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

[carmachu]

I dont know yet. It depends on what they look like. If its AT-43 style thats great....if its like the D&D crap thats come out, I'll pass....

 

[Felon]

Because it isn't. This so called "secondary market" dpesn't really exist - it isn't economical, practical, or even viable. I went on some of these secondary sites...no one was selling a horde of orcs or a group of zombies, or large lots of kobolds or zombies.

The secondary market doesn't really exist.

You have obviously made little effort to explore your options. eBay shops that sell minis by the lot exist, and I many others have availed ourselves of them.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Because it isn't. This so called "secondary market" dpesn't really exist. The secondary market doesn't really exist.

Yeah right. And I just imagined buying those figures. I always wondered why I can't touch my new figures. Just look at them. They don't smell, and my hand goes right through.

1) Age. I'm old enough to have my own credit card, so ordering online is an option. Many D&D players are not and have limited access to an online secondary market.

That's a very good argument, the best I have seen against the secondary market yet.

Yes, a lot of people don't trust eBay or PayPal or credit cards, so they don't buy on the secondary market, but it's their choice and not really a problem of the market.

But there's people who can't get credit cards or eBay accounts or PayPal. The option just doesn't exist for them.

I know this isn't directly on your point, but am I the only DM who feels the best challenge for PC types are other PC types? As a DM I need lots of PC type figures?

I use a mix of monsters and characters. So as a DM, I need a lot more figures than the players - not only monsters (which players don't need), but also characters (which players only need very few of)

If a figure, even a normal-sized one, is "Rare" then it sells for about $20 if not more. Twenty bucks for a small plastic figure with an amateur paintjob!

20 quid is quite expensive. But you only have to pay that for "chase figures", which are usually large or larger. The other ones usually go for 6-10 bucks - plus shipping, of course. And it's rare that the DDM stats make a figure a "chase figure".

 

[Felon]

1) Age. I'm old enough to have my own credit card, so ordering online is an option. Many D&D players are not and have limited access to an online secondary market.

2) Shipping. Worldwide players with access to the internet can be costed out of the secondary markets because of high shipping costs or no shipping available at all. Hence the WotC PDFs.

3) Rarity. If I want a secondary market beholder, I'm going to have to pay >$30, plus shipping. Or I can buy an "eye tyrant" and paint it myself for <$10, or perhaps get a prepainted one from Reaper for still less than online. Or, say, if I want 8 orc archers, I can just buy a prepainted pack, instead of having to dish out $7-$20 dollars for ONE, plus shipping, according to an eBay search. And since few of these guys have more than one for sale, that's $2-4 shipping for EACH. I'm counting the secondary online market out for this one, sorry.

Your comment that I initially responded to was about being stuck buying cases just to scrounge together 6-12 orcs, which is something you simply don't have to do thanks to the secondary market.

Now, in your rebuttal, items 1 & 2 only cover fringe demographics, so that seems like you're just being arguementative. You're old enough to buy the minis, and you don't live in Zimbabwe, so you're not among the disenfranchised, and in fact the majority of gamers are not, so for most folks the secondary market is perfectly practical. eBay shops abound, and not just for folks living in the U.S.

#3 is a more legitimate arguement, but there are tons of commons and uncommons out there ready to be scooped up for cheap, so $50 beholders or not, the secondary market still has plenty of utility. And again, you were talking about a squad of orcs.

Personally, I love the idea of what Reaper's doing and hope they do it right, but the majority of DDM minis are certainly attainable at reasonable prices without having to endure the annoyance of randomization.

 

[Felon]

1The claim was they couldn't make "D&D specific" monsters, but they can and do. If they start to make them in prepainted plastic, it wouldn't be hard at all to see that they do have a Balor, they just call it something else, for example. Hell, they already have metal minis of Orcus, Demogorgon, and Dispater, as well as Hezrou, mimics, mind flayers, githyanki, myconids, hell hounds, etc etc etc. Are you really saying that if they don't market a mind flayer as an "illithid", no one will buy it, and the line will fail? I just don't agree, sorry. That's just like saying because a 3rd party d20 adventure doesn't have the D&D logo on the front, no one will know it's for D&D!

You not seem to have grasped what I was saying in my posts, as I did not claim they couldn't make "D&D-specific" monsters. In fact, I pointed out that they have gotten away with taking some pretty heavy liberties. But I will say that if someone sees an announcement on ENWorld news that Reaper is releasing a mind flayer mini, that jumps out more than some pseudonym like "tentacle lord", and it's certainly easier to locate through a search engine.

Just as you seem unable to accept that "nobody would buy the mini" because they called it "brainsucker" instead of "illithid", I find any assertion that it wouldn't help their marketing at all to advertise it as an illithid to be a tad naive. I'd love to see if they have a mini that could serve as a phaerim, but I'm not going to eyeball their whole catalog just looking for that one critter that might or might not be there.

 

[Agamon]

When I first read AoW while preparing to run it, I realized I'd need a lot more Lizardfolk than I had. It took less than a half-hour to find and pay for a dozen. Before that I had need for a lot of grimlocks and quagoths. That was no problem either.

I have to admit, I've never needed to go out and find a bunch of orcs or gnolls or goblins because I already have a bunch, more than I'd need at one time and lots of variety. Those common monsters have been easily found.

 

[Felon]

On a bit of a side tangent, there is a practical limit on how many critters are worth having on the battlefield at any one time. Eight is a good practical limit for kicking off most encounters. Far better to throw the initial handful and then have more show up in later rounds as reserves, in which case they can be pulled from the dead pile.

 

[Thurbane]

Yes, a lot of people don't trust eBay or PayPal or credit cards, so they don't buy on the secondary market, but it's their choice and not really a problem of the market.

Well, not if you don't consider lost oppotunity for income a problem, I guess...

 

[Endur]

No, it isn't. The equipment needed to produce plastic figures is much more expensive than what it used for metal ones. That's why usually only large companies like GW and WOTC produce plastic minis.

The GW figures are so much better than the WOTC figures. No comparison. Only drawback is that you have to paint the GW figures or hire someone to paint them for you.

 

[Twowolves]

You not seem to have grasped what I was saying in my posts, as I did not claim they couldn't make "D&D-specific" monsters. In fact, I pointed out that they have gotten away with taking some pretty heavy liberties. But I will say that if someone sees an announcement on ENWorld news that Reaper is releasing a mind flayer mini, that jumps out more than some pseudonym like "tentacle lord", and it's certainly easier to locate through a search engine.

Just as you seem unable to accept that "nobody would buy the mini" because they called it "brainsucker" instead of "illithid", I find any assertion that it wouldn't help their marketing at all to advertise it as an illithid to be a tad naive. I'd love to see if they have a mini that could serve as a phaerim, but I'm not going to eyeball their whole catalog just looking for that one critter that might or might not be there.

So, what exactly are you saying then? You claimed a 3rd party company couldn't make cloakers, mind flayers and glabrezu, and I pointed out that Reaper has, indeed, done just that without any sort of official license to do so. Would it help if they were able to market these minis under their "official" names? Probably, a little. But probably not enough to justify the expense of such a licensing deal. You then seem to posit that searching for a particular mini with a "generic" name is too much effort for most, despite the fact that A) retailers have Reaper catalogs right there next to the blisters (and often arrange them on the shelves numerically by catalog number, making finding a figure from the catalog very easy) and B) Reaper's website has a search engine that is descriptive and not keyed to a creature's name. Never mind the mind blowing concept of ASKING the guy behind the counter if they make a good generic phaerim (which, as far as I know, hasn't been released for DDM either, and if it was, would most assuredly be a rare).

You claim that you pointed out the fact that Reaper has gotten away with some pretty heavy liberties in their generic figure sculpts, but yet you also claim that you won't dig trhough blisters and didn't know about the cloaker or umber hulk? You chastised one poster for not looking hard enough for DDMs online regarding the secondary market, but yet you can't be bothered to use an online figure finder search engine yourself? Or to even ask someone at the game shop?

I hope the line does great. I have every confidence in these guys, and think they can do a good job and even though their initial release will be "gang" sets, I hope they branch out to the more unique set piece monsters. I doubt they will (big, flashy monsters are a big seller for their metal line, and prepainted mobs of cannon fodder fit the business model I think they are aiming for), but it'd be nice.