Magister Militum - Selling Up

[Leon]

I'm seriously low on marketing savvy, but I believe we have two rather different businesses here.
    Pendraken "Scale leader - with supporting sidelines".
    Magister Militum "Aggregator - without a dominant theme".

In our extended hobby Warhammer are a classic example (I should have said Games Workshop - Warhammer is the killer app).
Pendraken has that in its 10mm ranges.

That's an interesting point that could probably take up it's own thread!  While 10mm is obviously our 'bread and butter' as it were, we never could have achieved our current level of operations whilst relying solely on the 10mm sales.  The main reasons for that are simply that 10mm doesn't generate enough profit margin in the product itself, and the scale didn't have as much market share as the more traditional scales.  The latter has changed a lot over the past 10+ years though, which has been a big help.

The only way that we were able to expand into premises and staff was by diversifying into the third-party and sundry products.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Fogg of War are in the process of getting their shop up which will include some bronze age stuff too.

Fogg of War have been talking about a web shop for a few years now, I see that they have a marker web site now, be interested to see what happens there.Their ancient Chinese looked intersting.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

[mmcv]

Fogg of War have been talking about a web shop for a few years now, I see that they have a marker web site now, be interested to see what happens there.Their ancient Chinese looked intersting.

Cheers

GrumpyOldMan

Yeah I have some of their Chinese samples I got a few years back and they are very nice. They've also got some Renaissance, Dark Age and Classical ranges in the works along with their Bronze Age and Asian offerings. I was chatting with them recently when I saw they had the site up and they sound like they're close to launching 🤞

[Big Insect]

I can't think of many times Magister Militum was my first choice of supplier.
Their extensive ranges were handy for filling gaps in collections.
But I have never envisaged a project - even the most speculative - and thought "I'll get all the stuff form Magister Militum".

I totally agree with that thought.
Some manufacturers have nice figures but not a complete range - such as Artizan Designs 28mm ranges. Lovely figures but always with 'gaps' in their ranges, unfortunately. So for me they end up as 'filler' purchases - with the majority of an army coming from another supplier, with compatible figures.

I think that the completeness of a range is (for me anyway) a major factor in where I buy products from.
Maybe I am lazy or it is just that I like a degree of consistency of 'sculpt' within an army.
Likewise having matching opponents is important - to me it no good having a Russo-Japanese range with only the Russian (or just the Japanese) force - or if there were a few Manchurians or Chinese troops involved - having them available is often the key influencer in making the bulk purchase decision

Magister Militum were/are as you state more of a 'filler' supplier for me - so I'll buy my massed 15mm orc & goblin army from Alternative Armies (for example) but MM do a nice goblin overseer cracking a whip (so I get a few packs of those to supplement the AA hordes). Or I'll buy my Baueda camp from MM, at the same time as a few other odds and ends, to save on P&P. Pendraken have the added advantage of offering full (own brand) figure ranges + all the nice add ons - like Litko markers, MDF bases, wire spears & pikes - as well 

[John Cook]

I agree.  Complete ranges are fundamental to taking that plunge into a period.  I also agree about consistency of sculpts.  I hardly ever use other manufacturers to fill-in gaps in another.  I'd rather not bother in the first place. 
Similarly, producing both sides is pretty basic I'd say.  I also wonder if some of the more obscure ranges aren't loss-leaders really.  Russo-Japanese War, War of the Pacific - Really?  I suppose it is alright if the core ranges generate sufficient to make them possible but otherwise but I'd rather see some of the older ranges modernised first.
I also like consistency of poses within a range.  That is the principle reason I haven't considered Pendraken's AWI.  Lovely figures but those cavalry poses - great for red indians but not much else, in my view.
I've only used MM once for a complete project - Maida - and that was only because Pendraken didn't make the early Napoleonic figures.  They were expensive in comparison and a chore to prepare and paint.
 

[FierceKitty]

It occurs to me that if MM goes under, there'll be a serious gap in 10mm Sassanids. The Pendraken figures are better, but too limited in variety. This could be a real problem.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

It occurs to me that if MM goes under, there'll be a serious gap in 10mm Sassanids. The Pendraken figures are better, but too limited in variety. This could be a real problem.

Or you do what I did, use the the late Roman cataracts.

[DecemDave]

Even worse for Huns.  A strange omission from the Pendraken LR range.
But not having cataracts at least I can still see to paint them.
 

[FierceKitty]

I do have minor cataracts, and some day I'll need to have them seen to...hmmm, wrong word, what?

I have a unit of the late Roman figures in my Persian army, but the MM ones remain useful (esp. the fancy standards).

The Pendraken Mongols are convincing Huns, I find.

[steve_holmes_11]

10mm is the size where my eyesight struggles to locate minor details.
Belt buckles, dagger sheaths and the like.

This also makes it the largest size where I'm happy with "Paint conversion".
A coupe of years back I posted a whole list of Proxies for sixteenth century "age or exploration" Indian ocean contingents.

A couple of hours poking about the obscure corners of Pendraken's catalogue is rarely wasted.
For example: The recent "Chinese peasants" form the Russo Japanese range could plug into a millenium and a half of Chinese history.


Returning to Magister Militum:

The problem isn't so much incomplete ranges:
They have a couple of very complete ranges in the old Chariot 15mm Biblicals and the Hallmark small scale naval.
It's more that their extremely general range means they're rarely the "Go to" you'd think of outside some rather specialised set-ups.

[Raider4]

Arrowhead Miniatures is going as well. From their website:

"Arrowhead Miniatures
CLOSING DOWN SALE
Due to many different reasons I have decided to retire after 25 years of producing kits. I would like to thank all my customers for their support during that time.
The sale is 20 % off all products. When they're gone they're gone."

[fsn]

Could the loss of Arrowhead and MM actually be good for our favourite producer?

[John Cook]

Could the loss of Arrowhead and MM actually be good for our favourite producer?

Arrowhead were stunning models but at 1:144 were too big for 10mm really, which is 1:150 as far as vehicles are concerned.  Their range also had no theme to it and there were too many gaps in its range.  I doubt its demise will have much effect one way or the other.  MM was much more catholic that Pendraken insofar as it was not nearly the 10mm specialist that Pendraken is.  I'm not sure but I don't think it was necessarily the 'go to' for 10mm figures.  It certainly wasn't for me. But, having said that, if its 10mm figures disappear it won't do Pendraken any harm.  I can hardly beieve that they will though.

[GrahamC]

Interesting conversation for sure, like others here I rarely bought from MM and then only to fill gaps and whilst I acknowledge diversification can be positive I just felt they tried to cover too much product. If I was on the look out for a new venture I don't think MM would be it very difficult to say what their core ranges are!
As to other companies etc there are many small businesses out there that a lot of gamers have never even heard of Arrowhead being a prime example I'd never heard of them until someone posted about them closing. The hobby is very dynamic at the moment, lots of product, lots of changes to the hobby but I think the likes of 10mm and 6mm are in a good place. I don't see 3D prints having a huge impact on them yet!
I do have some 15mm resin prints and they are nice however they can be fragile, I don't know how they will stand up to the passing of time and really unless you print yourself not really any cheaper than metal!
We live in interesting times!

[pierre the shy]

Belated welcome to the forum Graham from NZ.

Do you think that the 10/12mm Epic scale ranges that Warlord Games have released for various periods will have an impact on the smaller scale wargaming scene?

While there are a (very) few brick and mortar shops here in NZ (and a couple of NZ based online sites) that sell "mainstream" stuff like Warlord Games here if you want anything else you have to buy from overseas. In my case mostly from UK retailers. 

This is why I like Pendraken so much as Leon and his company have such amazing customer service and a very extensive range of just about anything you need in 10mm. 

Like everywhere else though nothing is getting cheaper and the cost of getting stuff to NZ is becoming a real factor in all offshore purchasing decisions, including gaming ones. We don't spend a lot on buying stuff online but the freight cost is a big factor when we do.