Wyrd does plastic

Wyrd miniatures have been around for a while now. For the past few years, they've had a lot of success with Malifaux. Last year, they introduced a number of resin miniatures- larger minis that were made from resin to offset the rising costs of tin. This year, they feel that the prices of tin have gotten worse, and they're moving their entire line into plastic. After looking at some of the minis, I can report a little about them. - They come on the sprue. After opening so many boxes from Privateer Press, this actually surprised me. - The plastic their using is the hardest I've seen used for miniatures. It is slightly harder than the plastic that Games Workshop uses, and much harder than the plastic used by Privateer Press (and oh-so-much-harder than Reaper's Bones plastic). - The minis do suffer from the big issue of all plastics- loss of detail around the mold lines. However, Wyrd is able to make up for this by making their minis from many pieces. Minis that would have been only one piece or two are now five or six. Wyrd has always prioritized ease of assembly far below awesomeness of the miniature. - The actual detail that they're pulling off is really fine. I've compared it up against a few plastic minis that I have around here from other lines, and this material is impressive. - The minis are absolutely not bendy. The tiny fiddly bits that Wyrd likes to put on their minis are bending a great deal less than their pewter. - The strangest thing about Wyrd's plastics right now is that they used it for all of their limited edition Con-exclusive miniatures this year. Even the one that is only available to Henchmen. Generally, plastic prices are based on the costs of the mold, so selling a great many of them in bulk is important. I wonder what has changed that their process doesn't need this anymore (or if this was an experiment of some sort). Here are some photos of their new minis:

 



 These are the "Nightmare" miniatures from this year. The Hanging Tree and two Hanged based on Nathan and Eric (owners of Wyrd). None of the plastic minis in the case were painted.


 


 This was the only painted plastic mini that I got to see. He was out on one of the tables, I'm guessing he was hoping to be part of a demo. I can't help but think that five years ago, Wyrd fans would have been up in arms over this (the way that Privateer Press fans were before the release of the photos of Exemplar Bastions). Honestly, plastic used to mean lower quality. But it has become more and more clear that newer plastics have come a long way and can support good detail on miniatures. It also surprises me that we're seeing so many kinds of plastics, each with their own advantages. From the scant information we have right now, it looks like Relic Knights is going to be using the same kind of plastic that Wyrd is using, and I'm very interested to see how that turns out.