Reaper Miniatures has raised over $3.4 million, the third largest total in the history of Kickstarter, to rapidly expand its Bones line of flexible plastic miniatures. The Kickstarter closed last weekend, with 17,744 backers committing $3,429,235. That represented over 11,400% of the original $30,000 goal. Over 16,000 of the backers participated at the $100 level, which allowed add-ons as stretch goals were realized. The Reaper and Kickstarter communities were incredibly active during the project, with over 46,000 comments posted to the project and its updates.
Reaper’s Bones project was behind only two others in Kickstarter history: Pebble Technology’s customizable watches, which raised over $10 million; and Ouya, an Android game console, which raised over $8.5 million.
Reaper launched the Bones figure line in March, and it had grown to 12 figures by the time the Kickstarter project was launched. The line quickly became popular, with one third of the figures shipped by Reaper since the Bones launch drawn from the new line. The goal of the Kickstarter, according to Reaper, was to add to the Bones line more rapidly than the company would be able to afford if it grew at its normal pace. With Dark Heaven, Reaper’s most popular line, having taken twenty years to get to its current size, fans of the Bones line would have to wait a long time to be able to get a significant line of figures. Enter Kickstarter.
Although the Reaper Kickstarter project represents a significant amount of direct-to-consumer sales for Reaper, the potential exists for greater sales through the trade as well. Steve Jackson’s Ogre, which for a time was the top-funded tabletop game (it raised $923,680) ended up with nearly half its print run devoted to channels other than Kickstarter (see "'Ogre' Print Run Will Be Over 10,000"), with many believing that the Kickstarter project significantly improved the chances for retailers to sell more of the product than would otherwise have been the case.
A couple of the comments on the most recent Bones update tell the story. "I have never been into minis until KS brought them to my attention. Now I go to my local gaming store once a week," one said.
A couple of the comments on the most recent Bones update tell the story. "I have never been into minis until KS brought them to my attention. Now I go to my local gaming store once a week," one said.
"This has encouraged me to go back to my local gaming shop," another said. "I haven’t been for two years until I became part of this Kickstarter, and now my paints and figures are back out of storage and being painted."
