Bones - sorting tips

So I finally got through all of my Bones from the Kickstarter.

It took a while. Here is what I did to ensure I knew what was in (and not in) my Vampire box.

1) Downloaded, modified, and printed a copy of this handy spreadsheet from a Reaper Minis Forumite.

2) Opened up my laptop to http://greg.botch.com/bones/ so I could check mini by mini what's there. I found that a bit easier to use than the official one for the check-in.

3) Spread the minis out on the floor. One by one, picked out minis and check them off the list. I threw the ones I'd found into the Vampire box, the duplicates into a separate box and marked down "extra" on the spreadsheet.

4) Went through minis I couldn't ID using the spreadsheet - that helped me find the guys who are pictured slightly off-center on the webpage, or whose sculpt is photographed in a way that made it hard to see a truly defining characteristic.

5) Went through the official page to get numbers on the ones I was missing.


My add-ons were trivial (one monster pack with 3 monsters, one C'thulhu, one other monster) so I could just eyeball them.


Overall, I got a bum box. Really. Lots of stuff was missing. I ended up with 29 missing line items totally 42 minis. But, I also ended up with 37 duplicates!

The good part of that is Reaper doesn't want them back - it says so on the packing slip. The bad part is while they will replace the missing ones, I have to wait until the regular shipments are over. Fair enough, they want to get everyone's stuff out the door. I have no doubt they'll get to me and get the minis back - they've always shown top-notch customer service in the past, often going above and beyond what I'd expect.*

So I will need to wait some more. Sigh. I'm not disappointed but it was frustrating to figure out which mini was in each of those unmarked plastic bags and then try to figure out what was missing.

The question is, what to do with the minis?

I have some duplicates I don't need, and I have a number of non-duplicates I don't want either. Trade? eBay? Save for later? I haven't decided. Some are really tough calls - I got an extra giant - do I trade him away, because I do actually have a bunch of giants already? Or do I keep him, because then I can have an epic giant fight?

I also got some duplicates I can really use - extra golems, double-up on the Pathfinder goblins (hell yeah!), some extra fighters that look generic enough. Even an extra Ape-X, which is another clear "Epic cyborg ape fight or trade?" quandary.

Figuring out the "don't really want" pile is going to take a while! I am open to discussing trades, though, so I might post a "Not sure if I want these guys or not" page in a little while.

But yes, now we start to figure out what to paint first . . .

* Case in point, I bought a pack of spider minis. One had a malformed leg, so I contacted them. They sent me an entire blister pack of replacements for free.

Related Posts:

Bones, Primers, Sealers

Reaper Minis Bones Forum - lots of painting/prep advice for Bones