WotC changes how D&D mini's are going to be sold.

[The Little Raven]

Never going to happen.

If by "never going to happen," you mean "this has already happened," then you are correct, as I purchased a set of 4e core books at Wal-Mart as a gift for my cousin's birthday this past weekend.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

I don't think any mini should purposefully be any better or less quality than any other. Be they rare or common, they should be of equal quality sculpt and paint quality. Those are the standards that will make or break any miniature product.

I also wish that every mini had the same quality as a rare, but it seems unlikely without a price increase. We can only hope that the quality of future minis reflects the announced price increase.

In trying to predict the value of these future sets, the current starter set seems a much better piece of evidence than the current boosters. The starter set contains three visible heroic figures (two male and one female) and two visible monsters. Would you pay $11 for (three minis on par with) the dwarf battlemaster, human sellsword, and elf warlock? (I probably wouldn't as a DM, but as a player I would if it matched the character I wanted to play.) Would you pay $15 for (a mini on par with) the young green dragon, plus a random rare, uncommon, and couple of commons? (I might, and definitely would if I needed a green dragon.) I'm guessing that these starter set minis will be indicative of the quality we'll see in the visible minis next year, with the random rares, uncommons, and commons following along the current lines.

 

[Fifth Element]

Minis take up too much shelf space and sell too little for the overhead to carry them.

Has WalMart stopped selling Heroscape? I honestly don't know.

 

[SteveC]

Okay, now it's time to come back with the same question I ask whenever changes to the minis line come about: what's changed?

When we first had D&D minis come out, I was annoyed by the fact that in order to get my goblin warband I had to either buy off a secondary market or but half a dozen boxes and end up with four sets of flumphs.

At the time I was told it was "impossible" to make these kinds of packs. You simply couldn't make a profit doing prepaints that weren't random. So what changed?

--Steve

 

[avin]

So what changed?

Less minis for more price. That changed.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Not sure why you're laughing. Many of the same people who complained about random distribution also claimed that WotC never listens to what the market "really" wants.

It's the difference between 'the market' meaning 'gamers' and 'the market' meaning Adam Smith's invisible hand. I don't doubt that WotC is listening to what the latter 'wants' (or what they think it wants), but I don't recall any gamer saying what they really wanted was to pony up cash sight-unseen for poorly-painted, overpriced bits of plastic. Don't confuse not having a choice with being a preference.

If by "never going to happen," you mean "this has already happened," then you are correct, as I purchased a set of 4e core books at Wal-Mart as a gift for my cousin's birthday this past weekend.

Could be regional. The last time I was in a Wal-Mart (granted, it's been a while), they had absolutely nothing even remotely close to gaming stuff. Could also be seasonal, or a one-shot deal. I would be rather surprised to see Walmart routinely dedicating shelf space to enough D&D stuff to make me consider them a reliable source as opposed to a 'what the heck, I'll look while I'm here' kinda thing.

Okay, now it's time to come back with the same question I ask whenever changes to the minis line come about: what's changed?

When we first had D&D minis come out, I was annoyed by the fact that in order to get my goblin warband I had to either buy off a secondary market or but half a dozen boxes and end up with four sets of flumphs.

At the time I was told it was "impossible" to make these kinds of packs. You simply couldn't make a profit doing prepaints that weren't random. So what changed?

--Steve

My understanding is that what made the random packs work was that brick-and-mortar stores only had to stock a single SKU. So ordering was simple, inventory was simple, and they didn't have to deal with returns on unpopular fixed collections (or overproducing and having them sit in the warehouse).

What remains to be seen is if there will still be a single SKU for the new packs of mostly-randoms, or if (for all intents and purposes) they will still be completely-randoms for the merchants. In other words, will Bob Smith the FLGS owner order 10 of 'WotC Monster Warband' and receive 10 boxes with a different visible mini, or will he have to order 1 WotC Monster Warband w/Flumph, 1 WotC Monster Warband w/MindFlayer, etc.

 

[Fifth Element]

It's the difference between 'the market' meaning 'gamers' and 'the market' meaning Adam Smith's invisible hand. I don't doubt that WotC is listening to what the latter 'wants' (or what they think it wants), but I don't recall any gamer saying what they really wanted was to pony up cash sight-unseen for poorly-painted, overpriced bits of plastic. Don't confuse not having a choice with being a preference.

They apparently voted with their wallets, which resulted in what, 16 series of randomized minis? And as for overpriced, you know that the per-mini price goes up when randomization goes down, right? Case in point, the new D&D minis.

 

[Remathilis]

For people buying on Amazon it will be 100% random...

Score one for the FLGS ;-)

 

[justanobody]

If by "never going to happen," you mean "this has already happened," then you are correct, as I purchased a set of 4e core books at Wal-Mart as a gift for my cousin's birthday this past weekend.

And do you live in a heavy gaming area? Area there so many stores around for gaming that Wal*mart has a reason to compete with them in order to get people into Wal*mart to spend money on other things?

As I said, it would require a heavy gaming area for Wal*mart to carry them. Each Wal*mart has a regional manager that decides what goes in his/her group of stores based on the surrounding stores of the various types in the area. Those not having grocery do not bother with grocery prices, but those that do will try to compete with local grocers. Likewise those Wal*mart regions with heavy gaming related stores will likely have gaming materials in them.

Go ask your Wal*marts manager about it. Ask him for the number to the local market office.

Has WalMart stopped selling Heroscape? I honestly don't know.

Does anywhere still sell it? I haven't seen it in a while.

Of course checking the Wal*mart website does no good since it is only an online store and not connected in any way to local stores as it is a separate business entity. So what they have online has nothing to do with individual stores. There beta in-store item locator also is not even working if you try to use it. It has no data or fictitious/select locations data just to test to see if the function is useful.

 

[El Mahdi]

Never going to happen. The books are too niche to carry in the book section for most stores, and there is no place in toy's/games section for books. Minis take up too much shelf space and sell too little for the overhead to carry them. Cards take up less space and have higher profits so are easy to carry a selection in some hidden place.

With the recent changes to Wal*mart store designs thee is going to be less space for things as the shelves themselves have been made shorter so they will be picking and choosing more of what they carry meaning less chance for 4e or DDM in them. You would have to live in a heavy gaming area in order to see these things, and most stores aren't in those areas for the Wal*mart warehouses to keep them in stock.

I don't think I'd say never. With the books, probably not, but that doesn't mean never. More than likely you'll probably only see them in bookstores (Books-a-Million, etc.), but again, never say never. As to DDM, they are already there. I've seen both D&D mini booster sets and a large amount of Star Wars minis (not the toys, actual Star Wars RPG mini booster sets). Perhaps you haven't seen them in the Wal*Marts you've been to, but I have seen them in ones I've frequented.

I also wouldn't say that it depends on a heavy gaming presence. I've seen this in four different places; Grand Rapids, Michigan - Valdosta, Georgia - Palm Beach, Florida - Orlando, Florida. Grand Rapids and Orlando could be considered your standard big cities, so it's reasonable they would carry them. However, Palm Beach has only one game/comic store for an area with about a 50 mile diameter - not exactly a gamer heavy area. Valdosta is even less gamer heavy. They lost there only RPG store to a CCG and Comics only store near the local college. Eventually an RPG store did surface to fill the niche but was located 10 miles north of the city outside a local military base, where there is a niche group. For a while there was no RPG store in Valdosta, other than buying books at the local Books-a-Million. Definitely not what I would call gamer heavy, and I've seen minis in every single one of those Wal*Marts.

I don't know about recent changes to Wal*Mart store designs (other than getting bigger), but I saw Star Wars minis just this week at a local Wal*Mart. I'm not sure where you get your information about what Wal*Mart is able to keep in their warehouses, but it seems that the fact I've actually seen them proves this wrong.

I've also seen them fairly regularly in Target.


Edit: The Little Raven posted while I was typing so I didn't see where he said he'd actually bought the books in a Wal*Mart. Personally I've never seen the books in a Wal*Mart, but I haven't actually looked for them either. I usually don't look at the books in Wal*Mart, I'll go to one of the book chains instead.