Disappointed with Minis

[Selvarin]

Quite frankly the WotC minis are poorly painted. But hey, they're mass produced! There's no way to make 'em look awesome in an affordable manner. But.....next to dice or pieces of paper, they look beautiful! Ha ha ha. Anyways, what I'm saying is this....they do a pretty decent job of being battle representatives on the map. It is a shame that we can't just go out and buy what we want. It would be so nice to go to a local hobby store or something and just buy 12 orcs.

Well, a previous poster brought up a good point saying that collectors would present a problem. They would make your trip to pick up 12 orcs miserable by going to the store and picking them up first before you. I'm not a business major or anything, but I thought it would be nice if they were sold in stores like toys (you buy what you see) and if the store didn't have it, you could mail order specifics through the retailer or something.

Pre-painted mini's are a great idea for freeing time up for people building armies. Some of this, however, is a bit much.

For what it's worth, FRP Games is allowing for pre-ordering of specific mini's as well as selling the leftover mini's. The cost for pre-ordering rare minis are a bit up there, naturally---$21.99(?) for Drizzt and $17.95 for an Aspect of Lolth. Common figs (what's left anyways) kobolds and goblins usually sell for 75 cents to 99 cents. Uncommons go from $1.50 to $2.50, IIRC. With that being said--and despite the fact I just pre-ordered two D&D mini's for the first time (Lolth and a Champion of Eilistraee)--it is a bit irritating. Ultimately this will create a lot of frustration for a lot of folks. Oh well, maybe try colored rocks that can be found at craft shops instead.

 

[Spatula]

What you're missing is that figures will be redone in further sets. Thus, we have a skeleton in Harbinger and a warrior skeleton (essentially the same miniatures) in Archfiends.

Skeletons miniatures are all over the place, though (and they're easy to paint, too). Like I said, my concern was more for D&D minis that are hard to find from alternative sources. Undead, orcs, human warriors / mages don't fall into that category.

 

[Mystery Man]

10 bucks every couple of weeks doesnt kill me. But then I'm not a gotta have every single mini they produce kinda guy. It helps if your fellow gamers collect them and bring them for game night too.

 

[Cerubus Dark]

"Miniatures to represent each character and the monsters that challenge them."

Really do they define what a miniture is?

I tired playing with miniture poodles once but they just make a mess everywhere and don't know the movement rules too well.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Thanks for the info.Where do you find deals like that? Or can you only get the price down that low when buying cases?

I bough a case from a website :
http://www.popularcollections.com/dungeons---dragons-dungeons---dragons-miniatures.html

and it was $129 for 16 booster packs (including shipping... $119.95 +about $10 for s&h). That works out to $8.06 per case. Got some good ones too, like the large red dragon, which as a single sells for between $18-$25.

They sell single booster packs for $7.49 + $5.95 shipping which makes it really not worth it to buy single packs online, but I think it's just more fun to buy by the case anyway. They also sell a lot of singles, but again, unless you really want something, the shipping gets expensive. I think this is true of a lot of websites.

I think, as the minis have been out for longer, more FLGS's will be selling/trading singles as well.

I can't wait for the next series, as it seems to have a lot of good female minis.

~Sheri

 

[Plane Sailing]

If they weren't sold in randomised packs there is a fair chance I'd buy some. As it is there is absolutely no chance.

As it happens, one of the players in my group is a brilliant painter and he has gradually put together an excellent collection of beautifully painted miniatures which he brings to each game, and they do fine for us now (although any "large" creature tends to stand in for any other "large" creature!)

Cheers

 

[El Ravager]

Here are my thoughts on the matter. My apologies if this closely mirrors what has already been said.

I really don't understand the flak that WotC gets over the randomized minis. Admittedly, I have been out of the CCG and never played any of the wiz kid’s games, but my impression is that players of those games don't complain too much about the randomized collectable nature. It’s part of the game. WotC saw the success that wiz kids was having with their minis game and apparently determined there was room on the market for them to try their hand at a similar game.

See, in my mind, the minis are for the minis game first and for DnD as a convenient cross purpose. If WotC had made a collectable minis game and not used DnD they would have been heavily criticized. But they did use DnD for a basis of their minis game and they are still being slammed because it isn't tailored for the average RPG player. Well of course they are not. They are not a roleplaying game supplement. They are their own game. And taken as their own game, the randomized nature is not any different from any of the other collectable games.

Now, should WotC simply made a plastic prepainted minis line for DnD RPGs is another question. But they didn't so don't hold these to that standard.

Apples to Oranges.

 

[Creamsteak]

Thanks for the info.Where do you find deals like that? Or can you only get the price down that low when buying cases?

Yep.

 

[Gallo22]

Well, I for one don't blame WotC for being a "business man". I may not like it, but that's the way it is.

With that being said. I just don't buy them from retailers due to the randomness of the miniatures. I mostly only want the monsters as my group likes to buy there own character minature. There are only certain ones I want, so I buy them singlely for less than a dollar each from on-line retailers or ebay. My first order was for $13.00 and I got 26-28 minatures (I can't remember the exact number). This included shipping!

On occasion, i'll order one on the rares and pay the big $$. I know as a single miniature that's kind of pricy, but it sure beats buying 5 blister packs for $50 and not getting what you want!

I guess all I'm saying is...if you don't like how WotC are selling them, find a way around it. For me this works and I'm content with the price.

Gallo22

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

Here are my thoughts on the matter. My apologies if this closely mirrors what has already been said.

I really don't understand the flak that WotC gets over the randomized minis. Admittedly, I have been out of the CCG and never played any of the wiz kid’s games, but my impression is that players of those games don't complain too much about the randomized collectable nature. It’s part of the game. WotC saw the success that wiz kids was having with their minis game and apparently determined there was room on the market for them to try their hand at a similar game.

See, in my mind, the minis are for the minis game first and for DnD as a convenient cross purpose. If WotC had made a collectable minis game and not used DnD they would have been heavily criticized. But they did use DnD for a basis of their minis game and they are still being slammed because it isn't tailored for the average RPG player. Well of course they are not. They are not a roleplaying game supplement. They are their own game. And taken as their own game, the randomized nature is not any different from any of the other collectable games.

Now, should WotC simply made a plastic prepainted minis line for DnD RPGs is another question. But they didn't so don't hold these to that standard.

Apples to Oranges.

Good point. And good screen name

As for them making some that are just for the D&D games, do you mean ones they would sell seperately for this or ones they would still sell in random packs? Or in packs of all one kind?

I think certain creatures just would not be marketable enough to sell as singles, which is why I like the randomness, but would not be opposed to say, a pack with 10 or 20 orcs in it, since common monsters are used frequently and I think a pack of nothing but orcs would sell.

Maybe later on down the line...