"The Phroggs are coming! Sci-fi amphibians Kickstarter" Topic

For all of us who've been missing the presence of warlike amphibians in our sci-fi games, Ral Partha Europe is launching a kickstarter at the start of March for the Phroggs: big, bad and hopping mad!

The phroggs are over 35mm tall, so they'd serve well as sci-fi Deep Ones, I reckon, as well as batrarchian Space raiders.
The core set will be 10 figures including two support weapons (flamer and rocket launcher), with stretch goals for command figures.

More info here: link

I'll post again when I know more!

I would be all over those in 15mm!

Oh, I like the look of those! Lovely old-school science fantasy / space opera aesthetic. I imagine them having an extremely archaic, enigmatic, esoteric culture even as they cruise around in space.

Now I have to ask myself whether I want to take up a 28mm science fantasy project, having just done the same in 15mm (Ion Age, to be specific). I thought I was done for good with this style of sci-fi years ago when giving up 40K.

Ditto Dave Crowell's comment!

from the lost in space tv show?

Nice.

They remind me of one of my favorite movies,
Hell Comes to Frog Town!

Wow – that guy in the frog costume, surely that wasn't an actual prop from Lost in Space?!?

Rhoderic: yep, that's my take on these guys, too. Ancient esoteric Space frogs, the scions of a once-mighty empire, now setting out to reconquer the younger races…and maybe eat some of them, too.

There's been a serious dearth of sci-fi amphibians since GW took the weird decision to drop the Slaan from the 40K universe (at least, as figures), and I've been wondering how to build up a decent force from Deep Ones conversions alone…so this KS arrived right on time to satisfy the urge to fill the Galaxy with war-croaks.

Hi Amalric – I really want to see that film…in fact, I can't understand how it slipped beneath my radar in the 80's!

So… aside from 40K figures, what 28mm figures are out there these days that can be matched with the Phroggs to weave a nice, atmospheric science fantasy / space opera setting? Hydrissians are gone, Mephalians are gone, Drantakhs seem to be in limbo. There's the Olley's Armies Scrunts, but the original sculpts from that range (which frankly were my favourites) have been replaced with more grimdark-looking ones that don't appeal to me quite as much. The Olley's Armies humans seem to be gone as well. The Mantic Games stuff doesn't have quite the right old-skool vibe. What am I forgetting?

I'd love to pit the Phroggs against Eldar, but preferably older, less over-the-top-looking sculpts, and the thought of wading into the OOP Citadel/GW market scares me a bit.

Are there at least any human sci-fi soldiers that look a bit like old-skool 40K Imperial Guard?

I find myself wanting to join the chorus of "if only they were 15mm!". Then I could pit them against the upcoming Ion Age Xin, among other ranges.

Here's some possibilities that fit the old school aesthetic, Rhoderic:

Obviously, there's the 28mm Ion Age: theionage.com

For imperial guard, the troopers from Future Skirmish (ex-Grenadier Copplestone sculpts): link

Aliens at Zombiesmith: link

Aliens and assorted cool sci-fi at CP Models: link

Retro sci-fi at Space Vixens and Killer B games: spacevixensfrommars.com/shop
and killerbgames.com

Loads of good stuff at Scotia Grendel: link

I have more suggestions if you'd like…this is totally my kind of sci-fi gaming too!

Will look keenly into this one too.
Cheers

I've been chatting with Paul at RPE, and the current plan is to provide two basic Pledge Levels for the Phroggs: two 5-frog squads and a 10 frog squad as two Pledge levels, with the flamer and rocket launcher as upgrades at the 1st stretch goal, followed by command figures as later stretch goals or freebies at higher Pledge Levels. As soon as this is all finalised and I find out, I'll post it here!

Loud Ninja Games has some 28mm reptiloids, armored and well armed with energy weapons.

Yeah, those loud ninja Raptors are pretty cool, too, and would make great adversaries for the Phroggs. They're available also from 15mm.co.uk too, even though they're 28mm…

Thanks for the tips. Kept me from slipping into a state of mourning for the Hydrissians, Mephalians and Drantakhs.

I also thought of the BTD sci-fi range: link

I could maybe, possibly, make a go of the Alven as Eldar-type aliens, although they don't really live up to the aesthetic. I'm sure BTD used to have not-Tyranids as well (and some of the figures did look quite unique, genuinely not like Tyranid/Xenomorph derivatives at all) but they seem to be gone too.

Yeah, I have reservations about the BTD alven, too… a bit chunky for eldar. Actually, some of the fantasy elves from Ral Partha might make better proxies, such as the Fantasy Armies range, or the Heartbreaker figures.

Another idea is to use the Phroggs in "pure" fantasy gaming. If I'm not mistaken, the Slann in the early incarnations of the Warhammer Fantasy world had futuristic laser weaponry. They feature as such in the old Citadel Compendiums from the 1980s, I think.

This feels like a very typical trapping of the sort of wild, spacey, unrestrained fantasy that was popular around the 60s, 70s and 80s (as typified by the likes of Moorcock, Vance and the creative minds behind 2000AD, Heavy Metal and some of the Marvel comics, among others). The sort of fantasy worlds wherein it's not at all out-of-spirit for a bunch of orcs who just barely know ironworking to stumble across a crashed spaceship, or for a mohawk-sporting street punk from Ultracity Alpha to come careening through a magic portal on his hover-scooter when a particularly powerful spell goes awry for the local lizardman high priest (after which, of course, it would be all well and proper for said street punk to find himself being worshipped as a god by said lizardmen – why wouldn't he?).

It's a style of fantasy that's started to feel more interesting to me as of late, and those Phroggs would be perfect for it. I could easily see them fighting a bunch of sword-and-bow-armed elves, especially when said elves happen to have a rather Melnibonéan vibe.

link

I totally agree, Rhoderic. The Phroggs would be great as a Slann-like decayed alien civilization, fighting medieval armies, stranded on a primitive world. Gonna have to try and get a game of that in!
That kind of fertile, unrestrained fantasy-sci-fi is great – each fictional cosmos has its own style, feel and logic, but within that, almost anything can happen, which really magnifies the sense of wonder and mystery. Most of my fantasy campaign-worlds have an element of sci-fi and horror, while most of my sci-fi has a dose of mysticism and Magic.

All glory to the hypnotoad!!!

YouTube link

Dan

It's live on kickstarter now :-)

link

I have supported this, good to see such a fun sci fi race!

I'm a Bullfrog!

I do have one issue though: I don't understand why they have clawed toes. While the Slann had clawed toes, actual frogs don't. And I think they'd look better with pads, anyway.

It seems to be doing very well for such a modest project. Over 2/3 of the way to being fully funded already.

I'm just a bit disappointed all the discounted 10-Phrogg squad pledges were spoken for before I even knew the Kickstarter was live. 15 discount pledges weren't very much to go around. Oh well, at least this Kickstarter doesn't really need me so I can buy the figures at my own discretion once they're up on the RPE webstore.

I'm in too at Bullfrog level.
I have to say that I agree with Rhoderic; I promoted this KS here on TMP before it begun, but by the time I came to pledge, there were no earlybird spots left! And I checked in as soon as I could!
Ah well, at least I'm in and the campaign's doing well, so I suppose I shouldn't grumble about losing afew pounds.

Rhoderic, I see you're in Sweden – I'm in Norway, by the way!