| Archive for IMPACT! MINIATURES A forum for the discussion of board games and miniatures of the company (Impact! Miniatures) |
| GalakStarscraper |
Impact! makes TGN's Editor's Choice top fantasy miniatureFor the 3rd year in a row we made www.tabletopgamingnews.com 's editor's choice 1st list for best new Fantasy miniature of the year.http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/2008/12/16/21150#comment-31529 In 2006 ... the Anubis Blitzer made the 1st cut In 2007 ... the Deadwood Stumpy made the 1st cut and then went on to be a finalist winner in the Fantasy category. In 2008 ... the Siringit Tantor makes the 1st cut. If you don't swing by TGN every week to check out the news ... its a great site and Zac's in person interviews at GenCon are awesome. Anyway ... it feels good to make the list 3 years in a row. Although I don't think there is necessarily a stand out figure with the Middle Kingdoms range ... I'm really happy with our newest team for quality as well. Galak |
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| Thom |
Gratz! It is a well deserved honor! | ||||
| Darkson |
Congratz.
Gotta agree on the Tantor's nomination though. Normally, within our group, a new fig (from any fig/range) will appeal to one, two or many, but not to all, but the Tantor was the only one recently I can recall that got a universal "ooh, that's cool". |
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| Dark Lord |
Yeah, I know. | ||||
| Stout Youngblood |
Ditto. Congrats, Impact!!! |
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| Mephisto |
Congratz too!
In my personal opinion, I think that Impact should orient their range into a more qualitative one. I mean, you should put a higher barrier on the quality of the sculpts, because there are some, that cost you a lot of money and aren't sold so well... You now have the game of being the company for the gamers. Now I think that you should be the company for the gamers with the best sculpts. I'll send you a mail Tom, because I have some impressions to share with you 
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| Dark Lord |
I don't know that I agree.
I just had this sort of same discussion with a friend. As an artist I can understand the desire to make every piece of work a masterpiece...but as a working artist I also understand that not everything will be. As a customer, I like the idea of every piece Impact does being absolutely top grade...but not at the cost of Impact's feeling accessibility to amateurs or at its low costs. Currently Impact is producing IMO the best looking Fantasy Sports minis in the biz whilst simultaneously producing minis of a homespun quality to a wide audience. This is a delicate balance and should be maintained as long as possible. This doesn't mean I love every mini to come out of impact, nor do I think they are equal quality. However I think all the minis coming from Grandma Wendy are equal quality.
The best analogy I can give is beer and the microbrewery phenomenon in America. Many times a small brewery will chance upon a bit of fame and explode into the mass market. When that happens their production fundamentally changes and the beer changes with it. The Boston Beer Company is a perfect example. In the mid-nineties just before Sam Adam's Boston Lager went public the quality of the beer varied (however slightly) from bottle to bottle or batch to batch. This is because it was produced at several different breweries by different companies on contract. However after they went public and opened their own massive breweries the beer has become homogenized and one Sam Adams tastes identical to another. Still a quality beer and arguable the best mass produced beer on the market today... ...but it will never match the subtle tastes and layers of flavors that those earlier ones had, and even those were brewed by larger companies. A really good example would be to compare a homebrewed ale from an award winning brewer, who does it for the love of the craft, to Sam Adams. One is consistently good and will always taste the same. The other will be much more exciting despite (or because of) its warts. But once the homebrewer has become Jim Koch his beer cannot go back. If Impact stopped producing goofy looking minis like the night elf high kicker, the break dancing dwarf, or the Nekhbet Midfielder I would be very sad indeed. I don't like any of those minis at all (for various subjective reasons) but all of them are different from the norm and a risk. If 5 years ago Tom had said he was going to make a FF mini that was an Elephant he would have been laughed off of TBB. But here it is an award winning weird little piece of awesome. 
Careful not to homogenize or you'll end up with 19 teams who all wear skulls and spikes. |
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| GalakStarscraper |
The only 2 figures in our store we've lost money on overall after selling the figure for at least 6 months is the 2 mutation sprues (and I haven't run the numbers on those for some time so this might not even be true anymore). My bottom line ... yeah we could drop $400 USD on sculpting fees to try and get the best sculpts possible for every figure in our store. But I'd rather take some chance on some amateurs from time to time and cast a figure I don't pay anything at all for up front and give the figure a chance. Alex Garrett has never been paid a cent up front for anything he's done for Impact! that was not limited edition and yet last year one of Alex's figures won the TGN figure of the year. To me ... the fact that Impact! is willing to put some models in there to give aspiring artists a chance to get into the game is much more important than every figure trying to be some beauty masterpiece. We plan to spend a decent amount of cash on our next four planned projects to have them professionally sculpted (a Samhaino Beer Garden Beauty, a Samhaino Witch for the sideline, the Sarcos team, and the Timberline Elf team ... in addition ... we might produce some Goblins over the next year). At this time ... those are our only planned new releases and they will probably not all be cast by end of year next year. However even with those plans if a talented amateur sends a nice green our way for our Targeted program and Ramsay approves it ... we will put it in the store. The Targeted program is part of the soul of Impact! ... something that I find lacking in too many other business. And I won't sacrifice the soul of Impact! for money. So Mephisto ... I do understand what you are saying about making great sculpts ... but to be honest ... what is a great sculpt is so subjective. Sylvian is an incredible sculptor and his sculpts are amazing and he costs a FORTUNE to hire. Yet despite all of this ... he's done several models for Goblin Forge that I have no interest in purchasing because I hate the concept he was asked to sculpt. So this comes into play as well ... if I pay $500 to $600 to hire Sylvian ... I could get an awesome sculpt that no one will buy. Keep in mind one major thing. Impact!'s fantasy football figures have the widest range of figures for one of the lowest prices out there especially when compared to the fantasy football mini producers in Europe. One of the reasons for that is we refuse to pay more than $375 to produce any model we've ever added to our store and that only happens very very rarely). Normally we pay around 200 Euros for the VAST majority of our commissioned work. That means I cannot hire folks like Sylvian ever. However ... next year we'll be casting up a Sylvian figure. Why ... because the company that paid the mega bucks to get that amazing quality sculpt went under and had to sell off the rights to their models ... allowing us to pick it up for the price we would normally pay for a figure. I throw all of this out ... because this is a business you can throw heaps of money at very easily ... and go out of business very quickly because you did because expensive impressive sculptors do not always mean mega dollars in the door. Compared to a Targeted figure that I only have to pay for if it sells. Just food for thought. I'm not shooting you down here Jan ... just adding some more elements into the equation that I don't know that you are considering. When I first started Impact! I heard the same famous industry quote from Andy at Heresy Miniatures and Mike Noe at Iron Wind Metals.
Galak |
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| Darkson |
Have to agree with DL and Galak - the day Impact get all "high & mighty" over the type of miniature they have is the day I stop supporting them. | ||||
| GrumpyGrizzly |
Congratulations Impact! Keep on doing what you're doing and I'll keep lusting after your figs 
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| Dark Lord |
I hope Mephy doesn't think we're all bagging on him. 
Of any of the areas Impact needs to improve upon, IMO quality sculpts is not one of them.
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| Norse |
well, in Jan's defence, I can see his point and in fact myself and Tom have often had very differing opinions on whether a submitted mini should be cast or sent back.
I will not point out specific sculpts because I'm not trying to cause offence, but I am open in admitting that maybe only 80% of the current range would be in existence if it was not for Tom badgering me about how much a mini is needed or wanted by "the community" - which I guess means you... I am also honest enough to admit that the 20% I really don't like at all are some of our best selling models.. 
So while I would generally like to see the overall quality of the range continue to improve, I also acknowledge that beauty is in the eye of the beer holder and Impact! should always make room for the weird and wonderful sculpts out there... after all, my weird and wonderful is someone elses perfect..
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| GalakStarscraper |
Being in business has been interesting. Figures I was sure would sell have sometimes barely sold at all. Figures that Ramsay voted against including in the store in the early days have made use heaps of money. Gavin said that Weather Tokens would never sold and we sold out the two shipments of them within days of receiving them each time. All 3 of us have had to go ... "hmmm I was wrong on that one" ... at some point during the business. But we all 3 learn from those decisions and I think the business is better off for the efforts. Galak |
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| Mephisto |
No, no, no offence taken.
Had a lot of work to do (had to defend my PhD project) and some personal problems that have taken a lot of time... I don't take those things personally. I don't really have much time now to explain myself better (I'll do it during the next days) when I start my holidays, but my comments were made under the basis on the sales and comments people made. I'm the Tournament Seller in Spain and I care about this business, even if it is not mine. I like most of what had been done by Impact! but I'm starting to get a little bit more critic with some sculpts. Especially the lastest batch. Don't think I'm offended, I am not. I think this kind of post where a small group of people comment these things is ok. The fact is, that there's an assimetry in information, because I don't have the number of Impact! world sales. I only have my own and the way I sell is very different than yours. I want only to give feedback from my own experience. |
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| Mephisto |
I think one of the areas would have the web translated in other languages (spanish, german and french) and make more advertisement to reach more clients. And Elfball... I don't know how many players play and how many you have sold, but I think it would be interesting to make an improvement here. |
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| GalakStarscraper |
Two notes on this: 1) We've had really poor success with web developers. Lots and lots of promises and what we get are lots and lots of disappointments. Our site doesn't have much text and I've ordered off of many spanish, german, and french sites ... so what specific text would you think needs to be translated? We could just offer links for that specific text with the translation. 2) Advertising costs money. We already spend over $150 a month in advertisting and for that we get exposure on 3 major traffic areas on the net. If you have a place that honestly gives the bang for the buck ... I'm interested in hearing it. But at minimum the ad should pay for itself.
Galak |
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| GalakStarscraper |
The other figures in that batch were Targeted Figures (so see above). But I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts on the last batch. (I mean this ... I'm more than happy to hear bad as well as good). Galak |
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| Dark Lord |
Impact should ship a black & white catalog with every order. At the minimum it should have pictures of the current year's minis, or maybe all but the phigs. A catalog in the hand of a proven buyer is an excellent sales tool. Having an online catalog is nice but people have to first think, "Hey I want to order from Impact." A catalog lying in their room says, "You should order from Impact." Can't stress it enough, it's a proven sales technique and its success is directly related to having purty pictures in front of the customers. A black & white catalog is also cheap to make and pays for itself with just a few orders. Also after the catalog is made, updating it can be done easily with one-sheets. That means it only needs to be done once every couple of years. Also a decent catalog can be made with existing imagery that Impact has and printed on 8.5 x 11 paper folded in half. I'm convinced that if you not only gave out one of these with each order, as well as at Gencon you would see sales increase. Just bringing home Reaper's catalog earned them 2 orders of about $30 total.
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| bouncergriim |
I like the catalog idea. Bare minimum, I think you should try to produce a PDF of all of your minis. That way one could look at everything and see what they want. I have noticed in the past sometimes minis move from one area to another on the web site. From target to a team or sideline or something. I can find it hard to find what I want sometimes.
A catalog or even a visual guide page would be great. In it simplest form you could just have a page with thumbnails of all your minis in alphabetical or by team. It would be great if you could set up a online data base with thumbnails that would sort minis by various methods. I have not idea how much effort this would take, but I like the idea. examples: sort by team, size of mini, price, alpha, release date, sculptor etc. |
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| tchatt |
A PDF would be nice, that way it could easily be printed by die hard fans of Impact! and taken to leagues or tournaments or the like. | ||||
| Mephisto |
Once again... not the best time to post. Just arrived at home (in Barcelona) but I'll post:
1) The Middle Kingdom is great (I referred to the targeted impact sculpts). 2) I think the catalogue is THE IDEA. I think you should invest some of your efforts/money in having the catalogue refreshed with every new miniature/item and it should be at the top of the page, in a box like: Are you an amateur sculptor? I think that could improve sales a lot. In the last tourney I sold, the Madbowl, I met a lot of people who didn't know you exist, that had barely heared about you, and who didn't know the current range... so... my suggestion is: Gav, Ramsay and you start sending one of those chain-mails between you with the topic: the catalogue idea. When you have it, then you put it in the site and I'm going to distribute some among the shops, clubs and places I know. And perhaps, it wouldn't be bad to include a section translated to different languages adressing to the customers and shop owners. And, I think it would be good to discuss how the catalogue should look like, because even if the one you sent me has a great design, I think it isn't very practical. I would list the items, the way you have it on the site. For example: ELFBALL TEAM MINIATURES: Black Widows: (Two pages dedicated to the Black Widows). First a picture of the team or at least the pictures that Ilustranger made, followed by a short description of the team of the Black Widows (the one in the EB rulebook should do it). Then I would put a description of the miniatures, for example: the black widows were part of the Phigs Miniatures collection and so one of the first teams Impact! sold. These female sculpts are great because... bla bla bla bla and have been sculpted by xxx. On the second page of the team, there should be all the miniatures and team deals with its prices and description... |
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| GalakStarscraper |
We already have a catalogue. Yeah I know ... its a secret I guess. Just waiting on Ramsay to finish up painting the Middle Kingdoms to request a Winter update to it fix it for the changes to the store since Spring 2008. Tom Brown creates it for us and does an incredible job! http://www.impactminiatures.com/C.../Catalog%20Spring%202008%20v4.pdf We send this out to our Store Vendors normally to use to help with ordering. Even if it was black and white ... there is no way we could afford to print these and include them with orders. However ... we could easily put it a link to it on the site as a button as you suggest. Galak |
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| Dark Lord |
If you made it black & white, and printed it on 8.5 x 11 in paper folded in half and stapled on the fold it would be a nice little hand out. I'm not saying you need to make an award winning masterpiece of catalog history...just something that sits on a desk for a week. I don't see how it would be that expensive either...especially if it generated orders.
5 pieces of paper would give you 20 pages (one more than the PDF) and not everything needs a photo, especially bases, cases, magnets etc. 5 pages in black & white...wouldn't 1 $20 order pay for a ton of these? I can print more than 300 pages easily on one black ink cartridge that costs $30. A laster printer could do much much more. That's less than 60 cents each. If you got one order it would pay for it. How many orders would you have generated if you had these as a hand out at Gencon? The answer lies in how many people at gencon asked about a catalog or a handout? Just to me there were a ton...probably 25% of the people I demoed for asked about a catalog. And like I said, there is a world of difference in having something sitting in front of you compelling you to order, and needing to go online to find that sort of thing. One is proactive, the other is reactive. After coming home from the con I visited the websites of every company that gave me something. Every single one. And like I said, this isn't just me talking crap, this proven marketing strategy since before the internet, before me and before you. People will buy stuff when it is front of them. If you wait for them to come find you, you are going to sell much less. This is why every business in the world has a catalog...it's also why every company in the world spends more money on their catalog than they do on their website. Aren't you the one always talking about how for every 1 person on the NAF site there 5 or 10 others who never go online for Bl00d B0wl stuff? Why then depend solely on a website for sales...a website that isn't even first in the Google search? Okay, no catalog then...why not coupons? Leaflets. Something! Send a coupon for 10% off that can be given to a friend for his next order over $30. Give a half page leaflet that is a big pretty ad for the new (or coming soon) XXXXXX team. People don't like to hear this but we are all stupid monkeys and we are all attracted to pretty pictures. We may not like to hear it but it is still true...I bet if you look around your house you have some scrap of paper that is garbage but you haven't tossed it out yet because it has a cool picture on it...not that you won't toss it out, but you'll keep it longer than you would otherwise. People walk away from you and forget. It's how we are. They saw a million awesome things at Gencon, and while Elfball is way cool you have to give them a reminder. Like I said before Reaper's catalog got them sales because at game night I brought it with me and it got passed around. Sure I told them about the cool new Elfball stuff and that they should check the website...but that was done later when they didn't have an easy to fill out mail order slip in their hands. Don't just take my word for it: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DTI/is_9_32/ai_n6187997 http://www.coolbusinessideas.com/.../paper_catalog_for_ebusiness.html http://www.retailerdaily.com/entr...ill-primary-remote-sales-channel/
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| Darkson |
I have to agree there. On the journey home from the Spiky FF tourney in October we were talking about teams to use next year, and we decided to all use dwarfs. I immediately (as I don't like the current Grandma Wendy FF dwards) decided to use Impact, but the other 3 weren't sure what to use (Grandma Wendy, conversions etc).
Took a (cheap and quick) print-out of the dwarf team deal to club a few weeks later, and ended up with all 3 of the tourney goers deciding to buy 12 Impact dwarfs, plus anther team for one other club memeber who's probably not even going to be in the country come October. So yeah, I think Eric's correct. Though I'd question having one put in each order, especially for repeat customers. Another idea would be a full colour catalogue in a ring binder (so it can updated regularly) that could be taken to tournaments by certain people (Gavin in the UK, Mephisto, etc.), along with simple order sheets. |
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| GalakStarscraper |
DL ... I'll see what we can do.
I cannot put them in each order. The extra postage is what would kill us ... most of our shipments are out of country and those postage fees add up very fast by the ounce/gram. Might aim to include them with orders that qualify for free shipping. That would make sense. As soon as Tom has the updated catalogue (which means Ramsay getting those paint jobs done) ... I'll see what I can do. Galak |
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| bouncergriim |
I remember gtting an old Grandma Wendy catalogue and it was all Black and white with color front and back.
I think Black and White, 5 page (20 half pages front and back), might look better with unpaintd minis. For this you would just have to take snap shots of the minis assembled but not painted. Dunno for sure just tossing in my 2 cents. |
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| Dark Lord |
Maybe include a leaflet promoting the site and the newest minis/product?
I love it when I wear Tom down. 
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| GalakStarscraper |
Galak |
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| Dark Lord |
Heard that.
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| pixelgeek |
Hasslefree miniatures put a small sellsheet in each order that has pictures of recent releases and upcoming releases. Do them 4-up on an 8.5" x 11" sheet and drop one in each order and it shouldn't weigh too much and should do the same thing... get people looking at pretty minis. |
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| GalakStarscraper |
Good point Zac ... only problem is that Kev and Sally have folks packing orders for them and do Hasslefree full time as their income. Making up new flyers on a regular basis, shipping them over to the UK, and then adding them to the packing step is just one more thing in a company that looks like it will hit its 3rd anniversary without a profit to the guys running it. ==== Which is my way of saying ... these are great ideas guys ... I do not mean to downplay the ideas here. Thank you guys for them ... I will strongly consider addressing these next year. Tom |
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| Dark Lord |
Sounds like it's time for Impact to go on Dragon's Den.
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| Mephisto |
Come on Tom,
these ideas are cheap and great. 1) The colour catalogue for tournaments is a really big idea. People always asked me about what I have in stock and I cannot really show them all what I have, because I have to take several heavy boxes with me and I'm only one man. A big colour catalogue would improve sales, while people would look at it and then ask: show me this model or give me that. Instead I have to show every single one what I have and so I cannot attend more customers. 2) About flyers. Design one and I'll make some copies. I can print for free, so a day where I'm alone at work, I'll make some so that I have several in stock. |
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| GalakStarscraper |
Ramsay ... how is the painting of the Middle Kingdoms figures coming?
Once we have those ... we can get a new colour catalogue PDF ready for you Mephisto
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| Dark Lord |
I have a question about the catalog. I can't see pages 2-6. They just appear as little squares. Anybody have this issue or is it just me?
Nevermind. It's working now. Must have just been a bad connection.
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| Norse |
I'm on it, I'm on it.. but it's not helped by the fact that December is my busiest month at work and my Mum just flew to NY to visit for the holidays.. 
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| Dark Lord |
I didn't know you had a mum. I thought people with mouths as filthy as yours sprung out from under rocks!
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| Brage97 |
Hi!
First post in this forum. I love what you do Impact! Just one question: This Sylvain Quirion mini; what kind of mini is it? Race and use area please
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| GalakStarscraper |
Treeman he did for Dark Sphere. |
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| Brage97 |
So this one 
Or is there a completely unknown sculpt?
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| GalakStarscraper |
That's the one we bought last year. Should be in store by end of February.
Tom |
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| Dark Lord |
Really? Another treeman?
TBH the deadwoods look better (mini included). This one doesn't do it for me. He looks like he's gonna give you a hug rather than a smack. Plus his head looks like a D&D troll head to me. Sorry. 
Okay, I guess he would look okay for the Timberline Elves...but Treemen with Wood Elves makes my ass itch. 
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| GalakStarscraper |
In this case. Tritex Games is our 2nd best customer. Jason found out this figure was going up for sale after not being able to get any for a while and its one of his better selling figures. He asked Impact! if we would consider buying the figure so he could continue to have a reliable source for it. So did we need another Treeman ... no. And the Timberline Elves don't have a Treeman on the team. But the figure is one that we felt we could recover our cost to buy, mould, and cast it in a reasonable time period and it made our 2nd largest customer happy. And when you are in business DL ... sometimes you do something just because it makes an important customer happy. (this is not said in a speaking down tone at all ... tone should be matter of fact one ... not condescending) Galak |
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| Dark Lord |
Well I can understand that, I guess.
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| lahatiel |
DL's just letting his anti-hippy bias slip (i.e., no tree-huggers)!
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| Dark Lord |
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| Thom |
Hippies have been extinct for 20 years. . . Tree Huggers are an entirely different species known as "Cannibis Terranis Muffinis". . . They are not even truely sapient!
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