Phaeton Miniatures
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I received a long explaining email from Chris yesterday, I won’t enter into details but well news are not that great…
Phaeton last sales did not work well, particularly the Destroyer, considering all the work, and problems it had to see the light of day. but besides that, last phaeton miniatures did not sell well.
Was it because the themes did not appeal? because the lack of releases and the delays made people boycot or not care anymore, is it the crisis? who knowsFact is, Chris is trying to solve the delay aspect by building a stock of figurines beforehand so that he can then begin selling figurines again monthly , without delays, for at least a year…. hoping this would satisfy customers with good regularity. He will begin selling again once his “stock of ideas, and masters” is complete … in some months.
(I must say here that he rejects any responsability on Mithril being late in releasing his work…. most of the suggestions are long sculpted and only await production and casting, even if Chris’ job is long done… and that upsets him too..)
If Phaeton does not reach back its original success well, in the end , Chris may have to terminate the brand
Sad to hear the news Gildor that potentially the Phaeton brand may cease
. I can offer no educated advice for apart from Mithril, Phaeton, and a while back some Thunderbolt Mountain figures, I generally stay away from figures in this scale (with the odd exception of a figure that may hold a particular appeal).I am not involved in RPG, Wargaming etc. therefore am unaware how the more successful manufacturers sell their wares, but I would suspect they are getting their stuff noticed through advertising. I do get a regular newsletter from Coolminiornot who seem to advertise new releases from various manufacturers, I wonder does Chris send samples or pictures to outfits like this – possibly he falls into the same ‘marketing pit’ as Mithril?
My other thought would be to produce figures that appeal to the ‘mainstream’ wargamer (whoever they are
) to keep the Phaeton ‘brand’ alive, but that can easily be adapted to other genres, e.g. Ghengis Khan’s Mongol hoards = Easterling cavalry (we’ve had this conversation/thought before ), Norman knights with a bit of artistic license = Rohirrim etc. etc.If Phaeton ran a ‘Fantasy’ Range as well as mainstream ranges then accessories like shields and such like could be brought separately so that Norman Kite shields could be substituted for ‘fantasy’ designs.
I personally would like to see Chris produce his Gladiators, and what about the Necromancer Tower range? (can’t remember what it was to be called).
I wonder if themed historical sets would work; what about a Teutoberger Wald series in 32mm similar to the range he did for Time Machine?
Anyhow, fingers crossed all will turn out well
Other option is crowfunding, get the production cost covered before producing a new range (and some free marketing, as people tend to share and comment interesting crowfunding proyects).
I also would advise to try a new twist on his take of non-Middle-earth. The last incarnation of the RPG game is much celebrated by fans because it fits perfectly with the setting (no plate armours this time!
). I think he could really draw some inspiration from the RPG illustration such these (sorry for posting so many images, but you know what they say one a pisture is worth a thousand words):http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/229/f/d/hobbit_scholar_by_jonhodgson-d46uvfe.jpg
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/210/3/f/great_orc_by_jonhodgson-d420ar5.jpg
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs16/f/2007/197/4/d/Warmaster_Ancients_by_JonHodgson.jpg (this is not from the RPG, but is the same artist)
Here you are the illustrations in Devianart by the two main illustrators (of course in the books there are many more):
Jon Hodgson
Jan PospisilIn my humble opinion, Mr. Tubb is a good sculptot but not a good designer. For example almost all Beronings look like is the same one in different poses. I am 100% sure that a small crowfunding project (say 6 miniatures) based on these illustrations with nice action poses (no need to be exagerated) would be more than succesful.
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