Well I\'ve seen \'em- and they are crap

[Stripwalker]

Yup thats right the D&D minis look like crap in person too. Oh they have great sculpts but it looks like someone swallowed some paint then blew it thickly out their bum all over the figure. :flame: I also saw the \'new\' mageknight, the GW/Sabertooth LOTR and Battle Tags- all painted in the same rear end fashion- the German soldier for battle tags even had pink camo for god\'s sakes- sigh. Is this what minis are coming to- horrible paintjobs on cheap plastic bits? Is the demand these days really for such shoddy figures made by the boxfull with the lowest caliber of paintjob? If so it is truly sad- on the other hand those of us who can and will paint can make some bucks off ebay I guess cause those paint jobs make even my worst jobs look like 8\'s lol

 

[UncleHex]

Well I\'ve just recently (last Friday) had most of the above cross my desk....not a pretty sight.
In fact I thought the \'Planet of the Apes\' figures were quite good, untill I realised they were supposed to be orks!lol
As for Battletags, apparently the game system is VERY good but the 54mm sculpts leave alot to be desired IMHO (not to mention thoes \'so-called\' paint jobs!) lol

Shoot!, I hate slagging stuff off but...you gotta admit...:|~

 

[Sturmhalo]

I\'ve not seen too many of these kind of pre-painted plastic things, but from what I have seen I\'m not impressed! Oh you can get all bolshy and say that plastics are good because they don\'t break when you throw them across the kitchen floor (only thing these things are good for in my opinion!). Or that pre-painted figures are the way forward because not everyone can paint well (what, like the chimps that paint these things in some sweat shop?!) and little Johnny could do without the inferiority complex he gets every time he opens WD or accesses sites like this! What utter crap!

:flame:

 

[Dragonsreach]

Got to agree with all the above.
What is it with WOTC they have the premiere role playing game which is the trademark name recognised even by non players and are treating the players like they are morons! It\'s either that or the parent company Hasbro regard all their items a childrens toys. In this case inferior ones at that!

They should never have allowed the license to lapse with Ral Partha. :flame:

 

[Raptoriffic]

You mentioned that the sculpts were good? Would they be worth repainting then? I\'m quite interested in the concept of these minis, and if I could give them a decent paintjob I\'d be happy. If they are sculpts like MageKnight though, I think I\'ll have to pass. I believe that they are the same kind of plastic (right?). How detailed of a sculpt can you cast with that kind of plastic?

 

[supervike]

while browsing...

I was in the local comic book/gaming store and some new minis caught my eye that were in the \"display case\"

They were grey unpainted plastic (exactly like the GW plastic figs) and the sculpts were very very cool.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed they had the little \"battle bases\" or whatever they call them.

I asked the clerk what these were and he told me they were promotional pieces for the new MageKnight 2.0.

I said, \"I can\'t wait to get some of these, they look like they will be fun to paint!\"

He said, \"Oh they will be pre-painted, but they are supposed to look awesome.\"

When he said \"pre-painted\" my eyes kind of glazed over, then I think he was expounding on the virtues of the gaming system, so I just nodded and went about my business.

My not-so-short point is...The promo pieces really looked cool. The scupts were dynamic and interesting. To bad they wont just sell those.

I don\'t care how awesome the pre-painted thing looks, I wanna paint em myself!! If it could be done, they would definately be worth repainting (at least the few I saw)

 

[Temperance]

I don\'t think anyone at CMoN is really the audience for prepainted miniatures -- all of us can do a better job than what we can get prepainted through the D&D Miniatures or Mageknight line. And we would all equally cringe if we took all of our painted miniatures and threw them into a cardboard box. These prepainted miniatures should NOT be looked upon as \"art miniatures\" but more as game pieces. It\'s a different object that does the same thing; like a microwave and a conventional oven. You\'re not gonna cook a Thanksgiving turkey in a Microwave and you\'re not going to pop a bag of popcorn in a conventional oven.

Now for the people who can\'t paint their miniatures and want to buy them cheaply, they now have these plastic lines. At $1.25 each, we can not compete with those prices. But it might increase interest in miniatures, and there might be more people willing to buy well painted miniatures for heroes -- and they might spend $20-$30 for that one well painted figure.

Anything that increases the player base for miniatures, painted or unpainted, is good for the hobby. The more people we can get into miniatures the better the hobby will become.

 

[Sturmhalo]

I tend to feel that these pre-painted things are a bit demeaning to the miniatures industry. I mean they\'re almost akin to Pokemon cards or Pogs! I\'m sure they\'ll do the rounds in the playground amongst kids. I know some people think that all miniatures are toys, but they\'re not, they\'re models! Toys are made from soft plastic and badly painted in sweat shops... ahh hold on a minuite!

 

[Stripwalker]

I don\'t think repainting is an option with these either- no one has found a good way to remove the paint from mageknight figures. And the paint they apply might as well have been poured on cause it is so thick as to mask the details.

I do agree that this might bring more people into minis... but that is a big might. Non of the local Mageknight players can stand the more complex rules of the other games- if it isn\'t dumbed down they are not interested.

There are a lot of young painters in the area though- we held a paint workshop a month ago and were swamped with people starting for the first time.

I think the sad thing is that such an amazing game system that had previously made some great figures has decided to go with treat-of-the-week toys instead of supporting the hobby.