Thoughts on D&D Minis

[hackmastergeneral]

I've long gotten over any qualms about "DDM not meeting my exact needs", because

a) I lack the talent, time, free money and equipment to customize minis myself
b) what does it matter if the mini doesn't look EXACTLY like you want, its just a mini - we used to use dice and bottlecaps, its all in your head thats important
c) they have to make money some how, and regular pewter minis are COVERED big time. So, make great looking minis for those of us too lazy to do it ourselves, and make em collectable, and slap a game on there. The DDM mini game is kinda fun, for what it is. It ain't gonna take over Warhammer any time soon, but its a fun way to kill time between games.

Meh. I make do with what we got.

OOHHH, but I wish they'd make them easily customizable, esp. the "PC" ones - include a little blister of various weapons, make it so you can swap em out, and maybe even add a shield on there as well. I think that would go a long way to pleasing people more, and be easy and cheap to do.

 

[Thunderfoot]

For me, I'm finding that it is easier to start with a crappy DDM and over paint, then start with a raw pewter and work-up. For some reason the plastic holds-up better to play (moving, holding, dropping, etc) and that a simple re-paint no longer includes stripping the old paint and re-priming. I have a collection of cheap commons that I am now using as "parts trees" for other figs so that I can have a few different poses. And as far as talent or artistry, I have none, its just like anything else, patience and practice.

But ultimately I think hackmastergeneral got it right in B) of his/her previous statement. It just a counter/placeholder, nothing can be exact, if it could there would be services that made to order minis, there aren't because it costs too much. Do I likeall of the WotC poses, no. You mentioned the kapak being useless to you, the new Blood Wars set is useless to me. I have no reason to use fiends, celestials and such in my camapaign, so I will p/u a few singles from that set and drive on. As for WotDQ, I bought 3 cases, dragons, lizards and the like are what I need.

If you want specific monsters, go with pewter, if you want cheap and easy stay with DDM, but complaining isn'y going to make WotC change their minds. Its Hasbro for God's sake, they just released Star Wars Transformers, come on folks, figure it out.

 

[Glyfair]

They still haven't been putting out a lot of PC friendly minis, which is nuts.

Honestly, that's not what a very large part of the market wants. There were a lot of complaints that War Drums was a "boring" set because it had a lot in the way of humanoids and not of lot of monsters.

Those that have been heavily collecting D&D miniatures have hundreds of human, elf and dwarf figures. They have hundreds of goblins, orcs and even drow. However, when they need that cockatrice or cloaker, it doesn't exist. They want those creatures they use that don't exist in the DDM game, and not more PC race figures.

The DDM game has a number of different interest groups that WotC has to please. It has the skirmish game players that are primarily interested in how well the figure plays in that game. I has the RPG DMs that are primarily interested in figures they can use as adversaries in their game. and a few cool NPC figures. It has the RPG players that want that perfect figure for their character (what do you mean there isn't a dwarf monk?). They have the long time collectors that have at least 3 of every figure created so far. They have the new collectors that want the current set(s) to give them a balanced selection of figures for their current needs.

That is part of its strength. That it has those groups that wanting to buy DDMs. That it can be attractive to all these groups makes it successful. However, when they do something to appeals to one group, another group complains because it doesn't meet their needs.

 

[pawsplay]

I have and do paint minis, but it's time consuming, and the finished result takes up a certain amount of space to store. My plastics live in a compartmentalized toolbox. I really like prepainted plastic minis. I'm not all that artistic, but I can manage with paints and pewter, to an extent. However, with the weight, storage, and transportation requirement, I can really only own so many pewters. So I just go for the ones I really dig. But since I'm not much of an artist, they don't end up looking great. As much as people complain about the DDM paint jobs, they're still often better than what you get if you're not much of a painter.

Some of the more readily available plastics, like Warhammer, have a completely different aesthetic than your standard fantasy stuff, and are often limited to a very small range of figures.

I agree that conversion is probably "the" answer, but it takes time, resources, and space to work.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Just part of the reason I hate DDM, the other being the collectable garbage; the figures that you'd get the most use out of are, of course, Rare so cost you way more than a plastic figure with an amateur paintjob is worth. I rue the day when they figured out they could make money off of that and thus killed any *real* D&D miniature line.

Awww, his old-timer brain is having trouble adjusting to new ideas...

More seriously, despite the fact that multiple Rares are costly (but generally no more costly than the equivalent pewter mini with no paintjob), surely you don't wish to return to the days where you had to paint up twenty goblins, as opposed to spending $5-10 and having them all right there for you to use? And since few players take the time to pay attention to non-PC or non-super monster figures, the paintjobs totally accomplish their purpose.

Look, I'm a minis painter, an above average painter who can produce much better paintjobs than the DDM line with a modicum of effort. Guess what? DDM still wins vs pewter. It's light, easy to store, and comes with a servicable paintjob that's plenty good for tabletop. There are times when I've repainted DDM, or used kitbashed GW parts to customize a fig (crappy common Ibixian becomes a Black Goat of Naggaroth, complete with skull-encrusted cloak and demon scepter), but generally, I'd prefer not to have to have another hobby just to create figs to use with my main hobby, D&D. There are a lot of people out there like that, and for people like you, Reaper certainly has plenty of figs for the old-timers used to lead and pewter.

 

[the black knight]

I got in on the ground floor. My collection knows no rivals.

 

[pawsplay]

With 11 core classes and seven major races, a set of male and female versions of each combination would run 154 pieces. So if they included, hm, four of those per set, that's thirty two and a half sets just to cover the basic. Most likely, the whole DDM line would be revamped before they finished.

OTOH... if they made a pack for each race, with six male and six female figures, each of whom could plausibly portray one or two classes, I would totally buy that. Twelve figures for twenty bucks? You bet!

As it is, it looks like I'm going back to pewter for most PC minis. Flats and tiles are great for hordes of creatures, but not so inspiring for rare creatures. A dragon flat just isn't the same at all.

 

[blargney the second]

DDM still wins vs pewter. It's light, easy to store, and comes with a servicable paintjob that's plenty good for tabletop.

I concur. These are all *very* strong features in favour of DDM.
-blarg

 

[megamania]

DDm is geared to a skirmish game.

It happens to use creatures that can be used in Role Playing games.

I have 1000's of painted figures from the 90's and early 2000's. These I use mainly for specific villians or PCs. I now have 1000's of the DDM figures which are excellent for basic villians and lets face it- not all creatures are respresented in pewter.

By using both I generally can work it.

The game I just finished involved 34 werewolves lead by a werewolf lord.

20 figures were chewy from starwars
6 figures were harbinger werewolves
7 figures were remakes of werewolves from a later set
1 figure was a leader of wookies
the lord figure was a Confrontation figure carrying a HUGE Bastard sword in a very menacing pose.

Which got the most ooohs and ahhhs.... The confrontation figure as it should as it was the main bad guy.


DDM has a clear place in the world of miniatures as do the pewter figures. I am just happy to have both.



however... this is not to say there are figures I would like to see produced in DDM or even pewter.


DARKSUN anyone?

 

[Felon]

They still haven't been putting out a lot of PC friendly minis, which is nuts. You get a handful of iconics, often ones that have already been done. Very little in the way of various arms, armor, and spellcasting gear. For instance, if you have a male human wizard, your choices are the wacky looking Evoker's Apprentice, various old dudes, and an elven wand expert. How about a dude in a cloak or traveler's clothes or a simple robe who looks cool? Bards are fairly well covered, as are heavily armored warriors, monks, and various elves. Barbarians, mages, half-orcs, halflings, archers, and druids have gotten pretty weak support. There is not a single female half-orc of which I am aware.

Actually warriors, haven't been that well-covered.
Not a lot of exotic weapon choices.
Not a lot of two-handed weapon wielding characters.
Way too much sword-and-board.