The shareholders sure as heck aren’t looking at alternatives to ensure this disruption doesn’t affect production.
All they care about is how to maximize the profits by selling their current resources for maximum profit.
That’s why we are in this situation.

They did not learn from the pandemic by increasing local buffers and looking for alternatives.
Well … they learned how much profit they could increase by citing supply chain disruption.

Look forward to an increase in prices for plastic minis in the near future as the increased cost is passed on through the supply chain.

And don’t expect those prices to go down once this insanity has passed.

As far as I’m concerned, 1-piece metal miniatures are still the gold standard. As for molds wearing out, Minifigs from the 1970s are still available, I just got a good-sized box of them a few weeks ago and the casts are as crisp as you please. Hard plastic is fine if it doesn’t go to the extremes shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxtk2KhDgrs 2 hours to assemble 1 Ogre-sized figure consisting of 46 (!) parts….

Resin and 3D prints are just too fragile to hold up to serious gaming in the long run and while the extreme undercuts and ultra-dynamic poses made possible by 3D printing do look cool, they also make painting such figures very difficult, since you cannot reach some parts of the miniature withe even the skinniest paintbrush and even air brushes or rattle cans cannot be aimed at them without creating massive overspray. In such cases, your best option is to flood the area with the dark color of your choice, plunging the undercut into deep shadow and not paint what you cannot see.

I still have some molds i got from Prince August decades ago.

3 Dwarf’s in a mold, 3 elves, 3 Napoleonics and a chess set.

Still got the casting stuff and some metal too. From what I recall there were a lot of failures.especially thin weapons, bows and the bayonets on the rifles.

@athelstane – I remember a time when the average price for a metal figure was around $ 2.00, plastics about $ 1.00 per basic infantry trooper. And I am still highly suspicious of anything that goes beyond that – which today is everything….Plus, we now have the very bizarre situation that plastic figures often cost MORE than metal figures, which, I suppose, is something you have to expect living in upside-down Clown World…I have several of Featherstone’s books, including Complete Wargaming and do cast figures on occasion when it’s warm enough to have the windows open. Which brings me to

@pagan8th – I have LOTS of Prince August molds, almost all of the 25mm Fantasy ones, some 32mm and most of the 40 mm Holger Eriksson Karoliner. They are very well made, last a long time and if you have trouble with them, there are tutorials on the PA website as well as on TheirTube. If thin pieces are the issue, maybe you need to vent the molds or make sure they are somewhat warm before casting.

@limburger – I’m not sure what the advantages of resin minis are. They often claim that the detail is crisper, but I don’t see a difference. For example, Demented Games offered most of their Twisted figures in both a metal ‘gamer’s’ and a resin ‘collector’s’ edition and they look equally crisp to me. Same applies to the few metal figures you can get from Raging Hormones, erm, Heroes. 3D prints have the advantage of being completely independent of any mold-related considerations, but that produces the already mentioned painting difficulties. I have talked to several 3D manufacturers onEtsy marketplace and they have all said that no one gives any thought to how hard it would be to paint a particular figure when it is designed.

@Wolfie65 I’m glad you can fill your nostalgia vibe with … 50(?) year old Minifigs; nostalgia can be a deeply satisfying drug. Modern Perry metals are beautiful and what I’d be buying. No two ways about it.

I last built a full metal army circa 2010 – GW no less; a Nurgle Death Guard. Conversions galore, I saved all the filing dust from mold lines to use as “rust” or “corrosion” on the models to great effect.

Without a power Dremel, that army wouldn’t have come together.

Building a large monopose historicals army, metals look awesome. I did a plastic Naps army once – Perry minis. Even the relatively simple build of 3-4 parts made me think twice. Victrix plastics? They’ll drive you nuts.

But for GW gaming, plastic and kit bashing is a winning combo. No two ways about it. Look at my four kits used to make a trukk-trakk… no way metals could do this level of conversion.

@grantinvanman – While many of the 1970s Minifigs are rather crude by today’s ultra-mega-detailed standards, they do have qualities that modern minis cannot match, at least not in my eyes. They look like something out of fairy tale or saga, while modern minis look like something from a video game. Pick your preferred aesthetic….And the Aureola Rococo ‘Elves’ – based on Rodney Matthews paintings, especially ‘People of the Pines  and Twelve Towers at Dawn, inspired by Michael Moorcock stories, and bearing some resemblance to GW’s Night Goblins are actually quite intricate little fellows that wouldn’t look out of place in games such as Moonstone, for example.

More on resin: I am neither clumsy nor careless, but I had a hell of a time with the resin figures that come in the basic Carnevale starter set. Even just during cleaning and prep, one of the ladies of the evening broke off at the ankles several times, so did the harpoon carried by one of the fishermen, which also had so much extra resin clumped on it I decided to turn a casting sin into a virtue, leave some of the excess on the harpoon and paint it as lagoon scum still sticking to the tip. And don’t get me started on the gondoliere’s oar, which quite literally hangs by a thread…..

I mean Archon manufacture in Poland and other use uk based manufacturing.  So not everything is China based.  It will hit the asmodee studios, cmon and board games with big plastic minis and the like more.  Although all will face related material and shipping costs.

The turmoil is also likely to hit metals a bit. As they tend to be a fall back stock and a lot of the smelting is China based

However, its a luxury product and plastics is the common material of choice and necessary for larger kits.  So unless costs drive people out then companies may see reduced revenues but should continue ok.  Of course if it does drive enough out then there will need to be an adjustment, what that is I don’t know.

As for 3d printing, until it can produce reliably in bulk (tens or hundreds of thousands of units) with minimal labour required and durable resins can be produced then I am not sure its an industry answer.