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J-Bone Industries Fantasy Football Frogman Team

PostPosted: Fri May 06, 2016 8:42 pm
by Darkson (Simon)
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/j-bo ... man-team#/

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The Project

I have been a tabletop gamer all of my life and the game that originally got me hooked was the Games Workshop tabletop American football styled game ‘Blood Bowl’. I played this for many years as a child and have recently got back into the hobby as an adult, regularly attending tournaments in the UK and Europe playing this particular system.

I have seen other manufacturers creating frog teams in the past but have never seen one that gripped me. With the many different systems available nowadays to play games of this style I thought it would be great to introduce this to the world myself.

The main objectives that I wanted to achieve with the project were for the miniatures to:

· Have lots of character and a classic look

· Actually look like they are wearing a fantasy version of American football gear

· Be beautifully sculpted

· Stick to the 28mm scale

· Be cast in high quality white metal

My favourite fantasy football miniatures of the last few years have all been sculpted by one man, Pedro Ramos. In my opinion his style was absolutely perfect for this project and he was the first sculptor that I approached. Luckily, he was keen to do this project and we quickly began to bounce ideas off one another on how the frogs should look.

The next consideration was who should cast the miniatures themselves. After doing some research I discovered that Griffin Moulds JJP Ltd. (casters of the incredibly well manufactured Guild Ball miniatures) were only an hour’s drive from my home. After visiting them and running through the project with them I was convinced of not only their professional nature but also the incredibly high quality of their work.

What is needed to push the project forward and what are the risks?

This project is fairly unique in that the miniatures sculpts for the main campaign are already complete. I have invested thousands of pounds of my own money in order to create the team up front, greatly reducing the risk to the backers of the campaign. The masters are completed, the casters are on board and everything is geared up to start producing the teams once the campaign achieves its funding goal.

However, I am not running this as my main business (I have a career that I enjoy) and will need to redeem my initial investment before production can begin. This is where you come in. I have set the campaign goal at a figure that will ensure that I cover the costs of my initial investment and the production of the miniatures that I plan to be sending out to you all in the near future. Also, as this is not to be my main source of income I may not produce the team indefinitely after the campaign has ended so the teams you purchase may be quite a limited edition.

What will you get for backing my campaign?

There are various different perk levels that allow backers to contribute whatever they can afford and these will give whatever collection of items that is detailed in the description. However, backers of any of the ‘TEAM’ deals will receive not only what is detailed in the description but also all of the unlocked stretch goals. These stretch goals will include a mix of star players, variant positional poses, side-line miniatures, exclusive miniatures and more depending on how much is raised! If the total raised is far above and beyond what is expected then ‘add-on’ perks may be added to give backers more options as well. Regardless of your contribution, all backers will receive FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING on their perks.



The Team Itself

The team itself is designed specifically to provide a great representation of all of the positionals commonly used in fantasy football games. Linefrog 7 is designed to look more like a quarterback / leader in order to allow it to be utilised as a thrower, allowing the team to be used in game as a broader mix of teams. At present there are just two unique blitzer poses which will be doubled up in the 'team' deals (although they will be provided with a head sprue in order to allow customisation of these figures). Once the second stretch goal is reached another two blitzer poses will be produced in order for every single miniature in the team to be a unique sculpt. This stretch goal will also unlock the head sprue to be purchased as a separate perk.

Due to the buzz around this team it looks certain for many of the stretch goals to be unlocked, making all of the 'team' perks even better value and allowing us to produce even more fantastic miniatures! Once these miniatures are unlocked they will be available as separate perks for everybody to purchase, not just 'team' backers.


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Re: J-Bone Industries Fantasy Football Frogman Team

PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2016 5:42 pm
by Darkson (Simon)
1st stretch goal unlocked, and 2nd one getting close.

Mark wonders if there's enough interest within the club to go for the league deal:

€350 EUR
5 x Full Team 'League' Deal
5 'Full Team' deals, each including all 7 Linefrog miniatures, all 4 Catcher miniatures, 2 each of both Blitzer 1 & 2 (plus head sprue), the Big Croaker miniature (including both tongue & tail options) and all unlocked stretch goals. All 5 teams ship to one single address

which represents a further €15 saving on the 'Full Team' per person. Russ would be in for one or two teams (depending on numbers) and as I said above, I'm interested but can't confirm atm.

Re: J-Bone Industries Fantasy Football Frogman Team

PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2016 7:28 pm
by Darkson (Simon)
Just seen that it might be a "one-off" run, so I'm leaning more towards making the car wait. ;)

Re: J-Bone Industries Fantasy Football Frogman Team

PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2016 11:38 am
by Darkson (Simon)
A gent on TFF and a friend are interested, so if we can't get another taker from within the club we can make up the numbers to 5.

Re: J-Bone Industries Fantasy Football Frogman Team

PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2016 1:14 pm
by Dave
Any painted examples anywhere? No close ups of the individual 28mm sized models is a small concern.

Cheers,
Dave

Re: J-Bone Industries Fantasy Football Frogman Team

PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2016 7:00 pm
by Darkson (Simon)
No metals yet, so definitely no painted versions yet. Kinda the reason that independent miniature makers go to Kickstarter/Indiegogo so they can afford to cast them up.
That said, because the campaign is going so well the creator has bitten the bullet and taken them to the caster to get the masters made, so there should be some metal figures shown soon.

Re: J-Bone Industries Fantasy Football Frogman Team

PostPosted: Wed May 11, 2016 10:26 pm
by Dave
Hmmm I'll have a think about it. When would you need to know by?

And do you know what the lead time is? Can't be doing with all this buy something and it turns up 18 months later malarkey.

Cheers,
Dave

Re: J-Bone Industries Fantasy Football Frogman Team

PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2016 7:35 am
by Darkson (Simon)
Dave wrote:Hmmm I'll have a think about it. When would you need to know by?

Well, I need to talk to Mark and Russ about who's going to collect the money and pay, so not till next week at the earliest.
However, we definetly have a 4th interested (from Wales) and he might have a mate that would want one, so the sooner the better to secure the 5th spot.

And do you know what the lead time is? Can't be doing with all this buy something and it turns up 18 months later malarkey.

I don't, and I rarely use Indiegogo (prefer Kickstarter) so I'm not actually sure where that info is on the campaign page, so I've asked the question on TFF.

Re: J-Bone Industries Fantasy Football Frogman Team

PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2016 12:56 pm
by Mark
It sounds like turnaround to dispatch will be pretty quick.

"This project is fairly unique in that the miniatures sculpts for the main campaign are already complete. I have invested thousands of pounds of my own money in order to create the team up front, greatly reducing the risk to the backers of the campaign. The masters are completed, the casters are on board and everything is geared up to start producing the teams once the campaign achieves its funding goal."

He will have to sculpt a couple of stretch goals but the main team is ready to go with the casters.

Re: J-Bone Industries Fantasy Football Frogman Team

PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2016 7:30 pm
by Dave
[quote="Darkson"]
However, we definetly have a 4th interested (from Wales) and he might have a mate that would want one, so the sooner the better to secure the 5th spot.[quote]

That's ok then, I was only going to go in on it to help make up the numbers.

Cheers,
Dave