Thunderfoot
Hero
I'm sorry you feel this way...thedungeondelver said:
Because plastic prepainted miniatures look like junk. Yeah, hey, a fighter with a sword that's bent into a "U" that I can't unbend? Yeah give me more of those!
Because plastic prepainted minis are nearly impossible to strip and repaint - at least ddm minis are. I threw simple green at them, alcohol, and my editor used oven cleaner. Nothing doing.
Because all Hasborg needs to do is twitch their little finger and change marketing tactics slightly and suddenly Reaper is stuck with a bunch of miniatures and a manufacturing process that they can't get rid of. When the LEGEND OF FIVE RINGS license went away, or the EXALTED license went away, big deal! They had a few metal molds in Texas they didn't need to use any more. If Reaper is "successful" and does pull a significant number of DDM fans away, a slight adjustment by the multibillion-dollar megacorp behind WotC is all that's required to put an end to the argument ("Sell them non-random, get these guys off our backs.") and suddenly Reaper's audience leaves. If Reaper is unsuccessful? Then they've shot themselves in the foot at the word "go".
It WILL detract from the metal minis. How can spending the bank on a new manufacturing and painting process not detract from metal minis? The money that would have (should have) been spent on the metal minis side of the house is now being put into plastic prepaints. I don't buy it for a second that this won't negatively impact the alloy minis. Not one second.
I see this beginning the end of either the Dark Heaven "RPG" line of minis. Maybe not now, and of course Reaper won't spin it that way. They'll pitch it that if you want a highly detailed character mini, buy one of their wonderful WarLord minis. If you want bulk monsters, then buy the pre-painted plastic ones!
This is just...I just can't see any good coming out of this whatsoever, I'm sorry.
Personally I haven't got the time to paint metal figs anymore so the pre-painted plastic is a big boon. Yes the DDM paint jobs suck, but if you're going to repaint them, why strip them, they're plastic... In the fourty or so seconds of free time I have at night before bed, I can quickly overpaint and base a fig, finishing a mini on about 10 - 15 days of actual time and only about 10 minutes figurative total - I could NEVER do that with metal.
Yes, I do agree that metal may be going the way of the dodo, and for that I do feel your pain, when there is that one "perfect" pose, you just grab it and build around it...that's pretty much gonna not happen anymore and that stinks. But with the boom of the plastic market, it was probably either this or shut their doors. We know they can make better figs, now we just need to see if they can compete with WotC, give WotCs record, I don;t really see a problem.