Price/Packaging Info for PFB: Rise of the Runelords Miniatures

[Steel_Wind]

Paizo / Wizkids Announce Price & Packaging for PFB: Rise of the Runelords Minis

On today's Paizo Blog, Paizo Publisher Erik Mona announced the full set information on the next set of miniatures in Wizkids licensed miniature line for Pathfinder Battles.

Due in August, 2012, Pathfinder Battles: Rise of the Runelords will feature 65 figures in the complete set, broken down as follows:

60 Small/Medium/Large miniatures in the main set
4 Huge Miniatures; and
1 Gargantuan Bonus Miniature (Rune Giant)

There are at least 4 small miniatures in the set, two of which have been announced as goblins (the other two announced goblins are mounted figures and are therefore "medium" in size). To the best of my knowledge, there are two small goblins and two others yet to be announced in the set.

The packaging for PFB:Rise of the Runelords will differ from the singles which were the way in which PFB: Heroes & Monsters was sold. Rise of the Runelords standard blind boosters will contain 1 large and 3 medium or small figures each. The boosters will be bundled 8 cartons to a brick, with four bricks in each case. A case of Rise of the Runelords miniatures will contain 4 bricks, with 8 boosters each for a total of 128 miniatures per case.

The big surprise is on the huge miniatures. The set will contain only 4 huge minis, and these will be bundled one per blind booster. There are six blind boosters per case. For those who pre-order a case of standard and huge boosters, Paizo will make the Rise ofthe Runelords Gargantuan Rune giant available for $10. Online retailers and local gaming stores will offer similar incentives in order to be able to purchase the Rune Giant.

Erik Mona explains that the production cost of the Huge miniatures in the set was very high and Wizkids was forced to reduce the huge figures from six to four. The sculpts, however, were completed so that it is expected that these 2 remaining huge figures will be released in a subsequent set.

While the figures announced in Rise of the Runelords are ongoing (see the current up to date Preview Gallery HERE) , Paizo released the pricing information information today. The case subscription costs for Paizo are relatively steep and are as follows:

• Preorder Case Bundle: $519.98
• Preorder Standard Case: $399.99
• Preorder Huge Case: $119.99
• Preorder Standard Brick: $114.99
• Preorder Huge Booster: $24.99
• Preorder Standard Booster: $15.99
• Preorder Rune Giant: $39.99

Now, these are expensive minis at this price, but a moment of pause is in order. Deep discount online retailers for Pathfinder Battles: Heroes and Monsters offered a case at 69% of Paizo's subscription cost (with free shipping). So the online discount price will likely make the price far more palatable to many.

Assuming the online discount sellers continue to operate on the same margins as they have been, the anticipated price per mini from an online seller like MiniatureMarket.com breaks down to be something like this:

• Rise of the Runelords Main Series Case (128): $280
• Rise of the Runelords Huge Case (6 figures): $96
• Rise of the Runelords Rune Giant: $28.00

So yes, as I mentioned in my initial review of the Pathfinder Battles miniature line, the only question concerning the product line's future success will depend upon the price, because the quality of the sculpts and paint-jobs are generally outstanding and mostly a cut above WotC's offerings in the DDM line even at its best. (Although, to be fair, WotC's DDM line had some excellent figures released, especially at the height of its popularity). As expected, there are some pricing concerns being expressed, but the discussion so far seems to focus on the cost via Paizo.com, and not via discount online sellers.

One plus with the new 4 per booster packaging on the main set line of 60 s/m/l figures is that the packaging waste should be significantly reduced from that which was an oft-cited complaint about the H&M series.

The good news is that one case of each is all you will need to complete your collection. Erik Mona confirms that:

"We've worked hard with WizKids to pack the cases in such a way that customers who purchase a case of Standard Boosters, a case of Huge Boosters, and the Rune Giant can reasonably expect to complete the entire 65-figure set. While we cannot guarantee that this will happen due to the unlikely potential of packing errors at the factory, the intention is that a full line of cases will get a nearly complete set."
​

While there are no absolute guarantees, the collation on Heroes & Monsters minis was extremely consistent and the overwhelming majority of customers completed a complete set from purchasing one factory sealed case.

 

[DaveMage]

That's some eye-poppin' pricing indeed.

Wow.

 

[Nebten]

I just want to make sure I'm reading this right; for $280 you can get every mini needed for the adventure path?

I am actually kinda sad that they randomized it at $4 a mini. It would be good to pick and choose what you needed depending on where you are at in the game. Sadly most adventure paths don't get finished. I don't know if there are too many people that spend around $350 (after paying for the AP) for one storyline . . .

 

[Steel_Wind]

I just want to make sure I'm reading this right; for $280 you can get every mini needed for the adventure path?

I am actually kinda sad that they randomized it at $4 a mini. It would be good to pick and choose what you needed depending on where you are at in the game. Sadly most adventure paths don't get finished. I don't know if there are too many people that spend around $350 (after paying for the AP) for one storyline . . .

No, you would be missing 5 minis from the set (the 4 Huge figs and the Gargantuan Rune Giant).

Not every mini necessary to run every encounter in RotRL is in the set. But the important ones are and you can fill the rest in with minis from previous PFB and DDM sets. In Erik Mona's previous posts on the subject, he made it clear doing a set for every possible encounter would have gone to 200+ figs. But this does get most of the uniques that are necessary and all of the custom Paizo creatures as I understand it.

Apart from Paizo's own creations, RotRL was written almost entirely from the SRD, so you'll get a lot of mileage from your DDMs.

As for people who spend that kind of money for gaming stuff? Uhm.. yes... a whole lot of people, as it turns out. There are gamers here on ENWorld with thousands and thousands of DDM minis (I'm one of those people).

Besides, the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition will be out collecting the updated AP for Pathfinder RPG in one hardcover for under $40 on Amazon.com this June. That "one storyline" is 12-18 months of weekly gaming. Damned cheap for the book, actually.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Now, these are expensive minis at this price, but a moment of pause is in order. Deep discount online retailers for Pathfinder Battles: Heroes and Monsters offered a case at 69% of Paizo's subscription cost (with free shipping). So the online discount price will likely make the price far more palatable to many...

...if you live in the US. I could not find a single online retailer offering free shipping to or within Canada. More telling I couldn't really find an online retailer who wasn't also gouging Canadian customers for as much extra "handling fees" as they could get away with.

As much as I would love to get back into buying prepainted minis Paizo's pricing just makes them crazy expensive to me.

 

[Steel_Wind]

...if you live in the US. I could not find a single online retailer offering free shipping to or within Canada. More telling I couldn't really find an online retailer who wasn't also gouging Canadian customers for as much extra "handling fees" as they could get away with.

Firstly, I DO write to the main audience of readers, who are American. As you know, I'm Canadian as well.

While no online seller of minis ships to Canada for free, MiniatureMarket.com, CCGarmory.com and CoolStuffinc.com will all ship via US Postal Service.

I would also point out that the cheapest shipping cost to Canada and the lowest cost in terms of price point that you will find on this product to Canada will be from RPGLocker.com, operated by ENWorld's own <!-- BEGIN TEMPLATE: dbtech_usertag_mention --> @Oryan77 <!-- END TEMPLATE: dbtech_usertag_mention -->. I have purchased many times from him and I would recommend purchasing from him in a heartbeat; in fact, I have a large parcel in the mail on its way to me from Ryan right now. Ryan does not gouge anyone on anything. In the past, I know that Ryan has actually lost a few bucks by not charging me enough for shipping. ORyan will ship via US Postal Service. No brokerage fees involved at all.

It's not the US retailers fault, its the pricing model of UPS and the Canadian government's. When UPS makes free shipping predictable and practical, or course merchants use it. We get hit with a brokerage fee if UPS is used for Canada for the privilege of them collecting sales taxes for us. With the Postal Service, you avoid the $35 brokerage fee of the courier service and get hit with a flat $5 instead.

 

[cyderak]

If you want quality, your going to pay for it........And this is definitely quality.

 

[Pour]

Beautiful miniatures.

 

[Feeroper]

I find it odd that Paizo chose to have randomized packs when they are fairly expensive. WotC is just about to release their mini packs as pre packed sets of 15 minis (I think it's 15). At least you'll know what you are getting. Also the new paint jobs on the minis are massively improved. Pathfinder minis have excellent paint jobs as well, but I find it hard to plunk the $ down for them. The excess packaging and random nature make it a harder sell for me personally.

On the othe hand, I like what Paizo is doing with the cardstock pawns in terms of a cost effective yet functional soloution.

 

[Steel_Wind]

I find it odd that Paizo chose to have randomized packs when they are fairly expensive. WotC is just about to release their mini packs as pre packed sets of 15 minis (I think it's 15). At least you'll know what you are getting. Also the new paint jobs on the minis are massively improved. Pathfinder minis have excellent paint jobs as well, but I find it hard to plunk the $ down for them. The excess packaging and random nature make it a harder sell for me personally.

On the othe hand, I like what Paizo is doing with the cardstock pawns in terms of a cost effective yet functional soloution.

"Merric's Law of Miniatures: Non-Random Packaging, Cheap Prices, and a Large Range of Figures: Choose two."

Merric happens to be right. The selection in Dungeon Command is 12 minis for $39.99. I am not aware of more than one "set" -- although they may be making two for release. That's a price per mini which is actually higher that PFB (mind you, DC will have a box, rules and tiles too -- so call it ~ the same)-- and a range of figures which is less than 1/5th the size (or less than 2/5ths if there are two boxes sets released.)

Either way, Merric's law holds.

The cost of manufacturing and oil has gone up, demand has gone down -- and there is a REASON why WotC stopped making random minis after all. The price got too high for them and what they perceived to be their natural market for D&D minis.

Nevertheless, random blind boxing is a necessity to support a larger range of minis required by an RPG like Pathfinder; the costs paid for some cheaper minis offset the costs of others which are more expensive (sometimes, much more expensive) to manufacture than others.

If you get a whole factory sealed case, you get a whole set. That mitigates the bite of the randomness, albeit at a price.