Ogre Miniatures?

[ivarr]

One of the stretch goals during the kickstarter campaign was a promise to re-release the miniatures for ogre...I believe that it mentioned either pewter or resin...

Any news on this?

[woodchuck]

They did a limited final run on the metal minis a few months ago. Metal is rather pricey and SJ Games may be exploring other options for mini production.

[Desert Scribe]

This (old, locked) thread should get you caught up.

[Don Hawthorne]

Originally Posted by ivarr

One of the stretch goals during the kickstarter campaign was a promise to re-release the miniatures for ogre...I believe that it mentioned either pewter or resin...

Any news on this?

The "(old, locked) thread" isn't very helpful.

I'd really like to know when the miniatures will be put back into production.

A million bucks on Kickstarter for fifty pounds of cardboard is not credible.

"Promises were made, gifts (in this case, "monies") were exchanged..." -- Lex Luthor

[lomn]

They already were, as explained in the other thread. It does not currently appear that they will be again, as explained in the other thread. You've missed the window of opportunity.

[Tim Kauffman]

They are definitely working on it. :)
This is a huge undertaking I would imagine. They retired the metal OGRE minis line and are transitioning into a resin/plastic line.
Lots of moving parts in this endeavor.

Here are the recent updates from the KICKSTARTER page:
(pictures not shown)

"Update #162

Jun 10 2014
Ogre Metal Miniatures Update
12 comments
3 likes

As of yesterday, only three preorders for metal Ogre miniatures remain to ship. We didn't have quite enough minis to complete those three orders,
but Richard is working on running the missing metal miniatures and those last preorders will ship as soon as he has finished.

All of the remaining metal miniatures are now available on Warehouse 23, so any of you looking for metal will want to hit the site soon;
I noticed some of the minis are down to onesies and twosies which means that they'll likely soon be gone.
Visit Warehouse 23. Visit Warehouse 23.
Plastic Miniatures?

No news at this time. Between preparing for conventions, shipping the last of our 2014 releases to print,
and the usual day-to-day activity of running a business there hasn't been time to spend time exploring plastic Ogre miniatures options.
I hope to get back to that in July when we return from our summer break.

- Phil Reed"

"Update #157

Apr 21 2014
Ogre Metal Preorders Shipping Late May
129 comments
16 likes

Thank you for the preorders. The last round of metal Ogre miniatures is in the works and we expect to ship all of the preorders late in May.
Some miniatures are in stock now; jump on these if you want more forces for your game,
because we don't expect that these will be run in metal again.
Plastic Miniatures?

Maybe. We'll emphasize the maybe part of that first sentence. The tooling costs are not insignificant.
Plus, factory minimums make the process of creating plastic miniatures slightly more complicated than if we knew we could sell tens of thousands of sets.

We're investigating options. Richard made a suggestion this morning -- a set of plastic miniatures that corresponds to the units featured in the original Ogre game --
that sounds to us like one of the better approaches.
This would leave several classic units off the table (pun intended),
but if the first set sells incredibly well then the door would be open for expansion sets with new minis.

This idea requires manufacturing and sales research to determine whether it could be workable (and profitable),
but we like the rough concept enough that we wanted to get your thoughts.

So please let us know: Would you buy a set of plastic Ogre miniatures that gives you everything needed to play the original Ogre game,
but probably no more in the initial wave?

- Phil Reed"

Update #156

Apr 7 2014
Ogre Metal Miniatures Now Open For Preorder
17 comments
3 likes

Visit Warehouse 23 today to preorder metal Ogre miniatures. As we mentioned last week, we're open for preorders between now and noon Austin time, Friday, April 11.
Next week we will post a delivery estimate, but at this time we expect to fulfill all of the preorders for Ogre miniatures in June.

Any other items ordered along with preordered miniatures will sit in our Austin warehouse until the minis ship.
We will not be separating items, so if you want in-stock goodies sooner,
I recommend placing separate orders: one preorder for miniatures and a second order for currently available games and accessories.

To answer one question in advance, preorders are billed when you check out through our shopping cart system.
Hopefully this preorder window gives all our Ogre fans a chance to grab the minis that they want.
When we have news on the future of the miniatures line, we will post another update.

Thanks for all of your support!

- Phil Reed


"Update #155

Apr 2 2014
Ogre Miniatures: Available Now, Pre-Order Next Week, And . . . Shapeways?
21 comments
7 likes
Now Available!

After weeks of crunching numbers, discussions with miniatures fanatics, and much bashing of my face into the problem, we have opened the miniatures for sale on our site.
We have posted all minis that are in stock and ready to ship; if you don't see something listed then we're out . . . for now.
Pre-Order Window: April 7, 2014 through April 11, 2014

Starting noon on Monday, April 7, we will start accepting Ogre minis preorders on our site, for units we can manufacture and deliver by June, 2014.
This is the last time we plan to run metal Ogre minis for the foreseeable future. We have been looking into other casting options, but nothing is definite;
anyone who wants to get more metal minis should visit our site between noon on April 7 and noon in Austin on Friday, April 11.

The pre-ordered minis may ship later than June if we're overwhelmed by orders. During the week of April 14,
we will post an update to let everyone know how the schedule is looking.
What About Shapeways?

Several of you have asked if we would consider uploading models to Shapeways so that everyone can order exactly what minis they need.
We ran a couple of tests -- you can see the results in the pics shown here -- and while this will work, the costs are fairly high.

For the Mark IV shown here, we would need to charge:

Strong White Flexible Material - $45
Frosted Ultra Detail - $85

The higher-quality version looks great, yes, but we agree that $85 is a lot to pay for a single Ogre miniature.
We've made no decisions on what our next steps may be, but all of us at the office thought you guys would enjoy seeing these pieces.
Other Options?

At the GAMA Trade Show a few weeks ago I met with factory reps to discuss the possibility of translating all of the existing minis designs into PVC.
It is too early to say anything beyond that, but Steve and I wanted you guys to know that we're exploring our options.
Once we learn more we will post another update.

"- Phil Reed

OGRE DE KICKSTARTER Link:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...n/posts?page=2

I would suggest they should have the Mark 5 available right out of the gates because that is the iconic OGRE.
I would also suggest simply having them available as individual items like we had in W23 so people can buy as many of each unit as they want
instead of making unit packs or something like they did in the original OGRE MINIATURES line.
They will save on a lot of packaging costs that way and people can just get what they want without being stuck with extra units they would rather not have.

[Tim Kauffman]

Originally Posted by KevinR

To be clear, I believe that should be "they are considering transitioning into a resin/plastic line." As I understand the KS updates, this shouldn't be interpreted as even a sketchy plan for returning to resin/plastic.

My glass is always half full when it comes to anything OGRE...
must have been a typo when I forgot to mention "considering". ;)

I stand corrected.

[Atomic Kennedy]

Sooner or later this may come around again from "official" sources, and all the speculation has been done to death at this point. If SJGames finds it appropriate and cost-effective, they'll go for it, I have no doubt.

In the meantime, though unofficial, there are a lot (a LOT) of other sources of miniatures in a variety of proper scales. My personal favorite at the moment is the rapidly expanding line of 3mm scale sci-fi figures available from Oddział Ósmy in Poland (available in the United States via PicoArmor.com). They're incredibly detailed (cast in tin alloy rather than lead) and available very economically, and at half the scale, they make any 6mm heavy tank into a possible Ogre. For my money, the best on that score are the Marhafi from Plasmablast Games.

Just one of many possible suggestions.

--AK

[Andrew Hackard]

Originally Posted by Don Hawthorne

I'd really like to know when the miniatures will be put back into production.

We have no current plans to do so, although we continue to investigate options for bringing them back at a price we believe people would be willing to pay.

Originally Posted by Don Hawthorne

A million bucks on Kickstarter for fifty pounds of cardboard is not credible.

The $923,680 raised on Kickstarter went to lots of things besides printing, although the printing was expensive enough (paper isn't anywhere as cheap as it used to be). Shipping over 12 kg of anything is expensive, especially shipping outside the United States. Shipping the 800+ containers to our warehouse was expensive. It took several very talented staff months to create the components for the game; that was expensive. And, of course, Kickstarter and Amazon Payments took their cut right off the top.

Calling all that almost a "million bucks for fifty pounds of cardboard" is just simply wrong.

[Don Hawthorne]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

We have no current plans to do so, although we continue to investigate options for bringing them back at a price we believe people would be willing to pay.

The $923,680 raised on Kickstarter went to lots of things besides printing, although the printing was expensive enough (paper isn't anywhere as cheap as it used to be). Shipping over 12 kg of anything is expensive, especially shipping outside the United States. Shipping the 800+ containers to our warehouse was expensive. It took several very talented staff months to create the components for the game; that was expensive. And, of course, Kickstarter and Amazon Payments took their cut right off the top.

Calling all that almost a "million bucks for fifty pounds of cardboard" is just simply wrong.

No, it is not "wrong".

Pouring all that money into paper after acknowledging an interest in miniatures was "wrong".

Creating, as a result, a 26.4554715 pound boondoggle of flimsy paper components in a hobby where virtually every other company is producing plastic pieces was "wrong".

Failing to use that money to pursue plastic molding by consulting with companies already geared up for it - Fantasy Flight, Hasbro, Days of Wonder, Flying Frog, et al - was "wrong".

Not availing oneself of the many U.S.-based metal miniatures casters who could reproduce OGRE minis from extant molds or recreate them from existing models, and do so at reasonable prices, was "wrong".

But most "wrong" of all was coming right out and SAYING that the miniatures would return and then failing to keep that promise in any meaningful way was as "wrong" as it gets.

You can try to spin it any way you like, but what I said was not "wrong".

What you DID was "wrong".

Even THIS guy is doing a better job:
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/15083

If "Munchkin" is the house cash-cow, then great, congratulations, best wishes.

But when you get a tremendous outpouring of enthusiasm - to the tune of about a million bucks - about a title you have largely abandoned , then you need to realize it deserves at least as much of an investment of enthusiasm on your part as the fans who paid that money put into it.

Failing that, just sell or license it to someone who knows what to do with it.

Don Hawthorne