That's it; I am done buying minis'!

[Foundry of Decay]

I'd chime in to reccomend Reaper as well. I stopped collecting D&D miniatures after getting fed up on never having quite as many as I needed.

With 4e, I can only see this getting worse. Fighting larger groups of creatures means buying more miniatures. I'm sure there is some conspiracy theory in there somewhere but I tend to ignore conspiracty theories.

I also have found the artistry of the gloopy, rubbery miniatures to be far, far less well rounded than those of most metal/hard plastic miniatures. I have YET to see one D&D miniatures dragon that looks as good as the McFarlane dragons, for instance.

I draw my own counters now. But if I find interesting miniatures from Reaper or other companies I splurge and pick up a pack or two from them. Painting them for the table doesn't have to be a 'masterpiece'. Most people can paint at least at the WoTC standard for miniatures, and do so in a short amount of time. The mini's sit a foot or two away on the table anyway, so every detail such as eyes really don't have to be rendered.

 

[carmachu]

You don't need metal to be non-random. Beyond the obvious secondary market for DDM, Reaper's Legendary Encounters line (plastic, pre-painted, non-random) is great, if limited in scope to date. Especially if you don't have the time or inclination to paint your own minis.

Seen'em, not impressed. But then again I come from wargaming so converting and such arent a big deal....

I dont like pre-painted. Random pre-painted just really sucks ass.

 

[subbob]

Great Store

I just checked Auggie's Games store, and they have 2 different kinds of D&D dragonborn, a "Defender" and a "Myrmidon," each of them for $4.99. His shipping charges are good, but it kind of depends on how much you buy. After spending a week or more researching web stores for singles, I've used him to buy all my minis that I need for specific games.

Thanks for the link. I just picked up a bunch of bulk commons, most of them for less than 25 cents each.

 

[Jack99]

For that kind of money you could have gotten a good selection of metal (or unpainted plastic) minis that were not random and could be given really great paint jobs. Random minis= suck. I have never bought random minis and never will.

Go take a look at the whole Reptus miniatures from the Reaper WARLORD line. There are quite a bit of third party alternatives. Not prepainted, yet. But Reaper is making in-roads in that respect.

http://www.reapermini.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=5582&cat=0&page=

There are more out there. And since Reaper tends to roughly shadow trends in fantasy and in D&D products, expect more "Dragonmen" in the future.

Good advice, but I have neither the skill nor the time to paint my own miniatures.

Just curious, how many cases did you get? $550 looks like retail for 4 cases in the US.

3 cases. And that was with a good discount. A single booster pack costs
$46 in my country retail.

Just come over to the Dark Side. Counters are great!

It is being considered for the first time ever...

I stopped buying them after the Giants of Legend set. I pulled seven fiendish t-rexes out of a total of twelve boosters.

Ouch man, I feel your pain (or is it the tequila from yesterday, I can't tell for sure)

I just checked Auggie's Games store, and they have 2 different kinds of D&D dragonborn, a "Defender" and a "Myrmidon," each of them for $4.99. His shipping charges are good, but it kind of depends on how much you buy. After spending a week or more researching web stores for singles, I've used him to buy all my minis that I need for specific games.

I just checked it out. It seems his rates for oversea shipping matches his other rates. That gives some definite possibilities.

I guess this is a bad time to tell you that I got a free dragonborn mini by accident when I ordered some singles

[censored due to the grand-ma clause]

I believe you have done this backwards as rants are always better after having gotten drunk.

My usual drunken rants would get me perma-banned from ENworld, so I stay the hell away from the computer when I am drunk (or I try to, anyway)

For $550, you would have been MUCH better off just buying singles off Ebay sites or affiliates. You would have no doubles or triples of ones you don't want, and as many dragonborns as needed. And none of the lame models you don't want at all.

Except that I am in Denmark, so while Ebay is cheap, there is usually a hefty shipping cost all the way over here, and then there are the customs of my country, etc etc.


Cheers

 

[Hairfoot]

...4 cases in the US. That means 24 boosters. There are 6 huge rares, with a '1 per 3 boosters' frequency. So, in 4 cases, one can expect 8 huge rares...There are 18 S/M/L rares, 1 per booster. So, assuming perfect distribution, you'd get one of each, plus 6 duplicates.

I resent this trading card model of miniature packaging. If I want a blister pack of dragonborn, just let me buy one. I can see why WotC would want to emulate the distribution of MtG cards, which led to individual cards selling for thousands, but it's insulting to customers who know what they want and shouldn't have to buy piles of crap they don't want to get a couple of minis they do.

Bah.

 

[Xyxox]

I resent this trading card model of miniature packaging. If I want a blister pack of dragonborn, just let me buy one. I can see why WotC would want to emulate the distribution of MtG cards, which led to individual cards selling for thousands, but it's insulting to customers who know what they want and shouldn't have to buy piles of crap they don't want to get a couple of minis they do.

Bah.

But WotC says the D&D minis aren't for the D&D players, they're for the D&D Miniatures players.

/sarcasm

The "collectible" model works for WotC. The OP just spent $550 to get one Dragonborn mini. I'd bet they realize more profit and probably more overall revenue from the minis than they do from the rules books. Looking at the quality of the sculpts and paint jobs, production costs for a $15 booster must be somewhere in the range of about $0.23.

I am SO GLAD my favorite part of the tabletop gaming hobby is modeling and painting. Heck, I'd rather paint an army of miniatures than play a game, but I'm just weird in a hobby of weirdness, I guess.

 

[lutecius]

Go take a look at the whole Reptus miniatures from the Reaper WARLORD line. There are quite a bit of third party alternatives. Not prepainted, yet. But Reaper is making in-roads in that respect.

wow, they don't just look better than wotc's minis, they're also much better than the art in the corebooks. This is what dragonborn should look like.

Nice one.
But I wonder how that will look with its tail removed?

better than both AtG dragonborns. But are people really going to portrait DB without a tail?

Good advice, but I have neither the skill nor the time to paint my own miniatures.

It can't be worse than the official minis. I'd rather use unpainted minis than many of the crappy jobs in the last two sets.

Seriously, buying random minis, half of which look like happy meal toys? some core PC races being uncommon?

 

[DaveMage]

I haven't bought random for the last 5 sets.

Auggies rocks....

All the minis I want (and in whatever quantity), none of the minis I don't.

 

[Fifth Element]

I dont like pre-painted. Random pre-painted just really sucks ass.

Insightful.

 

[Fifth Element]

You can buy a complete set of Against the Giants on eBay right now for less than $300.