I think it's a really cool idea to put environmental responsibility at the core of a game company's identity. Enviro Games seems to be off to a good start! enviro-games.com/ After they saw my first instagram post, they made a discount code for us... apparently "Goob1" is good for 5% off?
I wish more companies would pack stuff in paper and cardboard. I can just throw that into my compost pile, and never have to worry about the "forever" plastic.
Thank you so much for this video, Brent! We really love what you did with the minis; the contrast between the orange of the Knomes and the green of the dwarves looks ace. We hope you can find somebody to give the game a whirl with soon. Feedback is such an important means to help us improve. It's great to see so many comments (thank you, all!) and we will be reading them with interest! We have some new video content coming soon to show off the game system for those who are interested. If anybody has any questions, please get in touch! -The Enviro Games Team.
Last couple of months, I've been focussing on buying my 'new' models second-hand. There's no reason to buy factory-new minis when there's tons of the same kit still on-sprue available second hand, often for cheaper!
Not to mention the older incarnations of the same concept can be interestingly different and often very complementary or just better for your tastes compared to the more modern ones. And if you go back to a white metal version it is in many ways easier to kitbash whitemetal - you often won't have to sculpt much if anything as you can carefully cut, file and then bend to repose the mini a pretty large amount without damage.
Been going down the second hand route myself recently, both prepaints that interest me, and some sprues or old game miniatures like original Heroquest and similar games.
@@mumakin1 No, a similar website local to my country. There's also special second-hand retailers, but those are often more expensive because they specialize in retro minis, but you can sometimes get good prices on non-retro stuff.
Even before the video started, I was skeptical with the premise. By 1:40, I had to admit that their approach and dedication was quite impressive and made solid sense. From packaging and shipping, and especially recycling their sprues... excellent ideas that every company should adopt.
I have great luck with using 'gun cleaning' cotton swabs - they are wound tighter and leave no lint. I think this companies idea of recycling the sprues before sending the miniatures is brilliant. I hope they can scale that with deserved success.
My reuse strategy is - if I get cheap food in a plastic container, clean it out afterwards, and use it for ongoing/unfinished projects. Great for keeping all of the bits together until I do finish especially if I get distracted by the new hotness and it's six months until I get back to a project having all of the pieces in one place is great, it keeps the cats out, and reuse is always better than recycle. I also save my wooden chopsticks, wash them and they can be great for terrain, stirring paint/resin, and all sorts of other hobby uses.
I just stopped by in the comments to show some personalised appreciation. This video, for some reason, gave me the same wholesome calming vibes of a "Bob Ross of Miniature painting". Which led to wanting to share. I haven't painted miniatures in decades. Since I was a teenager and painting with my older brothers. Recently I've been on stress leave from work, and during the rougher days that I can't concentrate for any decent periods of time, painting videos have been a nostalgic easy investment comfort. However yours especially, are like short form peaceful meditations, you put out such amazingly wholesome positive inclusive vibes, and the voice. Which have really helped me recently, which is an odd effect especially when commonly talking about Warhammer, and being about as far from a "calm universe" as you can get. Not to mention are making me chomp at the bit to go back to my parents to get out my old painting gear and get stuck back into it. So yeah, just stopped by to say cheers/thanks for the videos, and look forward to more.
I always worry about my footprint regarding miniature painting (considering everything uses plastic), so I do find some solace knowing that others care and do their part to help. Thanks, Brent ♥️
Those are some cool looking minis and I like that a company is taking steps to be more responsible, hopefully it spreads. I love nerd/geek culture as I'm sure everyone who watches your videos does. But there's one aspect that's always bothered me and that's that geek culture is VERY consumerist. There's always new toys, collectibles, books, action figures, minis, cards, etc. constantly being churned out and sold. I suspect that's part of the reason geek culture has become mainstream in the last two decades... geeks are great customers to have! I think it'd be nice if geeks would start focusing on doing more with less. In the miniature world, I thought Gaslands was a good example of this, because you can take some old Hot Wheels, glue some leftover bits and plastic scraps to them, and have a cool mini that fits in the game world. Scratch-bashing is also a really creative way to flip literal garbage into cool miniatures. Ultimately this is a bigger issue outside of geekdom, but it'd be nice to see some change.
That's very neat - I like that they recover their sprue material. I also like that the are constantly trying to reduce their environmental impact. Very nice summary, thanks!
agreed! I suspect the mailman makes fewer trips to your house with 3d printing, but most people end up throwing away a small pile of resin 3d printing supports... I'm not sure what the supply chain looks like for resin manufacture vs. the various thermoplastics... it's definitely an interesting question!
@@GoobertownHobbies The main ”competitor” of Enviro Games on the eco aspect is of course the more traditional manufacuring companies. In mass production there’s also benefits, I guess energy used for one kit is quite small when the molding machines spend only seconds on one item. Trade-offs in everything, and I think that is what makes these things especially interesting.
@@apinakapinastorba Yes, Mass production can be very efficient. I can also very wasteful, pretty much depends on the enviromental laws of your country and how strict they are enforced. In an ideal world the big companies adopt a more enviromental sustainable way of production and come up with their own ideas to further improve.
I'd suspect this is hands down better than local printing enviromentally, but will ineveitably lack the shear scope of mini's a 3d print can provide. The UV cure resins are energy intensive to create and then cure in comparison to most thermoplastics I'd suggest, the support/sprue materials wasted are provable a greater % of the total material consumed to make the mini. Then you add in the washing solvents that at a such small scale are probably not used that efficiently - you are going to lose more to evaporation in the downtime between batches and most folks can't keep the many stages of dirty solvent to prewash with so you just don't get as much life out of each litre). Also have to consider the enviromental impact - an individual can (but shouldn't) pump crap into the air and have unsafe work environments, the company should be held to higher standards. And finally you have the material properties and recyclablility - printing resins tend towards brittle, especially the ones that can hold comparable levels of detail so you probably end up with more breakages and waste there too. Not that I think local 3d printing is at all bad environmentally, especially if you do take pains to filter out and dispose of the waste byproducts properly. And it is the only way to get some mini concept you want made - you only need the artist to get excited about the idea you want or accept your money and you can then print that mini that wouldn't get made even with things like Kickstarter making more niche stuff at least producible.
Thank you for bringing this company to the attention of everyone! I personally had no idea they existed and now I do. They have some wonderful minis and you painted them beautifully as always ♥
I've been excited about this since you first talked about Novus Malum on Paint Bravely! (I think my copy of the game is about 2 weeks or so out - hopefully) I think what Enviro Games are doing is great, and they are a company that I can support and feel good about it. I've also emailed a few times with one of the folks, and he has been very honest and open to ideas. One of the things I brought up was inclusivity, and he said that more than just male models is something they are aware of. Brent, your beautiful base work sold me on using the bases that are included in the game! I was going to use standard plastic bases for mine when they arrive, just to normalize them with everything else I own. Now, I really want to use those bases, so they do NOT fall in line with everything else I have. Awesome video, as always Brent! ❤
Hullo Brent, I do enjoy your videos and your dedication to your hobby and craft too! I like that your a true leader in this art form, painting mini's is a very wide ranging hobby and having a smaller footprint is a good thing in every aspect! I like that your staying in touch with your audience as well as your competitors too!
Nothing commercial nowadays doesn't have some environmental impact. However, it does look like that they have done everything they can to prioritise recycling packaging and using less damaging materials. If it is still a good game and maybe a slight premium for being environmentally aware then well done to them. Good review too.
Im glad they are reusing the sprues, I think that is a good call. Wood/Paper Based Products like MDF are very easy to replace, people forget that most papermills have their own forestry to be self sustained. Focusing on cutting down on the bulk plastics like dice and sprues and packaging is the big step forward in sustainability.
I think the biggest impact the hobby has on the environment is shipping. Most of it is going by sea between large countries and distributed over existing product networks but the delivery emissions for a space marine are probably way higher than whatever they wasted in plastic wrap and sprue
No sprues left over is the best part. You should do a video on how to do something with leftover sprues. Like crafting terrain, melting and molding them or how to recycle them!
I love this video idea, Brent. It's always a joy to see you paint, and I really appreciate your socially conscious content. You're never preachy, always respectful, and I'm sure it brings a lot more gamers to the table.
I really appreciate your presentation on this aspect of the hobby. Having just received a 12"x12"x12" box from accross the sea with a single plastic base in a single plastic bag, I can say I really appreciate that this company is trying to do better. A lot of us doing a little better each day will always have a bigger impact than a few of us trying to do it all. Thank you Brent for an amazing video.
Took me a while to figure out the material was SioCast, a brand name. I first tried CO , Seo, etc... (fortunately found a article comparing materials found in minis , that detailed this)
oh sorry, I should have spelled it out somewhere... it's a material that's been gaining popularity in smaller production runs, I think I own siocast minis from like 10 different games now
Yo those details are intense! The knomes look so wild and feral, but the chainmail on the dwarves blew me away! Rock and Stone, brother! Great video as always, Goober!
For re-use I recommend coffee grounds. Let me explain. I use a stove top percolator type coffee pot that takes coarse ground coffee. Once used, I spread it out in a thin layer and dry it in a dehydrator. After doing this the grounds are suitable for use as small rocks or any sort of lumpy thing that you need to model, such as railroad bed rocks, gravel, exploded bad guy body parts.
That's a good number of encounters in dnd or another ttrpg, in terms of miniatures with variety. Nice painting and thanks for sharing the work being done by this company!
As always : lovely video. I really like this kind of content and this company's idea! Plus you did a great paint job, I will have a look at their website
I like the look of those Knomes. They are like giant Nac Mac Feegles, or more Celtic-leaning Woses. Either way, I could see a lot of use for these models. :)
I am very happy to hear about companies being environmentally responsible. Yes, we should all be doing our part. I just find that the dialogue surrounding the subject is too often skewed towards putting all the responsibility on the consumers, while huge companies get away with producing 10 times the amount of waste and pollutants than all the households in a country combined.
11:37 I like to use oil washes often and do something similar. I use old microfiber clothes that where once used to clean glasses. And as an added bonus they work awesome for cleaning brushes after using oils.
I've (poorly) painted half a mini in my lifetime. Not sure I'm going to go far with the hobby. It's mainly for my sons to play DnD with them. But man, I love your videos. They are so relaxing and informative. And I love your cats!
After listening to tyour podcast on this topic I was expecting minis and cards are the lower end of average. Everything looks really nice. Hoping to see more acceptance of type of production in the future.
You know which hobby has a large community swapping our minis around? CMON A Song of Ice and Fire :) It would be so lovely to see you paint those minis. I think you would love them as you usually love knights.
It’s good to see some more companies getting on board with ditching disposable plastic packaging. A small Wargames manufacturer is small change globally, but the last few Lego sets we’ve bought have used paper instead of plastic for the internal bags, so bigger companies are catching on as well.
Being environmentally friendly is sometimes difficult and sometimes not - if Enviro Games seem to have an easy solution to that they are more than welcome to me. I think it is an awesome and inspiring idea! @Goobertown Hobbies I would take the challenge for a game if I'd live across the pond, because I really like the dwarves 😄
We recently got the game aswell. It’s quite a fun game, really cool way to build units with mixed fighters. Looking forward to getting some more games in and seeing what comes next.
Reducing the need for the absurd amounts of books, some games require (dont need to point fingers i think), could also be a good way of reducing the environmental footprint. Making rules, statlines, etc. available for free online and releasing the more supplementary material (e.g. Lore, Art...) in books. And these Knomes are some great little minis, love that "nomadic-survivor" vibe they are giving off. Great video as usual, thanks Brent ;-D
I like the concept. The onus is definitely on manufacturers and producers to reduce the waste in this hobby. Hopefully we see strong demand that will push makers to think about how to reduce their waste.
Thanks for this video. It’s great to see companies being responsible, ditching all the plastic (or as much as they can) and going with recyclable materials like paper and cardboard. I’m seriously considering buying this game just to support the company.
Nice to see (yet another) British miniature company. I dont know how the midlands does it, but this area is insane with the number of companies in a small area doing great work. This is one of the things GW used to really push with kitbashes and scratch building terrain from pretty much anything. It's a shame that the profit margin has moved them towards a 'buy our kit' mentality, but I think white dwarf still showcases some cool ideas every now and again
Oh yeah, the brits have a solid population of hobby nerds! Totally agree with you on the way terrain builders re-using materials being an important and fascinating topic :-) I still have some of those good 'ol GW terrain crafting publications.
Interesting idea. The bits already coming clipped off the sprue is kind of a game-changer. I'm a little concerned about possible weather issues with shipping and delivery since there's no plastic. But I suppose worst-case scenario the model bits are still fine haha
The pre-clipped bits is an aspect that I really like! I'm glad that the package didn't sit on my porch on a rainy day... I suspect most of these will arrive safe and sound, but we'll see! :-)
The Drowned Earth by Olmec Games has been moving towards more environmentally friendly methods; shifting from metal castings to a Siocast type resin, more recyclable packaging and digital resources too
I'm so glad this is becoming a trend in our hobby! Recently I've switched completely to synthetic brushes after I found out how horrifyingly the sables are treated. After much searching I've started using the Escoda ones and so far they're the sturdiest synthetics I've seen, the tips hold well and the general feel and quality is second only to the finest of Kolinsky hair. Now if only someone could figure out how to make those synthetic fibers from something environmentally friendly...
Fantastic, informative and well balanced review as usual. Brent knows his science - mini gaming is low impact on the environment but his is a step better. Nice one!
I think our hobby has huge potential for environmental consciousness. Between making terrain and kitbashing from "trash" and, as you mentioned, that old unused minis rarely see a trash can but get rehomed. I would love to see companies offering sprue recycling or even regional manufacturing to reduce the need for international shipping. Thank you for this video and I look forward to the rest of the series!
That's such a cool thing. Even such a small thing as the sprues being recycled. I've often thought it should be a thing to recycle. And I like you putting a word out for environment awareness
The models look neat - especially in comparison to some older GW models like the Dwarfs. Wonderful, that we can get this quality out of more environmental friendly components. I hope big companies will get into such products sooner or later. And as many said here - yeah, using 2nd Hand stuff is a valid alternative.
That looks great Brent. Very nice work. It's awesome to see these after hearing about them on Paint Bravely... my only complaint is... where are the Kobolds?
"Try to paint a similar number of minis to the number of minis that you buy" ..... I feel personally attacked. ;) But jokes aside, those are words of wisdom for sure. I do try. Good video as always. They're such a pleasure to watch.
Your chill videos are a great Sunday morning coffee watch. Clipping the sprues is a big deal. That's a lot of waste removal right there. A custom builder on their website might open up different head or arm options without having to include them in the box by default. They could have all the combinations prepackaged in their envelopes ready to include in the box. For a low production company, that would probably only take one extra employee to assemble the custom orders.
@@GoobertownHobbies Maybe. But the counterfactual isn’t obvious. Like, let’s say GW optimizes its packaging a bit. I get a broken mini and send it back. What’s the trade off? Equally, let’s say I decide to stop using make up sponges, get annoyed when I rub some paint off, and decide to spend a day doing my high impact hobby instead. I guess it’s just not obvious that making the 1% of my impact that is hobby 1% more efficient is actually going to work out overall. Certainly not compared to putting the same effort into something more impactful. Like food waste etc
oh food waste is WAAAY more important in the scheme of things than anything going on in our hobby... but I'm glad there are some folks in our hobby working out how to make our little corner of things a teeny bit more efficient.@@OurCognitiveSurplus
When I get sad, I bike to the local game store and look at the used section then I make a small ~$20 miniature purchase and finish the work someone left behind. :D
Cool sounding company, with their environmental policies, and looks like an interesting set of minis as well. 😊😊😊😊 Nice paintjobs on both factions, Brent, especially the Knomes. 👍👍👍👍😎😎😎😎
I think it's a really cool idea to put environmental responsibility at the core of a game company's identity. Enviro Games seems to be off to a good start! enviro-games.com/ After they saw my first instagram post, they made a discount code for us... apparently "Goob1" is good for 5% off?
Warbound (Belgian Company) has this environmental concern at the core of their game.
@@Azrael56 I'll take a look, thanks for the suggestion!
Just ordered. I can handle trading the carbon footprint of airmail for less plastic in the world. :)
I wish more companies would pack stuff in paper and cardboard. I can just throw that into my compost pile, and never have to worry about the "forever" plastic.
Thank you so much for this video, Brent! We really love what you did with the minis; the contrast between the orange of the Knomes and the green of the dwarves looks ace. We hope you can find somebody to give the game a whirl with soon. Feedback is such an important means to help us improve. It's great to see so many comments (thank you, all!) and we will be reading them with interest! We have some new video content coming soon to show off the game system for those who are interested. If anybody has any questions, please get in touch!
-The Enviro Games Team.
Right on! I'm glad you're out there giving this a go :-)
Last couple of months, I've been focussing on buying my 'new' models second-hand. There's no reason to buy factory-new minis when there's tons of the same kit still on-sprue available second hand, often for cheaper!
Not to mention the older incarnations of the same concept can be interestingly different and often very complementary or just better for your tastes compared to the more modern ones. And if you go back to a white metal version it is in many ways easier to kitbash whitemetal - you often won't have to sculpt much if anything as you can carefully cut, file and then bend to repose the mini a pretty large amount without damage.
Been going down the second hand route myself recently, both prepaints that interest me, and some sprues or old game miniatures like original Heroquest and similar games.
Do you get second hand minis from eBay?
@@mumakin1 Yes. Just keep to a sensible budget.
@@mumakin1 No, a similar website local to my country. There's also special second-hand retailers, but those are often more expensive because they specialize in retro minis, but you can sometimes get good prices on non-retro stuff.
Even before the video started, I was skeptical with the premise. By 1:40, I had to admit that their approach and dedication was quite impressive and made solid sense. From packaging and shipping, and especially recycling their sprues... excellent ideas that every company should adopt.
my thoughts too! they have several good ideas here that'd have an impact if some more companies followed along.
I have great luck with using 'gun cleaning' cotton swabs - they are wound tighter and leave no lint. I think this companies idea of recycling the sprues before sending the miniatures is brilliant. I hope they can scale that with deserved success.
ohh, thanks for the tip! 🙂
My reuse strategy is - if I get cheap food in a plastic container, clean it out afterwards, and use it for ongoing/unfinished projects. Great for keeping all of the bits together until I do finish especially if I get distracted by the new hotness and it's six months until I get back to a project having all of the pieces in one place is great, it keeps the cats out, and reuse is always better than recycle.
I also save my wooden chopsticks, wash them and they can be great for terrain, stirring paint/resin, and all sorts of other hobby uses.
That's the spirit!! :-)
Those are some very nicely painted, cool minis. I like how the video gives the impression of Brent being entirely surrounded by cats.
So happy to see you covering this Brent and I love your Knomes and Dwarves. Thanks for spreading the word about cool stuff that tries to do right!
I just stopped by in the comments to show some personalised appreciation.
This video, for some reason, gave me the same wholesome calming vibes of a "Bob Ross of Miniature painting". Which led to wanting to share. I haven't painted miniatures in decades. Since I was a teenager and painting with my older brothers. Recently I've been on stress leave from work, and during the rougher days that I can't concentrate for any decent periods of time, painting videos have been a nostalgic easy investment comfort. However yours especially, are like short form peaceful meditations, you put out such amazingly wholesome positive inclusive vibes, and the voice. Which have really helped me recently, which is an odd effect especially when commonly talking about Warhammer, and being about as far from a "calm universe" as you can get. Not to mention are making me chomp at the bit to go back to my parents to get out my old painting gear and get stuck back into it.
So yeah, just stopped by to say cheers/thanks for the videos, and look forward to more.
I always worry about my footprint regarding miniature painting (considering everything uses plastic), so I do find some solace knowing that others care and do their part to help. Thanks, Brent ♥️
It should have been Knomes and Twarves IMHO.
Lol!
Those are some cool looking minis and I like that a company is taking steps to be more responsible, hopefully it spreads.
I love nerd/geek culture as I'm sure everyone who watches your videos does. But there's one aspect that's always bothered me and that's that geek culture is VERY consumerist. There's always new toys, collectibles, books, action figures, minis, cards, etc. constantly being churned out and sold. I suspect that's part of the reason geek culture has become mainstream in the last two decades... geeks are great customers to have!
I think it'd be nice if geeks would start focusing on doing more with less. In the miniature world, I thought Gaslands was a good example of this, because you can take some old Hot Wheels, glue some leftover bits and plastic scraps to them, and have a cool mini that fits in the game world. Scratch-bashing is also a really creative way to flip literal garbage into cool miniatures. Ultimately this is a bigger issue outside of geekdom, but it'd be nice to see some change.
Painting minis and petting cats. That's a worthy time spent well, I have three of these fuzzy muses annoying and meowing at me.
That's very neat - I like that they recover their sprue material.
I also like that the are constantly trying to reduce their environmental impact. Very nice summary, thanks!
Would be interesting to see data how these products go with eco-friendlyness when compared to home-printing the same minis.
agreed! I suspect the mailman makes fewer trips to your house with 3d printing, but most people end up throwing away a small pile of resin 3d printing supports... I'm not sure what the supply chain looks like for resin manufacture vs. the various thermoplastics... it's definitely an interesting question!
@@GoobertownHobbies The main ”competitor” of Enviro Games on the eco aspect is of course the more traditional manufacuring companies. In mass production there’s also benefits, I guess energy used for one kit is quite small when the molding machines spend only seconds on one item. Trade-offs in everything, and I think that is what makes these things especially interesting.
@@apinakapinastorba Yes, Mass production can be very efficient. I can also very wasteful, pretty much depends on the enviromental laws of your country and how strict they are enforced.
In an ideal world the big companies adopt a more enviromental sustainable way of production and come up with their own ideas to further improve.
I'd suspect this is hands down better than local printing enviromentally, but will ineveitably lack the shear scope of mini's a 3d print can provide.
The UV cure resins are energy intensive to create and then cure in comparison to most thermoplastics I'd suggest, the support/sprue materials wasted are provable a greater % of the total material consumed to make the mini. Then you add in the washing solvents that at a such small scale are probably not used that efficiently - you are going to lose more to evaporation in the downtime between batches and most folks can't keep the many stages of dirty solvent to prewash with so you just don't get as much life out of each litre). Also have to consider the enviromental impact - an individual can (but shouldn't) pump crap into the air and have unsafe work environments, the company should be held to higher standards. And finally you have the material properties and recyclablility - printing resins tend towards brittle, especially the ones that can hold comparable levels of detail so you probably end up with more breakages and waste there too.
Not that I think local 3d printing is at all bad environmentally, especially if you do take pains to filter out and dispose of the waste byproducts properly. And it is the only way to get some mini concept you want made - you only need the artist to get excited about the idea you want or accept your money and you can then print that mini that wouldn't get made even with things like Kickstarter making more niche stuff at least producible.
Hope this game makes it and we see new factions. Do love your cats though.
Thank you for bringing this company to the attention of everyone! I personally had no idea they existed and now I do. They have some wonderful minis and you painted them beautifully as always ♥
they're brand new, I'm glad I found them! and thanks for the kind words 🙂
That looks like a good box; I'd keep that box for storage and transport.
Time to paint what you already have and break into the bin oof randomized minis again!
Thank you for the video. Your takes and angles on the hobby are always interesting and original.
thanks for watchin! :-)
I've been excited about this since you first talked about Novus Malum on Paint Bravely! (I think my copy of the game is about 2 weeks or so out - hopefully) I think what Enviro Games are doing is great, and they are a company that I can support and feel good about it. I've also emailed a few times with one of the folks, and he has been very honest and open to ideas. One of the things I brought up was inclusivity, and he said that more than just male models is something they are aware of.
Brent, your beautiful base work sold me on using the bases that are included in the game! I was going to use standard plastic bases for mine when they arrive, just to normalize them with everything else I own. Now, I really want to use those bases, so they do NOT fall in line with everything else I have.
Awesome video, as always Brent! ❤
Happy Goober Sunday All! ❤
Hullo Brent, I do enjoy your videos and your dedication to your hobby and craft too! I like that your a true leader in this art form, painting mini's is a very wide ranging hobby and having a smaller footprint is a good thing in every aspect! I like that your staying in touch with your audience as well as your competitors too!
Hullo! thanks so much for stopping by and for the kind words :-)
Thanks for the video! Great of you to highlight folks taking steps to help the environment!
You do deserve more minis too paint! Thanks for the content. I live watching you paint
hehehe, thanks! I'll get myself some nice new minis ;-)
Nothing commercial nowadays doesn't have some environmental impact. However, it does look like that they have done everything they can to prioritise recycling packaging and using less damaging materials. If it is still a good game and maybe a slight premium for being environmentally aware then well done to them. Good review too.
Im glad they are reusing the sprues, I think that is a good call. Wood/Paper Based Products like MDF are very easy to replace, people forget that most papermills have their own forestry to be self sustained. Focusing on cutting down on the bulk plastics like dice and sprues and packaging is the big step forward in sustainability.
I think the biggest impact the hobby has on the environment is shipping. Most of it is going by sea between large countries and distributed over existing product networks but the delivery emissions for a space marine are probably way higher than whatever they wasted in plastic wrap and sprue
Agreed, shipping is a big part of the footprint. Local manufacturing / designing the package to be small helps a bit though! :-)
No sprues left over is the best part. You should do a video on how to do something with leftover sprues. Like crafting terrain, melting and molding them or how to recycle them!
I'll figure out what to do with all those extra sprues one of these days... :-)
I love this video idea, Brent. It's always a joy to see you paint, and I really appreciate your socially conscious content. You're never preachy, always respectful, and I'm sure it brings a lot more gamers to the table.
Perfect timing on this on. Havent had any inspiration to paint lately but i guess i do now!
I really appreciate your presentation on this aspect of the hobby. Having just received a 12"x12"x12" box from accross the sea with a single plastic base in a single plastic bag, I can say I really appreciate that this company is trying to do better. A lot of us doing a little better each day will always have a bigger impact than a few of us trying to do it all. Thank you Brent for an amazing video.
Love a good goobertown video!
Took me a while to figure out the material was SioCast, a brand name. I first tried CO , Seo, etc...
(fortunately found a article comparing materials found in minis , that detailed this)
oh sorry, I should have spelled it out somewhere... it's a material that's been gaining popularity in smaller production runs, I think I own siocast minis from like 10 different games now
Never heard of this before. Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention. Awesome work!
heck yeah! :-)
Yo those details are intense! The knomes look so wild and feral, but the chainmail on the dwarves blew me away! Rock and Stone, brother! Great video as always, Goober!
thanks! pretty neat, eh? :-)
Love you highlighting smaller games like this ❤
For re-use I recommend coffee grounds. Let me explain. I use a stove top percolator type coffee pot that takes coarse ground coffee. Once used, I spread it out in a thin layer and dry it in a dehydrator. After doing this the grounds are suitable for use as small rocks or any sort of lumpy thing that you need to model, such as railroad bed rocks, gravel, exploded bad guy body parts.
ahhh, but I use nescafe instant coffee ;-) good recommendation though!
This is great to see other companies prioritizing sustainability in our hobby! Every little bit helps!
This was great! I love when I see there's a new Goobertown vid.
That's a good number of encounters in dnd or another ttrpg, in terms of miniatures with variety. Nice painting and thanks for sharing the work being done by this company!
oh yeah, there are some quality NPCs in here for sure! :-)
As always : lovely video. I really like this kind of content and this company's idea! Plus you did a great paint job, I will have a look at their website
love those models and what a nice idea, it's a small step in the right direction.
Good looking minis and well painted. Looking forward to seeing where they go next with the game
thanks! they posted a bit of concept art on their instagram, and the future cavalry units look cool!! :-)
I like the look of those Knomes. They are like giant Nac Mac Feegles, or more Celtic-leaning Woses. Either way, I could see a lot of use for these models. :)
This is so cool!! Yes please.
Amazing paintjobs too of course.
I am very happy to hear about companies being environmentally responsible. Yes, we should all be doing our part. I just find that the dialogue surrounding the subject is too often skewed towards putting all the responsibility on the consumers, while huge companies get away with producing 10 times the amount of waste and pollutants than all the households in a country combined.
11:37 I like to use oil washes often and do something similar. I use old microfiber clothes that where once used to clean glasses. And as an added bonus they work awesome for cleaning brushes after using oils.
Great video made me very happy to see this. I hope a ranking of the most environmentally friendly paints will be covered in a future video.
Those minis came out great! Thank you for another wonderful video.
hey thanks! :-)
Always new and innovative videos Brent! Love your channel :D
I've (poorly) painted half a mini in my lifetime. Not sure I'm going to go far with the hobby. It's mainly for my sons to play DnD with them. But man, I love your videos. They are so relaxing and informative. And I love your cats!
you're always welcome here :-)
After listening to tyour podcast on this topic I was expecting minis and cards are the lower end of average.
Everything looks really nice. Hoping to see more acceptance of type of production in the future.
I always appreciate your vids, they're just so dang wholesome!
You know which hobby has a large community swapping our minis around? CMON A Song of Ice and Fire :)
It would be so lovely to see you paint those minis. I think you would love them as you usually love knights.
I've got some mormont she-bears around here that have been calling my name...
noice@@GoobertownHobbies
@@GoobertownHobbies sounds awesome :) looking forward to them
It’s good to see some more companies getting on board with ditching disposable plastic packaging. A small Wargames manufacturer is small change globally, but the last few Lego sets we’ve bought have used paper instead of plastic for the internal bags, so bigger companies are catching on as well.
Great video and I don't think anyone could have said it better. Thanks Brent!
Being environmentally friendly is sometimes difficult and sometimes not - if Enviro Games seem to have an easy solution to that they are more than welcome to me. I think it is an awesome and inspiring idea!
@Goobertown Hobbies I would take the challenge for a game if I'd live across the pond, because I really like the dwarves 😄
heck yeah! I'm hoping this company keeps finding little efficiencies that others can adopt as well, they're off to a good start I think
Amazing video as always!
thanks for watchin :-)
We recently got the game aswell. It’s quite a fun game, really cool way to build units with mixed fighters. Looking forward to getting some more games in and seeing what comes next.
Reducing the need for the absurd amounts of books, some games require (dont need to point fingers i think),
could also be a good way of reducing the environmental footprint.
Making rules, statlines, etc. available for free online and releasing the more supplementary material (e.g. Lore, Art...) in books.
And these Knomes are some great little minis, love that "nomadic-survivor" vibe they are giving off.
Great video as usual, thanks Brent ;-D
thanks for stopping by! yeah.... fewer books for... certain games... would be a good move all around :-)
I like the concept. The onus is definitely on manufacturers and producers to reduce the waste in this hobby. Hopefully we see strong demand that will push makers to think about how to reduce their waste.
Thanks for this video. It’s great to see companies being responsible, ditching all the plastic (or as much as they can) and going with recyclable materials like paper and cardboard. I’m seriously considering buying this game just to support the company.
Nice to see (yet another) British miniature company. I dont know how the midlands does it, but this area is insane with the number of companies in a small area doing great work.
This is one of the things GW used to really push with kitbashes and scratch building terrain from pretty much anything. It's a shame that the profit margin has moved them towards a 'buy our kit' mentality, but I think white dwarf still showcases some cool ideas every now and again
Oh yeah, the brits have a solid population of hobby nerds! Totally agree with you on the way terrain builders re-using materials being an important and fascinating topic :-) I still have some of those good 'ol GW terrain crafting publications.
It’s nice seeing the lack of sprue waste, I often cut them up and use them in bases but it hard to use it all with the volume of plastic they use.
agreed! I'm still saving all my plastic sprues... I'll find the perfect use for them someday.... i hope... 🙂
Interesting idea. The bits already coming clipped off the sprue is kind of a game-changer. I'm a little concerned about possible weather issues with shipping and delivery since there's no plastic. But I suppose worst-case scenario the model bits are still fine haha
The pre-clipped bits is an aspect that I really like! I'm glad that the package didn't sit on my porch on a rainy day... I suspect most of these will arrive safe and sound, but we'll see! :-)
How cool. I really love those models.
I kept waiting for the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Yeah!” That I grew up hearing as a kid. Lol
I like the minis and the Enviro's policy. Thanks for sharing!
The Drowned Earth by Olmec Games has been moving towards more environmentally friendly methods; shifting from metal castings to a Siocast type resin, more recyclable packaging and digital resources too
oooh, thanks for the recommendation, I'm checking it out now! :-)
I like that the book is smaller. Great video. Nice models.
Thanks for checking this out! It’s a topic that interests me.
absolutely! :-)
I'm so glad this is becoming a trend in our hobby! Recently I've switched completely to synthetic brushes after I found out how horrifyingly the sables are treated. After much searching I've started using the Escoda ones and so far they're the sturdiest synthetics I've seen, the tips hold well and the general feel and quality is second only to the finest of Kolinsky hair. Now if only someone could figure out how to make those synthetic fibers from something environmentally friendly...
Cool looking minis, environment friendly company, game seems fun.
I'll need to keep an eye on them.
Lovely. Short & sweet. Nice topic
This is a great concept. I'm very curious to see how the game plays. Good stuff, Brent.
The Bob Ross of hobby painting, thanks Brent!
Having fun and raising consciousness. Well done!
Fantastic, informative and well balanced review as usual. Brent knows his science - mini gaming is low impact on the environment but his is a step better. Nice one!
These poor Knome’s are gonna get smushed! 😅
Stone weapons vs Dwarven smithing, I know who I’m putting my money on! 😂
psssh, the dwarves didn't survive for 3000 years in the shattered lands. Always bet on knomes! :-)
@@GoobertownHobbies only one thing to do, let the dice decide!
I think our hobby has huge potential for environmental consciousness. Between making terrain and kitbashing from "trash" and, as you mentioned, that old unused minis rarely see a trash can but get rehomed. I would love to see companies offering sprue recycling or even regional manufacturing to reduce the need for international shipping. Thank you for this video and I look forward to the rest of the series!
“Whatever else that normal people do” 😂😂💜
Dear Brent, "Theoratically possible" is exactly the right wording. xD
That's such a cool thing. Even such a small thing as the sprues being recycled. I've often thought it should be a thing to recycle. And I like you putting a word out for environment awareness
Good Sunday to ya Brent. Another great video to enjoy my coffee with.
That cardboard box looks nice, and is probably sturdy enough to reuse! Love it!
I've got my knomes and dwarves stored in that box right now! not a good solution for travel, but definitely a good storage box! :-)
@@GoobertownHobbiesNice!
The models look neat - especially in comparison to some older GW models like the Dwarfs.
Wonderful, that we can get this quality out of more environmental friendly components. I hope big companies will get into such products sooner or later.
And as many said here - yeah, using 2nd Hand stuff is a valid alternative.
That looks great Brent. Very nice work. It's awesome to see these after hearing about them on Paint Bravely... my only complaint is... where are the Kobolds?
hehehe, we'll have to talk them into some kobolds later 🙂
@goobertownhobbies but with it be Kobolds with a G?
kogolds @@mindlasher
This looks brilliant... The Dwarves look quite tall though :) Thanks Brent.
"Try to paint a similar number of minis to the number of minis that you buy" ..... I feel personally attacked. ;)
But jokes aside, those are words of wisdom for sure. I do try.
Good video as always. They're such a pleasure to watch.
it's a fight that I am losing... but at least we have some cool minis :-)
I just like the packaging in general. The last game I bought, Clash for Eternia, had soooo much waste in it. Game is rad at least.
Your chill videos are a great Sunday morning coffee watch.
Clipping the sprues is a big deal. That's a lot of waste removal right there. A custom builder on their website might open up different head or arm options without having to include them in the box by default. They could have all the combinations prepackaged in their envelopes ready to include in the box. For a low production company, that would probably only take one extra employee to assemble the custom orders.
I do like those gnomes. The dwarves have nice clean lines well. Good for rank and file
*knomes ;-)
These normal people sound interesting, though I think I'll stick to hanging around with other hobbyist. Loved the video
Damn, just when I think I can’t appreciate Brent and this channel more, he finds a new way to top it!
I appreciate YOU!
As you say, this hobby is super gentle on the environment. I hard it find to worry about
yep- nothing wrong with grabbing some low-hanging fruit and making the easy optimizations to reduce the footprint a bit more though! :-)
@@GoobertownHobbies Maybe. But the counterfactual isn’t obvious. Like, let’s say GW optimizes its packaging a bit. I get a broken mini and send it back. What’s the trade off?
Equally, let’s say I decide to stop using make up sponges, get annoyed when I rub some paint off, and decide to spend a day doing my high impact hobby instead.
I guess it’s just not obvious that making the 1% of my impact that is hobby 1% more efficient is actually going to work out overall. Certainly not compared to putting the same effort into something more impactful. Like food waste etc
oh food waste is WAAAY more important in the scheme of things than anything going on in our hobby... but I'm glad there are some folks in our hobby working out how to make our little corner of things a teeny bit more efficient.@@OurCognitiveSurplus
The Knomes really remind me of the Derro, but maybe that's just because of the official paint job.
oooh, yeah they kinda do!
When I get sad, I bike to the local game store and look at the used section then I make a small ~$20 miniature purchase and finish the work someone left behind. :D
@@NegativeCelcius that's the spirit!! :-)
Your cats make the best cameos.
Cool sounding company, with their environmental policies, and looks like an interesting set of minis as well.
😊😊😊😊
Nice paintjobs on both factions, Brent, especially the Knomes.
👍👍👍👍😎😎😎😎