Randomized Mini's or Not?

[erc1971]

It is possible something similar was done recently - if so, I apologize.

What are everyone's opinions on randomized mini's, and is WotC hurting thier own profit by making them "collectible"

IMO: Randomized mini's are the spawn of Satan and concept should be hunted down and abolished with the ferver of a rabid wolverine who has not eaten in weeks.

And, I do feel WotC is hurting thier bottom line with them being collectible. In our group of 4 - two people don't even bother, due to the rares costing to much. The other two of us who collect pop $50 on ebay for those ****ing, ****ing, ****ing out of print rares instead of spending that $50 on new products that directly profits WotC - in fact, someone else most likely bought a pack from WotC for a measly $10 - and they are earning the extra $40, not WotC.

In the end - 90% of the money I spend on mini's goes to profit someone on ebay, and keeps anyone from having a Bill Gates like fortune from getting them all (the 1 guy in our group who has all the mini's make a boatload of money). On top of that, I get frustrated, because if these things were not collectable, the amount of money I have spent would have garnered a complete set of all mini's, and I could start buying multiples of cool ones. You have no idea how much it fracks me off that the Stone Golem is a rare - I would buy like 20 of those things - awesome for statues on the battlemap.

Yeah, I know some of the inspiration for this threat is coming from my personal frustration - but others have to be feeling the same thing I am, and how can people spending all thier money on Ebay not be hurting WotC?

Eric

 

[Kunimatyu]

You're not looking at this correctly.

Collectible minis = wide variety, lower cost

Non-collectible = lower variety, (generally) higher cost

I enjoy being about to get Gricks along with my orcs, skeletons, and demons, so I remain a fan of the randomized packs, though I do tend to either buy by the case or via Ebay Buy It Now stores.

D&D Minis are only obscenely expensive if you go after multiples of the Large rares and don't proxy (ie. this hill giant is a frost giant).

Also remember that a lot of the expensive, high-demand older rares will see newer versions, some in uncommon form.

 

[Meloncov]

Percisely. I don't like that they are collectable per say, but I benefit indirectly from the fact that they are.

In response to the other part of your question, no, Wizard's isn't hurting themselves. The money lost from people buying minis on ebay A: proably wouldn't have gone to them in the first place (instead, it would have gone to WizKids or GW) and B: is insignificent compared to the money they make from people buying dozens of boosters.

 

[Mark Hope]

(Note to self: Must. Not. Rant. Like. Babbling. Loon.)

I absolutely loathe the collectible nature of D&D minis. But I don't think that it hurts WotC one bit. It costs them exactly the same to make a Rare mini as it does a Common, afaik. They are clearly making money from the huge numbers of boosters that they sell. The profit that they make from the fact that buyers of the minis generally buy loads of them in order to get those coveted figures most likely outstrips the profit that they would make if they sold the rare minis individually. So of course it makes better business sense to sell them randomised. After all, it's not like they could get away with selling a beholder for $50 themselves, is it?

As a non-collecting gamer who just wants some decent, specific minis to use in my rpg games, they are no good for me. I get my minis elsewhere. So yeah, WotC are losing my dollar here, but that is insignificant compared to the masses of dollars they are getting from those who do buy them en masse collectors (and out of the 6 gamers in my group, 2 are rabid, addicted nutters who by them by the caseload).

 

[erc1971]

(Note to self: Must. Not. Rant. Like. Babbling. Loon.)

I absolutely loathe the collectible nature of D&D minis. But I don't think that it hurts WotC one bit. It costs them exactly the same to make a Rare mini as it does a Common, afaik. They are clearly making money from the huge numbers of boosters that they sell. The profit that they make from the fact that buyers of the minis generally buy loads of them in order to get those coveted figures most likely outstrips the profit that they would make if they sold the rare minis individually. So of course it makes better business sense to sell them randomised. After all, it's not like they could get away with selling a beholder for $50 themselves, is it?

As a non-collecting gamer who just wants some decent, specific minis to use in my rpg games, they are no good for me. I get my minis elsewhere. So yeah, WotC are losing my dollar here, but that is insignificant compared to the masses of dollars they are getting from those who do buy them en masse collectors (and out of the 6 gamers in my group, 2 are rabid, addicted nutters who by them by the caseload).

You get them elsewhere?!?!?!? Does someone else out there sell pre-painted, plastic, non-collectible minis?!?!?!?! ***drools at the thought***

I do have to conceed a point to the above posters - while our gaming group is an example of WotC losing $$$ due to the collectible nature of the mini's, the people who buy truckloads just to sell on ebay does bring in $$$. I wonder which one affects thier bottom line the most? (Obviously I cannot give a solid answer, I just buy the dang things).

 

[DaveMage]

I don't mind the randomization, but I do mind the rarity scheme. I'd prefer all minis were equally available in a booster.

I'd prefer that there was no randomization, even if we paid a bit more, but they didn't ask me.

 

[Mark Hope]

You get them elsewhere?!?!?!? Does someone else out there sell pre-painted, plastic, non-collectible minis?!?!?!?! ***drools at the thought***

No. I buy non-randomised, unpainted minis and... paint them myself!!!

And I use counters a lot too. The cool ones from Fiery Dragon and the ones that I make myself with cardboard, glue and the artwork from the WotC galleries or the Digital Counter Collection.

I also make colossal dragons out of balloons.

 

[blargney the second]

For D&D, the randomized and rarified minis are not the right solution if you want a specific mini for a specific encounter.

However, if you get a few packs whenever a new set comes out, you'll quickly get a significant number of figures with a fair amount of variety. It's actually a great way to get inspiration for encounters you can throw at your D&D game. Just use the randomness for what it's good for, and it works out fine.

-blarg

 

[mmu1]

I hate these things - I got slightly sucked in anyway (since it can be fun to have the exact mini for some exotic monster), but I've stopped after a few packs.

At $13.00 per booster pack, they're not especially cheap, either, as far as I'm concerned - generally, I'd find 3-4 minis per pack that I actually had a use for, and it was an exceptional find if I came across a pack that contained more than 1 mini I actually liked.

On top of that, their mini selection still sucks. Between the GM, one other player, and me, we probably have several hundreds of the damn things, and if we wanted to put together a group of 10 city guardsmen, or a 12-orc raiding party, we wouldn't have enough appropriate models - and never mind having enough minis to have a consistent group, but with some diversity...

On the other hand, if we wanted to make a raiding party of crested felldrakes, guys with scythes, executioners, troglodyte monks, or those stupid-looking blue and silver dwarves, we'd be in business.

I mean, I think it's not a bad idea (and good marketing) to have miniature lines that tie in with Eberron, or Monster Manual III, or whatever - but the execution of it is terrible. You just end up with small, thematically scattered groups of minis that don't stylistically fit together, and don't cover the D&D basics well enough.

Unpainted (or painted with a thin coat of Citadel Armor Wash, to bring out the detail) Reaper minis look a hell of a lot better to me than 90% of the D&D ones, and, in the long run, are a lot cheaper because I only pay for what I need.

 

[Iron Captain]

When I first heard about these minis I was actually pretty excited since I had just bought the 3 Core Rulebooks. But then I found out how much they were charging for a booster pack and then i realized that I would only use maybe 2 or 3 from each pack. Plus I wanted to have like 10 of the more common foes (Goblins, Orks, Kobolds etc.) and that would have gotten way too expensive way to quickly.

I was actually looking for a shop online that sells the common minis dead cheap (Sort of like how basic land cards in Magic are dead cheap) but to no avail.

I still think it would be cool to have actuall minis to play with but the randomness just makes me want to buy a box of plastic GW orks and paint the damn things myself (which would fail oh so horribly).

So in the end Cardboard Minis to the rescue!