D&D General Elder Brains & Stalagmites: New D&D Minis

In December, Wizkids will be releasing 44 creatures from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, plus a $49.99 premium set featuring an elder brain and a bunch of stalagmites.

(Thanks to Gustavo for the scoop!)

 

[Maul]

I love the pre-painted aspect of these minis but Wizkids needs to get on the Chinese manufacturers about their quality control. Sometimes you get thee most elephant man looking minis. The face is all globbed with paint or the eyeballs are 1/16" of an inch too low or too high. I mean you are paying for what they advertise and most times it doesn't look anything like whats on the box.

 

[doctorhook]

I love the pre-painted aspect of these minis but Wizkids needs to get on the Chinese manufacturers about their quality control. Sometimes you get thee most elephant man looking minis. The face is all globbed with paint or the eyeballs are 1/16" of an inch too low or too high. I mean you are paying for what they advertise and most times it doesn't look anything like whats on the box.

It’s been that way since the beginning of prepainted minis, friend. I’ve got DDM Harbinger minis from 2003 that look the same. The only thing that’s changed is the brand producing them (WizKids instead of WotC).

 

[Todd Roybark]

Quality now is much better than from 10 years ago. Monsters in the Descent to Avernus set are rather good, the people however...blech.

$50 for the Elder Brain....not really feeling that.

 

[Maul]

It’s been that way since the beginning of prepainted minis, friend. I’ve got DDM Harbinger minis from 2003 that look the same. The only thing that’s changed is the brand producing them (WizKids instead of WotC).

I was in on the first set too but that doesn't mean their quality shouldn't improve over 15 years.

Most companies have that in their mission statement. To continually improve quality. But yet they have stayed the same.

 

[doctorhook]

I was in on the first set too but that doesn't mean their quality shouldn't improve over 15 years.

Most companies have that in their mission statement. To continually improve quality. But yet they have stayed the same.

In a few ways, quality has improved—that first set of minis was pretty awful in terms of paint quality. Things have definitely gotten better than that since then.

Second, WizKids is a separate company. Even though the two product lines are clearly related, they are separate products by separate companies.

Finally, “continuously improving quality” (as a mission) has a lot of facets. “Quality” can refer to manufacturing errors, which might be invisible to the customer. Also, there will always be an upper limit to quality, and diminishing returns on improvements; WotC and WizKids could certainly make their prepainted minis “better”, but doing so would shift the price-point away from their target market.

Long story short, I don’t think you should be expecting WizKids to improve the quality of paintjobs very much, unless you’re willing to pay a lot more.

 

[plisnithus8]

Quality now is much better than from 10 years ago. Monsters in the Descent to Avernus set are rather good, the people however...blech.

$50 for the Elder Brain....not really feeling that.

I wouldn't mind paying $50 dollars for an elder brain if came with illithids instead of cave bits.

 

[Maul]

In a few ways, quality has improved—that first set of minis was pretty awful in terms of paint quality. Things have definitely gotten better than that since then.

Second, WizKids is a separate company. Even though the two product lines are clearly related, they are separate products by separate companies.

Finally, “continuously improving quality” (as a mission) has a lot of facets. “Quality” can refer to manufacturing errors, which might be invisible to the customer. Also, there will always be an upper limit to quality, and diminishing returns on improvements; WotC and WizKids could certainly make their prepainted minis “better”, but doing so would shift the price-point away from their target market.

Long story short, I don’t think you should be expecting WizKids to improve the quality of paintjobs very much, unless you’re willing to pay a lot more.

I worked in plastics for 20 years. It wouldn't cost that much more fine tuning the processes and scrapping defective pieces instead of pushing them to be sold. i.e. when the eyes are not lined up. That was a production error and should have been ground up to be re-used instead they pushed it along as approved finished product.

I don't think making the product "better" would push the price point away from their target market. I think they might have to up the price slightly or just crack down on their supplier. Or just do like they are already with their "Premium" line of minis and offer more premium minis at a slightly higher price point but more useable minis. the 1st offerings look like they were made in the 70's at a disco. yeesh. Lol.

 

[Coroc]

Now we just need a mini for the stalagmite which only hangs on the ceiling