Dragon's Cache - Series 1

Project Update #12 - Last Call for Address Changes!
about 1 year ago – Thu, Mar 06, 2025 at 10:30:11 AM

Happy Thursday everyone! It's time for our usual bi-weekly project update. Let's knock it out!

Now that we're back from GAMA Expo, we're gearing up for fulfillment to begin as we finish the last little bit of production concurrently. That's right, we're going to start having the first shipments going out next week, huzzah!

First thing's first though, this is the last call for any address changes to be made. If you haven't contacted us yet to update your shipping address if you've moved since you completed your backer survey, please please please do so now. If your pledge is shipped to an old address and is unrecoverable, there won't be anything we can do. We don't want this to happen to anyone. We know we're a broken record with this, but we want to give everyone as many chances as possible to get it taken care of. Email us at [email protected] to get your address updated if need be.

As we mentioned before, we move through fulfillment at our own logistics order and not based on backer numbers or by country or first/last name, etc. We'll get everyone's pledges out in as timely a manner as we are able. It'll take us at least a few weeks to move through everything so we ask everyone to be patient. We know it can be hard to see others getting their pledges and yours hasn't shipped yet. We do all of the fulfillment in-house, so we've got to balance knocking out those shipments in tandem with our general daily workload for our website orders and other projects/casting jobs in the works. So we thank everyone for their understanding during the fulfillment process.

As we mentioned earlier, we just got back from GAMA Expo where we met with retailers and shop owners from across North America. It was a great trip and we made a ton of connections. The response and feedback was tremendous and we've already had a bunch of stores sign up for our wholesale program and place orders, so we're incredibly excited!

If you'd like your local game/hobby stop to carry our minis, please spread the word and let them know they can apply for a wholesale account directly on our website or email us at [email protected].

We're not going to stuff the update super full this time, but we'll have the finalized female Dragonborn Swashbuckler by the time our next update drops and we do want to remind everyone that we've got our Rounders Dice campaign on the horizon, so please check that out if you haven't yet. Additionally, we will be sharing the first glimpses of our next miniatures project by the end of the month. We're very excited to begin the promotional rollout for the next sweet new minis collection we've had in the works!

Thanks as always everyone and we'll see you in the comments!

Project Update #11 - Fulfillment Upcoming, Sahuagins & More!
about 1 year ago – Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 12:45:28 PM

Happy Friday Backers! Today we've got a new project update for you all with some topics related to fulfillment and other fun stuff.

Production is slowly approaching the finish line while we've also been working on assembling the various components of everyone's pledges. As with all of our projects we offered a lot of add-ons and a la carte options so our backers have tons of flexibility to get exact what they want. The downside for us is it's always a big undertaking to pull all the various parts together at the end and keep everything organized with so many variations from pledge to pledge. But once we've got all of our ducks in a row in that regard we'll be able to start getting everyone's shipments packed assembly line style.

As we noted in our last update, we'll be exhibiting at GAMA Expo all next week, which is going to put a short delay in fulfillment getting underway. But once we're back, we expect to get fulfillment started up fairly quickly. We'll of course keep everyone updated at every step along the way, as we always do.

And if you've moved recently, please email us to make sure we've got your current shipping address. We don't want your pledge to go to an old address! We may not be able to recover it. Email us at [email protected]. We appreciate those of you who contacted us after the last update to make sure we had your current addresses on file!

As we just announced in our latest NLM newsletter email, we've got a double dose of water warriors as our newest webshop release!

They're specially priced through the end of the month - so dive in before this deal dries up. The Sahuagin Raider and Wave Shaper are our first aquatic themed minis and surely won't be our last. If you've got any suggestions for other aquatic themed minis we should make, comment below or drop us a line at [email protected].

We know some of you will want to add them to your pledge before fulfillment starts, so if you'd like to do so, please email us at [email protected] with the name of the model and the quantity so we can manually add them to your pledge and charge for the new balance.

If you're not signed up for our newsletter, you can do so here: NLM Newsletter Sign-up. We send newsletters about once or twice a month (we don't spam you daily or anything like some places, promise!) and they're filled with fan polls, new releases, artwork, and other fun stuff we've got going on. Best of all, if you sign up for the newsletter you'll receive a coupon code for 15% off a webshop order!

We want to update you all with how the Dragonborn Swashbucklers from the Fan Vote are coming along. Here is the completed male version on the left! And on the right you can see the female version as a work in progress. The skin features are starting to come together, but other details like the hair, horns and clothing are still being finished before we move on to posing the model.

We expect them to be featured as webshop releases in March or April. Stay tuned for more progress updates on the Goliath Druid and Tortle Battle Smith in future posts!

And last, but certainly not least, we want to remind everyone about our upcoming Rounders Dice campaign. This one has been simmering for a long time, but we're just about ready to kick it off as we finalize the last few aspects of the campaign. Expect it to launch around early March. Here are the product renders for each of the five tins of themed dice that will available! Each set is an homage to a classic RPG module.

To sign up to be notified of launch and to learn how to get an oversized d20 included with your pledge for free click here!

And with that, Update #11 comes to a close. We thank everyone who reads to the end to stay up to date with the project and everything else we have going on. Stay safe and we'll see you in the comments!

Project Update #10 - Production, Fulfillment and Much More!
about 1 year ago – Fri, Feb 07, 2025 at 01:02:10 PM

Hello once again Backers! It's time for another project update post for you all. This one's a doozy, with a bunch of stuff to cover so let's begin!

We're slowly getting those final production numbers knocked out as we start to transition into the assembly/packing phase of the project. We're been splitting some time between production and assembling pledge components over the past week or so and as you can see below, we're at the stage where we'll soon be packing up pledges. We're doing the final prep work to make sure everyone's pledges are in order and ready to be packed up.

So we're putting out another warning to update your shipping address with us if you have moved since you originally filled out your backer survey and haven't updated it with us already. Please contact us at[email protected] so we can make sure that happens ASAP. We don't want anyone's pledge rewards sent to the wrong place.

We're going to be starting to get these bad boys packed up as early as next week. A reminder though that we don't pack or ship pledges by backer numbers or what country you live in. So we ask that everyone remains patient as we move through everything. We do all the fulfillment ourselves in-house, we don't use a third party fulfillment service.

Next on the list for today is to update you all with the work in progress for the Dragonborn Swashbuckler you the fans voted on! Right now we're still getting the model ironed out with the 3D artist, but as you can see it's still a little basic, but coming along nicely. We've progressed past the initial stage of blocking out the male model (there will be a female version also!) to make sure proportions are correct and now we're getting into posing and adding details. We'll have another update on its progress in our next project update so stay tuned to see how the process works!

Later this month we'll be exhibiting at the GAMA Expo (Game Manufacturers Association) to show off our new retail packaging to store owners and retailers from around the country. This has been a long time in the works and we're super excited for our products to get into hobby shops near you! If you've got a local hobby store that you'd love to see carry our stuff, please let them know to visit us at GAMA Expo if they'll be in attendance, or to check out our website and fill out the Wholesale Application.

Any Oscar nominations in our future for those slick video editing skillz? 🤣

Another thing that has been in the works for a while, but which is finally just about ready to debut, are our new wet erase vinyl game mats! Produced in the USA just like our minis, these mats are vibrant, scratch resistant and made with ultra-durable matte banner material. They roll up easily to store and lay flat when in use. Simple to clean and spill proof too! What's not to love?

This first offering will be our five original game mats that released along with with our Next Level Encounters Kits, plus two brand new game maps - a Town Square and a Bandit's Hideout. We'll have them available individually and as a complete bundle with special pricing.

We're going to be opening up a limited time pre-order on our website for them very soon (we'll let you all know when they're live) and we'll be printing to demand and that's pretty much it. We don't plan to sit on a huge stock of these, so if you want them make sure to snag them when they're available. The best part is, since we're getting these produced with a partner locally, they'll be made and ready to ship in only about a week after pre-orders close.

And last, but certainly not least, we want to remind everyone about our upcoming Rounders Dice campaign. This one has been simmering for a long time, but we're just about ready to kick it off. We're waiting until we get fulfillment of this project done and we return from GAMA Expo, but once those are in the past, it's next on the agenda, so expect it to launch around early March. If you haven't signed up to be notified of launch and to learn how to get an oversized d20 included with your pledge for free please click here!

And with that we're at the end of the update. Whew, that was a lot! Thanks as always for reading and staying up to date with the project. We'll be back again in a couple weeks with another update.

See you all in the comments!

Project Update #9 - Production, the Final Fan Vote Results and more!
about 1 year ago – Fri, Jan 17, 2025 at 01:17:21 PM

Hello Backers, we're back again with another project update post! We know this one was a little later than our usual cadence, so we apologize for the delay on that. Let's get to all the news and fun stuff!

We've had a bit of a rough start to January with "Aerosmith" (one of our SioForms) developing an air pressure issue, that completely prevented the machine from initializing an injection at all, which took over a week to correctly diagnose and resolve. Generally, we've seen just about all the issues these machines can have after working with them for 3 years, including air pressure faults, but this one was a tough one to pin down. We had to reach out to SioCast (the manufacturer) to help us successfully get the error resolved and unfortunately they were on holiday break so we had to wait a bit for them to get back into the office to assist us. Fortunately, Aerosmith is back in action as of this week.

On top of that, those of you who are in the St. Louis area will assuredly have been dealing with the snow/ice apocalypse that's been going on for almost two weeks. We had a winter storm roll through that dumped about 10-12" of ice and snow on us over two days and since then the roads have been a mixture of impossible to treacherous with plows being slow to clear certain areas. The temperatures haven't really come up above freezing until the past couple days and some roads are still just absolute sheets of ice. Fortunately we only missed a few days of operation during that time, but shipments and deliveries have been delayed due to the ice on the roads so it's been an ordeal to say the least. We've got a few warmer days on the forecast so we're hoping the roads get cleared before the temps plunge back down into highs in the teens coming up next week and possibly more snow... ugh.

All that being said, we're working as quickly as we can to breakdown and count the backlog of sprues and we've already begun assembling the various components of your pledges. We're sorry things have slowed down a bit over the past month with the move, holidays and now weather issues, but we just want to make sure you all know we're working through them as best we can and we're still planning for an on-time fulfillment at the moment.

The Final Round of our first ever Fan Vote to determine upcoming minis has ended and we're excited to share the results. However, first off we want to thank everyone here, on our socials and our newsletter who participated. We're very thankful for your support and enthusiasm!

OK, enough preamble - results time! The final round consisted of choosing the specializations for the race/class pairs that we're voted in over the first two rounds. To recap, the choices we're:

Dragonborn Rogue - Inquisitive or Swashbuckler

Goliath Druid - Circle of Spores or Circle of Wildfire

Tortle Artificer - Artillerist or Battle Smith

And the winners are (drum roll....)

Dragonborn Rogue - Swashbuckler (65% of the vote)

Goliath Druid - Circle of Wildfire (54% of the vote)

Tortle Artificer - Battle Smith (56% of the vote)

Swashbuckler took a huge lead and never relented right from the get-go. It was such a runaway that we've already got a sculptor working on the models (there will be both a male and female version)! For the Goliath Druid, Circle of Wildfire started out with a wide lead, but over time the Circle of Spores kept making ground, but in the end couldn't quite get there. Similarly for the Tortle Artificer, Battle Smith jumped out to a big lead, but Artillerist did mount a bit of a fight in the end to make it a lot closer than it seemed it would be.

Again, thank you to everyone who participated, we had a blast and we'll definitely we running more fan votes in the future. We'll be sharing images of the fan voted models as they go through sculpting and mastering so keep an eye out on our socials and if you're not already signed up for our newsletter, you can do so here at the bottom of the page (you'll also get a code for 15% off an order on our website).

We also want to remind everyone of our upcoming Rounders Dice campaign that will be on Kickstarter fairly soon. We know we've been promoting this one for what seems like forever and some of you have asked us when or if it's actually going to happen. The reason for the longer than usual timeline are: 1) Our move back at the end of November/December, 2) We expanded the scope of what we're going to offer a bit and needed more time to fully develop those ideas, and 3) We want to make sure that we're making the absolute best product we can for you all. It is important to us that we take the time to ensure that the vision we have for this product matches reality, and that means spending extra time working with manufacturers and choosing a manufacturer that can produce our vision or the product to the quality level we are satisfied with and that we know you all expect. We're still ironing out all the details and we are excited to launch once everything is fully ready to go.

You can sign up to be notified of launch and learn more about the dice and how you can get an oversized d20 added to your pledge here.

That's it for this one. We're sorry it wasn't all roses with some of the early 2025 troubles we've run into. We'll be back in a few weeks with another update as we get closer to fulfillment on the horizon. A quick reminder, if you need to update your shipping address, please email us at [email protected].

Thanks again for reading!

Project Update #8 - Happy Holidays! Production, Fan Voting, New Models and More
over 1 year ago – Fri, Dec 20, 2024 at 09:46:13 AM

Hello everyone, we're back with a new update after a bit longer of a break between them than usual. We're going to cover production progress, the results of the second round of the fan vote and more. Let's get to it!

As of today we're an estimated 78% done with production. Progress has been slow of late as we packed up and moved our two facilities into one, but we're finally getting back to our normal routine now that we're fully moved and almost fully settled in. Let's just say it's nice to be making minis again! Of course the Christmas Holiday and New Years are right around the corner so we'll be taking some much needed time off with family, but we're refocusing on finishing up the home stretch of Dragon's Cache.

We're happy to share the results for Round 2 of the Fan Vote to decide future minis we'll make. As some of you noted, there were pretty disparate options voted through in Round 1, but here at Next Level Miniatures we trust the process! 😉 

Here are the pairs you all voted for in Round 2:

• Dragonborn Rogue
• Goliath Druid
• Tortle Artificer

There was much less drama in the voting this time with the Druid class vote as the only one that was fairly close for awhile, but Goliath squeaked ahead in the end. For the others it was a pretty big runaway for the winner. Seems many of you were of the same mind on the options!

For Round 3 we're focusing in even more and giving two specialization options for each Race/Class pair to choose from. Cast your vote here!

We're excited to see the final results of our first ever Fan Vote!

This month we just released some brand new models directly to our webshop for the Dragonborn Fighter, Dragonborn Monk, Carpet and Flying Magic Carpet! They're specially discounted through January 1st so be sure to check those out.

Because the Pledge Manager for this project is closed you won't be able to add them to your pledges directly, but fear not - if you want to grab some to add to your pledge we are still able to manually add them to your pledges on our end. If you'd like to do so, just email us at [email protected] and let us know what you'd like to add and the quantities. We'll take care of the rest!

We're also offering a 3x bonus on our usual spend $50 webshop discount now through the end of the year. That's 15% off all orders of $50 or more, with free shipping included (in the US)! You can visit the webshop here.

With that little bit of self-promotion we're going to wrap up this final update for 2024. We thank you for reading and staying on top of the project. Enjoy the holidays, be safe, and we'll see you in the new year!