Pre-Painted Plastic Minis!!!

[Bagpuss]

I'm in two minds about them, if they are like the early Mage Knight figures then they are a waste of money IMHO, if they are like the better recent Mage Knight figures and priced about the same then they could be worth the money.

I really enjoy painting my own minatures and they look 100 time better than any Mage Knight figure I've seen, but it does take time and I don't enjoy painting 30 orcs that all look similar. Painting the the PC's and key NPCs is fun, but I might use pre-painted plastic for Monsters and large groups of NPC's.

 

[Nathal]

Random packs? Oh no, I wouldn't like that! I would want to be able to buy a "pack o' orcs" or a "pack o' kolbolds", and things like that, but I would get very annoyed if I was looking for a displacer beast but had to buy three dozens packs of minis to find a single beast. I would walk away from that quickly because it would force me to plan my adventures around what random critters I bought and not what I wanted to use. I could mix minis with other objects, but I hate to do that...

 

[smetzger]

If they are of decent quality.

At a decent price.

Their 'face' matches their D&D stats.

Their scale mixes well with 25-28mm.

I'd rather be able to pick them.

Also, I'd like some advanced creatures.

 

[Siridar]

Call me crazy but I like the MageKnight figures. They're relatively cheap compared to metal if you take into account the time it takes to paint them and the cost of painting supplies (yes, that cost can be spread out over multiple metal pieces but I think you get the idea). Even though they aren't the best painted or sculpted, I can easily touch up their paint jobs without too much effort. But what I like best is that because I don't spend precious time on painting them like I do my other mini's, they can be tossed around the table without me having to worry about them being mangled. I don't need exact placeholders, just something reasonably close. Checker pieces or other tokens just aren't the same for me.

While the randomness of MageKnight is a little irksome, I don't mind. But it would be nice to be able to buy a pack of similar figures or specific ones done in the same vein as MageKnight.

And I happen to like painting miniatures. I've been doing it off and on over the last 13 or so years. I'd just rather not use them for gaming at my table.

 

[KnowTheToe]

These will be/could be a great accessory to those who use minis gaming. I love to paint minis and will still buy them, or at least try them. I don't always want to paint town guards, orcs, kobolds, etc.. I like to find a mini that interests me and paint it. These pre-painted minis will allow me the freedom to be more selective in what I am painting.

Because of the randomness, they will not meet all of my mini needs, but neither does Reaper, and I lover Reapers figs. I may still have to buy a Reaper Basalisk or a WoTC pewter displacer beast, but I bet the packs will provide a plether of low-midlevel goodness. I say bring-em on.

 

[Greybar]

Churchill said:
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.

Absolutely agree. I buy miniatures to aid in description. Simple fight scenes I might do entirely narratively, since just putting out the minatures can break the scene and cause a delay.

But when the whole party is involved and they need to know how far away that evil summoner is, then minatures need to come out. That summoner could be a minature, a poker chip, or a six sided dice, or a counter (plug - Firey Dragon Counter Collection).

I haven't painted a RPG minature in ... well maybe a decade. I'd pay a markup for pre-painted minatures, and plastic seems to be a good combo. I've bought Warhammer plastic sets since I can get a pile of baddies for cheaper than the same number in lead.

John

 

[ForceUser]

We just use dice to represent NPCs. Nine monsters? Use d10s numbered 1 thru 9. Need a boss monster? Make him a different color die from the rest and number him "1." Easy-peasy.

I don't see myself buying pre-painted plastic minis, but you never know. I will reserve judgement.

 

[Churchill]

Secondary Market...

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.

As long as there are companies producing pewter/lead figures, a player won't have to go to a secondary market to get an individual mini. Unless, of course, the perfect mini for their character is part of the random package. But you can still run into that problem in the current mini market, and without there being these (as-yet undeclared) random assortment packs...

WotC has their boxed sets of miniatures, and if you only want one figure from that, whataya gonna do? GW does the same thing to some extent.

As a suggestion for dealing with this hypothetical "problem" of random assortments of figures... If every member of a gaming group chipped in a few dollars/pounds/francs/marks, they could amass quite a collection of the things pretty quickly (and on the cheap - from an individual standpoint). Then you get the mythical individual figure you're looking for.

Still, this is all idle doom and gloom speculation wihtout any proof that that's the way it's going to be done. I'm ready to eat some crow on that (got the salt shaker ready) and admit I was wrong, because I wouldn't be at all surprised if that IS the way these things are packaged and marketed.

 

[Tyrant]

Maybe Im shooting myself in the foot, but I intend to sell them individually if they are the kind of things people will buy. Im betting people will learn to pay extra to get the minis they want over risking getting yet another flumph mini.

 

[dpdx]

We'll be able to have this speculative conversation for months, minimum, because of what I've learned, to my chagrin: If it's not the Player Handbook or Magic: the Gathering, WotC can't distribute a product to save its life...

If I see them, and can use them, I may get them.

But I'd be stupid to hold my breath for any Wizbro product to come out on time, or, God forbid, actually arrive at the game store within any reasonable time from release. And in my area, the WotC Store is one of the most poorly-stocked game stores, even for their own products.