Star Wars starship minis - would you buy it?

[Cergorach]

That would be cool, as long as i wouldn't have to buy 300 boosters to get 10 x-wings.

Any of you play(ed) Silent Death, one of the most fun starship fighter games i played, there were even some rules for it in one of the star wars gamer magazines. There are some miniature manufacturers that make star wars look a like space ships.

http://shop.lego.com/product.asp?p=4484&d=5&t=3 ;-)

 

[Darrin Drader]

Yes. Absolutely, unquestioningly yes. Heck, I tried to collect those micro machines way back in the day, even though they have the annoying habit of not staying on their bases.

 

[Pramas]

Are you at all allowed to discuss why this didn't happen?

Sure. There were several reasons.

First, the folks behind the original WotC minis division were trying to start a traditional minis business with primarily metal minis. This is a business model that can pay off in spades if done right but it takes time to build up. We were trying to launch this in the gonzo Pokemon era, during which such long term strategies were looked up as outmoded. The VP who oversaw the division lost all interest in what we were doing when we told him we weren't going to make 10 million dollars the first year.

Second, WotC internal politics are viciously territorial. We were a new division and basically no one wanted to play ball with us.

Third, in the midst of all this there was a move to use Hasbro properties instead of licensed ones. I pushed for a Star Wars game but management didn't want to do it because they'd have to pay royalties. One would think this would have occurred to them when they were negotiating for the Star Wars license.

So plans for a Star Wars game were shelved and we started working on a GI Joe minis game instead. I really wanted to do a WWII game, so I was briefly hopeful we could do classic Joe, but it was to be Joe vs. Cobra. Still, a good opporunity for an introductory minis game and this was to be the first attempt at a pre-painted plastic game. I started designing the game and we did some focus group testing that went very well, but less than two months into that project the plug was pulled. The sales people had decided that since GI Joe didn't have a current TV show, it wasn't worth doing a game. This just goes to show you how the success of Pokemon has messed with people's minds. Like GI Joe isn't one of the best known brands in the world, current TV show or not. The GI Joe game had been scheduled to launch in the summer of 2001. In other words, in the wake of 9/11 there would have been a game in toy stores where a "real American hero" fought Cobra terrorists. Another missed opportunity.

So I left the company not having gotten to do either a Star Wars minis game or a World War II minis game. Naturally enough, WotC did a Star Wars game last year and now they are about to launch a WWII game (the Axis and Allies minis game). So either I was a man ahead of my time or I just had the worst goddamn luck.

 

[Cergorach]

So I left the company not having gotten to do either a Star Wars minis game or a World War II minis game. Naturally enough, WotC did a Star Wars game last year and now they are about to launch a WWII game (the Axis and Allies minis game). So either I was a man ahead of my time or I just had the worst goddamn luck.

So you haven't heard yet that there's a GI Joe prepainted miniatures game scheduled for fall 2006. ;-)

 

[Dragonblade]

Thats a bummer, Chris. I would love to see a SW space combat mini game. I don't know if you could really make it a collectible game, but it would be cool as a standalone boxed game with all the figures included.

And a G.I. Joe minis game would be awesome!! Although, what I would really like to see is a G.I. Joe v. Cobra sourcebook for Spycraft 2.0. Now that would rule!!!

 

[solkan_uk]

I'd like to see a pre-painted space combat game, either SW or something else - keep thinking about B5 but I've got too much to paint already.
I don't like the D&D/SW mini's because I like my more detailed Warmachine and Hasslefree sculpts and they're just shoddy in comparison - but I think it could work for starships.

 

[Wycen]

Not sure if I'd buy a Star Wars mini game for space ships. I've yet to purchase one since getting over the Space Marine/Epic addiction all those years ago, so probably no.

Now if they wanted to build more models for the current game scale, (like the AT-AT), then yes. Especially if they went with lesser known ship designs, cause I could use a shuttle or fighter from the the prequel movies, but if you plunk an X-wing on the table for a d20 Future game, everybody is going to start talking about Star Wars.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Back in Renegade Legion/ Centurion from FASA, they had Cohort packs, a big box full of unpainted plastic tanks with moving turrets. These were great for our games, but still took a good amount of setup and rules.

A simplified SW mini space game would be very cool.

 

[Rogue765]

It would be interesting but it would depend upon the scale of the ships. If they made a Millenium Falcon mini the size of a Mage Knight dial say, then a TIE fighter would be the size of a grain of rice, and a Super Stardestroyer would be around five feet long.

But that's not how they would do it. A Stardestoyer mini and a Millenium Falcon mini and a TIE figher mini WOULD BE THE SAME FREKIN SIZE!!!

It would (for me anyway) trash my sense of realism if the minis were made at different scales and I had to adjust the actual size in my head rather than being able to see the size difference at a glance.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

It would be interesting but it would depend upon the scale of the ships. If they made a Millenium Falcon mini the size of a Mage Knight dial say, then a TIE fighter would be the size of a grain of rice, and a Super Stardestroyer would be around five feet long.

But that's not how they would do it. A Stardestoyer mini and a Millenium Falcon mini and a TIE figher mini WOULD BE THE SAME FREKIN SIZE!!!

It would (for me anyway) trash my sense of realism if the minis were made at different scales and I had to adjust the actual size in my head rather than being able to see the size difference at a glance.

Oh, I doubt that they would all be the same size, but I equally doubt that they would all be to the same scale either. I would expect a recycling of the base sizes from the D&D minis line.

The Auld Grump