Magnificent Egos will produce figures of unique character and appearance to stimulate customers’ imaginations and provide alternative choices to the more generic lines produced for RPGs and Wargames. We will accomplish this by combining highly-experienced miniature hobbyist with artists at the top of their field and some of the industry’s most respected sculptors. We will also cultivate new artists and sculptors who show promise in order to ensure the continual generation of fresh ideas.
Magnificent Egos does not produce a war game with huge groupings of similar units. Nor do we produce generic figures for use as archetypes, placeholders or basic troops. Each of our figures will be unique with a character all its own. The concept drawings are created based on personality sketches. The sculptor then uses the art and description to ensure that each individual is brought to life in a unique fashion.
Magnificent Egos will work with a primary artist/art director to ensure product continuity in basic style, scale and mythos. However, each artist and sculptor is hired based on their own merits and is encouraged to make each project their own.
Magnificent Ego’s ManifestoWe may not be the best miniatures company in the world, but we are. We really are that magnificent. Sometimes we’re just too much. Pirate or ninja? Even our Bows are bigger! Our paladin can beat up your blackguard! Ugly is good. Uncommonly good miniatures. Stand out from the crowd. Uncommon character; uncommon miniatures.
Read the first paragraph again. That’s us in a nutshell. We are the bad-ass, balls of steel, cool cat, all singing, all dancing, undisputed king of fantasy miniatures. At least we are in our own minds. But that is where it counts. (Best ethnic preacher voice) If we do not believe it, we will not achieve it.
The truth is we are small, tiny in fact. We have an inconsequential market share and not enough steady sales to even give us a good measure of our progress. However, and this is a big however, people have noticed us. While we haven’t yet achieved the market share, we are steadily grabbing mind share and that is where it starts. Our customer base is growing at a frantic pace. The industry is taking note. Retailers are reaching out to us. Our shelf space is growing. Our competitors are getting nervous. I’d say “not bad” for a little company that started with no product and an inflated sense of self-importance.
Yes, we’re obnoxious. Yes, we stepped on a few toes. Yes, we stuck our necks out. Yes, we made some outrageous claims. Then, by god, we achieved everything we said we were going to and then some. We survived tragedy, derision, hostility, poverty and “business ethics”. We are still here. Not only that, but we have earned valuable friendships as well as the respect of our adversaries and critics. Most importantly, we have fans.
How have we accomplished this? Well, besides being the hard-headed assholes that we are, we have focused on something that works for us and stuck to it. We know we can’t be like other companies and churn out thousands of minis a month. We know we don’t have standing orders and thousands of fans who will; readily buy even our crappiest junk. We know we don’t have the budget to compete with the marketing and sales of our larger competitors. We know we can’t build Rome in a day. We also are keenly aware that we don’t have our own game or anything else to drive sales beyond our products in and of themselves. We don’t have a paint line; modeling glue; tinting powder; novel; fast food restaurant or movie license. What we do have is really cool shit.
We know all the things we don’t have, or can’t do. None of that matters. What is important is what we do have and what we can do. What we have is intelligence, knowledge, drive, creativity, originality and talent, not to mention support from key people in the gaming industry and a willingness to take calculated, personal risks for our company. What we can do is outwit our competitors by playing are cards correctly, shifting our paradigm and waging a gorilla campaign to get our name out and our product in the right hands. What we can do is out-design our competitors by continuing to create beautiful (or hideous) and original pieces that push the envelope of conventional, industry wisdom.
We start by recognizing new frontiers or forgotten gaps in the market to exploit. We plan our products to both fill these niches and exceed the expectations of our customers, while still meeting the stringent requirements of their hobby. It’s our job to conceive of things that inspire us, our contractors and our customers. This means that we will stretch and indeed break the boundaries of convention, conformity and even taste. This is risk and sometimes we will fail; but our successes will be greater and sweeter for it.
Then we carefully, hand-pick who we work with and cultivate their skills and talents. We use the oldest pros and the newest, most promising amateurs. We challenge ourselves and our contractors to go further and work beyond the limitations of the medium. We provide new solutions in raw materials, equipment and technology to enable them and then we give them the best ideas, designs and artwork we can conceive. We reject the mundane, or middle-of-the-road.
We disdain the “industry standard” and set our own parameters. We chose the right scale and be honest about the scale we use. We aren’t 25mm, 28mm, or “heroic 28mm”. We are 35mm because that is the best scale to capture detail and allow for maximum design, yet still be compatible with the majority of figures on the market. We also stay away from the big head and big hands and overall “bad comic book” look of much of what is out there. We choose to use the classic, Greek scale of eight heads high so our figures go from squat to statuesque and make striking figures when displayed. We declare that 1ft=5.83mm giving us an exact scale to design to and giving our products a cohesive realism in their perspective. Then, we hold ourselves to this, measuring every piece against our previous best. If our standards are not kept, we reject it and start over. Each figure we produce is a new level of design, unique to itself and bursting with character, or we simply do not produce it.
We support this with excellent web design, and a premeditated and fastidious approach to communication, planting the seeds within our customer base. We make strategic alliances with key players across related industries and we support them wholeheartedly, earning their support and friendship in return. We present ourselves honestly and conduct ourselves in a forthright manner. Yes, we are obnoxious and we are deadly serious about what we do, but we are also open, friendly, accepting and our own worst critic. We are tongue-in-cheek, cheeky, silly and, at time, outrageous, but we are not fickle, flighty or compromising. We love and support our customers and our industry, but we do not play politics or gossip games. We stand by our products and our people.
We are Magnificent Egos. We really are that magnificent!
See Valiant Enterprises