blog

Sometimes miracles do still happen...

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:38:23 +0100

This month were launching a new line of products for us here at Lone Gunman Games. I say new for "us" as 6 of these figures were briefly availible in early 2003 from another company, more on this in a moment.

The new line is a 28MM modern themed line of miniatures called collectively Modern Heroes. They are suitable for modern, Cyberpunk, Post Apoc, and other near future game settings. Full information on the line can be found on there dedicated products page. The manufacturer's suggested retail price will $3.00 each for the first 12 figures in the line. I have lotted these up so that anyone who had previously purchased the original six miniatures can purchase the new six sculpts without worrying about any duplications...

http://www.lonegunmangames.com/modern-heroes

Now for the history of these figures. In 2003 a new company called Eclipse/4G Enterprise's was started by four friends who all had various experience in the hobby and joined forces to start a new company. This was at the time before the release of D20 Modern or any of the recent modern skirmish war gaming rules. The only RPG line at that time that these might have been used for was Cyberpunk and it was languishing due to the lack of new material being released. So the company decided after the first initial release to stop production and cancell the proposed future releases for the company.

I had some of these miniatures instock from the lines liquidation at the distributors level and they sold well as long as I had full sets to offer, but those soon dissapeared from the shelves as customers purchased them. For a long time I wondered what happened to them and were they lost to the gaming void.

Jumping ahead to last year when I bought the Armies of Arcana line health issues with the castor holding the molds forced me to find a new one. After speaking to a few friends I had aquired in the industry I found out that this new caster was a former member of 4G enterprises. So the pertinnent questions were asked about there plans for the line.

So after many phone calls by the caster he found that no one had any future plans for these miniatures. So the next phase was to find the molds and begin casting again. Then I get the dreaded e-mail that the member who was to have taken possesion of the molds did not and they were thrown away during a move by another member. So there went my hopes of getting them back into production. They were gone forever...

Then a miracle happens the caster moved to a new office and he found the master mold that could be used to make new production masters and molds. So we are back in business for the costs of a few new molds. So I get six samples mailed to me before the molds are made and to my surprise there are two figures in there that I have never seen in my life. So were these someone else's sculpts and what happened to the two missing miniatures I had pictures of?

So more phone calls were made and the member who was in charge of promoting the line said those were the only 6 that were ever offered, but I had proof to the contrary pictured in there retail packaging. So more searching was done at the castors investigating master molds that had not seen the light of day in a decade. Finally he found the missing two miniatures and four more that had never been production molded at all hidden within another companies master molds.

So now much to my delight I managed to not only bring six miniatures back from the abyss, but also to discover there were six more unproduced figures that the gaming community have never even seen before.

I know it doesn't seem like a huge miracle to some people, but for me it was the thing that made my year special...

Things are finally moving forward again...

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:20:58 +0100

After a much to long pause (my other companies required my attention) things are finally moving forward again for Lone gunman games. I have given the website a major overhaul by adding pages for the new lines of miniatures, updating the site graphics to correspond to the new retail packaging that was designed by our good friend Wyatt the Odd that will be printed this year.

I have also due to customer demand added the dimensions to the 15MM lines so that the size of the figures can be compared to the figures of other manufacturers. I have had many requests for figure heights and this will hopefully be a valuable feature for our customers.

Goals for this year will also include finally getting the miniatures into the hands of convention dealers, local gaming stores, and adding more figures to our ever expanding catalog.

I also want to take a moment and thank those who have placed orders with and supported us this year. Without your continued support none of this would be possible...

Thanks you

The Armies of Arcana 5th edition Rule books are in....

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:03:04 +0100

Everything about launching the new company has taken longer then I had planned. That includes stocking the Armies of Arcana 5th edition rule book by Terrain Warehouse (uk).

They are now in the store and availible for sale. I am having problems with the webstore cart though. The system does not recognize that the US postal service has flat rate envelopes availible, so I will need to issue refunds on these orders to correct the overpayments on shipping.

I am going to be heading the US push to promote the AoA brand and products here in America. Hopefully in this next year I can finally get the miniatures and rules into the hands of convention vendors and possibly FLGS across the US.

The Starting of a new era in 15MM miniatures.

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:47:31 +0100

Today I got a packet of samples from the greens I sent to the caster. The greens were sculpted by WhiffWaff with a lot of detail for 15MM. These are the pics I took with my digital camera of the masters that will make up the production molds for the new "Lords of Fantasy" line that I will be launching with these 5 new sculpts.

I am taking pre-orders now for these to help with the initial costs of production. Pre-order packs will be in lots of 6 figures for all but the wizard who can be ordered seperately, but only with one of the other packs during the pre-order. Each figure will be pre-order priced at a special $0.60 with an SRP of $0.90 once the production begins.

I will be taking pre-orders until August 15th 2009 at which time the standard retail pricing will apply. Shipping for these pre-orders will be figured on a case by case basis once I have enough here to know the shipping weight.International orders are welcome and encouraged. Please feel free to contact me at the e-mail address provided on the about me page of this site...

LFA001 Adventurer Human with axe and shield.

LFB001 Barbarian with Axe

LFD001 Dwarf Warrior with Axe

LFE001 Elf Bowman

LFA002 Adventurer Human Wizard

The end of an era Thanesgames.com to close

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:19:08 +0100

I got an e-mail from Thane this week that he is letting the hosting subscription to his Armies of Arcana website expire this next month distancing himself even further from the game he created then he is already.

After selling the rules to Terrain Warehouse and the 15MM miniatures line to me I guess he must feel there is no where else for him to take the setting and the rules system that he created.

His creativity and imput will be sorely missed. We wish him the best in this new path he has choosen...

the trials of running a miniatures company...

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:18:25 +0100

Well I finally got an e-mail from my new caster that he has the molds for the Armies of Arcana line now and that means that all the casting costs can be revised for the processing of the cart. Now I just need to figure out how to do a cart with the free apps in paypal and google checkout.

lonegunman Games buys Armies of Arcana line

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:18:01 +0100

In the fall of 2008 we purchased the molds and reproduction rights to the Armies of Arcana miniatures line from Thanesgames.com. Future plans will be new sculpts added to the line and support of the global AoA community here in the US.