Future of D&D Miniatures

[Steel_Wind]

Well, the Beholder pack is going to be pretty rare - on par with the From the Vaults from Magic, so you might be disappointed if you're not on the ball this time around. We running that delicate balance of trying to get it into a lot of people's hands while making it a must have/slightly hard to find item.

Just for gathering info and random speculation - what would people feel about a slightly less rare pack once a year? Like an orc pack one year, an undead pack the next, etc. In my mind this would be alongside the yearly randomly packed release. A lot of us have a crap-ton of minis already, but would you be interested in some of these more mundane packs?

Yes. Absolutely. Utility monsters: Low level Undead, Orcs and Wolves (oh my!) are always welcome.

 

[MerricB]

Looking over a few things at the start of this thread, I thought I'd pop in and give my two coppers.

An Essential's line of miniatures that is evergreen and includes a lot of classic monsters wouldn't be really cost effective if we sold it all as one package (like the tile sets will be).

Note that there's nothing saying an Essential line has to be non-random.

I wonder how much the one/year set looks like an essential set in any case.

Cheers!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Well, the Beholder pack is going to be pretty rare - on par with the From the Vaults from Magic, so you might be disappointed if you're not on the ball this time around. We running that delicate balance of trying to get it into a lot of people's hands while making it a must have/slightly hard to find item.

Just for gathering info and random speculation - what would people feel about a slightly less rare pack once a year? Like an orc pack one year, an undead pack the next, etc. In my mind this would be alongside the yearly randomly packed release. A lot of us have a crap-ton of minis already, but would you be interested in some of these more mundane packs?

I probably wouldn't if it was things like Orcs and general Undead minis like Skeletons or Zombies. I have over 2,000 DDM's so I generally have 5+ different Orc sculpts and multiple Skeleton and Zombie sculpts. An Orc archer mini would be nice though. I don't think we've had one since one of the first couple of sets.

The Beholder set would have enticed me if I didn't already have all but one of each of the Beholders released so far (I'm just missing the most recent sculpt but it looks very similar to the Deathknell Beholder so I probably won't buy one).

However, unlike most other people that I have read posts from, I am actually using my Beholder minis. I am currently running the Shackled City AP where the BBEG is a Beholder. Even better, partway through the campaign he gains a template so I get a reason to bust out a different Beholder mini for him. I can't remember exactly but I think he comes back a third time once he is killed by the PC's, this time as an Undead version so I get to use the Undead Beholder mini!

Olaf the Stout

 

[Stormonu]

Hmm...perhaps instead of Gargantuan Orcus a more appealing set would have been Large versions (Aspects?) and new sculpts of Orcus, Lolth, Asmodeus, Demogorgon, Bane, Graz'zt and Tiamit in a single set (kind of like the Star Wars Legacy/Evolution figure sets).

 

[Dire Bare]

Well, the Beholder pack is going to be pretty rare - on par with the From the Vaults from Magic, so you might be disappointed if you're not on the ball this time around. We running that delicate balance of trying to get it into a lot of people's hands while making it a must have/slightly hard to find item.

I found out about the first "From the Vault" product roughly a week after it's release. My local stores were out of the few they were able to order and every online source I found was price inflated into over a hundred dollars. No idea if the subsequent "Vault" products were equally as limited, but I was able to get myself the more recent limited Sliver deck (and my FLGS still has one copy left).

So . . . first "From the Vault" (dragons?) equals bad. Limted ed Sliver deck equals okay. For me. IMO.

Just for gathering info and random speculation - what would people feel about a slightly less rare pack once a year? Like an orc pack one year, an undead pack the next, etc. In my mind this would be alongside the yearly randomly packed release. A lot of us have a crap-ton of minis already, but would you be interested in some of these more mundane packs?

I would love an themed pack like this. With the obvious caveat, "depending on how it's done". Just a pack of skeleton mooks or orc mooks? Nah, I'd probably pass. But an interesting themed "encounter" pack would be cool. Maybe a variety of visually different skeleton and/or zombie types, with a few "mid-tier" types, perhaps with one or two "boss" monsters. Maybe with the "boss" or solo monster being large or better yet huge.

And if you guys can figure out how to do regular releases of colossal characters . . . more dragons, giants, other big baddies . . . that would be cool! Even without straying too far into the weird and unsellable (Rainbow Dragons anyone?) you have PLENTY of concepts in the D&D IP library! I'd love to see an Ashardalon rather than a generic Colossal Red Dragon. Or a Dragotha rather than a Colossal Dracolich. A Dragotha mini might not look much different than yer standard Dracolich, but it'd please the longtime fans, give the mini a personality, and opens up the possibility of another Dracolich (or whatever) down the road. McFarlane manages it somehow . . . hopefully WotC/Hasbro can figure it out profitably! My vote for the first release (after Orcus) would be DEMODRAGON!!!!

Edit: I think I meant "gargantuan" instead of "colossal". Whichever size is the smaller of the two.

Oh, and BTW, thanks for sharing in the discussion with us Trevor!

 

[Dire Bare]

Hmm...perhaps instead of Gargantuan Orcus a more appealing set would have been Large versions (Aspects?) and new sculpts of Orcus, Lolth, Asmodeus, Demogorgon, Bane, Graz'zt and Tiamit in a single set (kind of like the Star Wars Legacy/Evolution figure sets).

I would love to get my hands on the Gargantuan Orcus, and also on Large versions of everyone you mention!

However, I would think that if WotC is going to try and release Gargantuan or themed sets of cool monsters (like beholders), they would have to appeal to as wide a base as possible. For the gargantuans, I'm thinking the only characters that would work would be various dragons, titans (giants), and obviously demonic demons (Orcus). For sets non-mook monsters, beholders work well. A "set" of demon prince or archdevil larges just might work too!!

 

[Connorsrpg]

Now that someone from Wizards is here, I will repeat my visions for the DDM line.

I am all for 'Skirmish Packs': Nothing like being able to buy a bunch of the types of minis you need. Recently gave the eg of several cycloses needed for a Wizards adv, but the minis were hard to get (bar that last visible cyclops). OK, so cyclopses may be too narrow for one set (but aren't beholders - which I have never used), so make it Fewild or a Fomorian/Cyclops set (could inc slaves, etc).

All sets of common humanoids, set of animals, etc. These I would certainly buy.

OR, to get those cyclopses it would have been nice to be able to buy the minis for the module.

I would love if Wizards put out mini sets that cater to the modules. I realise the scheduling would be hard and not every creature in module needs to be in the set(s). But some overlap would be good. Even have them for a series of adventures or AP, such as Scales of War sets.

Both the skirmish and 'adventure focused' sets can still have a random element to them (I don't mind - I love randomness). Simply create a lot of the minis, but box them up randomly, so maybe some boss types are rarer than the many minions of the adventures.

In the skirmish packs you can have all sorts of related minis too. Imagine, for an orc set, you did enough sculpts for a whole tribe - diff types of warriors, artillery, leader, spellcaster and then you could even include their pets/allies (wolves, mounted boar-rider, etc).

I would certainly collect more sets that had a purpose.

C

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I am currently running the Shackled City AP where the BBEG is a Beholder. Even better, partway through the campaign he gains a template so I get a reason to bust out a different Beholder mini for him. I can't remember exactly but I think he comes back a third time once he is killed by the PC's, this time as an Undead version so I get to use the Undead Beholder mini!

I'm pretty sure his final appearance has him as Huge, so it's time to bust out the Eye Tyrant!

 

[wedgeski]

Just for gathering info and random speculation - what would people feel about a slightly less rare pack once a year? Like an orc pack one year, an undead pack the next, etc. In my mind this would be alongside the yearly randomly packed release. A lot of us have a crap-ton of minis already, but would you be interested in some of these more mundane packs?

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Goblinoid, undead, human, demon, devil... I would snap them up immediately. I own about 500 DDM minis, if that statistic is of any use alongside my answer.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The Orcus mini is a no sale for me because Orcus is size Large in the edition I play. (I probably could have gone for Huge as that how it is in the Tome of Horrors, but Gargantuan? Forget it!)

That's an interesting perspective. One of the greatest powers in virtually any edition of the game has to conform to its printed stats exactly in terms of size or its a no-sale?

I can see bashing the paint job, the price, etc... but to me, and this is just to me, as I can tell your opinion is different, the actual scale of the model isn't necessarily the most important aspect. If it's a solid sculpt, I can find a use for it.