Need your thoughts on prepainted miniatures.

[Ed Cha]

I don't know if it's just me, but I prefer the weight and feel of metal. I also think it paints better though I can't be sure of that. The problem is metal is heavier, pieces like swords and staves always break, more difficult to store (you can just dump the plastic ones in a bag, if you want) and more costly.

If I were to start collecting again though, I would go for metal. I hope metal doesn't go away. I just don't like plastic. But I'm sure I'm in the minority.

 

[Glyfair]

Glyfair might mean these EM-4 pre-painted minis.

The quality varies from set to set. The undead, for example, didn't impress me favorably.

But both sets of Dunwich Detectives are quite well done. And I even had some extra d20s to hand out to my players. No SAN was had by all!

I don't think so. I'll look and see if my local gaming store still has them. They were definitely tied into d20. It had the logo and stats for the figures. I distinctly remember a dwarf set and an orc set.

 

[Mark]

I don't think so. I'll look and see if my local gaming store still has them. They were definitely tied into d20. It had the logo and stats for the figures. I distinctly remember a dwarf set and an orc set.

They may have been discontinued but here is a picture of them on this site (scroll down a bit to "New Pre-Painted Orcs and Dwarfs from EM4"). -

http://www.gf9.com/news/?Action=Category&GetCat=Gamers

I have a set of the Orcs, myself.

 

[Li Shenron]

I was thinking of just two paint jobs per miniature. So if you purchase a set of 10 orcs, you'll get 5 in one color scheme and 5 in another. I could see reasons for both. 2 paint jobs for one figure seems like a comfortable middle ground.

That would sound fine. Well, to me they would be perfect if all in a box would have a different sculpt, but obviously you can't make everyone 100% happy

I definitely support your decision not to make singles. Well, perhaps singles of the huge ones, but not the small-medium-large ones. How many figures in a box would be best depends of course on the subjects, but if I had to toss in a vote, I'd say that 6 small/medium or 3 large would be a cool number (or some combinations with a large taking up the space for 2 medium, however having more combination isn't good for you because it increases the design complexity of packaging). You could also for example make 6-packs with the same sculpt with in 2 different color sets, so that gamers buy multiple smaller packs.

Big sets (10+) are fine if there is enough variability, so that for example in the orcs group there are 6 melee (the most common) with different weapons + 2 ranged + 2 casters. For less common monsters it may be inconvenient to have even doubles... think of a group of oozes, which would be cool minis but 10 would be far too many.

 

[Gez]

Actually, I prefer them to be of the same color. If you have 10 guys with halberds all in a blue & white color scheme, they can also double as your town militia or city guardsmen. If you have different colors, it makes it tougher.

Blazons.

Your ten halberdsmen could have the same blue & white color scheme, but each would have a different coat of arms on his chest. Then, ten swordsmen with shields would have also different coat of arms, each blazon being displayed on his chest and shield.

Knights each had their own coat of arms, and those in their service (squires, etc.) could bear them too.

That way, you have a simple (blazons could be applied on the miniatures through stamps) and pseudo-historic way of differentiating with the miniatures, without breaking uniformity.

The only simpler way I see is by marking each base with a number. Would you prefer to have "Pikeman #7" or "Pikeman Silver Falcon"?