Wyrd Miniatures Turn to Plastic for Malifaux
July 30, 2012 by brennon
Wyrd Miniatures have announced that they are switching to plastic for a lot of their models in the future Malifaux line. Check out some of the model concepts and renders that are heralding this change...
"You've been wondering, pondering, even hollering about what we've got coming up and it's about time to let folks know what we've got going on.
Wyrd has traditionally done all of our models the old fashion way, sculpt, mold, metal .. good to go! And it hasn't been bad for us at all. Unfortunately these last few years we've had to deal with rising metal costs as well as a horde of other issues that have for one reason or another caused us a bit of trouble that necessitated our move to plastic.
We found a fix to that and in doing so, we feel that we have seriously upped our game when it comes to quality, product and model options.
If you like our artwork, then odds are you're going to love the miniatures, as we've moved from traditional sculpting to digital sculpting and from metal to high detail hard plastic (this isn't your bendy stuff!). Below we've got a couple of shots to show you the progress from art to finished plastic product.
Oh, and the best part ... we're not raising our prices to do so. Better quality, more model options (heads, arms, weapons) at a better price."
So what do you think of these prospective models, and this change to plastic? Is it only going to make for a better hobby experience across the board with Malifaux?
Let us know your thoughts below.
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Interesting new development in the sculpts…
…..THE DARK DEBTS STARTER AND LAZARUS ARE A MUST!!!!!!…..HELL YEAHHHH!!!!!…..
For plastics they look great! I don’t know if they ventured into 3d renders before but if this is the first time they hit the nail on the head with this.
If they still look as good as ever then they can make them from rancid butter. I would have thought resin might be the way to go. I’m a little surprised they’ve gone down the plastic route as none of the crews need many models which is more a plastic thing.
This is where terminology in the minis industry gets confusing. I seriously doubt that Wyrd is using injection molding for these (tooling would be way to expensive for their sales volumes), so these probably are “resin”. The words, “resin” and “plastic” are used to mean different things by a lot of minis companies, but in reality, they’re the same thing. Injection molding requires a thermoplastic resin (frequently referred to as “plastic”) and the two-part resin mixtures poured into silicon molds are technically referred to as thermoset resins. It’s all plastic though. Every one of these processes results in a polymer,… Read more »
Sounds like we’re supposed to be thrilled that we’re paying the same amount for the new plastic stuff that we did for the metal!
Atleast they aren’t pulling a GW and increasing the cost. Also, with plastics we are getting more options, bits, poses, conversion possibilities, etc. I think the cost is worth it for the sheer convenience of plastic alone, none the less all the bits they will most-likely give us.
http://www.wyrd-games.net/showthread.php?33728-Wyrd-Plastic-and-the-Neverborn-releases&p=428347&viewfull=1#post428347
Plastic Injection Molding
That just makes it more interesting. That’s a huge capital investment for a game that’s still building an audience. I wonder if they’re experiencing workflow improvements (no longer sculpting by hand and then scanning for starters) that help offset the cost. Moving from a traditional sculpted/cast mini production system to injection molded stuff is a non-trivial process. I never would have guessed Wyrd would do that at this stage (obviously from my last comment). Malifaux must be selling better than I thought.
Well, Wyrd claims to be switching to plastic as a way of saving money, since metal is getting really expensive for them. Also, they haven’t really seemed to expand much as a company the while I’ve been following them, so I assume they were saving up and planning for something like this. Also, I don’t believe they are going to be re-releasing the older models and sets in plastic any time soon, though they may go the route of alternate sculpts, which have proven quite popular over time. Also, Malifaux is incredibly fun, and the mini’s are awesome, I have… Read more »
absolutely love the dark debts box, gonna have to get me that!
Have several boxes of the plastics, and while they look pretty good, the plastic they use is rather fragile, and several of their models aren’t really well thought out as far as usability. For some models, like Freikorps Strongarm for instances, good like even getting most of the pieces off the sprues and cleaned up without breaking them, besides trying to handle it without breaking it if ever dare try and use it in a game. If want models for display purposes, its pretty nice, but don’t expect it to last if used. Some of their models are pretty durable,… Read more »