Dear Hasbro: about those minis

[molonel]

I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this. I love the prepainted minis from WotC. Yes, I know there are finer quality minis out there, but I hate painting minis.

But I guess what I wanted to say to Hasbro was this:

I know Magic: The Gathering made you a metric butt ton of money. I sympathize. Really.

But we stop with the whole "random packages of minis so that you're never going to know what you're buying" thing?

I just got done buying a lot of minis on eBay today, and they were arranged in thematic sets. I got a big set of undead minis like skeletons and ghasts and wights. I also got a nature-themed package with bears and wolves.

It would be so cool if I could just BUY them like this straight from WotC instead of hunting them down and getting bid sniped on eBay.

 

[dargoth3]

I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this. I love the prepainted minis from WotC. Yes, I know there are finer quality minis out there, but I hate painting minis.

But I guess what I wanted to say to Hasbro was this:

I know Magic: The Gathering made you a metric butt ton of money. I sympathize. Really.

But we stop with the whole "random packages of minis so that you're never going to know what you're buying" thing?

I just got done buying a lot of minis on eBay today, and they were arranged in thematic sets. I got a big set of undead minis like skeletons and ghasts and wights. I also got a nature-themed package with bears and wolves.

It would be so cool if I could just BUY them like this straight from WotC instead of hunting them down and getting bid sniped on eBay.

I suggest you check out Merrics law of minis

 

[Thurbane]

I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this. I love the prepainted minis from WotC. Yes, I know there are finer quality minis out there, but I hate painting minis.

But I guess what I wanted to say to Hasbro was this:

I know Magic: The Gathering made you a metric butt ton of money. I sympathize. Really.

But we stop with the whole "random packages of minis so that you're never going to know what you're buying" thing?

I just got done buying a lot of minis on eBay today, and they were arranged in thematic sets. I got a big set of undead minis like skeletons and ghasts and wights. I also got a nature-themed package with bears and wolves.

It would be so cool if I could just BUY them like this straight from WotC instead of hunting them down and getting bid sniped on eBay.

Hear hear!

I've said the same thing a gazillion times. But then all the collectible freaks pop out of the woodwork, tell me to use eBay, and basically to STFU!

I just wish that I could buy official D&D minis in non-randomized sets to use with my pen and paper D&D game, without having to go through a reseller.

In the sakes of not causing the collectible buyers to throw a hissy fit, they can be sold without the stat cards, and can be firmly stamped on the base as not being part of a collectible set.

...sadly, I just don't think it's ever going to happen...

 

[Nap]

I feel the same way, but it hasn't been a big problem for me. I've gotten all my plastic minis from EBay sellers, and I now have over 500 miniatures for my campaign. It actually works out to be cheaper for me, because I'm more interested in the mundane, common sort of figures than the rare demonic sorcerers and dragonspawn fiends, etc.

WoTC knows that they will make a ton more money selling them randomly, for the same reason Paizo sells the Item Pack cards randomly, because people will buy a pack hoping for a "rare" new card or figure, and that gleeful joy of opening a package and not knowing what you'll get (which I'll admit is fun, but pricey).

 

[molonel]

I know, I know. And it probably works out to be cheaper for me in the short run, too. But it's still just kind of annoying.

 

[smootrk]

I wish the same. Certainly would be nice to pick up the Bag 'O Goblins, or a Sack of Orcs, or even like-color-scheme soldiers of various types.

Doubt I will get it, but maybe one day another company will do it. When WotC sees the successful sales of such, they may do the same. Currently they don't see profit in it, but if someone else does it (profitably) WotC will follow.

 

[T. Foster]

If I could get 1) non-random packaging and 2) minis that looked like the pictures in the AD&D1 books (both characters and especially monsters) I would probably buy a metric ton of them, against my better judgment. So in that regard I'm actually kind of glad they don't, because with the current setup (random packaging and figures that don't look like I'd want them to) I'm not tempted to buy them at all

 

[Storm Raven]

I suggest you check out Merrics law of minis

I know what you refer to, but it seems to me that Heroscape kind of puts the lie to the law. They are sold in packs where you know what you are getting. They seem reasonably priced, and don't appear to be significantly different in quality from the WotC miniatures. So why is it impossible for WotC to do something similar?

 

[BryonD]

You just picked two.

 

[Kunimatyu]

The big problem is that if WotC did that, packs with bears, wolves, orcs, etc. become the only things that will sell, because things like grell and whatnot don't have the mainstream appeal to exist as a standalone product(despite the fact that many DMs would use them if they had minis for them).

Now, some people run games with only orcs, goblins, wolves, bears, and the occasional demon, but I'm the type of DM who uses achaierai, grell, gibbering mouthers, and boneclaws. I like having the variety available, even if I don't feel the need to collect full sets.

Now, all this being said, I do think that Wizards should release a fairly pricey set of basic monsters to serve as a 'DM starter set', and reprint it every so often. But sending everything nonrandom reduces us to a small subset of the monsters available in the MM alone, and that's a sacrifice I'm not interested in making.