That said, several companies provide their product's released at gencon as an early order online through their website. I was only really interested in two of those companies this year, as much of the stuff I will just pick up at my local store over the coming year. I did want to grab some stuff from Wyrd and from Outlaw Miniatures though.
Wyrd Miniatures
Wyrd had several new releases this year at gencon, including a small card game and a new board game plus some type of party game that just does not look like my "cup of tea". There was also the hallowed release of the official Malifaux V2 rules and several of the new plastic kits. Included in those kits were the annual Nightmare Special edition release models and the annual limited edition Miss model. I decided against the nightmare crew this year (Nightmare Tara) as it just did not seem overly impressive after I took a look at the models themselves. The Nightmare beast model just did not have the same impressive quality of Nightmare Chompy and the crew seemed to be missing the unique fluid nature of the Nightmare Justice box. Additionally it makes no real sense for me to grab the crew since it will be M2E only, so its not something I would be playing.Then we come to the miss model. The only way to get the limited edition miss models is to purchase over $100 worth of product during Gencon. I have collected all the previous miss models, including the gremlenette that was released early on in Wyrd's gencon run. I like the looks of the miss models, well... I liked the look of the miss models. This years Miss Step is very appropriately named in my opinion. Simply put I do not feel it fits the overall model line nor does it fit my preference for models. Take a look at this picture I put together of the Miss models all together.
So, with my consideration that I was not interested in the Miss model this year, I had no pressure to try and get to $100 to get it. This was good as I am not sure I would have gotten there anyways. I would have been over had I added in the Rulebook and Rasputina plastic box set, but I am in no rush to get those and can wait for my LGS (Huzzah Hobbies) to get those in to pick them up. That said, I had a voucher from my last event as a Henchman and wanted to grab a couple things that I could get early. First I picked up the Ronin box set, as I really want to paint these girls up. The new models really remind me of the look in the movie Sucker Punch, and overall I am hoping the models match the renders fairly closely. 
I also decided to pick up the Death Marshal box set, as my coupon was valued higher than the Ronin box. I have a fairly large collection of Death Marshals currently, and I thought the new box would be a good addition. I really dislike the look of the "Dance a Jig" death marshal and am not very fond of the "Hop over the coffin" marshal, but I do like the look of the crouching marshal with the coffin on his back. I may even use the flaming head for him (if there are multiple heads in the box). To be fair, I am very much hoping for multiple heads, as I am not a fan of the flaming head motif, but I think it could look cool on one Marshal. This box will bring my DM collection to 12 Marshals including 3 original box, 1 extra "Coffin Opening", 2 Miss Terious's, 3 Dead Justice box, and now 3 Flaming Head marshals. Not bad overall.
So, after tossing in a EBO Tin as a gift for some family friends, I was all ready to check out and get into the delivery queue of Gencon orders. I dug up the email with the SS Code and entered it in and then I had to sit back and laugh. The code did not work. This means that the code was either 1. Never activated, 2. Issued to someone else as well, or 3. Activated then deactivated since the beginning of June. I shot a quick email off to Wyrd to ask them to fix it for a future transaction, but the irony is amusing. I assume this is just some type of system mistake, but it would be truly amusing if after everything the Wyrd folk have dropped to the level of personal pettiness that they deactivated my last Henchman code as well. We will see!
Outlaw Miniatures
That brings me to my only other Gencon purchase in 2013. Outlaw Miniatures is the company behind Wild West Exodous which I supported on kick-starter and is due to ship later this year (September/October I believe). I have had the privileged of getting my hands on one of their limited edition models already (Outlaw Lady of the West to the left) and just received my second pre-release model, Sheriff Mick Ironclad. I will be getting Sheriff Mick painted up soon and am looking forward to it. When the Outlaw Miniature folks announced that they would be releasing two new models for the line during Gencon, with limited amounts at Gencon and also available through the website, I was excited. I am not sure how much I will enjoy WWX, but I like what I have seen so far on the model aspect and hope the game holds up to the models when played in a skirmish setting.
So, WWX released two models during Gencon, Kyle the Black being one of them. Kyle the Black is part of the Enlightened faction and works as a "sidekick", one of the more powerful named models that would be used in the skirmish portion of the game. He has a very 40K look to me, which I feel is fitting as he is heavily based and modeled around the likeness of one of the 40K Radio hosts. Kyle the podcast host is one of the employees of Battle Foam and works closely with the Outlaw Miniatures folks as well. I really like the way the model looks and it makes me chuckle to recognize his likeness in the model. I can only hope I do the model justice when I paint it up.
Final Thoughts on 2013 purchases
So, that's it for my Gencon 2013 spending. Some people know of the fairly extravagant spending on product I have done in the past, specifically over the past 2 years with Wyrd Miniatures at Gencon.I believe that after totaling up the combined purchases I made in 2011 it was somewhere above $2100 total. Keep in mind this was a combined total for me and 4 different people I was shopping for so that truly ticked up the totals and that was not all my money. In 2012 when you combined what I spent plus what my daughter and I earned (and spent) in booth credit through volunteering, we were easily in the neighborhood of $1000. Much of that was earned credit but it still means I brought home a great deal of product from Wyrd, plus the stuff I picked up both years from other game companys.I was expecting to spend far less this year. Overall I have less disposable income this year and the family is in a very different economic situation that we have been in past years. That said, I was surprised to see how much less I spent. All told, my spending was almost equal between the LE WWX models and the two sets of models from Wyrd, combined coming in below $100. I am eerily reminiscent of when I stopped spending money on GW years ago. GW was certainly not hurt by my personal spending, as I am just a drop in the bucket overall, but it was interesting to see the impact on the hobby I was involved in. I am fairly confident that Malifaux V2 will continue to have traction for a while in the area, but I will be sending my hobby budget in other directions in the future. It is gratifying, and also a bit intriguing for me, to "vote with my wallet".
Posts
Not sure if you have any room left in your tight budget, but I slung some of my monies at Bombshell Miniatures, whose Kickstarter I very nearly backed, but I had missed the deadline. Their mascot, Maelee, got a special edition this year, available with a broken robot base and other robot peons or as just a solo model.
ReplyDeletehttp://bombshell-miniatures.highwire.com/
I'll have to swing by Outlaw Miniatures' page to see if I want to spread the wealth to them as well, at least for their Gencon exclusives.
Back to Malifaux: As buying just the Wave 1 Arsenal Decks for retrofitting my existing crews would come to $56 and still not have everything I need as far as numbers of cards per existing sculpt, etc., I opted to get the book, instead, for $40, to have all of the cards and the Upgrades. I'll just print my own copies.
I also picked up Tara, Tara, and, oh yes, Tara. For the most part, I like the look of the crew. It is a Gencon only release, which I usually pick up a personal copy and a spare or two of (which has left me with a couple of Hanging Trees going to waste). And they've stated that her regular release won't be until late 2014 or early 2015, which is effing ridiculous.
As we've heard no timetable for the Brewmaster & Co., whose cards are part of this wave, and we certainly haven't heard when to expect the second wave's Ulix, I'm going to hazard a guess of Gencon 2014. Personally, I think it's all going to shambles.
I've had a certain thought fighting to be voiced for awhile now: It's good that Wyrd is getting out of the gaming business and going back to just a miniatures company. They, like Reaper, make great models to use for our characters in other games. Where Reaper has traditionally been great for our D&D characters, Wyrd will be making great models for more steampunk games, like Wild West Exodus and Malifaux Classic.
I totally get moving on Bill. 6th 40k sucked me back in once I gave up on caster kill Warmahordes and far too complicated book 4 Malifaux. If you wait long enough every thing will seem to come full circle. WWX does look like it has potential, I don't like the vehicle aesthetic but the rest looks great. I'm currently waiting on Relic Knights, I'm a sucker for anime, and Robotech Tactics to come in this winter. I still even get in games of Battletech at my LGS every Sunday. I'm also really looking forward to Shadowrun Sprawl Gangers since putting a shadowrunner crew on the table would be awesome. I've toyed with the idea of Infinity and FoW. FoW really has me intrigued but I'm not a fan of 15mm and can't imagine painting those tiny models. And I've been spending a lot of time playing Ravenloft, Ashardalon, and the fantastic game Lords of Waterdeep. Though I do think next on my purchase list has to be X-wing.
ReplyDeleteThe last 2 years I dropped the cash to get the miss models, this year I spent a grand total of zero. Not because I don't like M2E, I've not played it really and will be waiting till wave 2, but because the premium I'd be paying is totally not worth it for the figure I'd be getting. To be fair a couple of years back it wasn't worth it either, the female gunslinger sculpt was rubbish in my opinion, the deathmarshall was cool though.
ReplyDeleteSo total gencon expenditure = £0. What will I be picking up, well give it a few months for the Malifaux releases to come out and both Seamus and the Vics are great looking boxes. I've already got the old Lady J (both regular and nightmare) so probably won't bother with that.
Other than that I'm just waiting for kickstarters, I've still not received my Reaper Bones as I'd ordered a tonne of the extras, and then I've got Rivet wars and Relic Knights to come too.