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

[Glyfair]

And, just as if not more importantly, if you have the time to do so. That's the big issue for many people - not lack of skill, but lack of time.

And lack of interest. I have no desire to sit down and learn how to get better at painting miniatures so I get spend hours and hours at something I don't find entertaining just to get something I can already get much cheaper elsewhere (possibly at a slightly lower quality, possibly not).

Personally I find the paint jobs on the plastic miniatures from acceptable to pretty good most of the time. If you want to see poor paint jobs, look at the very Rebellion set from Mage Knight when they were pioneering the field. Yuck.

 

[carmachu]

Didn't hurt my feelings (the internet is not a good place for sensitive people). But it's hard to pull your meaning out of "Random pre-painted just really sucks ass". I agree that the paint jobs for DDM can be pretty bad (though some are good enough). But how was I supposed to know what you were actually saying from such a broad comment?

Because they do? Between randomness and bad paint jobs I see them as a horrible investment over things out there.

 

[Lizard]

You know, in the old days, you just bought the minis you wanted. If WOTC wants to force people who play the mini game to open pack after pack after pack, they should allow people who just want to play D&D to order individual minis, perhaps with custom bases so they can't be used in the miniatures game.

Or, of course, we can use Lego, or Reaper figures, or many other solutions...the most important thing is base size, and you can do that with cardboard squares.

 

[DaveMage]

You know, in the old days, you just bought the minis you wanted. If WOTC wants to force people who play the mini game to open pack after pack after pack, they should allow people who just want to play D&D to order individual minis, perhaps with custom bases so they can't be used in the miniatures game.

Just another area where a third party already does it better.

Auggies rules!

 

[Glyfair]

If WOTC wants to force people who play the mini game to open pack after pack after pack, they should allow people who just want to play D&D to order individual minis, perhaps with custom bases so they can't be used in the miniatures game.

The distribution method doesn't facilitate them selling individual minis. You order them, however, through secondary dealers.

The main reason most don't use their other options are the niche D&D miniatures. Those D&D miniatures who are rares, thus valuable through secondary sources and D&D specific, meaning non-D&D companies don't feel they should create them. Even Reaper has only done a handful of versions of the niche monsters (and I don't see a rush for them to get them in the LE line, likely due to the expense).

The thing is, those niche miniatures are exactly the advantage that consumers get from the random packaging method. Without the bundling of the miniatures you wouldn't see those niche miniatures being created. They wouldn't be in enough demand to produce at a reasonable price point.

 

[megamania]

When I see threads like this I think Auggie owes people some commisions.

 

[D'karr]

When I see threads like this I think Auggie owes people some commisions.

I don't think so. A smart business sees and need and fills it.

Auggies delivers in spades on that one. Word of mouth advertising is a pretty powerful tool, and Auggies has a business that provides such a fantastic and needed service that people will gladly talk about it.

All he owes us is to continue delivering that service for as long as he can.

 

[megamania]

....oooooooh..... he has some Heroclix also....... I'm in trouble.....

 

[portermj]

You know, in the old days, you just bought the minis you wanted. If WOTC wants to force people who play the mini game to open pack after pack after pack, they should allow people who just want to play D&D to order individual minis, perhaps with custom bases so they can't be used in the miniatures game.

Or, of course, we can use Lego, or Reaper figures, or many other solutions...the most important thing is base size, and you can do that with cardboard squares.

Well WOTC can't really force people to play DDM and DDM hitting the scene didn't suddenly remove all the old options.

As much as it bothers some people, there are people out there like me that on occasion prefer DDM to other options. It seems like there is plenty of room in the hobby for DDM, Creature Counters, Warhammer, Confrontation, etc.

 

[Thunderfoot]

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.

Assuming that you can paint and that you you would actually want to paint them - not all of us are Picasso.
I agree that random sucks, but then again, so do unpainted metal minis, they are heavy, fragile and look horrible if left unpainted.

BTW, I actually paint minis, but was using the above hyperbole to show how snarky your comments sounded. Remember that not everyone has the time nor inclination to paint minis.