Hey all!
Well, Cold Wars 2018 is in the books... so I thought I would post an AAR...
But there is a difference this time! I am not posting as a player... I'm posting as a vendor!
So, as I had mentioned, my buddy Mike and I went down to Cold Wars as our new company, Minuteman Miniatures, and we were offering several services...
First, we sell tanks! LOTS of tanks. Like... thousands of them, including some CRAZY one-off types... if you want that Bob Semple tank, we've got it! And we print one or twenty, at nearly ANY scale... and at HALF the price of Battlefront! If you want the full list, check out our website; we will have it up in a day or two, and we will post more about it then.
But the real star of the show was our ability to put your head on a miniature! We honestly had no idea how many people would WANT this... like, we thought it was cool, but had no idea if anyone else would? Above you can see two of the customers who DIDN'T pick their figure up on Saturday... anyone know who they are? We have their names, but if someone could guess that would be a trip:)
We did do a brochure in each Cold Wars bag, which ended up really working out... we were the only one in there, which was fun, and also Mike's face was suddenly ALL OVER the place. Downside? We COMPLETELY forgot to put an email address or website on it! Argh! Live and learn, I suppose?:)
Anyway, we ran the booth at the vendors hall, and it was a WHOLE different experience! I didn't get a moment of break or a bite of food on Friday at all. Unfortunately we found out rather late that when the vendor hall closes, that means EVERYONE leaves, including the vendors... as newbies I guess we just didn't think to ask! So we ended up having to cart the whole printer and computer setup back to the hotel room. That delayed things by quite a bit, and sleep became tricky... I went to bed at about 1 or so, but poor Mike was so busy trying to get customers ready that he fell asleep in front of his computer at 4 AM! Then the printer was banging away the whole night... it was pretty bad:)
Saturday was more of the same... hardly a bite to eat from 9 AM until 6 PM, and I never stopped talking... the guys at the Winger Hussar Miniatures booth I think got sick of me!:) We were ESPECIALLY happy that we were able to meet so many vendors and even scan them! I have to say... every single damn vendor was SO nice and supportive and welcoming... it really meant a lot to two total newbies!!
So, we offered the scans for free, and obviously you could buy figures from us, but we ALSO kept the "Of, By, For Gamers" board where people could request figures. If enough people who got scanned requested the body, we would make it!
Well, we got a TON "sponsored" by Sunday! So we are emailing our sculptor this morning to get going on an American Civil War officer, a Dark Ages Highlander, a Pirate, a Viking, a mounted Norman, an American Revolution officer, and a Samurai!
And 30s Gangster, Cowboy, Napoleonic British officer, Pulp Adventurer (think Indiana Jones), Polish Winged Hussar, and Sci Fi officer (think Space Marine) are only a few "votes" away... so hopefully by the next convention (seems like we will try to get to Little Wars in Chicago in a few weeks!) they will get sponsored!
Anyway... it was GREAT fun, although COMPLETELY exhausting. By the end we could tell that the event staff was loopy too, as they came by after the end of the convention and got a few scans done for some truly insane ideas... but hey, if you can make yourself as a tank, why not?:)
Anyway... I just wanted to say... it was so nice to meet SO many gamers, and I was just FLOORED by how understanding and supportive and welcoming EVERYONE was. Even people who had to wait on lines (we didn't expect that... I hope that the Wargames Illustrateds we bought helped!) and all of that were gracious and understanding. Sometimes the wargamer community gets attacked for being impatient or snarky or whatever; well, that certainly doesn't seem to be true!
So we will be at Historicon, and maybe a few cons before that, and we were talking with a few game stores about coming to them to do a little sponsored day there... so we should be able to get to as many folks as want to have it done!
And if anyone has any questions, please do let us know... you can email us at mike@minutemanminiatures.com or gp@minutemanminiatures.com!
Thanks to EVERYONE who came by; it was the treat of a lifetime:)
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