There's no good timing for avoiding competition on KS, there's always blockbuster projects running, and chibi lines are pretty regularly in the mix. Impact starts a new one as soon as their last one in that genre has shipped. I'm backing both Forgotten King and Impact. The gang of backers who regularly show up on chibi projects are as well, we all get to meet again in the Comments!
Yes, the lower levels are retail cost with a bit of discount on shipping. The upper levels are a bit of a discount and free shipping. Impact's campaigns are not for folks who are primarily bargain hunting. They are primarily for folks who do want to support the company and get some discount perks and have some voice in how the product line gets developed. Impact is superb at evaluating and responding to customer feedback through their KS campaigns. Customer recommendations have helped to significantly shape all of their work, which is quite mutually beneficial.
Their first chibi campaign did have significant discounts, especially at the higher levels, and many freebies thrown in. That campaign did not turn a profit either! It's a 2-person company and they had to dig into their own pockets to complete all the extras they wanted to add to it. That did give them a large line of figures to jumpstart their chibi range and give them a solid market footing. But now with the expansion campaigns, they're keeping the cash-flow tilted slightly into the black.
The chibi Sphinx, well Sphinges actually there are a couple of variations, is from the 2nd one and is avialable. The Giant Snake from the first one became a exclusive by default rather than intent — the casting had a number of major problems and it was pulled from production. I'm a modeller and was very happy I got a pile of them for conversion projects, but it did require moderate skills to fit and putty that one.
The only deliberate 'exclusives' that Impact does in their KS projects are limited run metal castings of some of the figures in the campaign.
I love working with the Trollcast. It trims up easily and takes primer and paint just fine. Clean with warm water and a drop of detergent as usual to get any mold-release agent off. I've been priming mine in big batches with Krylon Fusion spray paint and giving primer/base coat in the predominant colour of the figures. Any paint will work fine on it, no meltiness at all. I've been using the Fusion because that's what I've been using on the softer plastic Soda Pop figures And it's very easy to dice and splice the Trollforge to make conversions: link
Their first project was a big learning experience for their sculptors and Ed at Trollcast. Some of the figures had sculpting and/or casting issues. Impact replaced any on customer request, and immediately set out improving masters and molds for the problem ones. And they've improved all their techniques for the ongoing projects.
Because I'm used to modelling, I had no problems working with all of the first run figures. As part of their responsiveness to customers, I reported every casting issue I encountered while trimming and prepping my figures, and Impact had Trollforge re-do the molds or cut extra vent-holes for any figure that needed improvement. Their commitment to quality and customer service is absolutely stellar.
So yes, I think they are worth supporting! And they do have a cadre of happy repeat supporters with each campaign.
I find it great fun to paint the figures:
