Heat 3: The Top 12! Voting Ends Friday at 4PM EST

Comments

Arrigo Velicogna - May 6, 2021

I do not think historical kits with crossover bits would really work… I just imagine historical players like myself whining about the wasted space. As conversion add on… not personally interested but I think there are clear opportunities there.

Now to be honest… I will not take the result of the poll (or the WSS survey for that matter) too seriously. I think the poll was not widely advertised on several historical forums and sadly to say this (especially considered the stunning Persians WA produced, and I own…) right now Wargames Atlantic appears more as a fantasy/sci-fi company so it could be one of the reason…

I am also puzzled by comments like the Ming being obscure… Ming China was a massive global empire when England was still a small almost inconsequential kingdom kicked out from France and ripped apart by a family feud… (sarcasm). It is fun how much euro-us centric wargaming could be.

As for the garbage comment… it was sarcastic and the bracketed part referring to the purely subjective opinion was meant to highlight that. Of course for an historical player everything else is garbage… for his/her credit card maybe not… it is useful!

Noel Williams - May 6, 2021

Pretty disappointed at this final list, I’m afraid. I’m only marginally into sci-fi, so there’s very little here to tempt me – and virtually nothing historical pre-WW1 at all. There were dozens of historical suggestions which I’d have bought, but my three choices here are way down my list.
Whilst I applaud the very inclusive way you’ve gone about this, and I can see that with popularity, hence income, in mind, the exercise has probably worked very well for you, I think you could perhaps manage the voting differently if there’s a next time round – so that you’ve a top three for several different categories to get a bit more historical gaming into the mix, though they needn’t be the traditional Ancient/Medieva/Renaissance/Black Powder (etc) categories.
Possibly one way might be to seek some “generic” models that would have wide historical crossover. For example, zouave-type figures with a range of different heads and weapon choices, potentially could give European and US zouaves, Foreign legion, Ottomans, Arab slavers, Barbary pirates etc, Add a couple of alien heads/weapons they might satisfy the Scifi-Pirates audience.
Another very wide audience for your figures – rightly – is the kitbashing crew, of which I’m one. You might consider whether there’s a set that could have kitbashing use across a wide spectrum of the sets you produce. For example, a “sci-fi conversion” set – arms, heads, weapons, , limbs, tentacles, tails, appendages, equipment which could be added to any humanoid figure could give all your historical figures more potential for the sci-fi crew. (Personally, I’m more of a fantasy gamer than sci-fi, so I’d be looking for unusual fantastic add-ons – magical artefacts, spell effects, grand, extravagant weapons, heads with eyepatches, horns etc).
I’m also wondering about vehicles. Obviously that’s a different kettle of fish which you’ve not ventured towards yet, but if you could come up with designs for a plastic, multi-period cart you could appeal to a range of historical gamers (although, to be fair, a configurable sci-fi light tank or A/C would probably be just as successful).

Shaun Gooch - May 6, 2021

I think people here need to wise up a little!

Reading the comments regarding the lack of historical choices in the final stages.

There is a simple hard and fast rule. Niche historical kits will not sell enough to warrant the large outlay of tooling. The cost of which, even going the Chinese route is very very significant.

I live in Nottingham in the same postcode local as the behemoth GW, and I live three streets away from Warlord Games. As such I get to speak to the guys who make this stuff happen.

It opens your eyes as to the huge cost to bring one plastic kit to store. No company even GW are sitting on a everlasting pot of gold in order to absorb the costs without serious return.

People complain of the vast price increases across GWs kits. Without such GWs future kit production will eventually suffer. The very same will apply for Wargames Atlantic if it pushes too many niche kits that limit its ability to recover financial outlay.

So, as much as Ming Chinese etc are some people’s must have. There are hundreds if not thousands of the likes of myself who couldn’t care less for such obscure kits.

I’m guilty of wanting my very own niche kits. Yes! I shout loud for Crimean War kits. I’d love the iconic British Grenadier Guards in bearskins and frock coats. I already own every Strelets 1/72nd Crimean kit they produced.

But! It’s a pipedream that is likely to never be realised in plastic 28mm, tho, I’m gonna keep shouting none the less.

Because it’s fun to dream. Like many I’m in the minority but enjoy the chance to vote.

Let’s hope we see some sort of Deathfields Cybernetic Troops. They will sell and have broader appeal as to their usage. That will generate revenue that sees WA have a bright future.

That’s welcomed by us all!

Y. Whateley - May 6, 2021

I think I would agree with the comments that suggested breaking these votes up into broad categories in the future… not sure what groupings would work best, but I also agree with the comment that suggested broadening the appeal of historical kits by including fantasy/sci-fi bits, so perhaps the groupings might look something like…

Sword-and-Sorcery and Ancient/Dark Ages/Medieval/Renaissance Historical

Steampunk/Clockpunk/VSF and Napoleonic to Victorian Historical (ACW, Western, etc.)

Early 20th Century Pulp, Noir, Dieselpunk, and Historical (WWI, WWII,etc.)

Future/Near-Future/Apocalyptic Sci-Fi and Modern Historical

Deathfields and other Historical/Speculative Fusion (for those Samurai Elves and Space Romans that don’t quite seem to fit in with more traditional sci-fi or fantasy games)

I might be reading the audience all wrong, but it seems like there’s a ghost of a chance of historical/speculative crossover/kitbash appeal within those brackets (for example, those Dark Ages and Medieval historicals can appeal to fantasy gamers, and some fantasy kits might even appeal to historical gamers – might be able to market medieval kits with alternate head and weapon bits that would appeal to both markets.)

But, I don’t think that you’ll find many WWII gamers (for example) getting excited over space pirates or (futuristic) modular robots, and there’s only so much you can do with ideas outside of those brackets before you lose a genre’s/era’s dedicated audience.

Similarly, in my experience sword-and-sorcery gamers will gladly consider medieval historical models, but tend to lose interest really quickly when faced with some version of fantasy that strays too far outside of a generic fantasy sword-and-sorcery setting (something like steampunk fantasy or fantasy dinosaurs can be surprisingly hard to sell as a concept to generic fantasy fans!)

Those brackets might also define a rather surprise spin on something that seemed predictable on paper: those modular robots might have more fans among WWII gamers than among futuristic sci-fi gamers… maybe a modular robot kit with bits styled after the mechancial-men of old sci-fi serials and comic strips might be more popular than one styled after, say, Terminator or Star Wars droids, with your modern/futuristic gamers preferring to focus on modern insurgents or space-pirates…..

Anyway, pairing speculative genres to similar historical genres that way might help suggest some possible ways to please two similar audiences with one crossover kit, and might also help to fill out the product lines a bit for those customers who keep complaining that their favorite product line is being neglected with expansion into new genres.

Corwen Broch - May 6, 2021

kind of disappointed – so many of these things already exist in plastic, and so much sci-fi. At least one WW1 thing made it through. But only one :-(

Alan - May 6, 2021

There are actually none there that I would buy. Pity. So no votes cast.

Darnok - May 6, 2021

Still disappointed that WW2 Italian infantry didn’t even make the first cut. You know, WW2 Italians in plastic would support one of the three big Axis nations, and fill a massive hole in the market – NOBODY has done them in plastic yet. Just… why not? Some choice of heads and you’d have covered different troop types…

Brickfrog - May 6, 2021

These all seem like really neat sets! Some people hate the idea of generic sets but a lot of the time that’s exactly what I want! I can re-use those miniatures again and again!

Sebastian - May 5, 2021

I think one way to possibly make historical sets appealing to a wider audience might be to add some VSF/sci-fi bits. Like the Lizardmen set, which basically covers fantasy, SVF and sci-fi.

Mike F - May 5, 2021

Sci-fi civilians/medieval civilians
Modern insurgents/Modern general infantry/Cyberpunk Corp Sec

These feel like very similar groupings to me, and maybe that’s strong, as it could mean a lot of people are looking for the same thing, but it feels like we’re picking from fewer slots than expected.

Oh well, like I had said previously, disappointment seems baked into this format. Some of this stuff could be cool, but boy I thought the Ming and Zapatistas would make it through.