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| Revision Log | |
| 7 May 1996 | page first published |
4,485 hits since 10 Oct 2000
©1994-2024 Bill Armintrout
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The head of Reaper Miniatures is Ed Pugh (pronounced "pew"), one of the three owners of the company. Ed's day job was working as a CPA in the business he shared with his brother, but since 1989 he has spent his evenings and free time at his "other job" (Reaper Miniatures). In 1993, he left accounting behind and made Reaper his full-time pursuit.
For someone who grew up painting his plastic toy soldiers, and who has enjoyed gaming with microarmor and Napoleonic minis, Ed's job is a dream come true.
Working with artists is something Ed clearly enjoys. He has made a special effort to create an atmosphere at Reaper in which his experienced artists are free of restrictive constraints. And once a year, at Gen Con (a major U.S. game convention), Ed hosts a dinner at which up-and-coming sculptors can meet and talk techniques with the old pros.
Ed also believes in listening to his customers. He told me that at one point they were receiving a lot of feedback to produce more player character-type figures, so Reaper did. Now, they hear the cry for more monsters, and so are shifting in that direction.
When talking to Ed and Al, I discovered to my surprise that they are both involved in historical miniatures wargaming - Ed in microarmor and Napoleonics, Al in ancients. I asked them why Reaper wasn't in historical miniatures.
"I don't see a niche not being served," Ed regretfully told me. It seems there is already one or more companies producing products in every historical period.
Surprisingly, Reaper got its start with product lines which were not gaming products -- the Distinguished Flying Collectibles line of pewter aircraft (based on recognition models used in WWII), and Al Pare's line of fantasy jewelry.
To this day, the company continues to keep half a foot in the non-gaming market. Such diversification keeps Reaper less vulnerable to sudden changes in the gaming business, and also allows them to buy supplies in bulk. Roughly half of their business consists of "contract work" producing trophy tops, medals, military recognition coins, and pins. Unlike most other miniature companies, Reaper has the equipment to do the "finish work": antiquing, polishing, and hand-enameling.
Their gaming products fall into the following product lines:
How to describe these? Essentially, they are medallion-like disks with a spinner-like pointer in the center. They are absolute convenience for keeping track of points with collectible card games, and there are new versions intended for tracking hit points when playing role-playing games.
The premiere fantasy line from Reaper, with figures sculpted in the "larger than life" style which scales closer to 28mm than 25mm. When Ed started this product line, it was with the motto: "let's go back and get the greats!" Sculptors for the line include Julie Guthrie, Sandy Garrity, and Bob Ridolfi.
When I asked Ed how he was able to lure away such well-known artists from other companies, he told me that creative freedom was the key. At another company, an artist like Julie Guthrie -- with her reputation for doing finely personalized faces -- might be pigeonholed exclusively doing player characters. At Reaper, however, she can pretty much create what she wants. Furthermore, artists at Reaper aren't constrained to sculpt figures according to design sketches made by someone else.
These historical figures have a history of their own -- they were sculpted by Bob Charette years ago to be the original figures for the Bushido role-playing game, but the masters fell into limbo when the manufacturer went out of business (and Bob was never paid for his work). Years later, Ed Pugh bought the masters, saw that Bob was finally paid, and brought the figures out as the Daimyo line. Ironically, these "lost" figures won the Origin award in '95 for Best Historical Figures.
This new product line is entering the 15mm fantasy field with a clear sense of its own identity. The company hopes that Rene Perez's style, with bulkier figures and dynamic poses, will have the same attraction in 15mm as its Dark Heaven line does in 25mm.
This vast line of figures, in "traditional" 25mm scale, consists of figures from a variety of sources --
The low prices make the Dungeon Dwellers figures attractive for anyone trying to put together a fantasy army in 25mm.
One of the signature features of Reaper's fantasy lines are the wide, grass-relief bases -- what the company refers to in house as "broccoli stands."
Many companies prefer to make smaller stands (the savings in metal directly results in a savings in production costs), but not Reaper. The pre-textured stands mean that a customer can have an attractive base simply by painting one color and dry-brushing a second color. (No more gluing sand or flocking onto a base to get that grass-like texture!)
Where is Reaper headed next?
For anyone hoping to drop in on Reaper Miniatures as I did, I have bad news: the company discourages visitors. They don't sell products on-site, and as much as they enjoy giving tours, they don't usually have the time to do so.
A better idea would be to meet them at one of the conventions which they travel to.
