HOW IT WORKS

In a Nutshell

You submit an idea for a sprue of hard plastic figures, we post it up on the site and let other people "vote" on your idea by making pre-orders (no $ down), and if enough people "order" your idea, we make it and YOU make out!


What's in it for ME?

If you submit an idea for a sprue that reaches the 1000-sprue level and is made into plastic -- you WIN the following:
10 FREE Sprues of Your Idea
A $100 Wargames Factory Gift Certificate
and last, but not least:
The Undying Adoration of Fellow Wargamers!


Great! What Do I Do?

1. If you have an idea for a subject that you’d like to see in plastic, let us know what it is in this form here. Remember that it needs to be something that has potential to sell at least a thousand sprues. Of course, starting out, none of us can know that for certain– that’s why we ask people to sign up!  We are pretty sure that “Bulgarian Militia in Bulky Winter Underwear, 1893” will never find enough buyers - but we’re willing to put anything out there to see what generates a response!

2. We take your suggestion and put it up on the Wargames Factory website. We include a “pre-order form”. Anyone who wants that set can log their interest by making an "order" (no $ down).

3. As we get close to the ‘100 buyers/1000 sprues’ level (around 500 sprues pre-ordered), we’ll create concept of the actual figures and post them so that everyone can provide their feedback. Depending on what we hear, we’ll either leave them as is or make changes. Remember, we make figures for YOU and we want to make the figures that YOU want.

4. When we actually hit the magic ‘100 buyers/1000 sprues’ level, we will contact all those who made “no $ down pre-orders” and have them confirm their interest with a $1/sprue charge. If we keep the numbers up, then we start the mold design and tooling process to make the actual figures!

5. When the sprues are ready, they’ll go into the webstore, you'll be charged the balance on the # of sprues you pre-ordered, and they will ship out to you!

So get started! Click here to submit your suggestion! Wargames Factory Staff will review each entry and set it up for display on the website.

I'm "Visual" - Show Me What To Do!

Okay, in that case, just click on this image:



Questions You Might Have

How much will these custom figures cost?
It depends on the sprue, but we will clearly mark estimated prices on each Sprue Idea Submission so you have at least an idea of the final cost. Roughly, sprues will most likely be priced between $4-8 (again, depending on what's on them). Prior to asking for the $1.00/sprue deposit (after the 1000 sprue level has been reached), we'll announce the final price of th sprue...so you will never be committing to anything without knowing the final cost.

Do I have to pay anything up front?
No! You don’t pay anything until the sprue has garnered enough interest to actually be produced. When you first make a "pre-order" you are making a soft commitment requiring absolutely no financial outlay but your soft pre-order helps us gauge actual interest in a specific sprue. When we reach the 1000 sprue mark, we will re-confirm your (and everyone else's interest) and if WE'RE SURE THERE IS ENOUGH INTEREST we will ask for a $1.00/sprue good faith deposit. This $1.00/sprue will be charged to your credit card (or PayPal) and applied to your final order total. There is no way to be charged until we have hit the 1000 sprue mark, contacted you, and asked you to make a "hard" pre-order. You will not be charged the remainder until your order ships. You can cancel your order anytime prior to shipment and your credit card will not be charged for the remainder of your order, however the $1.00/sprue deposit will not be refunded except in the rare case of the sprue not being produced (see next).

What if something happens and you don't make the figures after all?  Do I lose my $1.00/sprue deposit?
If, for some reason, we are unable to manufacture one of these custom sprues after it has reached the 1000 sprue mark (Acts of God, scheduling, whatever reason), we'll refund the $1.00/sprue deposit. This is a "good faith" deposit meaning we expect you to pay for your sprues once they've been made and you expect us to fulfill our commitment to you to make the sprue you signed off on. If we can't fulfill our end of the bargain for any reason, we will not penalize you by keeping the deposit.

How much is shipping?
Our Shipping Policies are located here for your review. As of November 2008, we charged a flat rate of $5.95 per order for shipping within the United States and $10.95 per order worldwide regardless of how large the order is. We also (as of November 2008) offer free shipping on orders over $100.

Won’t it be months between the time when the 100 people/1000 sprues mark has been hit and actually having the plastic produced?
Plastic mold tooling does take some time (not to mention sculpting the figures!) but we are going to keep a close eye on the trends and when we see that one set is moving at a brisk clip, we will start doing concept work, etc to cut down on the time to production. We've also been streamlining our process here and we are shaving time off the production process.

What if I don’t like the final figures?
First, and most importantly, you don’t HAVE to buy anything. But second, we will be showing work-in-progress shots of the sculptures and eliciting your feedback so that we can incorporate your ideas/suggestions into the final figures. If you don't like what you see in the final stages, you don't have to make your "hard" pre-order $1.00/sprue commitment.

 Is Wargames Factory ONLY going to make these sprues?
No! We’ll continue to put out a regular line of box sets as well, we just think this is a great way to make sure we are making the figures that YOU want us to.

What about other scales besides 28mm?
Sure! Our passion lies with 28mm hard plastic wargames figures…but who are we to deny wargamers something they really, truly demand? When you put in your request, you can choose a scale/size of figure (28mm, 1/72, 15mm, etc) – so put it out there and see what happens! We didn't set out to make 40mm Fijian Commandos in Winter Dress, but if you tell us that's what you want...

A Brief Word About Copyright
Please hold back any ideas for subject matter owned by 3rd parties. Please don't submit "Not 'X'" ideas. Please DO be creative, historical, and original!

Fantasy and Science Fiction Submissions – some guidelines.
When you submit a topic for consideration to the Liberty and Union League, there are some things to think about. With a historical subject, the main thing is that it be popular enough to reach the 100 buyer/ 1000 sprues target. Historical figures are based on real-life prototypes, so there are no issues about anyone owning the rights to images, names or styles.

This isn’t true with fantasy, science fiction and other subjects drawn from imagination rather than fact. Many elements of those genres are in the public domain, but others are the work of specific creators; that work is protected by international copyright and other intellectual property law. As an example, nobody owns the rights to the word ‘ogre’ (which is very old, deriving from the word Onogur, a tribe of steppe nomads)  nor do they own the concept that an ogre is a large, not terribly bright semi-humanoid. However, attaching the word ‘Shrek’ to an ogre, and portraying him as a green being with funny ears and a smart-alec donkey leads on to serious IP violation issues. Obviously, Wargames Factory is not about to accept submissions which lead to questions of IP violation.

YOU MAY ask for subjects of a generic or folkloric nature; elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs. You can ask for future soldiers in power armor. You can ask for tentacled aliens, grey aliens, big lizardy aliens.

YOU MAY NOT suggest models of things you saw in a movie or a comic book. It doesn’t matter if nobody is making models of those items, or if nobody intends to. Some small companies in the past have chosen to make models that are ‘almost---’or ‘not ---’, but Wargames Factory is not willing to do that. Unless we have a license to make proprietary models, we won’t.

YOU MAY NOT suggest models that are copies of models made by another company, either presently or formerly in production. We will not make figures that mimic a previous version of another company’s current product.

So, please use your imagination, and please look to sources that are not simply someone else’s creation. We’ll make all the wizards you like, as long as they aren’t actually called “Gandalf”! (And, no, “Gandalf the Off White” doesn’t count either!) ;-)