Pre-Painted Plastic Minis!!!

[Pylar]

More mixed feelings

I am another one with mixed feelings on the subject. It would be great to have prepainted minis if there were a decent quality. Especially for the DM that doesn't have the time/talent to take up painting. As a mini painter (THe one that most of the players in my group go to, to get their character minis painted) I enjoy it, and view it as art work..even if it is functional. But to be honest I think I get more enjoyment out of the painting it's self then what is done with the figures afterward. In my experience most of the prepainted miniatures I've seen have been about as good as the Mage Knight stuff. The ONLY exception I've found is from the folks at Dwarven Forge. The same people that do Master Maze (prepainted dungeons), also do painted figures. I've seen the lizard men they put out. But they are not cheap...I think you get 8 figures for about 40 bucks.

 

[DDK]

I'm also of the mind that mini's are sacred works of art and shouldn't be reduced to just blobs of color and plastic, but this way we'll be getting the best of both worlds. Other companies have made and will continue to make high-quality metal minis for painting, and WotC will be doing inexpensive (I hope not "cheap", since that implies bad quality) figures for the masses without the time/money/desire for metal minis to still have a respectable show of force at the table.

I also don't think this will have a negative impact on the metal mini market either. In fact, I think it will provide new customers as people, after a time, upgrade from the plastic to the metal and get 'proper' minis.

If WotC puts these out at a level of quality that is decent whilst maintaining a reasonable price, they will be on to a winner. I think this is also WotC's way of turning an aspect of D&D into a profitable vehicle to not only support it as a roleplaying business but to boost sales of their other products.

It's the 'collectible' thing that tipped me off. They're using the CCG methodology. I can see this bringing in a lot of new players and boosting sales of RPG products significantly, IF DONE CORRECTLY.

Good on 'em, I say. And to all those who oppose this, I'd ask why because I can't see a reason that this would reduce sales of metal mini's.

 

[Dark Psion]

I am wondering, am I the only person with a fleet of Star Trek Micro Machines on his desk?

If these minis are of the same quality and price range, I would buy some, especially my favorite monsters. I just wish they still made the Micro-starships, especially some in the clear plastic the stands were made of. (Cloaked!!)

I have always "liked" the idea of miniatures, but for the cost of the minis, plus the glue, plus the paints, plus the time spent using all of them, I can buy another book that I know I will use.

 

[Ranger REG]

I consider prepainted miniatures to be heresy, only one step away from action figures or toys. Miniature painting is an art form, dammit!

Unfortunately, we roleplayers do not have that much patience to paint our minis than we have in creating our characters for the campaign.

Besides, it beats using Little Green Army Men™ for Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[Foundry of Decay]

Oh, and for folks hoping that they will indeed be the hard platic type of miniatures:

Hard plastic models, If I'm correct, are die-cast. The process to make the moulds for such models is in the 'insane' region (Costing tens of thousands I believe), and is also pretty slow.

This is why I worry when I hear about the line. because Vinyl models are simply the type 'squirted' into moulds. Cheap, rubbery, and the perfect solution needed to mass produce. Just remember that if something is warped on the model in the process, you *cannot* fix it by straightening. Once it's set, that bent sword is bent for life unless you cut it off.

What also makes me suspect is that Hasbro are the same folks that put out that 'Star Wars: Battlegrounds' didn't they? (I could be mistaken). The models in that game are among the worst looking things on this planet. Even old bright green army men had more detail in them than these things. Not only was the paint glossy, and blobbed on by a machine, but the detail was absolutely minimal.

I'd personally LOVE it if they did do hard plastics, and would get a few, even though getting the paint off is a torrent of pain, but you could fill out a bunch of 'goons' easily with them.

 

[Green Knight]

I am wondering, am I the only person with a fleet of Star Trek Micro Machines on his desk?

I REALLY wish I had bought those while they were out! I wanted to get them at the time but always found myself short on cash, and now they're no longer being sold.

Anyway, I've adopted a "Wait and See" attitude on this. If this is just a retread of MageKnight and HeroClix (HeroClix is TOLERABLE for me, but not the kind of quality I'd spend money on for my D&D game) then I won't buy it.

However, WoTC IS owned by Hasbro. About time they put that to good use. Namely in producing miniatures which are akin to toys, sans the articulation. Personally I think they could sell high-quality boosters with over half a dozen miniatures for less than $10.

For instance, take the current Transformers: Armada toy line (Ignore the suck-ass show during the course of this example). You can buy a pack of 3 Mini-Cons for $7.99. Mini-Cons are about the size of your average miniature, but unlike them they have articulation, the parts for which increase the production cost of the toy. With no actual metal bits or anything of the sort, the price would be a lot cheaper, therefore you can get more than 3 figures for $7.99.

Or take G.I. Joes. I don't know about recent ones, but I DO know that the ones I had in the 80's were gorgeous. Imagine having an army of those guys, using them for a war game, just that they have zero articulation? That's what I'm hoping for. In essence toys, made of the durable plastic, with great details and paint jobs, and only lacking in articulation (I.E. You won't be able to take that orcs legs, wrap it around its head, and have it kiss its own ass. You'll have to use Cobra Commander if you want to do that sort of thing).

As for the randomness part, I'm hoping it won't be COMPLETELY random. Hopefully, you'll be able to buy "Orc Boosters", "Hobgoblin Boosters", Lycanthrope Boosters", etc. The randomness will be what they're armed with. For instance, orcs with greataxes are common, but the orc with the double-axe will be a rare. So they still maintain the collectibility aspect, while making it easy for DM's to get the monsters they need for their games (And at the end of the day, does it REALLY matter what Orc Warrior #5 is armed with? Chances are, the only reason you'll have an orc with a double-axe is because he's an important NPC, rather than just a random mook).

Of course, WoTC may yet go the cheap route and produce a cheap MageKnight knock-off. And they may go completely random, and DM's looking to get 5 or 6 werewolves for their next game may have to sort through endless numbers of boosters, getting an endless amount of orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, and kobolds, before at last finding one stinking werewolf ... and then buy a half dozen more boosters before finding a second werewolf. And a third... And a fourth... etc...

So "wait" and "see" are my watchwords when it comes to this. Hopefully I'm right (And hopefully WoTC will release a pewter subline for PC's, or at least license someone else, like Reaper, to make one), but I'll never go so far as to underestimate WoTC's cheapness. So as much as I'm hoping for nice looking minis, I'm equally expecting minis equal to the worst that MageKnight has to offer. And if they do suck, well, doesn't mean I can't use the rules if they're any good. In which case I'll buy the rules and use some other miniatures for my battles. There's no law that says I have to use Official WoTC Sanctioned Miniatures in whatever home games I play.

 

[Ranger REG]

What also makes me suspect is that Hasbro are the same folks that put out that 'Star Wars: Battlegrounds' didn't they? (I could be mistaken). The models in that game are among the worst looking things on this planet. Even old bright green army men had more detail in them than these things. Not only was the paint glossy, and blobbed on by a machine, but the detail was absolutely minimal.

I'd personally LOVE it if they did do hard plastics, and would get a few, even though getting the paint off is a torrent of pain, but you could fill out a bunch of 'goons' easily with them.

Hasbro also produced Star Wars: Epic Duel board games (some gamer commented on using the plastic figures from that game for their RPG session) and Star Wars MicroMachine toy series. Star Wars author JD Wiker even provide rules for playing with the "Geonosis Battle Arena" MicroMachine set.

 

[booboo]

re

I and my brother have straitened many a mage knight and mech warrior figure. All you need is a hair dryer and some cold water just heat up the mini real good bend and place in cold water. Warning do not use open flames they catch on fire easy.

 

[booboo]

I and my brother have straitened many a mage knight and mech warrior figure. All you need is a hair dryer and some cold water just heat up the mini real good bend and place in cold water. Warning do not use open flames they catch on fire easy.

 

[Shadowdancer]

As someone who has neither the patience nor the skill to paint his own, I say it's a great idea. But I want to see what they look like before I buy them.

I've bought some of the metal pre-painted minis from Crystal Caste, and I like those.