Reaper to produce pre-painted Plastic minis - Non-random

[rgard]

I agree they'll be competitive, but many here might not consider them so. I believe those who expect $1.00-$1.50 per mini are going to be disappointed.


Exactly. I doubt it's worth the time of WotC to worry about a "shades of gray" case from Reaper. That's especially true if they want to avoid creating bad feelings in some of their fan base.


I doubt very many know they want to search for a "Bathalian" when they want a Mind Flayer, or "Stone Lurker" when they want a Roper unless they've seen the figure before. They might expect that an "Eye Beast" is a Beholder, a "Dung Beast" is an Otyugh if they see the name, but might not guess that when searching. Still, a few will be obvious (such as the "Cloak Fiend."

I agree that the names can be less than helpful when locating the D&D equivalent, but the pics on Reaper's site are good and it's clear to see the Bathalian is intended to represent the Mind Flayer.

Just takes a little bit of work.

That said, if somebody unfamiliar with this discussion or with Reaper minis posted a note in EN World asking about Mind Flayer figs, I'm certain he or she would get pointed in the right direction.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Pbartender]

I doubt very many know they want to search for a "Bathalian" when they want a Mind Flayer, or "Stone Lurker" when they want a Roper unless they've seen the figure before. They might expect that an "Eye Beast" is a Beholder, a "Dung Beast" is an Otyugh if they see the name, but might not guess that when searching. Still, a few will be obvious (such as the "Cloak Fiend."

Sure, but having never visited the site before, I just stopped by the Reaper website, and clicked on the Fantasy Fig Finder link in the menu on the left.

I made a quick look through the "select a race" drop-down menu, picked out "Aberrations", and left everything else on "no preference". I found every miniature you mention above, including some extras such as "spider centuar" (Drider), "stone luker" (Roper), "mushroom men" (Mycanids), and "dung moster" (Otyugh).

It took me all of 30 seconds to find them.

Plus if you check off the minis you like in the little boxes on the left-hand side, you can hit the "view my list" button, which generates a printable list with the serial numbers, name of the mini, MSRP and a photo. Print that out, and take it into you FLGS with you.

It certainly wasn't wasn't any more difficult than hunting DDM minis down on Ebay.

 

[Twowolves]

Sure, but having never visited the site before, I just stopped by the Reaper website, and clicked on the Fantasy Fig Finder link in the menu on the left.

I made a quick look through the "select a race" drop-down menu, picked out "Aberrations", and left everything else on "no preference". I found every miniature you mention above, including some extras such as "spider centuar" (Drider), "stone luker" (Roper), "mushroom men" (Mycanids), and "dung moster" (Otyugh).

It took me all of 30 seconds to find them.

Plus if you check off the minis you like in the little boxes on the left0hand side, you can hit the "view my list" button, which generates a printable list with the serial numbers, name of the mini, MSRP and a photo. Print that out, and take it into you FLGS with you.

It certainly wasn't wasn't any more difficult than hunting DDM minis down on Ebay.

Ding ding ding!! We have a winner!

 

[Delta]

Corrected link: http://www.reapermini.com/FantasyFigFinder

Edit: And I also notice you could use the "Well of Doom" as a very nice Evard's black tentacles spell (saw it in a store once but couldn't figure out what anyone would use it for).

 

[Pbartender]

Corrected link: http://www.reapermini.com/FantasyFigFinder

Thanks. I fixed the link above, as well... sorry about that.

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

I can't wait to see these. While I love to paint metal minis and have been doing it for almost three decades, I limit it pretty much to PCs at this point due to time constraints. Having prepainted plastic minis of creatures for our game was a joy when DDM came out. They've been great as far as the commons went, but I am not going to pluck down $40 for a plastic DDM beholder. Having access to prepainted plastic blister packed minis is a good thing IMHO. Gimme a cheap beholder (among other things) and I'll be a happy guy. As far as the plastic vs. metal debate, both have advantages. Straight weapons, finer details, etc for metal is obvious, but plastic can offer things like TRANSPARENCY (i.e. fire, ice, water elementals, gelatenous cubes, etc.) Why is this an "either/or" issue? We have a wide variety of both kinds on our gaming table and always will.

 

[Twowolves]

I can't wait to see these. While I love to paint metal minis and have been doing it for almost three decades, I limit it pretty much to PCs at this point due to time constraints. Having prepainted plastic minis of creatures for our game was a joy when DDM came out. They've been great as far as the commons went, but I am not going to pluck down $40 for a plastic DDM beholder. Having access to prepainted plastic blister packed minis is a good thing IMHO. Gimme a cheap beholder (among other things) and I'll be a happy guy. As far as the plastic vs. metal debate, both have advantages. Straight weapons, finer details, etc for metal is obvious, but plastic can offer things like TRANSPARENCY (i.e. fire, ice, water elementals, gelatenous cubes, etc.) Why is this an "either/or" issue? We have a wide variety of both kinds on our gaming table and always will.

At my table, we use metal minis painted by myself or the other resident fig painter to represent the PCs, and I use DDMs or painted Reaper figs for BBEGs. Unfortunately, with my current life schedule, I can't always get those BBEGs finished before "the big fight", so I have about a dozen half finished metal villian figs that I probably won't use again anytime soon. Plasitc prepainted boss monster/NPCs are a dream come true for me, and I'm not afraid of the rubber sword disease. It's fast and easy to fix with a glass of ice water and a hair dryer. The transparent plastics make the otherwise ho-hum elementals look awesome (espctially the fire elementals, which light up like a Christmas tree when you point a red laser at them from behind!), and the sculpts/paintjobs look "good enough" for the monster the PCs are about to grind into hamburger in 3-5 rounds. Not to mention the fact I can throw a few hundred plastics into a bin and they weigh about as much as 1/10th the same number of metal figs, which have to be stored separately in foam to keep them from chipping,

 

[Twowolves]

Bingo! OK, good, right there, hold on for a sec!!!

See, I was pondering whether the language of the SRD obviated the need to strike any kind of licensing deal. Thanks to the SRD, you can use a cloaker in a D20 book without negotiation. My question was, does the same hold true for a cloaker mini?

That's all.

Oh I see. Well, like I said, they already have for metal minis and WotC has let it go. But that's also while Reaper's figs have been complimenting their products and not competing with them. They might try to play hardball if the new plastic line cuts significantly into the DDM sales.

I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure the SRD is talking about print material only. The beholder and the mind flayer are not in the SRD and are considered "product identity", but Reaper already has metal figs for them. At this time Reaper hasn't said they even intend to make individual plastic monsters, just squads, so the whole debate just might be moot.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

At this time Reaper hasn't said they even intend to make individual plastic monsters, just squads, so the whole debate just might be moot.

They said that they were going to offer both single minis and sets. It's in the announcement.

 

[Pbartender]

They said that they were going to offer both single minis and sets. It's in the announcement.

Yep, that's correct...

Offered in an open, non-blind, non-random format, Legendary Encounters™ prepainted plastic miniatures will be packaged using Reaper's standard blister card. Both single and multiple piece packs will be offered.