(KS) Ninja Division/Soda Pop out of money for Super Dungeon Explore: Legends

[pagan8thParticipant 10747xp 0]

I’m one of the lucky ones that backed Rail Raider Infinite and pestered them enough to get a refund before they decided to steal the backers money to line their own pockets.

That ks is one of the reasons why I am very choosy about projects and haven’t backed anything in the last two years.

The other reasons are the late delivery (often a year or more)…

And Brexit… as I’m not paying customs fees on top of the already expensive delivery charges, so I will only back UK projects.

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 1]

Well here is something I never expected…

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/325468910/starfinder-masterclass-miniatures/posts/2576401

 

It seems there may be some light at the end of the tunnel.  Personally I haven’t had any dealings with Archon but they seem to have a decent track record on Kickstarter from what I can tell (yes, I know they’re descended from Prodos).  I do have a few miniatures from them though and the small selection I have are excellent quality – they might not be able to negotiate the minefield of Hollywood licensing but they know how to cast resin.  Who knows maybe I will get something from my pledge afterall.

 

[iceeagle85Participant 4967xp 0]

Well Archon are part of Prodos so they are not 100% problem free.

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

Looking at their kickstarter account they appear to have delivered 3/4 kickstarters and are in the process of delivering the 4th so they seem quite solid.  I’m still not really convinced that I will get anything at this point but it’s certainly an interesting development.  I will still be recording this as a failed Project in my records regardless of whether something materialises or not.

[limburger 21675xp 0]

It looks like the people who got some of the stuff in resin may get the same again in plastic.

The rest of us will get plastic versions only.
That is indeed good news.
And (handing it over to Archon) may be the only solution that was realistic because they were owed money anyway and had useless inventory as a result.
I wonder if this means that the license for the Starfinder minis is now officially in the hands of Archon.

[maledrakhParticipant 11996xp 0]

but…(!?!)

If Archon is sitting on stock that they have produced for ND, but not delivered because of non-payment…

would not that stock be resin minis?

And the plastic minis (HIPS? Unicast? PVC?) be new versions, albeit of the same basic sculpts?

So what happens to the resin casts? If any exists that is. Was everything they actually cast up delivered to ND, and the case os more that no more produced because of said non-payment?

Anybody actually know?

[orlandothetechnicolouredParticipant 4380xp 0]

they apparently had a bunch of resin cast for starfinder that didn’t get sent to Soda Pop as their bills hadn’t been paid, but it’s not clear how much of the work had been done,

however they said they’d be getting a big tax bill from the Polish authorities based on the value of the held stock and were saying they’d have to destroy it if Soda Pop didn’t pay up so they could ship it before the date the tax bill would come due.

I’d assume that is what happened, hence the need to start again, the move to hard plastic rather than re-doing the resin is probably a combination of Archon moving that way anyway, and some less than positive feedback about what starfinder resin had shipped from some consumers (i’m uncertain if the problems were actually down to the resin, or if it was customers who hadn’t been exposed to resin before expecting it to be as robust as boardgame plastic or HIPS)

 

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 0]

@Linburger that is 100% correct – Archon now have the Starfinder licence and will be creating new miniatures as well as producing those from the Ninja Division kickstarter.  I suspect they also have possession of the 3D sculpts so they can continue to produce the existing range beyond kickstarter delivery.  It has the potential to be a lucrative license as the RPG market is quite popular right now with Pathfinder/Starfinder being a significant competitor to d&d

[sundancer 42908xp 0]

Spam bot alert!

evere1985 

please review that users posting history!

@tgu3 @nakchak

[dawfydd 11923xp 2]

I was rather surprised last weekend to find a box waiting for me when I got home from work with Archon Studios branding, especially as I’ve never ordered anythign from them. Open it up and it’s a box full of Starfinder plastic sprues! Een funnier as I only backed the campaign for a quid!

[onlyonepinman 18060xp 1]

@dawfydd you and me both!  I got home from my holidays and decided to just randomly check the bins – just in case that’s where the mailman had decided to leave some parcels.  And there it was – a box wrapped in Archon Studios tape.  I backed for a quid but added a few more to buy some add ons.  I didn’t get the add ons but appear to have just got a basic pledge ?

I’m not complaining because honestly I’d written this off as a total failure.  So getting a box if random sci-fi Miniatures is better than nothing at all.  And actually a box of random sci-fi Miniatures that I didn’t order and wasn’t expecting?  That’s kind of like getting a surprise present!

Gotta say though, the quality of the miniatures, holy moly.  They’re good.  They’re GW plastics good.

[dawfydd 11923xp 0]

@onlyonepinman I know right? Stunningly good looking kits on first impressions. I’ll admit I’d not really paid much attention to Archon, probably due to their being an offshoot of Prodos and all of their baggage, but these show promise.

No idea though what to use them for…..

[pagan8thParticipant 10747xp 1]

I backed Rail Raiders Infinite, but had a bad feeling about it and asked for a refund.

After a lot of pestering I got my money back. I was one of the lucky ones.

They should be in jail for fraud.

[kronosthetravelerParticipant 5967xp 0]

I can’t exactly say I’m surprised. Soda Pop Minis was a decent small minis company back in the day when it was just a few people making smaller numbers of minis for a skirmish game, and Relic Knights does have some good sculpts in it, but Ninja Division’s mishandling of…well, everything has pretty much destroyed any good will towards the company and it’s only a matter of time until they fold completely. That being said, it would be good if some of their IPs could be picked up by companies that would handle them better and more transparently.

Archon isn’t without its issues either since they do still have a lot of negative stigma from their Prodos days, but they are doing at least a little better than ND has been, and are more transparent about their projects, so it would be good to see them succeed, especially since Starfinder has potential.

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