Pre-Painted Plastic Minis!!!

[MerricB]

I'm a fan of the prepainted and plastic aspects of the new minis, but I'm worried about the collectable aspect. If I'm trying to run a game using the new minis, I don't want to open pack after pack in desperate search of a few hill giants for my next adventure.

I realize that I can just make my own counters by writing " hill giant" on a piece of paper, but I am worried that the randomization of the figures will result in limited applications as a DM's tool.

Conversely, doing the miniatures randomly allows them to include figures that normally wouldn't see much play.

Let's say they want to do a flumph miniature. Only one person (Let's call him Scott) wants to use a flumph in an adventure. No miniature company would ever produce a set of flumph miniatures because only Scott would buy it.

However, if packaged randomly (and with most packs having two or three commonly needed figures), then producing a flumph miniature becomes viable.

(I don't think we'll see a flumph miniature, it's a way out example).

Orcs, goblins, kobolds will most likely be "common", and you'll have stacks of them. I don't know how common the bigger figures will be - not very, I think - but by the same token, you'll be unlikely to need many.

Remember, this is not only miniatures for D&D, but a mass-combat game. If you want to do the mass-combat, you'll want a fair number of miniatures, which is one of the big reasons I'd like them to be inexpensive plastic. (And quite frankly, as long as they're identifiable I don't care about the quality so much. PC miniatures could always be bought individually in metal, as they always have been).

Cheers!

 

[Frostmarrow]

Hi booboo

Perhaps you should try to edit the topic from "re" to something that describes your subject better? (Just press "edit" and change it.)

How, exactly, do you mean? Do mage knight models get deformed from use? Can the deformities be fixed with your method?

 

[Wayside]

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

Well as an aesthete I take offense at your willy-nilly use of the word art. So there!

Prepainted minis (and plastic so cheap) sound pretty great to me. I might actually use them instead of cinematic storytelling to cover combat scenes.

 

[Aitch Eye]

I'm guessing this was a reply to "Poll: Pre-Painted Plastic Minis!!!" and the wrong button was hit. (Happens to people all the time, booboo.)

 

[jgbrowning]

Re: Heretical?

Right. Time to be branded a heretic...

Miniatures are place holders, time savers and argument preventers. ("No, I distinctly said my character moved THERE, not there.")

I'm extremely utilitarian about these things. Dice and circular plastic tokens work in a pinch for me.

Now, if it were possible, I'd much RATHER have a beautifully painted figure for every character and monster...but that isn't really possible.

Me to. I use checker and chess pieces. I also use Majhong tiles cause each one is different.

But, i don't care how things look. To me the magic is inside.


joe b.

 

[Eben]

Okay, boys: plastic is not necessarily cheaper. Unless it's the kind that clogs up all the detail. The only great plastic mini's are the kind made by GW. Revell, Tamiya and the like come in a close second.
Look at Wizzkids: I have no problem with the concept, but the miniatures stink. Foundry, GW, Black tree, Reaper, Old Glory, ... tose are miniatures.
It's okay that you don't want to collect and paint miniatures, but there are other alternatives than ugly, overpriced, produced by third world labour monstrocities. Buy yourselves the counter collection if you can't get yourself to paint and you'll have a cheap and beautifull combat setup. This is what WotC should have done in stead of trying to emulate somebody elses gimmick.
(btw: by the end of the year there will be prepainted miniatures based on the Lord of the Rings movies, produced by Sabertooth, a subsidiary of GW.)

happy gaming

 

[sunbeam60]

I can safely say this: If these minis turn out to be of decent quality (ie. a step up from Toy Story soldiers), I'll be buying them by the bucket-load.

Incidently I do agree that painting minitures is an artform, and I do dabble in it myself from time to time, but I rarely have to stamina or time to paint 10 skeletons in a row. I usually paint a figure for the character I play and then other distractions acquire my time. Now, a DM will be able to send 10 skeletons towards the players and actually have them represented by 10 skeletons as opposed to 10 4 sided dice.

It all comes down to quality for me, though (as I am assuming it does to most). I would definitely prefer a somewhat higher price for a properly QA checked figure than a rush job.

regards
Toft

 

[Darius101]

I like the Crystal caste painted minis and Like the idea of plastic mini's.
One reason I don't care much about the quality of the mini's paint job is that they can be repainted of you do not like it and feel inclined to do so.

One thing I absolutly hate is the fact that they will probably be in opaque boxes and you will have no choice whatsoever as to what you will get. I would bet that they will be of Hero Click quality which will be fine for NPC's. I hope they also do some dead versions of monsters and traps ...that would be fun.
Randomness in my opinion ...in this instance is a bad thing.
I ain't collecting em, I am using them for a specific purpose.

Darius

p.s mmmmm mini's taste good with a little salt and maybe a bit of ketchup....----Crunch---.....ooops that was a french frie.

 

[Deadguy]

Re: Re: Heretical?

Me to. I use checker and chess pieces. I also use Majhong tiles cause each one is different.

But, i don't care how things look. To me the magic is inside.


joe b.

Yay! It's good to find I'm not alone. I don't like using miniatures - people pay too much attention to the figure, not enough attention to what's actually going on in the game, IMHO. Like you I use marked up chess and draughts pieces, cutout pieces of paper, dice, coins and various ornaments for markers.

Still, your way of putting it sounds so much more poetic Joe!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Nothing wrong with pre-painted plastic for those who just want to game (so long as us painter-types still have some pewters to paint ...)

Collectible, however, will be just plain wrong. How will a new player get the specific mini he/she wants for a PC, if they get sold in sealed random sets?

A player shouldn't have to count on a secondary market on ebay just to get a single mini for a D&D game.