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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alphastream" data-source="post: 5875794" data-attributes="member: 11365">Wow. $520 for a subscriber? That's a price that is out of reach of most gamers I know. And while I know gamers that can afford that, they tend to reserve such purchases for something really rare and special - a one-of-a-kind limited offering by an RPG publisher, signed art, etc. The price of $120 for 6 huge minis is especially jarring to me. That's what I would expect for pretty incredible minis. When I look at the Lamia... that's the kind of huge mini I would have been disappointed to get in a DDM set. And I'm only looking for 4? Buying direct from Paizo seems to be charity, rather than a benefit. Even for the non-huge at $400, that's still $3.12 a mini. Not terrible, but we have to consider that the market has tons of minis and this set size is small (64). We can find really nice minis at a lower price. If we already own minis we have to consider how many more goblins, ogres, bugbears, bears and so on we really need. And, product strategy-wise, this is just the next set. There will theoretically be another one after that! Are a lot of gamers ready to fork over $400 again in a few months?The pricing also seems strange in that Paizo has done so well encouraging subscriptions and on-site purchases. They set up an immediate direct sale of minis, but they haven't been able to set the secondary market prices. You still have to choose between paying more at Paizo and getting discounts elsewhere... which hurts their margins. It's a shame they can't be the distributor at a low price, because I like rewarding a company directly when possible.This is subjective. I've heard others voice what I feel: I'm not a fan at all of WizKids color tones and while I like many of the Paizo sculpts, I don't find them consistently superior nor do I favor their artistic style. We can compare the ettin in the first set to any number of DDM ettins and see some that have better painting (more colors, better wet and dry brushing effects, superior sculpts). That huge Lamia is cool, but I don't see it as superior quality to Yuan-Ti Anathema (can find online for $7) or for a humanoid example the more recent Fomorian Painbringer ($6 online). Same for the Dire Bear in the PF set compared to other bear DDM options. It is a good bear, but even if I didn't own three bears, I'm not sure enough gamers would prefer this one... especially if they are buying on the secondary market ($2.20-3.45 for DDM Dire Bears).Now, sure, some people will prefer the Paizo look. But of those people, some already own two or more dire bears (and so on and so forth). It is too easy for this to become a secondary market situation, where gamers are picking and choosing what they want. Isn't that what killed DDM, on top of the economy of oil? And throw in the people that don't like the Paizo look for goblins or the WizKid paint tones, and you further divide the audience. I really wanted to buy these sets. I had the money set aside for them, but the paint scheme turned me off, as did the artistic style and many of the sculpts. These were far bigger issues than price for me... and the price is high. I took my saved-up money and just went to the secondary market and purchased some DDMs I was missing. I got more for my money (exactly the minis I wanted, quality and style I favor) and I'm closer to a complete DDM set. I could still see myself buying a Paizo case if the painting and sculpting improved, and I think some of the minis are moving to better paint styles (Treachery Demon; the Rune Giant is insanely cool). That the quality improvements are coming with price hikes makes me think this isn't likely to continue improving.The pictures from PAX make the repaints for Dungeon Command look pretty good. I already like the sculpts, and while I prefer completely new sculpts, the combination with tiles and a minis game that has initially positive reviews is a good reason to look at those. And I still have cool DDM minis I want to buy.</blockquote>

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