models if they intended to do more photo's, which would only be the case if they were adding new figures, vehicles, game scenario's, and branded scenery and wanted to mix it in to what already exists. So maybe end of anything else but this might come back as Warlord back catalogue stuff? It's too good to just dump, there's too much new stuff that was never in market long enough or at all.

edit - without claiming they do, maybe Mongoose just had financial issues with the burden of it all (perhaps Rogue Trooper has been more difficult and costly than they anticipated), it meant they couldn't renew the licences. They've had to walk away and it may get picked up, later rather than sooner as people hold out for best price on their share of the rights?

[dieselmonkey]

I guess it makes sense if Warlord are only going to carry the figure range (like Foundry do some old Citadel stuff) and don't intend to add to it. They've still got the existing photo's, they'd only need the painted studio models if they intended to do more photo's, which would only be the case if they were adding new figures, vehicles, game scenario's, and branded scenery and wanted to mix it in to what already exists. So maybe end of anything else but this might come back as Warlord back catalogue stuff? It's too good to just dump, there's too much new stuff that was never in market long enough or at all.

It'd be far cheaper for Warlord to just get their own painters to redo the *entire* range (in a consistent manner) than it would be to pay Matt the collector prices he's getting on eBay, and again, the only way Warlord would get the Mongoose back catalogue range would be if they paid Mongoose for it, as well as picking up the licence from Rebellion. That's two outlays, and depending on prior sales (that they'll obviously be well aware of) they may not be that bothered about the Mongoose range.

A completely new range of figures will obviously sell better than a previously released range, so it's really not in Warlord's commercial interests to pay much money for a decidedly variable range.

[Ulfhednar]

Yes that makes sense. Though apart from the odd exception the painted figures haven't been going for collectors prices, there's been no minimum prices and the auctions have been short duration, earlier on a lot of really excellent ones went for roughly £10 a piece, which for pro-plus painted is cheap. A Lawmaster with rider (the one with both hands on handlebars) for £30, only double normal unpainted retail. But it's reasonable value (just for that quality aside from the collector value) because it includes the retail price of the figures themselves which Warlord wouldn't have to pay. I'd guess it would still make sense though Warlord buying them for the small difference that makes, to save hassle and for the sake of consistency considering many are pictured in the actual rules, but only if they intended to actively do anything with the range & game going forward. I agree thinking it through, it's unlikely they will, unless Mongoose cut a very good deal on the rights & masters and I guess that wouldn't be for a while as they'd all probably hold out for best deal.

A new range would be no bad thing as long as it was in scale (and sideways scale too, not too chunky), there's a few figures in this range that are really excellent and too many too useful to start over. But it did need some affordable variance (like zombies, cultists, East Meg etc, every subject was covered but not enough to do much with) and it did need a few more bombshell type figures. Change could be good.

[stone-cold-lead]

Ebay never results in a decent price for quality painted models. Everyone wants a bargain which is why I don't paint speculatively for Ebay.

[Ulfhednar]

I think people would have been willing to pay the proper money, but first of all it was very low key and I don't think it was getting much attention (prices have gone up, I guess as the news that the range was being discontinued caught up with people and stuff has gone out of stock more people have been on ebay looking for the range in general, found that & prices have gone up), but there's been such a sudden landslide of those painted figures for sale, at a time people are also spending to get the last of the range before it disappears, it's a bit up against it. Whole thing really is a fire sale. (I missed one or two figures I'd have paid proper money for because I was quite new on ebay and had a limit on number of auctions I could be top bidder on, didn't realise and had bids for other odd items lodged on auctions days away shutting me out of bidding on the Mongoose stuff. Plus spent out chasing rest of it. The people who got them may well have had much higher bids lodged that just didn't get called out).

Regarding the amazing painted Effigy Miniatures 3 sci-fi females in grey uniforms with coloured boots and pads you have on your site front, the complete pack (10 figs) look useful in Dredd (for East Meg, or as another cit def unit, or corporate security, and 2 civilians that would do for Blade Runner type corporate's) and delicate like a lot of the Dredd stuff. Do you know if it scales well to Warlord Dredd? I thought Infinity did, the older stuff does but the new stuff seems quite a bit smaller (and a bit too realistic & busy to fit in).

[Dr.Falkenhayn]

a proper new Range of Dredd Movie tied Miniatures would be great (just not from Prodos please  )

[Andym]

Nice work Doctor! Are those Prodos Miniatures Dredd figs? I can't seem to find them!

[Ulfhednar]

It looks like what's gone in the last batch on ebay was the last of their stock metal, so probably no more, I checked, that's what they say and I'm apparently definitely stuffed for Judges with heavy weapons and for East Meg reinforcements blisters, the only figures in the range with anti armour hvy weapons, save for 1 citi-def. It stops me being able to wargame Dredd as anything other than small arms skirmish, because I have no way for either side to take down holo's or big robots. Without getting proxies there's no way, and I've tried that but it's just destroying the look & feel and turning it into something else, may as well play 40k. It's massively frustrating.

There's a single point this all hinges on. I'm not a kickstarter but looking at the comments on the kickstarter site, there's Mathew's announcement that they are "passing on the licence". I thought that meant they were passing it onto someone else like Warlord, I think now it probably just meant they were passing on renewing it and it's abandoned. Carefully chosen words to play it down / sidestep aggro.

I've done ok on some things, I was lucky to get 2 Medi Judge lawmasters (so I could have a dismounted model) etc, but the stuff I've missed has really screwed my plans up to the point I probably can't use what I did get. This is such a mess, they should have carried stock into the sale, not of the whole range & of incidental things but of the things that were obviously important, that were going to run out fast or indeed were already out of stock. One minute it's an anniversary celebration sale (which is all I heard, via Warlord) then all the stock has gone and it turns out it was a discontinuation sale.

[Wachaza]

a proper new Range of Dredd Movie tied Miniatures would be great (just not from Prodos please  )

What's the source mini for those conversions? I recognise the Chronoscope base for Dredd.

Good likenesses, well executed.