DnD miniatures line

[Pbartender]

Sure, as a mage knight (rip-ff) game, I guess random makes sense. But as for me using them? I'll just find it frusterating not to be able to get a miniature I want.

The way I look at it is this...

Sure, the random packs kind of stink, but hey... For a pre-painted mini at $1.25, at doesn't matter what mini I get. That's a pretty good price for any mini, even a plastic one. And if there is a particular mini that I must have for a Big Bad Guy (I must have an illithid for Speaker in Dreams!), then I'll just spend the extra money to buy the metal fig and paint it myself (assuming I'm not lucky enough to find one in a pack).

I'll buy at least one pack, and if the quality is good, I might buy more.

 

[trancejeremy]

Hopefully we'll be looking at a solid, inexpensive secondary market. If people are out there getting more random otyughs than they can possibly use, they're going to want to recoup their expenses.

Without any doubt in my mind, I predict there will be one - Ebay.

There's also a marketplace board here.

 

[Felon]

Well, my concern with eBay is that it will not be an inexpensive secondary market. I kind of want to pick and choose, not pay a $3 to get one fig from this guy and another $5 to get another fig from another guy. Heck, there's been serious gougin for some of the WizKids figs. Of course, most of the negotiation goes on through private email, but I'd prefer to do business through an online store that sells used minis.

 

[Painfully]

I don't know anybody that WANTS randomized figs. It's pure marketing. WotC intends to take full advantage of the drive that some people have to "collect" every item of a series.

Have you seen how many things these days say, "limited edition," or, "collector's item?" It's all marketing hype. A true collector's item rarely proclaims itself on the packaging. More often you'll find that limited editions are often produced up to the number that they think can be reasonably sold anyway.

I don't fault WotC for wanting to make money, but I do fault them for treating their fans in a way that makes them have to suffer through this kind of unwanted marketing (ie., randomized packaging). I want to support WotC and the RPG hobby as a whole whenever I can, but I do not want to support this kind of packaging scheme.

Nobody I know likes the randomized packaging, but, like others, I am willing to buy a single box before I decide to throw any more money at it. Let's face it though, buying randomized figs = throwing away money.

Personally, I don't think WotC deserves to have this product succeed. Wizkids struck gold when they made their MageKnight products, and WotC just wants to steal a piece of their pie.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I think WoTC deserves the peice of the pie, simply because Mage Knight did not make figs to match enough D&D descriptions. Reaper is king pin in the mini market because they make figs similar to D&D images, if Mage Knight though to cross market I think they could have been even more successful. Since they did not chase that market, why can't WoTC.

 

[gariig]

Another reason for randomization is retail space. If you have specific boxes of orcs, goblins, etc. you have to keep boxes for each of those groups stocked. However, everyone wants the goblins because they are just cooler so the orcs sit there on retails shelfs taking up space. That is a bad thing for those keeping score, and store owners don't want to take up retail area.

However, I have everything in randomized packages. Every retailed who wants to play game 'X' just picks up a package. Now I know all of packages for game 'X' will be sold, not just a certain part of the line. So, basically I'm using retail shelf space more effectively because product will not just sit there and not be wanted by the consumers.

I hope a secondary market shows up around me. I would pay $2 for a specific mini. Also, I could see getting orcs cheaper then the packages, possible $1 a pop.

Gariig

 

[mmu1]

I'm not going to buy the minis - unless one of the stores that carries them starts re-selling them individually, and the price is right.

I already have tons of miniatures I can use to represent "mooks", (legacy of Warhammer and buying LotR miniatures on principle) as well as smaller quantites of things like liazrdmen, yuan-ti, gargoyles, ogres and giants, trolls, golems, a very nice dragon, and a lot of miniatures for human or humanoid PCs and NPCs for all the classes with a veried range of equipment, which is what I care about most - minis to accurately represent the party and main NPCs.

I have no desire to spend more money, even if it's only 1.25 per figure to buy what'll end up being not used or used as random filler... Especially since their paint jobs don't really do anything for me.

 

[Aeris Winterood]

Minis

One question..... Are they going to include player-character minis in a box or with a set?

I have 100's of PC minis... I want creatures... and I do not really like the "random" element, but it does mean that they will sell more and "odd" figs of lines will not collect dust on the shelf.

 

[Psiblade]

I will reserve judgement until I see the minis. I am not happy about the randomizing of the minis thou.


-Psiblade

 

[bolen]

I just thought of a game (or contest) for a local club. you could buy a random box and then force all the players to write a module using only the characters from the box. Could be fun