Ultimate Bestiary Miniatures

Production Cancelation and Refunds
almost 3 years ago – Sat, Feb 19, 2022 at 01:29:44 AM

Greetings Adventurers,

Last week we prepared for the final stage of packaging up the minis in their blister packs. Unfortunately we discovered that the vast majority of the minis we had produced and stored away were for lack of a better word "melting" and losing all of their detail. All of the minis went through a UV curing process to harden up, after which they were counted and put into boxes for storage so as not to get damaged. It's unclear whether that process was done incorrectly or if they had a chemical reaction with the cardboard boxes they were being stored in. Regardless of the reason, the minis are not viable.

We've been scrambling for the past week to find a solution, but at this point the most reasonable thing is to simply refund all of you for your physical rewards. We've been in contact with our support team at Kickstarter and they have advised us on best practices to make our backers whole. At this point you have four options to be made whole:

• A full refund for your physical rewards back to your credit card
• Store credit on the Nord Games website equal to 2X your physical rewards
• Changing your physical rewards to digital rewards and refunding the difference (if any) back to your credit card
• Changing your physical rewards to digital rewards and receiving store credit on the Nord Games website equal to 2X the difference (if any)

We're encouraging people to go for the store credit option as it's much easier for us to absorb a loss through existing inventory rather than direct refunds.

In order to choose one of these options please follow the link below and you'll be taken to our Google Form. There you'll make your selection and enter your Kickstarter email address so that we can look up your order. Please be patient on a response as we are down to just two employees on the support team.

Ultimate Bestiary Miniatures Refund Form

We do not plan on running any more physical miniatures related projects for the foreseeable future. Instead we will focus on our core competency of publishing books and card decks. Partnering with an experienced miniatures company is the only way we'd consider releasing a line of physical miniatures.

We feel awful about how this campaign is ending. We had all the best intentions to create this new product line with your help. We appreciate you backing our project and believing in us, but we could not deliver. This is a first for us and we intend for it to also be the last time we fail at fulfilling a campaign.

Thank you,

-Chris

Quick Production Update
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 02, 2022 at 05:12:54 PM

Hi All,

We hope that the new year is treating you well. We have good news, bad news, and more good news.

Good News. Manufacturing has been going smoothly. Slower that we'd like, but the models look fantastic. Packaging materials have arrived, and fulfillment is expected to go smoothly as soon as it starts.

Bad News. We've been hit with COVID. All of our employees working on the miniatures tested positive or had a household members who tested positive and were required to quarantine in early January. The number of cases in our area exploded shortly after the holidays, but things are now settling back down.

More Good News. Everyone has made a full recovery (no hospitalizations fortunately) and tested negative for COVID, so they're all back at it.

This whole endeavor has been a challenge to say the least. I've heard many people say "We're all in the same boat" when they describe the pandemic over the past couple of years. I usually respond with; "We're all in the same storm, but we're in different boats. Some big, some small." We appreciate all of you being supportive and understanding as we navigate through this storm together.

Happy gaming,

-Chris

Good News Everyone!
about 3 years ago – Mon, Dec 06, 2021 at 08:46:13 PM

Greetings Adventurers!

The past few months have been fast paced and productive! We've been able to refine our 3D printing processes, optimize model finishing, and produce thousands of minis! The last piece of the puzzle was packaging and I'm very happy to announce that we've placed and order for all of the clamshell packages that we'll need to fulfill your rewards. 

We've also sourced the foam backers which will serve to keep the minis from bouncing around inside their package and the cardstock graphics so they look nice. We are expecting delivery of all of these packaging materials to us on or around December 15th at which point we will begin assembly of the packs.

We've been testing the painting process and the results look fantastic! The detail on even the smallest minis is apparent. Just look at the stitching on the Goblin Alchemist's leather hood!

Expect another update as models are getting packaged up, and another before we begin fulfillment! This project has really been a challenge, but we appreciate you sticking with us through all of it.

Happy gaming!

-Chris

Production Update
over 3 years ago – Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 12:38:45 AM

Greetings Adventurers!

It's been too long since our last update and we apologize for that, but there have been many developments:

Model Revisions. First and foremost, the designs for the minis were locked down in early 2021 and production was moving forward. Unfortunately due to a communication error on the part of our production facility they thought that these minis were to be injection molded in 6 parts, painted, and then glued together. The models were in fact supposed to be a single piece and unpainted. They explained that the minis would have to be redesigned (with "slightly" different poses) in order to work properly during the injection molding process. What was only supposed to take a couple weeks turned into a few months.

Production Complications. In July the Nord crew had an internal meeting to look at the latest minis and determine what progress had been made and what was still to do. It didn't look good. So many of the models that Ralph, our Art Director, had been working on with the production facility's sculptors just didn't look correct. Poses were no longer logical, anatomy had been incorrectly modified, and as a whole we were not happy with the results and began seeking alternatives. On top of all that the timeline for production was absolutely unacceptable. Shipping to our warehouses wouldn't begin until December 2021 at the earliest. Plus freight shipping times have become extremely delayed and skyrocketed in cost, going from around $2,000 per 40-foot container to around $20,000. Basically fulfillment wouldn't happen until mid 2022 with how things were headed.

Alternative Solution. We resolved to find an alternative that would yield the quality of models we would be proud to deliver within the timeframe we promised. We purchased and began experimenting with a resin 3D printer. The initial results were very good, so we expanded our production and have planned out the manufacturing, packaging, and shipping of all the orders associated with this campaign. All of this will be done in house by our staff. We currently have 10 printers up and running and we will likely get 10 more up and running within the next couple of weeks. 

Moving Forward. All that being said we know that some of you will have concerns about quality and the timeline. Rest assured that these miniatures look fantastic (see above), and we plan to complete fulfillment before the end of 2021. We know that this later than originally expected, but the aforementioned issues with our original production facility has cost us time.

***If you are unsatisfied with our solution and you want a refund or store credit on the Nord Games website please email [email protected] and we'll get you sorted out. We don't want you to be unhappy with your purchase and we completely understand if our solution isn't going to work for you.***

We sincerely appreciate your patience as we've been methodically solving the problems we've faced during this project. Miniatures are new to us and although many factors have contributed to the delays, it's ultimately our responsibility to deliver the product we presented in the timeframe we stated.

***On a personal note: the past 18 months has been difficult for all of us due to many factors. I (Chris) would appreciate it if we can keep any angry and/or abusive statements out of the comments. It isn't productive and is extremely detrimental to my mental health as I have to read all of them. Thank you in advance.***

Thank you for backing our project and stay tuned for more updates.

-Chris

Latest STL Revisions
almost 4 years ago – Sun, May 09, 2021 at 11:06:49 AM

Greetings Adventurers!

If your pledge included the 30 STL files available through this Kickstarter please check your Inbox. There should be an email from Backerkit with instructions on how to download the latest revision of the STL files. We added some detail that was missing on some of the models as well as change how the supports were created. They should be much easier to print now. 

Please let us know what you think. If you have any issues getting to your files please contact [email protected] and we'll get you sorted out.

Happy gaming!

-Chris