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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 5442266" data-attributes="member: 20741">Count me in the disappointed category. But I’m still hopeful for what the future may bring.  I do believe that the DDM line was doomed for a trifecta of reasons, given:  1 – WotC mismanaged the line in 2006 and overproduced, flooding the market with too many minis too fast. About the same time that War of the Dragon Queen was released was where the production issues began to outproduce demand and retailers got hit with a glut that would not clear;  2- The change in the art direction in the game together with a change in the underlying DDM game rules was a double-whammy.  When WotC was making a DDM line for one RPG? The demand was faltering but still there. When they changed their underlying rules of the minis game (never the primary use to which the mins was put, but still...) AND they then split their market and reduced demand with the change in art direction? Not a good result; and  3- The attempt to service 4E players with some packaging that was tied too closely to 4E, plus an increase in price that resulted from increases in oil together with a perception that the sculpts/ paint jobs were  not as good as had been released previously in the line...   All of those factors combined together to harm the DDM line's viability and the line could not continue in even reduced form.  In retrospect, it would have been far wiser to keep the DDM line its own in terms of rules and have not broken so sharply with the previous version of the game. Changes in packaging and pricing was something which ought to have been avoided wherever possible.  It is also likely that the end of the Heroscape line also impacted upon the production deals that Hasbro could make to create these minis.  In the end, the DDM line was mismanaged. Easy to say in retrospect, much harder to perceive as WotC was going forward at the time, I’m sure. Indeed, for a brief time, it looked like WotC had found another collectible cash cow.  WotC thought so too and came out with Dreamblade.  Perhaps in the times of a Fifth or, more likely, a Sixth edition of the game, the market may be more united and less divided and technology will have progressed to the point where the price point is again attractive.  I am quite certain that in the interim, Reaper Minis (and others) will do their damndest to make the most of this opportunity.  The idea of pre-painted plastic minis is a genie which is NOT going back in the bottle. We’ll still have figs to play with if we want them, though maybe not in the numbers and at a price that we might prefer.For the record, I hate pogs and won't play with them. I've played with minis and a battlemat since the 80s. Minis MATTER to me.</blockquote>

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