New D&D Mini Fails and then...

[JoeGKushner]

Your take on what will happen if the new plan for the D&D miniature line fails.

I suspect one of two things.

1. Nothing. WoTC/TSR went for years at a stretch without any official minis.

2. Reaper gets a license.

I'd prefer #2 over #1.

And I'm not saying that the line will fail.

I'm not saying I want it to fail.

Consider this a "What If" or "Alternative Future History".

 

[Nahat Anoj]

Your take on what will happen if the new plan for the D&D miniature line fails.

I suspect one of two things.

1. Nothing. WoTC/TSR went for years at a stretch without any official minis.

2. Reaper gets a license.

I'd prefer #2 over #1.

I would to (some minis is better than no minis!), but there are still no guarantees, particularly after Reaper's on line of prepaints failed.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I would to (some minis is better than no minis!), but there are still no guarantees, particularly after Reaper's on line of prepaints failed.

First, do you have a link to the 'failed' part of the prepaints? I thought it was some type of production problem and that they had sold out of the initial batch and had actually done 'better' when the next batch came out?

Second... you know, I didn't even think of Reaper doing them via plastic or prepainted, but rather, like the 'olden' days of Ral Partha. Hell, one of my favorite figures is still the Magister from the Forgotten Realms Heroes boxed set. Awesome detail on that cape man!

 

[Monkey Boy]

I'd see Chainmail as metal D&D mini's last hurrah. WOTC tried and failed with metal minis. I predict future D&D mini lines will be plastic and pre-painted from here on in.

If the current strategy failed then I can see there being no mini's rather than a license. I don't think WOTC are licensing anything from the tabletop perspective at the moment are they?

 

[BradfordFerguson]

Let's define failure...

Failure to me would be if there were 6 different boosters to buy and 3 of them became very popular with the community and the other 3 were ignored. This could "fail" because retailers stuck with the unpopular 3 would be pissed by this stock that does not (turn over). BUT, not every gamer is as passionate as we are to come on the Internet and figure stuff out.

I think the Internet savvy gamer is probably less than 5% of the gaming population (even the hardcore!). So eventually, the less popular mini packs will sell at retailers (and they won't restock them, or will be slower to restock), meanwhile they will restock the faster selling SKUs. This doesn't seem to be failure.


Maybe the new sets will just be too pricey for what they offer... It's hard to say without knowing what their sales numbers are like for the previously completely random sets. They could go a TON of directions. They could do a PHB2 set non-random, they could do a 2009 set, they could go back to completely random and just not have crappy minis (crappy sculpts or completely off scales, which I think they are aware of). Themed, martial, arcane, etc.

WotC really isn't a big financial part of Hasbro, so they can still afford to experiment with the DDM line. Supposedly Edison failed 10,000 times to create a working lightbulb, if he didn't experiment--like WotC is with a new format--then he wouldn't have experienced success.

I agree that it is frustrating to watch, to wait for, especially with a hobby that we deeply care about its success. I am glad for DDM and have discovered the joy of buying complete uncommon sets (some common sets too), and rares on eBay. Oh baby.

 

[JoeGKushner]

But what do you think WoTC would do if they felt they weren't making enough money?

Try again?

No miniatures?

Back to metal?

Board games?

Bigger sets that were themed?

Preorders without charging until a magic number was hit?

License out the IP for minis?

Do 'classic' D&D minis since they still have the molds?

 

[WhatGravitas]

If the line fails, I think they won't license it out, as WotC recently really pushed to keep all IP material in-house - and tried to increase the branding of D&D products (more names of owned IP instead of mythology names, strong art direction for a "4E look" and so on).

They are not going to let anybody else meddle with that.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Let's define failure....

You forgot Hasbro wants a profit of X but the minitures only make a profit of Y where X>Y.

 

[AllisterH]

You forgot Hasbro wants a profit of X but the minitures only make a profit of Y where X>Y.

Er, that's not exactly true.

Hasbro is NOT breathing/overlooking WOTC's shoulders. Contray to popular belief I've seen expressed on these boards, Hasbro is pretty well known for taking a hands off approach to its subordinates (in a way they have to. Hasbro has so many more subrodinate companies compared to say #1 Mattel).

Basically, Hasbro sets a goal and doesn't really care how it is accomplished by said subordinate (and this comes from a former shareholder who has had the opportunity to actually go to a shareholder's meeting back pre WOTC acquiral)

 

[Drkfathr1]

Ideally I would hope they revise their plan further and stop with randomization of any kind.

Yes, I know that means prices would go up.

Ultimately though, I could see them cancelling the line altogether and maybe going to paper counters.

It would just mean more business for the metal miniature market, which could finally become cheaper again with some going back to using lead. Yay Reaper!