D&D Miniatures Defunct?

[Felon]

I still don't get why they still stick with this "Common/Uncommon/Rare" nonsense since they moved DDM from being a collectible minis game to just a minis set for D&D. That and there seems to be a slew of repeat figures in this set, again. Another Marilith, Drider, Nightwalker and Vampire?

The reason is simple. With randomized minis, they're catering to a general need to have monster mins. If they went non-random, each set would have to cater to the need for each particular type of monster it displayed.

There's no way WotC could win in such a situation. They'd be lambasted for cranking out tons of goblins and orcs. If they didn't give us iconic monsters like mind flayers, fans would scream "where's the mind flayers??? why a million orcs and goblins, but no mind flayers???" Then they put out a set with mind flayers and it sells miserably because it turns out their customers decided they aren't going to have mind flayer encounters often enough to justify they purchase, or they didn't like the other monsters packed in with the mind flayer, or some other utterly inevitable point of failure..

Nope. Forget it. Terrible idea. Just meet the need to have monsters in general. The people who can't stand that can eBay the specific minis they want. And the people who find that an unacceptable solution can be filed under "impossible to please".

 

[Vorput]

It's one of the most popular minis on DDMspoilers. Dungeon decoration, plot scene, etc.

I have a house rule where dead enemies mean dificul terrain, so that can be useful

Bah, I'll just knock one of the other minis on its side

 

[MerricB]

I still don't get why they still stick with this "Common/Uncommon/Rare" nonsense since they moved DDM from being a collectible minis game to just a minis set for D&D.

The reason was never because of the minis game. The reason for random figures was because it costs less. There isn't such a burden on the publisher, the distributor and the retailer (all three links of the chain) to guess the proper numbers that we want.

In the history of minis, there has never been a time that the same number *of every mini in the line was created*. A mini creator will make far more orcs than beholders, because orcs sell more. Rare/Uncommon/Common thus exists even in non-random models.

Look at my Law of Miniatures in my signature. D&D has an astonishingly large array of monsters, so to be a true D&D mini line you've got to be able to cover most of them... which doesn't leave much room to maneuver.

Consider the non-random Legendary Encounters line from Reaper. It is now over two years since they were released, and we have the grand total of seventeen minis. Oh, wait - it's up to twenty-one. They finally released four more.

(Well, possibly tomorrow, they might be available).

 

[Felon]

Bah, I'll just knock one of the other minis on its side

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. A mini to represent a non-particpatory corpse? Dumb.

 

[wayne62682]

I guess you're right.. I'm just mad because I've had the need for certain figures and either they are no longer available or they're "Rare" and cost a ridiculous amount of money for a poorly-painted plastic figure. Take the Gelatinous Cube for instance. Nearly $30 for a rough, clear plastic square, all because it's considered a "Rare" figure. I don't think I'd mind it so much if it didn't influence the prices and the most useful figures were available all of the time.

I have the same problem with the Dungeon Tiles - most of them are out of print and are ridiculously expensive (the original Dungeon Tiles set goes for $100!! For freaking colored cardboard!) but are commonly referenced in WotC products.

 

[Felon]

I guess you're right.. I'm just mad because I've had the need for certain figures and either they are no longer available or they're "Rare" and cost a ridiculous amount of money for a poorly-painted plastic figure. Take the Gelatinous Cube for instance. Nearly $30 for a rough, clear plastic square, all because it's considered a "Rare" figure. I don't think I'd mind it so much if it didn't influence the prices and the most useful figures were available all of the time.

A gelatinous cube going for $30??? Grab it! That's about $10 cheaper than the norm.

Ture, you do need to your shopping within about six months of a set's release to avoid appreciation. Then again, the g-cube is a good example of a mini that you would probably not see in a non-random distribution, for the very reasons you mention.

 

[Oryan77]

Take the Gelatinous Cube for instance.

But then people would complain that they have a bunch of Gelatinous Cubes when they only need a couple of them. Making it rare gives us the ability to get more quantity of figures we use more often via Uncommons & Commons.

From a retailer perspective, I wouldn't want minis to be non random because then a seller is going to get stuck with a ton of boosters that contain the same unwanted minis.

You already see that with the new visible booster sets. There's plenty of Unicorn and War Devil boosters on the shelves, but no Frost Giant or Aboleth boosters.

 

[Ariosto]

Otherworld Miniatures has a Deluxe Gelatinous Cube for £22.50

and a standard (no skeleton, unpainted) cube for £12.50