It's Heavy Metal Dude!

As you already know the increasingly high price of Indonesian tin is effecting the miniatures industry, but in the same month that GW decided the only way to make their profit margins back is to once again increase their already extortionate prices, across the world pond Reaper have come up with a much more customer friendly solution (unless your planning on chewing your miniatures).
Reaper have decided that one way to continue to offer their customers high quality miniatures at reasonable prices is to use less tin.
So they have seen fit to re-release some of their more popular miniatures but this time cast in P-65 a lead based (rather than tin based) alloy. You see Reaper - unlike some companies I could and already have mentioned - tend to market their miniatures toward the more mature gamers and collectors who aren't inclined to putting objects in their mouths.
Not only will this mean the miniatures will be cheaper, but also less likely to split and crack when bent, so re-posing and converting will be made all the easier

The first wave of miniatures to get the P-65 Heavy Metal treatment will be out later this month and are as follows:

65001: Lodoni, Female Thief by Jeff Grace   $2.99
65002: Jade, Dancing Girl by Werner Klocke $2.99
65003: Melisande Wavecutter, Female Pirate by Bob Ridolfi $2.99
65004: Fitch Coincatcher, Halfling Thief by Sandra Garrity $2.99
65005: Monique DeNoir, Female Vampire by Werner Klocke $3.49
65006: Piers, Young Mage by Sandra Garrity $3.49
65007: Lillith, Succubus by Bob Ridolfi $3.99
65008: Mangu Timur, Evil Warrior by Werner Klocke $4.29
65009: Townsfolk: Strumpets by Bobby Jackson $9.99
65010: Giant Scorpion by Bob Ridolfi $14.99  

Prices are given in US dollars here (yes they really are that low!)

I'm sure Reaper will be bringing us a second wave of P-65 in the coming months, so if you can get hold of Reaper Miniatures where you are I suggest you buy some of the P-65 range and support this bold move that Reaper have made with the mature hobbyist in mind! ... who knows maybe other companies will follow suit eventually and make our hobby affordable again in the future...

You can read more about the P-65 line here: http://www.reapermini.com/P-65

I feel kinda bad ending on a downer here, but Reaper Miniatures are still hard to get hold of here in the UK so we may not even see the P-65 miniatures in our shops any time soon (if at all) and once you've added the shipping costs from America sadly us Brits may not be saving anything on these miniatures but this is more the fault of UK retailers than Reaper them selfs. If on the off chance you are an independent retailer in the UK reading this I'll say this to you; PLEASE look into stocking Reaper Miniatures, your customer's will thank you! (and if your the guys at Orc's Nest in London, your doing a good job, but look into stocking a fuller range of Reaper Miniatures please) Don't fear the Reaper!