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

[Kae'Yoss]

I just hate the tone of the announcement... saying this will be the biggest success before the first mini is sold just rubs me the wrong way

I call it confidence. It could be worse. A lot. They're not making fun of anyone, that would be bad.

While this is good news, I am concerned about the releasing on non-random minis from a economic standpoint. I'm no economist, however I heard a pretty convincing arguement (Ryan Dancy was it?) as to why it was a bad idea finacially for to do WotC doing non-random minis.Wonder if the same is true for Reaper.

I'm not an expert, but I'd say Reaper knows what they're doing.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I would guess no - WotC entered the metal market with the Chainmail line trying to create a point style game and got CRUSHED by Reaper when their sales couldn't keep up.

I know it's apples and organes, but wasn't it Warhammer the kept Chainmail down? It was a skrimish game, not a collection of miniatures like their original 25th anniversary bits no?

 

[Emirikol]

That's Great News!

This is GREAT news. Now I can go back to purchasing miniatures again Reaper has always been my favorite brand and now I'm really happy.

I really got tired of wasting my money having a dozen useless and redundant D&D ones :|

jh

ANNOUNCEMENT
Reaper Prepainted Plastic Miniatures

Reaper Miniatures is proud to announce the release of its first series of prepainted plastic miniatures.

This new product line will be released under the brand name Legendary Encounters™.

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.

Unlike the several existing blind-sale prepainted plastic miniature lines currently available, Legendary Encounters™ will not be produced on a limited edition basis and will be available at any time.

Drawing on Reaper's vast experience in miniatures and a catalog of 1000's of metal models to design Legendary Encounters, Legendary Encounters will quickly become the most popular prepainted plastic miniatures line on the market.

Reaper has always focused on the creation of evergreen product lines and Legendary Encounters™ is the first product line of Reaper's new "Ready to Fight™"(RTF) series of games and gaming products.

Available this June Legendary Encounters™ initial release will include: Undead and Orc warriors of various types, an Ogre, Troll and Minotaur. Like our Dark Heaven Legends miniature line, future releases into Legendary Encounters™ will include every type of creature imaginable.

 

[Zaukrie]

Competition is good. I hope the quality and price are decent/good.

I still don't understand why people won't go the buy it now route (in the US) and buy orcs on line, but there obviously are people that won't or can't.

I'm guessing that the cost per mini will be similar, the selection will be significantly less (but you'll know what you are getting), and I have no guess on the paint quaility.

 

[D.Shaffer]

I would guess no - WotC entered the metal market with the Chainmail line trying to create a point style game and got CRUSHED by Reaper when their sales couldn't keep up. They entered the random pre-painted plastic minis market because there was no one else doing it that way (a very smart move on WotCs part)

Technically, Wizkids did it the prepainted fantasy+plastics first with Mage Knight, I'd say Wizkids went that route because they saw how successful it could be. Anyways I'd blame the the failure of Chainmail more on Warhammer then anything else. GW and Warhammer FB/40K does for Minis what DND does for RPGs.

I'll be very interested in seeing what the pricing on the Reaper plastics end up being, but I fully expect to see complaints about them starting up almost immediately.

 

[Pramas]

I know it's apples and organes, but wasn't it Warhammer the kept Chainmail down?

WotC didn't need any help keeping Chainmail down. It did a better job of cutting the game's throat than any outside agency.

As for the Reaper announcement, I think it could be a great move on their part if they do it up right. Hasbro itself has already proved that a non-random model of pre-painted minis can be sold quite successfully with their Heroscape line. Best of luck to Reaper in following suit.

 

[dougmander]

This is great news. I don't have time to paint minis anymore, and I refuse to get on the random assortment treadmill. I also love Reaper minis and hope the plastic ones are compatible in size and style.

Yaahhhhh!

 

[WhatGravitas]

I'm not an expert, but I'd say Reaper knows what they're doing.

Ditto - and they're obviously testing the waters (Mass orc packs? exactly what DDM can't deliver reliably - at least without ebay-fu), so they won't break their neck on it.

And their marketing slogan... heck, if I'd judge *anything* on their slogan, I'd not even buying food anymore, since even food says "only made from the best blah eVAR!"

I'm wondering why anybody can even "split over it", because, well nothing bad can actually happen, since I assume that Reaper knows what they're doing.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I also love Reaper minis and hope the plastic ones are compatible in size and style.

"Drawing on Reaper's vast experience in miniatures and a catalog of 1000's of metal models to design Legendary Encounters"

I guess they will stick to their known stile and scale. Plus, listening to their announcement, they intent to compete with Wizards (crush them, really), so they have to do minis fit for 1' grids.

 

[thedungeondelver]

I know that I'm probably going to regret asking this but, why is this terrible news?

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.