Pre-painted/non-random...Will they affect players?

[Imaro]

Just throwing a thought out there and wondering what people think. Ok here I go.

I was wondering if players woud be more likely to buy miniatures that were non-random and painted. I was thinking about this for a few reasons.

1.) A player will probably want a mini that is as close as possible to the character he has created.

2.) I wonder if players might even buy a few mini's to represent their character "over time"(even at $2.50 to $3.50 for a single, this isn't that much over a ten or even twenty level campaign). We'll say 3 different figures(low, med, & high level) so a $10-$11 investment over the life of a campaign.

3.) They won't be getting a bunch of mini's they can't use like monsters or other stuff.

4.)They can actually select what mini they want.

5.) DM/GM's seem like a finite resource, once they get enough of certain mini's they won't buy those mini's. Players on the other hand always want more options and will probably(if the price is low enough) customize their character with new mini's.

So what do you guys think, it's kind of like WotC's marketing model only applied to minis instead of books. It makes me consider that maybe Reaper & Rackham should concentrate on player character mini's first, or at least give a nice selection early on.

Am I looking at this in a flawed way? Let me know your thoughts.

 

[Kaladhan]

I don't understand why Reaper is starting with skeletons and orks. That said, I think monsters are better, because you don't need 20 types of ogres, only one. Character mini needs a lot of variety. This means they may need a lot of figures to sell a few of all of them.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

I think metal minis will dominate for PCs and pre-painted plastic will dominate for DMs.

 

[Pbartender]

I don't understand why Reaper is starting with skeletons and orks.

Because "undead" and "goblinoids" are two categories of monsters that most often require large numbers of mooks on the battlemat.

The primary market for pre-painted plastic minis is for DMs who want the minis to represent the encounters with, but don't have the time/talent to paint large numbers of metals, and don't want to bother with the extra care that storing large numbers of painted metals involves.

 

[KB9JMQ]

I don't understand why Reaper is starting with skeletons and orks.

I am not sure either. It seems to me DMs who already buys the DDMs and such probably already has enough orcs and skeletons. They must be targeting the DMs who have not taken the plastic mini plunge and want to start with non-random ones.

Personally I would rather Reaper sell packs of multiple creatures that you run into a group of but are very hard to get. Stirges, mummies, carrion crawlers come to mind. You don't encounter one stirge so sell me a bunch at one time.

Also for those who do not buy by the case the hard to get rares are very marketable. Beholders on ebay go for insane prices. I would love to have more than one of several of my rares but it isn't going to happen soon.

 

[Agamon]

I don't understand why Reaper is starting with skeletons and orks. That said, I think monsters are better, because you don't need 20 types of ogres, only one. Character mini needs a lot of variety. This means they may need a lot of figures to sell a few of all of them.

If the whin...compla...discussion on this board is representative, orcs and skeletons and such are in demand. Not by players, of course, but I agree that metal is usually the way to go for PCs.

 

[Mark CMG]

I suppose players might be interested in a single pre-painted PC mini once in a while, if their character lives long enough.

 

[Meloncov]

The market for PC minis in gereral is large, but the market for mid-level elf wizards with a pointed hat, a staff, and long hair is too small to be worth making a pre-painted miniature for.

 

[Kaladhan]

A lot of companies offer to sell DnD minis individually. For orks and skeletons, you can get a bunch of them in the 1$-2$ range each. Reaper's mini need to be reallly good looking to appeal to me.

Back on topic, will a lot of these non-random minis appeal to players? Probably. But the real question is if it's enough to justify mass producing them. And that answer, Reaper will soon find out.