My boyfriend and I split on a case ( I paid the extra $4 for the dragon, he has no interest in that). I can just see the day it arrives now:We'll split it down the centre and I'll beg him for every Venomous Snake, Lizardfolk, and Manticore he gets, and he'll do the same for every Spectre, Troll, and Lich...
Here's to hoping we actually are lucky enough to get all of those. I swear if we don't get one single venomous snake, but get every rare I'm going to cry.. I love the snake mini...
Two things I have to point out.
1. If you ordered a case Paizo has basically said you should get just about every mini2. I wish my GF would have split the case with me, her exact line when I broached the subject was, "You're the GM you need all the minis I just need some to represent what ever character I'm playing. But you better not skip out on getting the dragon or else!"
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2. I wish my GF would have split the case with me, her exact line when I broached the subject was, "You're the GM you need all the minis I just need some to represent what ever character I'm playing. But you better not skip out on getting the dragon or else!"
at least she is pushing you to buy a case and didn't say 'you have enough minis, why are you spending so much on a case'...
Case subscribers who have only the Battles subscription or who have set their subscriptions to "Never Hold Anything" should be getting order confirmation emails on Tuesday, January 3rd.
We estimate that we will being shipping of these subscription cases as well as regular preorders on January 4th. Since this is our first Battles subscription run, we are not sure how long it will take us from when we start the shipping process on Wednesday.
Our shipping system is streamlined to process orders in a way that allows us to ship out orders in the most efficient manner possible. We do not try to target specific orders for arriving on the release date, but rather the average order from the batch should arrive around the release date. Depending on shipping times to particular areas and the shipping method chosen, some people may see their cases earlier or later than others.
Thanks for the clarification. I assume that tracking numbers for specific orders will be forwarded when they become available?
My boyfriend and I split on a case ( I paid the extra $4 for the dragon, he has no interest in that). I can just see the day it arrives now:We'll split it down the centre and I'll beg him for every Venomous Snake, Lizardfolk, and Manticore he gets, and he'll do the same for every Spectre, Troll, and Lich...
Here's to hoping we actually are lucky enough to get all of those. I swear if we don't get one single venomous snake, but get every rare I'm going to cry.. I love the snake mini...Two things I have to point out.
1. If you ordered a case Paizo has basically said you should get just about every mini2. I wish my GF would have split the case with me, her exact line when I broached the subject was, "You're the GM you need all the minis I just need some to represent what ever character I'm playing. But you better not skip out on getting the dragon or else!"
They mentioned we should get NEARLY complete sets. With my luck, the only mini I wouldn't get would be the snake P:
DO you know how hard it was to convince my boyfriend to drop $150+ on a set of minis >.> All he ever wants to use are orcs and skeletons. I'm the one who wants to throw interesting monsters at the players XD
My boyfriend and I split on a case ( I paid the extra $4 for the dragon, he has no interest in that). I can just see the day it arrives now:We'll split it down the centre and I'll beg him for every Venomous Snake, Lizardfolk, and Manticore he gets, and he'll do the same for every Spectre, Troll, and Lich...
Here's to hoping we actually are lucky enough to get all of those. I swear if we don't get one single venomous snake, but get every rare I'm going to cry.. I love the snake mini...Two things I have to point out.
1. If you ordered a case Paizo has basically said you should get just about every mini2. I wish my GF would have split the case with me, her exact line when I broached the subject was, "You're the GM you need all the minis I just need some to represent what ever character I'm playing. But you better not skip out on getting the dragon or else!"
They mentioned we should get NEARLY complete sets. With my luck, the only mini I wouldn't get would be the snake P:
DO you know how hard it was to convince my boyfriend to drop $150+ on a set of minis >.> All he ever wants to use are orcs and skeletons. I'm the one who wants to throw interesting monsters at the players XD
You mean all I use currently are somewhat common monsters as we are playing with a group of people who are totally new :P
You mean all I use currently are somewhat common monsters as we are playing with a group of people who are totally new :PMy boyfriend and I split on a case ( I paid the extra $4 for the dragon, he has no interest in that). I can just see the day it arrives now:We'll split it down the centre and I'll beg him for every Venomous Snake, Lizardfolk, and Manticore he gets, and he'll do the same for every Spectre, Troll, and Lich...
Here's to hoping we actually are lucky enough to get all of those. I swear if we don't get one single venomous snake, but get every rare I'm going to cry.. I love the snake mini...Two things I have to point out.
1. If you ordered a case Paizo has basically said you should get just about every mini2. I wish my GF would have split the case with me, her exact line when I broached the subject was, "You're the GM you need all the minis I just need some to represent what ever character I'm playing. But you better not skip out on getting the dragon or else!"
They mentioned we should get NEARLY complete sets. With my luck, the only mini I wouldn't get would be the snake P:
DO you know how hard it was to convince my boyfriend to drop $150+ on a set of minis >.> All he ever wants to use are orcs and skeletons. I'm the one who wants to throw interesting monsters at the players XD
Let me rephrase, when I said 'interesting' I more so meant... 'disgusting and bizarre'. Speaking of which, I'm hoping that the next set has an ooze and some aberrations ^^
Yes I know, a few of them haven't even played a fantasy RPG and have probably never seen an Orc.. I guess it's just that I'm personally bored of those monsters ;)
They mentioned we should get NEARLY complete sets. With my luck, the only mini I wouldn't get would be the snake.
Good news. The clarifications that have been given are this: a case should get you a full set. The collation being done is such that the intent is to have a case be complete. That said, collation is being done by human beings and it is quite possible that some cases may not be complete due to error. So there's zero guarantee but the typical expectation is a full set per case.
Given the snake is uncommon as opposed to rare, I think you're pretty likely to get 1 to 2 per case. Rares are very likely only 1 per case while commons are likely 2-3 per case. Remember there are 40 molds and the number of individual boxes works out to be about 80 minis per case due to the unknown distribution of Smalls (two to a box) versus Mediums. Given a little fudging on the numbers, you're going to be looking at 80 +/- a few. So roughly 2 of each if the distribution was even. But it's not. So if you figure odds of 1 per rare in a case, it does fairly predictable things to the rest of the distribution. It's all odds, and a gamble, but again I think you're in pretty good shape.
They mentioned we should get NEARLY complete sets. With my luck, the only mini I wouldn't get would be the snake.Good news. The clarifications that have been given are this: a case should get you a full set. The collation being done is such that the intent is to have a case be complete. That said, collation is being done by human beings and it is quite possible that some cases may not be complete due to error. So there's zero guarantee but the typical expectation is a full set per case.
Given the snake is uncommon as opposed to rare, I think you're pretty likely to get 1 to 2 per case. Rares are very likely only 1 per case while commons are likely 2-3 per case. Remember there are 40 molds and the number of individual boxes works out to be about 80 minis per case due to the unknown distribution of Smalls (two to a box) versus Mediums. Given a little fudging on the numbers, you're going to be looking at 80 +/- a few. So roughly 2 of each if the distribution was even. But it's not. So if you figure odds of 1 per rare in a case, it does fairly predictable things to the rest of the distribution. It's all odds, and a gamble, but again I think you're in pretty good shape.
A case has 12 large minis; there are 8 large models, all of rare rarity. That comes to 1.5 of each large per case. If we assume that a case contains as many of each medium rare as it does of each large rare, 9 medium rare models at 1.5 minis/rare model gives us 14-15 rare minis out of 64, leaving 49-50 booster divided between 13 common and 10 uncommon. But two small minis are packaged together, reducing the effective numbers to 11 and 9. 2 of each uncommon uses 18 boosters, leaving 31-32, or just about 3 of each common.
tldr; my guess is 3 of each common, 2 of each uncommon, and 1 of each rare, with duplicates of half of the rares. If any of those numbers are far off, it means that the large rares are actually a different rarity than the regular rares- which has been specifically and officially denied.
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For those who might not have seen me posting in the Customer Service Forums:
We expect to begin shipping subscriptions and preorders for Heroes & Monsters today, January 4th and hopefully wrap up by Friday, January 6th (this is our first shipment of Battles miniatures so we aren't sure about the estimate for how long it will take to get all the subscription and preorder shipments out the door).
If you have questions, comments or concerns, please let us know as soon as possible via email (customer.service@paizo.com) or the customer service messageboards (http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizo/customerService) or phone.
edit: note: if you have chosen "hold for monthly" on your subscriptions, your subscription case order will not be shipping at this time. See the customer service thread regarding January subscriptions for further details.
Chief Technical Officer
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I may be wrong, but I believe the practise of providing a premium with case preorders is Wizkids standard practise (and no doubt to boost initial demand to cover production costs and allow more optimal production runs, as you suggest). I doubt it was suggested by Paizo (though I expect they had input as to what the mini would actually be).
You are correct. It's called a "case incentive" for a reason—it provides incentive for customers and retailers to buy entire cases.
We *love* that it also lets us make some really big minis (and ones with extra paint ops) without having to charge crazy money for them.
As for why the black dragon was chosen, well, truth be told, the dragon was originally slated to be part of the Beginner Box Heroes set, but it would have driven the retail cost of that set far too high, so we had to drop it. So when WizKids suggested that we might use it as the case incentive for this set, we were thrilled to have the opportunity.
And when you learn about the incentive plan for the Rise of the Runelords set... Whoo!
That's all I'm saying: Whoo!
Wizkids was here the other day to show off the latest sculpts to the management team and I just happened to walk past the conference room and caught a glimpse of the painted version of the Rise of the Runelords set's premium....
O. M. G
'Whoohoo!'
Argh! Ack! Pthah!
You all are killing me!
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Chief Technical Officer
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Will we be able to subscribe to the Encounter packs?
Nope. Since WizKids minis are produced by WizKids, not Paizo, we don't have our usual profit margins on them, which means that it's difficult for us to provide subscribers with meaningful benefits without reducing our profit to zero. With the case subscription, the existence of the case premium made for a sensible benefit, but with the Encounter Packs, we don't really have a decent potential benefit to offer.
So, you might ask, if we're able to offer case subscribers a discount code for an Encounter Pack, why can't we just offer a discount on the Encounter Pack itself? The answer is that the Encounter Pack discount is subsidized by the profits from the case, which is only viable because it's a high ticket item. (Basically, a non-discounted case plus a discounted case premium plus a discounted Encounter Pack gives you value while still making us some profit.)
I feel bad for your warehouse guys and gals. Hope they do ok with all this craziness. From someone who worked in manual labor let them know I appreciate their efforts.
We'll pass it along to them. :)
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Mine look like they just shipped! International though so still weeks away. If anyone could anser these questions once they have them in hand I'd really appreciate it. 1) Wizkidz minis often lack face detail, not just paint detail but shallow features or no features - how do these fare? 2) Often hands appear oversized or strangely exagerated(the orc brute and spectre for example) how do these look? Don't get me wrong I became a subsciber the moment it was announced and I am thoroughly impressed with the job on this first set - especially since it started out as a generic fantasy mini set, just curious about these details.
Dumb question- Where should the inevitable brick-bursting reports go? Should there be a thread in the minis forum for reporting which minis you got in your bricks / cases?
Mine look like they just shipped! International though so still weeks away.
Same here :) Sometimes I get lucky when buying from the U.S. though, and it shows up within a week. I'm going to hope for that!
There is a post on plasticrypt.com from Auggie about a problem he discovered while breaking open cases for singles sales...
BE CAREFUL BUYING BOOSTERS OTHER THAN SEALED BRICKS. The boosters don't have shrink wrap and aren't even taped closed. It's a simple matter to open a booster and see it's contents then close it back.
There is a post on plasticrypt.com from Auggie about a problem he discovered while breaking open cases for singles sales...
BE CAREFUL BUYING BOOSTERS OTHER THAN SEALED BRICKS. The boosters don't have shrink wrap and aren't even taped closed. It's a simple matter to open a booster and see it's contents then close it back.
I hope the word gets out, and eventually back to WizKids. I just bought all 17 Lords of the Rings HeroClix that my FLGS had, and as I was opening them, I noticed how easy they were to open. I then carefully opened the next few and noticed the cardboard tab was partially creased, prior to opening it. I realized that they all had been pre-opened which would also explain why almost all of them were the same miniature 3 to 4 times over... and all but a couple were commons. (No rares of course).
I had assumed that they would have been packaged better for Paizo, however it sounds like its just the same box being used. This to me is completely unacceptable. Would 2 little spots of glue on each box have driven the costs up that much?
I sincerely hope that Paizo addresses this with WizKids! Not impressed!
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There is a post on plasticrypt.com from Auggie about a problem he discovered while breaking open cases for singles sales...
BE CAREFUL BUYING BOOSTERS OTHER THAN SEALED BRICKS. The boosters don't have shrink wrap and aren't even taped closed. It's a simple matter to open a booster and see it's contents then close it back.
Well that sours me on the idea of buying any boosters, except direct from Paizo. However I won't be doing that because of shipping and customs fees and VAT. Drat.
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CEO
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I hope the word gets out, and eventually back to WizKids.
We checked into this. It was a problem with the first part of the shipment and was caught part way through shipping out the miniatures. It was a mistake at the factory and the last part of the print run got fixed. At least that is what we have been told. Wizkids did NOT want the boosters to be untaped, but things happen and we are going to have to deal with this one. I bet they are going to be 300% more careful for the next set.
-Lisa
Thanks great to hear Lisa! Thanks for the update.
I will be mostly buying singles and a few random boosters.
I was going to buy a case but there was too much duplication of what I already have, but this is a great set for someone just starting a minis collection.
I hope the word gets out, and eventually back to WizKids.We checked into this. It was a problem with the first part of the shipment and was caught part way through shipping out the miniatures. It was a mistake at the factory and the last part of the print run got fixed. At least that is what we have been told. Wizkids did NOT want the boosters to be untaped, but things happen and we are going to have to deal with this one. I bet they are going to be 300% more careful for the next set.
-Lisa
That's really relieving. I could just see all the eBay sellers in my head selling 'unopened Pathfinder boosters', and mysteriously enough, a different section in their eBay store listed as 'Pathfinder Rares'....
Interesting, ordered alot of other mini's which shipped the same day as "H&M" case(UPS) and the other miniatures(US Postal)has arrived today and the Heroes & Monsters has not. I never expected USPS to beat UPS from Washington(state) to Ohio? So, I am still holding my breath hoping, beyound reasonable hope, that "H&M" makes it here before my Sunday gaming session.
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I received my two cases arrived. I broke them open and some of the miniatures I just love and others are just so so for me.
I was surprised the trolls were so small compared to the minotaurs and the ogres but I do like the mini.
Not overly impressed with the zombie, skeleton or mummy.
Love the Werewolf, goblins, ettins, spiders (especially the large one), best Lich I have ever seen, the rats are incredible, and I like the succubus.
I like almost all the player character minis - a couple are do not seem to represent their class well for me like the druid but it is okay.
I am a happy camper. With two cases I got 5 trolls, 5 ettins, 2 large spiders, 2 manicores, 2 minotaurs, 3 ogres (not my favorite but I am sure we will get more in Runelords) and at least 2 of the other larges. Really almost a perfect distribution. I would like some more rats I think.
Thank you Paizo and Wiz Kids. I look forward to Runelords, Encounter Packs and whatever else is coming. Need a mini for Wet Papa Grazuul.
I am a happy camper. With two cases I got 5 trolls, 5 ettins, 2 large spiders, 2 manicores, 2 minotaurs, 3 ogres (not my favorite but I am sure we will get more in Runelords) and at least 2 of the other larges. Really almost a perfect distribution. I would like some more rats I think.
Surprising to see that you got 3 trolls and 3 ettins in a case. How was the rest of the distribution? How many duplicate commons, uncommons, rares did you get? And how many singles did you get?
We're bursting bricks down here, FWIW:
I got a case and I have to say I'm thrilled. I got at least one of every miniature and they were all awesome. A word of advice: do be a -little- cautious, I had two that came out of the case detached from their bases, but it was an easy fix and they look -amazing-!
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Ok I got my Set.. Here is what I Have to say about My experience..
The Good
Paint Jobs are very well done though as many have said It seems that some faces did not come out well
Size is good and should match well with D&D minis
Got 2 cases and in both cases got fulls sets
The Bad
Some of the molds especially around the faces where really bad, very rough .
The packaging was horrible, like some have mentioned if you are going to buy these in single boxes you have to be weary about how easy it is to open them to see what is inside since they are not wrapped
The majority of my Minis where lose from the plastic molds that where supposed to hold them and in one case for the Human Ranger this may have lead to the tip of the arrow being broken off.
The distribution in my small sample of 2 cases did not match their rarity, I was very surprised how many Uncommons I got and rares I got compared to Commons. One pattern I noticed was that in a brick if I pulled a Wolf I always also got a Werwolf in the same Brick. I was very disappointed I pulled 6 Ettins!! I had Rares out number my Commons and Uncommons! Below is my list and distribution:
Number/Name/Rarity/Count
1/Goblin Warrior/C/8
2/Goblin Hero/C/8
3/Goblin Warrior/C/2
4/Goblin Hero/C/2
5/Orc Brute/C/6
6/Orc Warrior/C/4
7/Skeleton/C/6
8/Watch Guard/C/4
9/Watch Officer/C/6
10/Lizardfolk Champion/C/4
11/Zombie/C/4
12/Giant Spider/C/6
13/Wolf/C/6
14/Venomous Snake/U/4
15/Mummy/U/4
16/Human Rogue/U/2
17/Human Ranger/U/6
18/Elf Wizard/U/6
19/Half-Elf Cleric/U/4
20/Dwarf Fighter/U/6
21/Human Druid/U/4
22/Gnome Fighter/U/4
23/Dire Rat/U/4
24/Gargoyle/R/6
25/Half-Orc Barbarian/R/4
26/Spectre/R/2
27/Seelah/R/2
28/Werewolf/R/6
29/Medusa/R/4
30/Minotaur/R/2
31/Ogre/R/4
32/Troll/R/4
33/Ettin/R/6
34/Chimera/R/2
35/Manticore/R/2
36/Giant Caveweaver/R/2
37/Frost Giant/R/2
38/Succubus/R/2
39/Lich/R/2
40/Vampire/R/4
Though I am satisfied over all, I hope there are some improvements, and My small example of poor distribution is not actually a common problem.
Though I am satisfied over all, I hope there are some improvements, and My small example of poor distribution is not actually a common problem.
WizKids has always had distribution problems which either they've never been able to fix or they don't want to fix.
Their recent Lord of the Rings release is a good example. There were a lot of reports of cases completely missing 1 or 2 commons and reports of clustering where stores received cases containing identical rare/chase pieces - for example 5 cases with the same 2 rares and 1 chase piece (note that cases could have 2R, 3R or 2R 1C and the set has 5 rares and 3 chase pieces in the set).
The good news is Paizo was able to get WizKids to make sure a case contained all pieces in the set and early reports are this has happened.
The bad news is the rest of the distribution is not evened out. Early indications are we can expect 1-4 of each common, 1-3 of each uncommon, and 1-3 of each rare. In addition, there is either clustering of cases or there are two rarity levels for the large pieces as half the larges have twice the pull rate of the other half.
The good news is Paizo was able to get WizKids to make sure a case contained all pieces in the set and early reports are this has happened.
First off I sadly can tell you that this is not the case(no pun intended). I purchased a full case(4 bricks) and I after opening the entire thing I ended up not getting the halfling/dire rat combo set.
Regardless on to the good and the bad:
Good:
There are some very nice minis in this set, and overall I will love being able to put them out on the table. Most of the paint jobs will look very good when placed on the table during actual play. The paizo style goblin miniatures made me smile. The Ettin is a frightening miniature and will command a ton of attention when on the table. All the miniatures in my case came undamaged. Finally I can't say enough about some of the miniatures, Lich, Succubus, Specter, Venomous Snake, and Lizardfolk Champion are some of the real winners.
Bad:
The distribution, as mentioned before there was one miniature that I didn't get. I got 29 Rares, 19 uncommons, and 28 commons. Perhaps there are more rares because of the guaranteed 3 large figurines in each brick. While the commons seemed distributed well (I got 2-3 copies of each one except 4 wolves, and 1 zombie) the uncommons were distributed very poorly. Half of them I had 3 of and the rest I had 1 copy of. Finally there were a few sculpts that were absolute stinkers. The troll, while a decent sculpt is about half the size it should be. It almost looks like a medium figure on a large base. While most of the monster minis were very good some of the PC/NPC minis were pretty mediocre. I did not like the Human Druid, Elf Wizard(the ears look more like horns), or the Human Ranger. To make matters worse the faces were poorly painted and while look OK from afar they are laughable up close. Finally the Mummy and Zombie were uninspired, both needed a little more bulk and evilness to really make them work.
While that seems like a lot of negatives, the awesomeness of the positives far overwhelms any flaws. I will definitely buy another case when a new set is released. I am very happy with my miniatures and hopefully the flaws can be smoothed out.
Ok I got my Set.. Here is what I Have to say about My experience..
The Good
Paint Jobs are very well done though as many have said It seems that some faces did not come out well
Size is good and should match well with D&D minis
Got 2 cases and in both cases got fulls sets
The Bad
Some of the molds especially around the faces where really bad, very rough .
The packaging was horrible, like some have mentioned if you are going to buy these in single boxes you have to be weary about how easy it is to open them to see what is inside since they are not wrapped
The majority of my Minis where lose from the plastic molds that where supposed to hold them and in one case for the Human Ranger this may have lead to the tip of the arrow being broken off.
The distribution in my small sample of 2 cases did not match their rarity, I was very surprised how many Uncommons I got and rares I got compared to Commons. One pattern I noticed was that in a brick if I pulled a Wolf I always also got a Werwolf in the same Brick. I was very disappointed I pulled 6 Ettins!! I had Rares out number my Commons and Uncommons! Below is my list and distribution:
** spoiler omitted **
Though I am satisfied over all, I hope there are some...
Thanks for the impressions, Dragnmoon.
Where of course I would have been happy to hear there was good case distribution, that doesn't bother me as much due to I can just get more minis to round out my set if I need to.
What really bothers me though is the quality of the molds. It scares me hearing that miniatures are coming off their plastic molds, faces are extremely rough and weapons (arrow) breaking, poorly painted faces and minis being off in size.
I really hope this is something that is looked at and fixed for future sets and not something that becomes the norm.
For those that have your minis, what weapon does the lizardman have?