Grimbart_Kriegsaxt said:
Omnipotent said:
I think the main problem is the amount of races...and even if it isn´t good (for the game that is) then the mini production would have to start with only the four mayor races(maybe Vorlon and Shadow too), cause I bet one problem they`ve had is the extend of different miniatures, and that they sell so darn unpredictably.
QFT
All those different molds have to be expensive...
IIRC, metal models are not too expensive to produce. Certainly they are far cheaper than plastic.
If Mongoose were having problems breaking even on new ships then I doubt we would have seen new fleets like the Dilgar and Gaim.
I think the problems were supply and quality control. There were always posts of people complaining about excessive flash and even downright miscasts. The regulars here know enough to just contact customer services and arrange replacements but poorly cast ships do not make a good advert to new players. Also I am sure that replacing miscasts could get expensive if it was happening often enough.
Secondly, I suspect that a lot of the molds inherited from B5 wars were getting quite old and flaky. The Omega and Tinashi are both examples where you have to practically carve the ship out of the flash.

Whilst producing new ships might be feasible, I suspect that the costs of replacing a large number of ex-B5W molds might be excessive. The new Hyperion looked promising but seems to have disappeared. Could they have done the same for all the iconic ships in the range? I have my doubts.
Lastly, there seemed to be real problems (at least in some parts) with actually getting the models in stock. We have never really found out what the problems with the distribution network were but ultimately if customers cannot buy the models in their local stores the game will inevitably suffer.