Pathfinder 1E Paizo Announces More Details about Minis Line

[El Mahdi]

Oh I'm all up in that Paizo forum thread (defending Paizo, actually). But I know the usual suspects over there, and they're patting Paizo on the back for something they'd just as soon spit on WotC for doing.

PR is all about perception, not fact. It's just human nature, and human nature is oft times anything but logical.

Whether fair or not, WotC has destroyed a large portion of their customer goodwill.

Whether by design or just luck, Paizo has not.

It's really that simple.


Poor public perception can be repaired, but it takes siginificant and persistent work...sometimes necessarily over a long period of time. It also usually involves a public mea culpa, whether one feels they did anything wrong or not. IMO, I have not seen WotC putting in the effort to reverse this perception.

 

[Stormonu]

Ts somewhat sad that both Wotc and Wizkids (via Mechwarrior) have gotten so much of my dime via random minis that I'm fairly unwilling to buy into the Piazo/Wizkids line. I guess, like others, I'm burnt out on the "gotta catch 'em all strategy".

 

[Cergorach]

A lot of folks suddenly feel as if they are now forced to buy/collect the whole range, you don't unless you have a collecting disorder (like myself ;-). Getting a few for reasonable prices and if they are minis you like/need, there's nothing wrong with that. Most of us that have been around for the DDM ranges are already swimming in miniatures, we don't really need a second swimming pool full of Pathfinder miniatures (unless of course we want to).

Comparing $0.25-$0.99 DDM prices from the secondary market isn't exactly fair, first Auggie is really cheap and has/had a pretty large collection. Second, what about those mindflayers or dirges, what are the prices on those? Yeah, a lot higher then $0.99. I suspect that these Pathfinder minis will also be available at such low prices on the secondary market, it all depends on rarity and functionality. I suspect that Goblins will be quite common, maybe a sinspawn less so, but if it's really expensive/rare you can always go with the Reaper mini version...

The big advantage of the DDM miniatures was that I could pile a couple of dozen in a small plastic bag and toss that into my backpack on top of my books. I don't have any other miniatures that can survive that very well. I have very little experience with Wizkids minis beyond MWDA and a promo heroclix and mageknight figure. They seem to be more rigid then the DDM minis, which might mean better detail, but they would break faster.

 

[DaveMage]

Lots of places offer case discounts. Auggies and Miniature Market are who I normally ordered from, never had a problem. IMO, any reasonable LGS should offer a pre-order case discount as well.

Popular Collections also usually has pre-order case discounts.

Ts somewhat sad that both Wotc and Wizkids (via Mechwarrior) have gotten so much of my dime via random minis that I'm fairly unwilling to buy into the Piazo/Wizkids line. I guess, like others, I'm burnt out on the "gotta catch 'em all strategy".

Yep - especially with the high price point on these. As I said upthread - if the price point stays where it is, I'll only be interested in acquiring the ones that are unique from my DDM collection. (And by unique, I mean either a specific NPC from a Paizo adventure or a monster I do not already have - unless the mini is just *that* awesome. So far none of the promo monsters are *that* awesome to me.)

 

[Quickleaf]

Ts somewhat sad that both Wotc and Wizkids (via Mechwarrior) have gotten so much of my dime via random minis that I'm fairly unwilling to buy into the Piazo/Wizkids line. I guess, like others, I'm burnt out on the "gotta catch 'em all strategy".

I never bought into it! All my pre-painted plastic minis are second hand thru a nameless FLGS who was willing to sell individuals, through gifts/trades, or through auggies or troll & toad.

But then I never was a DDM player. Which makes the randomization thing that Paizo / Wizkids are doing for a role-playing game weird for me. If there was some other supportive rules for a battle game I'd buy into their concept of randomized minis more. But a RPG is all about having encounters where you know what opposition the players are going to be facing. It's not like the DM gets 1000 points and each player gets 200 to build the if dugeon or party respectively and to the victor goes the spoils.

I imagine the meetings about this venture had a lot of WizKids folks explaining the "market realities" of pre-painted plastic minis production and getting the Paizo folks on board with randomized. And the Paizo folks going along with it but proposing non-random encounter packs once the line is off and running.

 

[rgard]

Care to explain where this 40% discount you've mentioned is from?

When I was in the business 5 years ago, I paid 53% of the retail price for the item from my distributors. So if the retail price (suggested manufacturer's price they put on the box or book) was $100, I paid $53. This applied to dice, game books and minis from WotC and Reaper and the like.

I generally purchased directly from GW (though if I was short on cash - a recurring theme, I would buy some GW spray paint from my non-GW distributor) at 55% of retail for regular Warhammer and 40K stuff. IIRC, the GW LotR's stuff was only discounted 40% to me (or 60% of retail).

 

[TheAuldGrump]

One of my players was wondering if the new Pathfinder plastics might decrease the price/increase the availability of DDM from resellers.

My suspicion is no, that if folks have a few DDM Trolls and get a Pathfinder Troll it will just mean that there will be more Trolls to put on the table - they won't be selling off their DDM Trolls in a burst of newfound Pathfinder enthusiasm. It'll just mean that some parties are going to get beaten up by Trolls more often. Pathfinder, D&D, and Reaper Trolls are, for the most part, pretty recognizably Trolls....

The Auld Grump

 

[Cergorach]

The last comparable DDM set was 1 (visible) large plus 4 small or medium random figures for $15. 3 small or medium figures is on average three $4 boxes and one $6 box, for a total of $18 this in comparison to a two year old set. Prices are 20% higher then the most recent DDM product, but you can buy 5 large figures for $30 and $30 would only buy you two large DDM figures and 8 small-medium ones.

Also, at a retail level DDM cases were not cheaper then individual boosters. Now you do have a 16-17% discount on a case at the retail level, so that kind of balances out with the 20% price increase. Online retailers might give even further discounts depending on NECA/WizKids policies and the online retailer.

I think it won't be as bad as everyone is yelling. DDM was around for eight years, may we be so lucky with the Pathfinder minis...

But maybe we we'll want to wait for the actual miniature list, with pictures and the rarities. Then we'll want to see pictures of the actual models instead of the masters, maybe even someone with pictures of a simple wash. Then we go look for local prices and the best discounts. Oh yeah, and some cash ;-)

Maybe we'll see some of the rare expensive DDM monsters on ebay if pathfinder has some cheap alternatives. Do I sell rare much wanted monster x for $30 and buy 5 of the Pathfinder equivalent, I only need one of the DDMs for my complete collection ;-)

ps. anyone seen the four characters of that first set in real life or has pictures of the actual miniatures you get in the store? Might give us a preview of things to come...

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

The last DDM set was 1 (visible) large plus 4 small or medium random figures for $15. 3 small or medium figures is on average three $4 boxes and one $6 box, for a total of $18 this in comparison to a two year old set. Prices are 20% higher then the most recent DDM product, but you can buy 5 large figures for $30 and $30 would only buy you two large DDM figures and 8 small-medium ones.

Lords of Madness had 1 huge mini plus 1 large and 4 medium or small minis. None of them were visible IIRC; maybe you were thinking of the Savage Encounters set? (The LoM list is here.)

 

[jodyjohnson]

Lords of Madness, 6 minis: 1 huge (VR,R,U), 1 large (VR,R,U), and 4 medium or small miniatures (R/VR, U, 2xC) per pack. 1 quaranteed rare or better (medium) and up to 3 very rares per booster.