Catalyst Game Labs Acquires Iron Wind Metals

[sundancer 43436xp 0]

So this just dropped:

Catalyst Game Labs is pleased to announce it has acquired full ownership of Iron Wind Metals, located in the Greater Cincinnati area.  While Iron Wind Metals (and its Ral Partha brand) is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Catalyst Game Labs, it will continue as its own division, specializing in metal miniatures manufacturing for a variety of companies, with a heavy focus on BattleTech.

Source: https://www.catalystgamelabs.com/news/catalyst-game-labs-acquires-iron-wind-metals

Nothing I could find about Ral Partha Europe. Given the fact that the last blog entry on https://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/ is from 08 February 2018 I doubt there will be any news.

Is RP Europe a company of its own or a daughter of Iron Wind Metals and is now owned by CGL too?

[limburger 21952xp 1]

No mention either on the Kickstarter … any other company would have been proud to mention the extended ranges available.

CGL is not one of those.

Not sure if this is a smart choice for IWM to be honest.
CGL don’t even know how to run their own company without screwing things up.
And now they’re going to do this to someone else ?

This can only end badly.

[sundancer 43436xp 1]

Funny thing I just found out: Iron Wind Minis published the same statement 11 days ago!

https://www.ironwindmetals.com/index.php?view=article&id=155:catalyst-game-labs-acquires-iron-wind-metals&catid=10

and nobody seems to notice.

[grantinvanman 2593xp 2]

No good can come of this. IWM … nice to have known you.

[horati0nosebl0wer 19699xp 1]

Damn it, damn it, damn it!!! Ugh, a great old company that was still viable for the market taken on with a sinking ship.

Ok, I’m irritated but I also need to add my two cents about the whole of Ral Partha being owned. As far as I saw on cursory glance, nothing was mentioned by Ral Partha Legacy. It is unrelated to the Battletech IP so I wonder what CGL will do if that company is in some way attached. I doubt they’d keep 25mm fantasy lines. The sculpts are 80s legacy that are great for nostalgia and collecting.

Honestly this makes me want to pick up some things before anything changes.

 

[sundancer 43436xp 1]

Ral Partha Legacy. Now here it seems to be getting really interesting. From the RPL “Please Read – Order Turn Around” page:

As this is currently a one-person operation with the help of a handful of dedicated volunteers, it may take some time to get orders put together. […]

As we get orders in for certain products, we may run out of stock in these early days. When that happens we will be traveling to the Iron Wind Metals facility to cast up additional stock. This is not a problem, but because of the distance between our workshop and IWM, we can really only make these trips on the weekends.

But at the same time IWM says:

While Iron Wind Metals (and its Ral Partha brand) is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Catalyst Game Labs, it will continue as its own division, specializing in metal miniatures manufacturing for a variety of companies, with a heavy focus on BattleTech.

So RPL is now also owned by CGL? IWM is not RPL but at the same time RPL does not have the molds? oO Talking about making things complicated. And I’ll bet a lot of things in the background are just “gentlemen’s agreements” made in the back with no written contracts whatsoever. To quote Denis Leary “I smell a lawsuit in this one”.

Let’s see how this turns out.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6446xp 1]

Sad that it is no longer possible to by mechs without supporting CGL.

3D printing and proxies is the way to go now until a decent honest company picks up the licence.

 

[sundancer 43436xp 1]

I doubt that CGL will let the licence slip. So unless The Topps Company, Inc. is taking it away from CGL that wait could be a long one.

[tankkommanderParticipant 6446xp 2]

CGL may well run out of backers suckers eventually.

[limburger 21952xp 2]

I bet that CGL noticed that quite a few people were buying their mechs at IWM and they simply wanted all of it for themselves.

And the owner of IWM appears to be stuck between a rock and a hard place as I doubt there’s many companies that would dare to take on the battletech range while knowing the owners of that IP might come knocking.

It sucks that a lot of the companies within our hobby are one-man bands who rarely have time to consider the options when they want to end things for their business.

[sundancer 43436xp 2]

It sucks that a lot of the companies within our hobby are one-man bands who rarely have time to consider the options when they want to end things for their business.

That is maybe one of the biggest strength and weaknesses at the same time in our hobby.

[grantinvanman 2593xp 0]

best possible outcome…

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