Felon said:
So, if Reaper so desired, could they not make minis of monsters straight from the SRD? I recall Ryan Dancey saying some months back regarding how surprised he was that nobody used the SRD for exactly that purpose.
I wondered the same myself. What if someone else - Reaper, Games Workshop, someone else, doesn't matter - releases figures that look like Balors and are called Balors? Chain Devils? Black/Green/White/Gold/Whatever Dragons (with the distinctive D&D dragons look)?
Are they allowed? Could Wizards do anything about it?
Glyfair said:
I'm going to predict a price point at about the same level as the metal miniatures, or slightly above that.
I'd say they'll be cheaper than the metal minis. Or maybe the "common" type stuff - orcs, skeletons, that sort of thing - will be quite cheap, and the "rare" types - demons, dragons, and so on - will cost a bit less than what you could expect to pay for your average DDM rare on eBay.
The thing is, they have to offer something Wizards doesn't. They have to be better than Wizards to be able to compete. So they either need top notch figures, or they need them with prices that beat what you pay for DDM, at least on the secondary market. I don't think they'll base their whole offense on the fact that you don't have to buy this stuff at eBay.
Agamon said:
This is good, as long as WotC doesn't try to make itself different by putting out even more warforged and dragonspawn and other less than useful minis.
One man's trash is another's treasure. Some people like the warforged and spawn of Tiamat (I don't play Eberron, so those are not for me, but I do like the dragonspawn). Everything's useful to someone (except that Dromite Wilder, of course
)
thedungeondelver said:
My hobby, at least this particular one, isn't "changing". It is being driven down to nothing.
No, I don't see it. Metal minis aren't going to die out any time soon. Reaper still makes them. They don't replace their old line with a new one. They complement the old with the new.
I keep hearing the cadence of "They're not going to change their metal mini output at all", but riddle me this: if they're in so much trouble as was implied elsewhere in the thread that they HAVE TO change to selling plastic minis, then the money to produce those minis is going to come from somewhere and I seriously doubt they're all taking a pay cut to help start this new enterprise. The money will come from whatever is pooled for minis (CAV, WarLord, DH) and the pieces of that pie now get smaller. So who loses? I do. And every other fan of metal minis will. This will impact metal minis, mark my word.
First of all, I doubt that they're in trouble. But if they were, and really had to do plastic minis, then metal minis would be doomed, anyway. It would be either not selling plastic minis and going bankrupt in the near future, or do plastic minis to try to get money in. In fact, if this is the case, the plastic minis are a godsent to those who like the Reaper metal lines: It means that the company will not disappear, and will probably even continue doing metal minis along their new cash cow.
But again, I doubt that they are in trouble. If you can believe those that spoke about the plastic business, making plastic minis is quite an investment. A lot of fixed costs to start it up, and you'll have to sell a lot of minis. A company that has almost no money left can't undertake such a venture.
I think it's more likely that they have enough money for it. They got it from selling metal minis, and now they're investing into another market to move in there as well. Get new customers - those who don't buy reaper because they prefer prepainted plastic.
*LotR aside, but an insider tells me to buy as many as I can because those are going bye-bye soon enough...
Is that the usual kind of insider? The same kind of insider who told people posting on these boards that 4e would be released this year? That it would be a collectible game? That the New World of Darkness would be d20 instead of Storyteller?
frankthedm said:
Catering to the smallest nitch of 3e, the DM. Players just need characters, DM's need horrors of all types. I await their packs of non bipedal, less than sane monsters.
Players only need one figure (their character), or maybe as much as half a dozen (a couple of characters, henchmen, familiars, animal companions). DMs need dozens (all the monsters he's going to unleash on the players).
It's like Ferrari catering to the smallest niche of car buyers, the rich guys who are willing to blow huge sums of money for a car.
