New Miniatures... Info?

[JohnnyQuest]

Don't expect everyone to blindly follow WotC's lead.

Thanks for the advice. If I may offer some to you, if you're going to make assumptions about someone's motivation, attribute the best motive possible. I don't expect anyone, including myself, to blindly follow WotC's lead. I do think that WotC's new prices are in the ballpark compared to Reaper pre-paints, and I'm hoping for better quality. If I don't get it, I won't be buying.

I agree that the random boosters were cheaper. That makes sense to me.

 

[JohnnyQuest]

Well, each to their own, though I think 'amazing' is stretching it by anyone's imagination. For me, it's a very poor sculpt (the face is very poorly defined, for example) and the painting is just plain poor.

Sure, to each their own; I can agree to disagree on this point. I will say that the Goblin's picture prompted several people at the seminar and online to declare it the best looking common ever produced, so at least I'm not alone in my insanity -- or is that blindness? Sometimes I can't tell

 

[Keith Robinson]

Thanks for the advice. If I may offer some to you, if you're going to make assumptions about someone's motivation, attribute the best motive possible.

Sorry, Johhny, the 'blind' comment wasn't aimed at you - it was just a general term for people who have been stuffed by wotc. Since I quoted you, however, I can see why it would come across that way, but it wasn't my intention.

 

[JohnnyQuest]

No problem -- thanks very much for explaining

 

[Dire Bare]

Wow... the greed is evident. They are really trying to grab hold of the aftermarket pricing...

No, the greed is not evident. Unless you consider the simple desire of a company to turn a profit greed.

The original sales model for D&D Miniatures, completely random packaging, worked well for years . . . but its time had come. Not only were production costs rising, but interest in the skirmish game was dying and sales of the minatures was going down with each new set.

There are still fans of the skirmish game of course, and many fans (skirmishers, collecters, and RPG fans) were perfectly happy with the completely random model. The completely random model helped keep prices down and SKU counts down to make the product more attractive to retail.

But there was/is a vocal (and perhaps even significant) group of fans who absolutely hated the completely random packaging. While I personally bought into the miniatures early, I too have grown tired of the completely random and blind packaging . . . . I hated spending $15 and maybe getting a handfull of minis that I wanted.

So WotC decided that rather than continue with a model that was no longer working or simply canceling the product line, they would try and reinvigorate the line to appeal to today's market.

I'm excited for the new packaging, for my PC mini needs I can see and buy exactly what I want! For my monster needs, I'll get at least one large mini that I want (the visible one) for my $15. I'm happy with the increased paint quality (assuming that it does actually increase) and I'm not happy with the increased cost . . . but I understand why the cost had to go up.

It's not greed, it's reality.

 

[avin]

Goblin's gonna probably look better in hand but, geez, it has no face... I like it anyway.

The increased paintsteps, sorry, that doesn't look true so far, at least for commons and uncommons.

Masterwork Goliath as sample was misleading and unfair. Wotc should never use a masterwork as example of things to come.

I understand that prices would go up someday, the wrong part is to taunt us with something we will never see.

Full Plate Tank was right.

 

[Aristotle]

Paint quality and sculpt interest were sketchy when the minis line first started, but the portability and cost was enough to get me buying... then the quality rose (pretty sharply imho) and I was more than happy to pay increased prices for the quality... The past couple sets have felt, with a few exceptions, like a huge step back and this next round is more of the same as far as I've seen so far.

I don't expect them all to look as nice as the paint masters... but a resemblance would be cool.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I agree on the resemblance part.

I mean, even if the goliath didn't look as good as the 'master', why did they change the color combo? The new one looks bad.

 

[CharlesRyan]

Wow... the greed is evident.

It's not greed; it's Merric's law. Plain and simple.

Randomization reduces cost. Period. Remove randomization and cost goes up. Period.

 

[JoeGKushner]

It's not greed; it's Merric's law. Plain and simple.

Randomization reduces cost. Period. Remove randomization and cost goes up. Period.

So they need to make things more random! Hell, when you go in the store, the game owner should roll a d8 and that's how many figures you get. It's all suprises up in WoTC house!