Crowds Roar as Three Models are Unleashed on Arena Rex’s Store
February 12, 2015 by dracs
The first three post-Kickstarter models of Arena Rex have been unleashed on the newly launched webstore! See what you think of Stheno, Acerbus and Sulla...
These minis are three beautiful sculpts which couldn't be more different in nature from each other. This means that the first three releases give us a good idea of the flavour for this game of fantasy gladiatorial combat.
Unfortunately, these minis are currently only available in limited quantities. The guys at Arena Rex say this is because they want to make sure the webstore is running smoothly and that Wave 2 of their Kickstarter orders are shipped off before they become available to the rest of us. Still, I would say they are off to a good start and I am looking forward to getting the opportunity to explore this new game and its world.
Did you support Arena Rex? Which of these three minis do you think is best?
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"...the first three releases give us a good idea of the flavour for this game of fantasy gladiatorial combat"
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Those are really nice.
love the Roman type warrior.
Backed the kickstarter heavily, and my only regret is I don’t have every single model (I’m close though). Didn’t back the Conan KS since funds were so limited, but I didn’t think twice about buying these regardless. From game to miniatures, everything Red Republic Games has done so far has been amazing. Infamy and RRG are my two companies to watch.
that Siva-esque character is fantastic.
Sculpted by Patrick Masson (Sulla), Stephan Nguyen (Acerbus), and Benoit Cauchies (Stheno).
I’m waiting for Romain’s skin painting tutorials to wrap up before I even consider painting my Arena Rex minis – and assuming I don’t mess them up I will be picking up Sulla and Stheno for sure 😀
So this is a first. Normally people complain about the prices and I think they’re not too bad and now I think the prices are extremely high and nobody says a thing.
They’re the usual cost for highly-detailed hand-poured resin minis.
That may be but I’ not going to pay $23.00 for one 28/32 mm miniature.
35mm. But, it’s a fair point. In my experience people tend to baulk at the price of a gaming miniature when it is disproportionately expensive compared to the number you will need to play a game. An Infinity starter, for example, is £30 for only six models and you’ll probably want to spend another £15 or so to get it up to a 200 point force. You can get 20 high quality (if you like GW’s style) plastic tactical marines for about £45 too and I guess you could play a very small game of 40K with that. In Arena Rex, you are generally looking at ~4 models per side and again, you are looking at about £45 for that if you didn’t back the KS.
Now I don’t agree that is acceptable to charge more for a model simply because you don’t need as many as game X – not when that is the ONLY reason – but when you factor in quality, I do find it makes the cost per figure more palatable. Of course, that still isn’t going to be enough justification for everyone.
“That may be but I’ not going to pay $23.00 for one 28/32 mm miniature.”
I wasn’t aware I was telling you that you should. I was telling you why people weren’t complaining about the price. Minis which are manufactured in this way cost a lot of money to produce, but trade that off for a very high level of detail. The people who are interested in buying them understand that they pay more for that. Much as I understand that when I buy a chateaubraind steak, it’s going to cost me more than a Big Mac. I don’t have to buy it, I may even prefer the Big Mac, but if I’m into high quality steaks, then I understand that they cost a lot of money.
From a business stand point, it does make sense to charge more per model if you need less. The company needs to make a profit somehow. This is especially true for a game like Arena Rex where each model is an individual character…a player is probably only going to ever buy that model once. Unless their player base does nothing but grow their profits quickly stagnate and then plummet. And once that happens long enough…no more RRG. No more Arena Rex.
A company like GW or PIP however can afford to charge less per model because players will need to buy a considerable larger number of models for a standard list. And then bank on the players buying even more for things like alternate lists. Plus, as Redben pointed out, high-quality hand poured resin > plastic by miles.
From a consumer standpoint I totally understand if someone is apprehensive with the price, for the standard human sized models anyway. (The bigger guys, like Not-Shiva and the Rhino are actually about the same cost as any other model of that size regardless of material, but I digress). I won’t tell anyone how to spend their money.
But there is a legitimate reason behind the price tag. No point in starting a game company if you can’t keep it afloat. Would rather not see a repeat of Rakham.
I’ve been very impressed by their sculpts. Expensive? Yes, but would personally rather have one really nice mini for 20 than a unit of sub-par trooper models. That is just me however.
After watching some gameplay I’m also very intrigued. The game looks to be exceptionally tactical with simple rules…something I really enjoy with games. And being able to play with whatever model I want is another big plus.
I’ve been good and have only stuck to the two games I set out to do so far this year (yeah, I know, it’s early…let me enjoy some self-praise here. 🙂 ) But I’m finding this to be very tempting…more so than the Batman game or Infinity to be honest.
This game when it does come out will be a must buy in my books. As you said, they are much more tempting than some other games out on the market.
Prices for the normal sized models are comparable to a Resin 40k HQ choice, except that you only need 3 Arena Rex minis to play. I believe the rules are available for free on the forums, so you could be playing for under $70. I think the prices are quite reasonable for high quality resin minis.
As someone who dropped a lot on the kickstarter, I feel I got my monies worth, and then some (RRG actually gave me a $35 model for free just for helping out in the public playtest). I own models from mierce miniatures miniatures, Ammon miniatures, infamy, etc (I’m addicted to resin) and Arena Rex is possibly the best I’ve seen, if not the most consistent in quality. Played the game a few times now and it’s great fun, love the fatigue mechanic. Guildball doesn’t hide the fact it got a few ideas from Arena Rex. It also helps that it’s a great company, very friendly, kinda remind me of wyrd miniature, another great company. I also love that you get great depth out of a 3v3 game, and every single model changes your play.