Which Miniatures company is best suited to take over the D&D pre-painted mini line?

[qstor]

I think its a shame. I like the pre-painted minis a lot.

Mike

 

[Hautamaki]

I think its a shame. I like the pre-painted minis a lot.

Mike

Seeing as how I actually live in China, I think I'll do some serious research and see if I can figure out what's become of the factories that are producing these things.

 

[giant.robot]

Rackham went belly up last year, but you might pick up a couple of cheap sets to use some as monsters/NPCs.

I did this very thing this week, picked up some heavily discounted Rackham stuff off of Miniature Market. I love Rackham's AT-43 miniatures for sci-fi soldiers and robot suits and their pre-painted Confrontation miniatures are gorgeous. I intend to use them for PC minis in the 4E and Pathfinder games I play in.

Overall I think pre-painted miniatures are a sticky wicket for manufacturers and resellers. For games like Warhammer or A&A every player needs to have their own batch of miniatures to play the game. With D&D miniatures (or any other RPG) individual players don't need more than a few miniatures so your main source of sales will be DMs.

If the miniatures are not randomized DMs will pick up the sets they need and stop buying and there would be little need for a secondary market. If you randomize them individual sales to DMs will slow because they don't want to end up with 400 rat swarms but sales to the secondary market will increase. If the secondary market doesn't pick up DMs will grab miniatures from other companies or use tokens.

For resellers the limiting factor is how many higher priced uncommon, rare, and very rare figures those they can expect to find and how much will people pay for them. It's the sales of those rarer figures that cover the cost of the case they cracked open to get the single minis. Their margins come from the sale of the more common figures.

Unfortunately WotC decided to make the worst sculpts and the more useless creatures commons so no one wants to buy them. In my experience buying Star Wars miniatures I've got something like a billion Naboo starfighters, Geonosian starfighters, Sith Infiltrators, and Rebel honor guards that I'll probably never actually use. They're so distinct that they can't really be used in place of another figure without reminding players every ten seconds that the bright yellow fighter really is a Y-Wing.

edit: removed a naughty word

 

[TarionzCousin]

Seeing as how I actually live in China, I think I'll do some serious research and see if I can figure out what's become of the factories that are producing these things.

[MENTION=42219]Hautamaki[/MENTION] If you buy a factory, please let us know so we can order minis through you.

 

[Herschel]

I did this very thing this week, picked up some heavily discounted Rackham stuff off of Miniature Market. I love Rackham's AT-43 miniatures for sci-fi soldiers and robot suits and their pre-painted Confrontation miniatures are gorgeous. I intend to use them for PC minis in the 4E and Pathfinder games I play in.

I'd advise against general use for them. They're pretty, but they suck. The plastic is VERY brittle and the designs aren't very durable either. I've had two breaks just trying to remove them from the box. One is still in because it's that fragile.

The best thing about DDM is that they were generally made to be used and stand up to the rigors of gaming.

 

[Hautamaki]

Well I found a few hobby shops in Shanghai and Guangzhou that had DDM but the price and selection wasn't any better than you could get on ebay and wouldn't put me in touch with their suppliers. I know that there's a factory in Guangzhou somewhere that makes these things but I can't find any contact info for it yet.

 

[Argyle King]

I don't feel anyone should pick up the DDM line.

However, I do feel there's an opportunity for a company who wants to produce plastic prepainted minis of a manner similar to D&D minis to flourish. I'd be perfectly happy to buy 'Reptile Men' or whatever a different company would want to call them to use as Dragonborn (for one example.)

One thing I'd like to be able to find is something akin to a "Bag 'O Kobolds." I've been getting more into painting my own minis, but it would be nice to be able to pick up a batch of cheap prepainted kobolds, orcs, skeletons, or other such common monsters.

 

[pawsplay]

I agree with Merric as well - I don't see anybody getting into the DDM market any time soon. Maybe in a few years with 5E and the economy in better shape?

I've had good luck buying the unpainted Warhammer stuff and then shipping them overseas to get painted, en masse. (Sri Lanka, believe it or not) Not a great way to get characters, but if you want a horde of: goblins, orcs, skeletons, zombies, ghouls, dwarves, elves, humans, etc, it's not a bad alternative. Not as cheap as boxes of DDM, but you get what you want and you get the colors you want. And, you have to get a few guys together to do it in bulk to make up for the shipping costs. I haven't done it in a few years now, but I know they're still in business.

Plus, you are making some underemployed Sri Lankan fantasy geek really happy.

 

[cyderak]

Well I found a few hobby shops in Shanghai and Guangzhou that had DDM but the price and selection wasn't any better than you could get on ebay and wouldn't put me in touch with their suppliers. I know that there's a factory in Guangzhou somewhere that makes these things but I can't find any contact info for it yet.

Let me know if you find out.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Assuming of course that you actually like Warhammer sculpts; I've never really liked their "cartoony/anime" feel (though the Brettonian peasants/militia are some of the best mass "random guy on the street" figures out there currently."

I am also fond of the Empire line - but then my homebrew is set ca. 1630, in the equivalent of the Germanies. The archers set has a fellow that has just bagged a pheasant....

Not a surprise - the Perrys are historical wargamers, and this carries over into their designs and sculpts. (One of the brothers lost a hand when his cannon blew up in a reenactment.)

The Auld Grump