Like so many others, I'm watching this Reaper KS blow up, getting 3/4 of a million in 24 hours, but I think it has already leveled off some as it was close to that last night when I went to bed. By my quick counting and horrible mental math I'd say that at the current count the minis are coming in ate an average of $1.20 a piece, which is great is you actually want all those minis. There isn't a lot being offered I'm overly excited about.
Compare & contrast with the TerraTiles.
I was kind of lukewarm on the TerraTiles initially, especially since there wasn't any of the older product being listed for sale (referred to, yes, actually listed....no). Couple that with what I thought was a poorly-conceived freebie giveaway and I was pretty "meh".
Since that post the creators have fixed the freebie, sent me a link to buy the older set (something I had to "earn"), and launched a pretty good Kickstarter. It looks like sometime last night they hit their funding goal, which is great. Compared to Reaper Miniatures I'm getting the idea that TerraTiles is actually using the Kickstarter to finance their production, not so much as a sales effort. This would explain why they don't have the earlier set for sale outright as they most likely only have a limited stock from the earlier run (and subsequent sales).
Initially I had no clue how much these tiles cost and will admit to being taken aback with a bit of sticker-shock, but the MSRP of $75 seems pretty good the more I think about it. Hear me out....
The tiles are 9" across, point to point, which makes them have a surface area of a hair over 70 square inches. Using the 1st set as my reference there are 60 double sided and 6 half-tiles which comes up to 8838 square inches of printing ([60*2+6]*70.148)=8838.648
Let's pretend you are going to FedEx Kinkos for some full-color printing and assume you could actually print out to the edge (i.e. no margins) on letter sized paper, which is 93.5 square inches. That would make the TerraTiles boxes the equivalent of 94 sheets of paper (8838.648/93.5=94.53). Good color printing runs about $1 a sheet, barring any discounts.
If we totally discount the printing stock itself, and the boxing, and the shipping, all of which would just add to the cost, and just factor in the printing I'd say the TerraTiles are a good deal. Getting this new set for $64 and being able to add-on the previous set for $56.....a great deal.
Of course this comes with the caveat that you actually want to use the tiles. Compared to the Reaper Miniatures I think you would be much more likely to use all of the tiles than you are all of the miniatures.
I'm also digging that TerraTiles has got their act together in using some fulfillment centers to make their tiles much more friendly to buyers in Canada, Australia, and the European Union. I also love the fact that they have some cool non-Kickstarter stretch goals. By helping this project with social media shares people backing the project can get a few more add-ons to the base set. I think this is brilliant, and even if I don't end up being able to get in on this I'm willing to help out those who are picking up some tiles.
If you want to help, the easiest way is to head over to the TerraTiles Kickstarter and share from there...
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