Dear Hasbro: about those minis

[rgard]

That's a recent change. Shortly before Bloodwar was released, the MSRP was increased to 14.99, apparently retroactively for all sets.

Just to clear this all up about the price. Deathknell was $12.99 when it was released and available. When they changed the booster price to $14.99, my distributor upped their price to me for previous sets to the same as Bloodwar. I don't know if Wizards starts the retroactive repricing of sets or whether the distributor does it.

It's somewhat of a moot point as Deathknell was sold out long before Bloodwar was released.

 

[Echohawk]

I'm won't ask WotC to stop their randomized mini line. If they are raking in the dough - I say "Congrats! Make the money! Stay in business!" I don't wnat them to stop the old - only add in a new.

But what if introducing a new product line results in the death of the old, successful line? There has been a fair amount of evidence (or at least persuasive argument) presented in this thread that the introduction of non-random sets could or would threaten the current line.

If WotC's market research (which is probably more extensive than any information any of us have) indicates that this would indeed be the case, do you still expect them to do as you are asking?

 

[Templetroll]

We need a flumph mini. Well, I need a flumph mini.

 

[diaglo]

We need a flumph mini. Well, I need a flumph mini.

and a gnome female in full plate

 

[rgard]

and a gnome female in full plate

I think they already did that one.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

There has been a fair amount of evidence (or at least persuasive argument) presented in this thread that the introduction of non-random sets could or would threaten the current line.

I read through the entire thread and I didn't see much. Most of what I saw seemed to be that we were asking the boxed sets to REPLACE the random line. That isn't what we are asking (or at least what I am asking - a few people did come across that way and I'm not sure if they intended to or not). WotC is making waaaay too much money from that to just up and quit making them. I also understand the issue of boxes taking up shelf space and the risk of them not selling however I'm not asking for 50 different poses for Spawn of Tiamat or that ever elusive Celestial Flumph. I want orcs.

The target - and I believe the major audience - for the Boxed Sets would be those who aren't buying the regular minis. I'm not buying the regular minis. If you already have way too many orcs you won't be buying the new mini releases anyway so those won't be lost sales. They may lose a handful of purchasers that were buying the randomised minis for the hopes of getting the commons but then I also think (with no real evidence to back this up) that portion of the market is fairly small.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

I think they already did that one.

But what about the Fiendish Dire Flumph in Spiked Full Plate I need for next week's session?

 

[diaglo]

I think they already did that one.

the gnome fighter is a male

 

[Echohawk]

The target - and I believe the major audience - for the Boxed Sets would be those who aren't buying the regular minis. I'm not buying the regular minis. If you already have way too many orcs you won't be buying the new mini releases anyway so those won't be lost sales. They may lose a handful of purchasers that were buying the randomised minis for the hopes of getting the commons but then I also think (with no real evidence to back this up) that portion of the market is fairly small.

Fair enough, that's a reasonable line of thought. The fact is that none of us have access to WotC's market research, so we're all making educated guesses here.

I think the WotC DDM team does keep a very close eye on the market though, and if there is a way they can profitably introduce some non-random sets without damaging the existing line, they probably will. After all, why wouldn't they?

If they don't ever introduce non-random sets, then the chances are that their research indicates that there just isn't an effective way to do so, no matter how much some customers would like to see that happen.

 

[Echohawk]

the gnome fighter is a male

No, check again. The gnome fighter is female .