During the Worldcon, we had the pleasure of meeting Jamie Sims, a freelance artist who has been hired by Testor’s to work with George on the designs for their resin statues. He was scheduled for two presentations regarding Testor’s three lines of Song of Ice and Fire products, all quite suddenly, so it was rather hectic and all the things that had been hoped for did not quite materialize (particularly prototype miniature figures, which got stuck in customs, although there will be a report in the SSM collection from those who saw them on Monday).
The first product out of the starting gate will be the collectable line of resin statues, which would average roughly 6” in height (I forget the exact scale this relates to—1/18th comes to mind). These will be fully painted and will feature many characters and scenes from the books. The first six will launch in November, and there will be six new ones every month after that for the forseeable future. Among the first wave of statutes will be the Hound in full armor, Arya in Flea Bottom, the Old Bear at his desk, Robb and Grey Wind fighting the wildlings, and more. The very rough estimate for these statutes will be $35-$50 each, subject to final production costs. They will come individually in laser-etched boxes. Jamie stressed that Testor was extremely interested in getting ideas for characters, moments, or scenes to do and would be very pleased to recieve suggestions. Go to their website to contact them. One other interesting piece of news was that there would be a direct-order only line of resins, not sold at stores because of more "mature" content (Daenerys and her dragons on the pyre, for example).
The second product will be the 28mm skirmishing game called Westeros, with rules by the renowned Andy Chambers (formerly of Games Workshop). Our understanding was that the initial miniatures for this line would focus on wildlings and the Night’s Watch. The most interesting news was that a series of rule books would be released, with a total of five planned. The fourth of these would expand the game from skirmish-type conflicts to much larger war gaming, and the miniatures line would have expanded to include plastics to support this. The game is scheduled at present for a June 2006 release, and Jamie thought that it all five rule books would be out by the following year. I believe I have heard that one may expect to pay $5 for a typical figure. We hope to have images of some of these initial figures down the line.
The third product line is a line of 54mm miniature metal figures, entirely produced by Tom Meier of Thunderbolt Mountain, widely considered the very best in the business. These pieces must be assembled and painted, and Jamie warned that they would be quite advanced models because of the high level of detail with which Tom Meier makes each miniature. These will also begin to be released in June 2006. According to Jamie, the plan is for each month to see four metals released.