Stormlight Premium Miniatures

Livestream with Brandon Tonight!
about 2 years ago – Wed, Sep 21, 2022 at 01:02:41 AM

Today’s design reveal and stretch goal reveal will be handled a little differently… on a livestream with Brandon! Tune in to his YouTube channel tonight at 7 pm Mountain time... about 30 minutes after this email hits your inbox. The livestream just kicked off with a discussion of Brandon's newest book, Bastille vs. The Evil Librarians: 

After the discussion with Janci, Stormlight games & collectibles lead Johnny O'Neal will be stopping by Dragonsteel HQ to discuss the Kickstarter and share some live updates. He'll share a new design reveal, a new stretch goal, and maybe even some details about our next Stormlight tabletop project!

The stream will also be available for viewing as a regular YouTube video afterward, and tomorrow's update will recap everything we announce tonight. So whether you join live or catch it later, we hope you enjoy the show!

Painted Shallan Now Available
over 2 years ago – Mon, Sep 19, 2022 at 12:00:15 AM

Hello, Radiants! We woke up this morning to see that this campaign has crossed into the $2 million mark. That’s incredible! Behind the scenes, we had hoped to hit $2 million for the entire campaign, so hitting it on Day 5 feels like a huge achievement. That’s not just good news for this project… it paves the way for more Cosmere games and collectibles in the future.

Take a Memory

On Wednesday, when we asked people for the stretch goals you’d like to see, the #1 response was more options for painted figurines. Specifically, we heard a lot of requests for Shallan and Dalinar. So today we’re adding a Shallan figurine as an option in our Add-Ons. She'll also be an option in any pledge levels that contains painted figurines.

Here’s how this works:

• If you choose the $15 add-on, you’ll get to choose which of the available figurines you want in the pledge manager at campaign end.
• If you choose the $50 add-on, you’ll get to choose four figurines out of the available options.
• If you have the All-In pledge, you’ll get to choose four figurines out of the available options.
• If your pledge already includes four figurines, you can add $10 to add a fifth figurine.

We want to be very judicious with our painted figurines, because the whole reason we’re doing them at our larger scale is because that allows us to control the quality level. If we add too many figurines at that scale, it becomes harder to ensure that each one is up to our standards. But we love this Shallan sculpt, and she’s been the most requested figurine, so we hope you enjoy having her as an option!

Speaking of the painted figurines, here’s a closer look at how the figures are packaged:

These will have an outer plastic blister, but only the base will be “trapped” with an inner blister, allowing the figure to look great from every angle. (If you’ve seen an Amiibo package, this design is similar.) The back of each pack contains a brief character bio. Whether you display your prepainted minis in or out of package, we want to make sure they look collector-quality!

That’s all for today, but please stop by the comments if you have any questions. Then stay tuned for Tuesday, which be like two updates in one!

Lightweavers & Horneaters
over 2 years ago – Sun, Sep 18, 2022 at 02:40:21 AM

It’s been another fantastic day for the campaign, and we love how many people are still discovering this campaign for the first time. Today, we have a couple of FAQs to answer, some painted minis to share, and a new stretch goal unlocked!

Pledge the Way You Want to Pledge

The Brotherwise and Dragonsteel teams are working together to answer every question that comes our way, and updating the FAQs with those answers. For anyone who’s curious, here are two most common questions:

What if I just want an Add-On, rather than one of the existing pledge levels?

If you want a specific Add-On, that's no problem. For example, if you just want the painted miniatures, make a $50 pledge and select the $1 "Add-Ons Only (Physical & Digital)" pledge level. You can then select your desired Add-Ons. You'll also have the option to allocate your funds however you'd like in the BackerKit pledge manager, switching your dollars to whichever items you prefer at that time.

What if I want only one miniatures pack, but not The Way of Kings set?

That's not a problem! Just select the pledge level that contains the number of miniature sets you want (The Way of Kings for one set, Words of Radiance for two, or Oathbringer for three). Once the campaign concludes, you'll have the chance to pick exactly which sets you want in the BackerKit pledge manager.

In general, our philosophy is that you want something without getting something else, we’ll make that happen! The only exception is the unpainted miniature sets; we won’t be selling those unpainted miniatures individually. Otherwise, we want to give you as much flexibility as possible.

Lightweavers in Action

We’ve started to share prototype miniatures with painters around the world, and the results are gorgeous! Here’s a look at Shallan by Elle_Firespray:

And a truly intimidating Blackthorn by Next Level Painting:

To see how Kenny achieved that look, check out this 60-second video. He insists that these these are beginner-friendly techniques that anyone can use! We’ll keep sharing more examples of painted minis, including longer process videos and guides, as the campaign continues.

Lunamor the Merrier

Gather around the fire and grab a bowl of stew, because we have unlocked Rock as a stretch goal!

The heart of Bridge Four will be included (inside the box) in every Words of Radiance pack, making it a 7-pack. That means this stretch goal is included for everyone who gets the Words of Radiance pack, regardless of their pledge level. We’re still grooming his distinctive reverse-mohawk, but will reveal his final design soon.

Now we’re headed off to join our own crew and celebrate a great first week. If you have questions or requests, ask them here or drop by our Reddit AMA. Thanks for everything and have a great Saturday!

Rhythm of Appreciation
over 2 years ago – Thu, Sep 15, 2022 at 12:22:51 AM

As we begin today’s update, we are feeling extremely grateful to the Stormlight fandom. It’s been an awesome second day, and we’re delighted to see more than 7,000 backers supporting this campaign.

Today we have another look behind the scenes, as well as a stretch goal announcement!

Embracing Change

When embarking on the creative development project that was the motivation for Stormlight Premium Miniatures, we knew Singer and Listener characters would be one of our biggest challenges. For such a major part of the books, they were one of the least defined in terms of official visuals. Isaac and the Dragonsteel art team spent a lot of time examining imagery, from existing fan art to new commissions. Working with Brandon to capture his vision, a set of guidelines emerged.

One of our key goals is making sure that Singers don’t look like anything else in fantasy. We avoided elf-like pointy ears and alien-style pure-black eyes. We worked with the Dragonsteel continuity team to make sure every detail from the books is taken into account. At the same time, we followed the Brandon’s Zeroth Law, “always err on the side of what is awesome.” That steered us away from crab-like orange colors toward a more imposing palette of crimson, ivory, and obsidian.

All of that development, including great concept work on Warform, led us to the design for Eshonai. This is one where our sculpting team was just doing their best to follow in the footsteps of the great Ben McSweeney. He designed turnarounds for Eshonai’s Shardplate, her portrait, and even a color illustration of her pose.

We love Eshonai’s unique Shardplate, with its hints of Singer aesthetic. Her blade is just as awesome. While the sculpting process involved some of the usual tweaks to the portrait and pose, this one was remarkably consistent from concept to final miniature.

Forms of Power

While yesterday’s reveal of the Lopen was universally acclaimed – of course – it did leave some people wondering, “just one stretch goal for a million dollars raised”? Let us assure you that yesterday’s amazing results have allowed us to improve the value and quality of this line in multiple ways. We’re still working on some of those enhancements, and some need to be cleared with Dragonsteel. This process allows us to make the most of the funds that have been raised, while also giving you the chance to tell us what you want!

Today we can reveal a subtle but important upgrade to every unpainted miniature in the line!

A number of different materials are used in manufacturing, and they all strike some balance between detail and flexibility. Some materials hold a lot of detail but break easily. Others are flexible but prone to warping. Unlocking this stretch goal means that figures will be made from a combination of plastics, allowing us to choose whatever’s best for a particular component. For example, harder plastics aren’t ideal for bodies but can be great to make weapons more rigid. We’ll even have the ability to use some clear and translucent materials when that’s appropriate.

Looking to the Horizon

Thanks again for leading this campaign to such a strong start! You, our backers in the first 48 hours, are the most crucial to its success. And while we won’t be holding stretch goals behind arbitrary dollar amounts, more success will absolutely help us add more cool stuff to this project. So let us know what you want to see. While we won’t be able to fulfill every request, your ideas will help guide us to the best campaign for everyone!

The Journey Begins
over 2 years ago – Wed, Sep 14, 2022 at 06:12:03 AM

Welcome to the first day of the Stormlight collectibles Kickstarter! This project is the next step in a multi-year partnership between Dragonsteel and Brotherwise Games. While we’re delighted to see so many pledges, we’re just as excited to take you behind the scenes and share what this project is all about: creating official character designs for The Stormlight Archive.

This update contains spoilers for Rhythm of War. Don't scroll down any further if you want to avoid spoilers!

Building a World

Brandon calls the character designs in this campaign "the first official depictions of the Stormlight characters." This is a lot more than a merchandise Kickstarter: it’s a world-building project to determine the look of every major protagonist in the series.

It took a dedicated team to make that happen. Isaac Stewart, VP of Creative Development at Dragonsteel, partnered with Ben “Inkthinker” McSweeney and other artists to define the overall look of each character. The team at Brotherwise created sculpts based on those designs, then refined them through extensive dialogue with Isaac and Brandon.

In his blog post today, Brandon had this to say:

“I’ve learned a ton in this process, and it’s really helped my mental picture of the characters to get them concepted this way. In addition, it has provided us with a great deal of material we can use for other projects. In the past, I often didn’t want to give artists definitive depictions of the characters, as I enjoy seeing what different artists come up with from my descriptions. Over the last few years though, I’ve come to realize that the books and the Cosmere are big enough that it would be better to be more clear about my vision.”

So working together, we’ve created a set of character designs intended to capture Brandon's vision and pave the way for future illustrations, games, and entertainment projects.

Bringing Shardplate to Three Dimensions

When we were planning this line, we knew Shardbearers would be some of the coolest characters to depict in miniature form. While the canonical look of Shardplate was established in Shallan’s sketchbook, this was a chance to show some characters’ Shardplate for the very first time! Here’s a closer look at Blackthorn Dalinar, based on an awesome concept drawing by Ben.

Our goal with Dalinar’s armor was conveying a sense of tank-like power and intimidation. Its appearance is heavier than other Shardplate designs, which would make it all the more terrifying to witness if the Blackthorn was sprinting toward you on the battlefield! His Shardblade Oathbringer is 6 feet long from the tip of its blade to the heliodor gemstone in its pommel, but Shardplate also gives Dalinar some added height, making him just over 7 feet tall!

Kaladin in Rhythm of War

Here’s where we get into heavy spoilers, because our Day One reveal for this campaign is Kaladin in Shardplate. This is on the opposite end of the Shardplate continuum. It’s still highly protective (as befits a Windrunner) but its sleek lines are designed for flight. You can imagine how Kaladin would truly own the skies in this Plate.

Once again, Ben created the original concept drawing and the sculpting team worked to do justice to it in three dimensions. We’re excited for the first day of this campaign to debut Kaladin’s Shardplate, indeed… the first living Plate we’ve seen!

That’s a Lot of Broams, Gancho

As we wrote this update, our campaign just surpassed $1 million in funding. That’s an amazing first day and a testament to the passion of this fan base. We’ve gotta hand it to you, Stormlight fans are the best.

So this seems like the perfect time to reveal our first stretch goal. Based on this awesome first day, we’re adding another miniature to every pledge that includes The Way of Kings Collection, taking it from a 6-pack to a 7-pack. Wave hello to everyone’s favorite one-armed Herdazian… the man, the myth, the legend, the Lopen!

Our team is still perfecting his goofy grin, so for today we’re just offering this sneak-peek silhouette. Stay tuned for his character design reveal!

Thanks for an amazing first day. We realize this has been a long update, but we figure Sanderson fans like to read! We’ll be back tomorrow with another update, including a close look at Eshonai and the Parshendi design process.