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Pathfinder Battles—Reign of Winter

3.10/5 (based on 11 ratings)
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It has been a century since the immortal witch Baba Yaga last visited the world, and the hour draws nigh for her return. But when she fails to appear in the frozen realm of Irrisen to user in its newest ruler, pockets of winter begin to grow throughout the Inner Sea region. After 1,400 years of perpetual winter, the icy curse of Irrisen is spreading! Will the Reign of Winter engulf the world?

Reign of Winter is the latest 45-figure set release in the award-winning Pathfinder Battles line of miniatures from Paizo Publishing and WizKids Games! Reign of Winter features friends and foes from the Pathfinder Adventure Path of the same name, and is sure to please Pathfinder fans new and veteran alike!

Pathfinder Battles figures come in a variety of randomly assorted packaging options.

  • Reign of Winter Standard Boosters contain 1 Large figure and 3 Medium or Small figures
  • Reign of Winter Standard Bricks contain 8 Standard Boosters (32 figures total)
  • Reign of Winter Standard Cases contain 4 Standard Bricks (32 Standard Boosters, 128 figures total)
Purchasers should get no to very few duplicate figures in a brick. Buyers who purchase factory-sealed cases should get a nearly complete set of figures. (As with any randomized product, collation is not guaranteed.)

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Battles Case Subscription.

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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Average product rating:

3.10/5 (based on 11 ratings)

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Unimpressed

2/5 —

If I could do it all over again I would have bought the singles that I wanted the most. With so many poor minis it isn't with the gamble opening booster packs.

The worst set - still of medium usefulness!

3/5 —

Out of 44 minis i rated:
1 star: 4 minis,
2 stars: 8 minis,
3 stars: 15 minis,
4 stars: 8 minis,
5 stars: 9 minis!

I love the animals and don´t like half of the humans (none gets 5 stars).
About 10 creatures are almost exclusively usable for the Reign of Winter Adventure Path.
But there are some great minis.
If the worst of 9 Pathfinder sets gets 3 stars the line is extremely good.

A very disappointing set

1/5 —

If you're like me, you've never said the following sentence.

"Boy, I can't wait for the players to encounter the angry barn owls and goats in this adventure."

And that sums up what makes this a one-star set.

Incidentally, if you have said that sentence, most likely you should learn to read silently, but thank you for reading my review.

See, there are three questions I ask myself of any set of minis I'm interested in. Those three questions are:

1) How does the mini set look?
2) How useful is this set to my games?
3) Do the answers to 1 and 2 justify the price?

Let's answer those questions with regards to this set, shall we?

Question 1. Compared to Wizkids work on the other mini sets, this set looks mediocre at best. Few color contrasts and bright designs are available. The Russian soldiers look so bland, generic dollar store army guys would look better. The maftet are brown on brown on brown with no interesting contrasts. The various nosferatu tend to come off sloppy when they don't come off as grey on gray. Compared to the earlier, far more interesting elementals in, say, RotRL, the ice elementals and golems just look boring - blue plastic drybrushed with white. Faces are sloppy on most of the humanoids. Even the centaurs, one of the most useful models in the set, are dull brown-on-brown with a design that is uninspiring at best. General Malesinder, who should be a simply awesome model, comes off with such dull colors and such a staid color scheme that he's boring - and his model is a bipedal, sword-wielding, large dragon. He's just a grey lump with some cadet blue highlights. Yawn. At least he's not as boring as Rasputin, whose black coat, dark grey pants, dark beard, dark red clothing interior, and sloppy skin coloration make him absolutely a chore to look at. Feiya's face was a splattered mess of that terrible peach color which is supposed to be a skin tone. I had to look closely to see that the catoblepas actually incorporated two colors in its design. It is a flat brown with tusks and hooves highlighted with an unsaturated shade of tan. Needless to say, the effect is ugly and uninspiring. The Russian Soldier is dark grey and silver. The Russian Machine Gunner is dark grey and skin color. Both are eyesores. Finally, the warriors and named characters were so dull I'm having trouble remembering what they were called - and that says all you need to know about how forgettable they were.

There's just a dull, messy, boring aesthetic here coupled with a serious fall-off in quality from earlier sets. Really, the ice trolls were the only models that look pleasing to the eye. They're hands down the best in this set, which sadly would make them middle of the pack for the better sets like RotRL.

Now question 2 is where this set falls apart. Less molds are supposed to drive down costs, but this is still a four hundred dollar set with a subscript. Now, I am sympathetic to real world concerns, but I still want value. I want minis that I might use for something. The Russian Soldier and Russian Machine Gunner are not very useful to me, since I have no intention to run RoW, but they are an integral part of the adventure path and had to be there. What makes no sense is making me pay for goats. My case contained five each of foxes, owls, falcons, goats, and ravens. That's twenty five models I paid for that could be replaced with the barn animals from my local crafts store. That's twenty five models which could have been creatures from the adventure path, warriors, witches, skeletons - in short, twenty five models that are of almost no use in creating an adventure. Can I create an adventure where I use those minis? Sure, if I need to. Could they be familiars or shape-changed imps? Of course. Does that mean that what I look forward to when opening a case of fantasy figurines is a raven and a goat? Hell no. The decision to include those models is a blunder nearly as bad as not thinking through the color scheme of your models before beginning the run. I'm angry that I have now spent money to get those silly farm animal figurines.

Deciding to include these figures was a huge waste. Consider the male and female ice troll, the centaurs, even the ugly General Malesinder. Those models are useful. Nothing would stop me from using any of them in another game. Some models, such as the wollipeds, are of limited use. I might have to think about how or why such a creature might fit in designing an adventure. The barn animals are of almost no use, and I paid for them, and Paizo wants $3.50 for them as singles.

So question three: can I say this set was worth the four hundred I paid?

Not at all.

Reign of Winter Review: Super Long Edition

4/5 —

I finally received my Reign of Winter case.

For those who know me from the Weekly Previews of the Battles line, it's likely that you realize I'm somewhat easily pleased when it comes to miniature selection choice in each line. But if you look at my review of the Legends of Golarion Battles line, you'll also realize I'm not afraid to be scathing in my reviews of product in hand.

Before I start the actual review, I want to point out a couple things that others may not be aware of if you haven't been following along in the Weekly Previews:

--The drop from 55 down to 45 sculpts wasn't done by Erik on a whim. It was done to help keep overall costs low and affordable for the average buyer.

--The drop occurred somewhere in the middle of the Reign of Winter decision-making process. Originally there were 55 sculpts (or more) that had been decided on and approved, but Erik was then tasked with making some cuts.

--Out of every Adventure Path Paizo has produced, the Reign of Winter line is probably the most inopportune path for such cuts to have happened. The Adventure Path spans regions, planes, planets and even other eras of time.

--For months, many of us in the Weekly Previews had been begging for more animals. This included a desire for some aerial animals, too. While Erik can't please all the people all the time, he encourages feedback on what we'd like to see more of in sets. There are so many things that factor into what is ultimately chosen for a set, and for many of the other sets, animals simply wouldn't work.

--Early in the Reign of Winter Previews, Erik mentioned that there was a high concentration of animals in this set, in part because it was the first Adventure Path line they had done in awhile that he felt he could drop in more than one or two animals. This was a chance to give us aerial animals such as the Raven, Owl and Falcon, in addition to some ground creatures. Erik stated early in the Preview process that he could have easily added a handful more animals to this set, had the line been large enough. This was BEFORE the cut was made (or at least announced), so it’s reasonable to think there was an animal or two among the ten miniatures that were cut.

--Erik has stated that while he won't necessarily shy away from adding a relevant (to the Adventure Path) animal or two to future sets, this is likely the highest concentration of animals we'll be seeing in an Adventure Path for the near future. Somewhat similar comments were made about demons during the Wrath of the Righteous Previews, and the Reign of Winter line is completely devoid of such creatures.

--The very nature of Battle Lines that follow Adventure Paths are tricky. While part of the goal is to appeal to those that run these lines, a blind eye cannot be turned to all of those DM's that don't run the path. Instead, many of us prefer to buy these lines for the different monsters and cool-looking NPC/PC-types to add to our collection.

--The Wolliped. In every single Battles Line, Erik gets to choose one creature or character found somewhere throughout the Adventure Path that appeals to him. This is often a creature that looks unique and isn't as well known to most players or DM's that aren't as familiar with the source material. While the creature CAN play a major role in the line, there is no actual requirement that it does. In this particular case, the Wolliped is found on page 90 & 91 in the fourth book of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path (The Frozen Stars). For those uninitiated with the creature, I suggest looking into it. They can be used as animal companions for PC's, in extra bonus for certain PC's.

I wanted to get all of that out of the way first. While they aren't meant as excuses for any disappointment as far as miniature choices are concerned, I feel it's important to at least understand why some of the choices have been made.

For the purpose of this review, I've discounted entirely the actual selection of miniatures chosen for this set. When I was going through the source material before any previews had been shown, I came up with over 90 characters that would have made sense for this line. Add in the fact that Wizkids wanted changes made in the middle of the process, and I feel like the selections here are solid all around.

And finally, one last issue of note. This is for those who are generally unhappy with the amount of animals in this set. Or perhaps those that would like to see more of a certain creature or type in future sets. Please come join the conversations we have in the Weekly Previews thread every Friday. The best way to get what you want is to have your voice heard. And in this case, one of the best places to do that is in the aforementioned thread. We've been discussing how best to incorporate iconic fantasy creatures of Tiny or smaller stature, such as Tiny Fey, into the Battles Line. (These present a challenge from a logistics point of view). We've also been discussing how best to include Huge-sized creatures as future product, and which creatures of said size make the most sense to make. There have been some requests for more Fey, more Plant creatures, etc. Maybe you want to participate in these discussions, or perhaps you feel there is a particular creature or NPC/PC that screams “MAKE ME A MINIATURE”. Regardless, please come join us…we’re all good people and love a good conversation and healthy debate.

Now on to the actual review:

No Battles Line review is complete without first commenting on the faces of Medium-size Humanoids in the line. It seems to be Wizkids/Paizo's kryptonite. These issues have been pretty well documented for the last few Battles lines, and there is a major issue in this release, too.

--Feiya, the Iconic Witch, has a horrible face. Others have commented, so I won’t get into it.

--Russian Machine Gunner - Yikes. This soldier's face is WRECKED. I received five of these in my case, and on every single miniature, the face is HORRIBLE. Between being applied on wrong areas of the sculpt or simply suffering from major smudge issues, all these faces are horribly, horribly done.

Between these two miniatures, I have to knock off a star.

Now here are some standouts:

Small size Miniatures:

--Owl – While I perhaps understand some of the less than enthusiastic reactions to the amount of animals found in the Reign of Winter line, I don’t think it should taint the review of the actual miniatures themselves. In truth, all the small animals are well done. If you’re buying piecemeal, buy with confidence. The owl is perhaps the best, but maybe only because there were a few more patterns to paint on him than the other animals, yet they still got him right. I find it fascinating that on a common miniature of small size, they were able to correctly detail and paint the underside of the feathers, giving the creature a feel of true authenticity and added depth. And don’t forget, Owls generally operate during the night, so this adds extra versatility to any night encounters your party will face.

--Raven – At first glance one might not consider this miniature anything special. Except for the beak, it’s all black, as most ravens tend to be. But if you look at it closely, you’ll realize that much like the Owl, there is clear depth shown along his feather line. Also, this Raven is not only the smallest of the animals in the Reign of Winter line, but he is of Tiny size. This means he matches up with his size description in the Familiar section of the first Bestiary. Ravens appear everywhere in fantasy, and the Reign of Winter path is no exception.

--Falcon – Perhaps the simplest of the three small aerial animals in this set, the falcon is still well done. Like the other birds, there is clear definition of feathers along his wings. One nice thing about this miniature is that because it’s basically just one color, and you get a few in a case, it’s easy to paint into a Hawk or some other big bird familiar/companion that better suits your need. Having a bird stretched wing-to-wing in a flying pose that can represent either type is extremely nice to have for the gaming table.

--Fox – I was worried about the fox. I was so unhappy with the shoddy work on the Snow Leopard from the Legends of Golarion set that it had me nervous for this fox miniature. As it turns out, I shouldn’t have worried. The fox is very well done for a common miniature. The facial features are great, and there is a distinct white underbelly, as found on most foxes. Perhaps the best part of the miniature and the most underrated aspect are the ears. The back of the ear is the same reddish-orange hue of hair that covers most of the fox. But the front part of the ear shows the white tufts with a very thin border of black. When set down on the table, the black provides enough contrast to pull the eye towards the face.

--Goblin Alchemist – Paizo has forced me into liking Goblins, and now I’m a sucker for them. After seeing this guy in the Reign of Winter Adventure Path, I realized there was no way that beautiful artwork would go unnoticed by Erik. He didn’t let me down, and this product in hand doesn’t, either. There is plenty going on here for such a little guy. My favorite thing is that his face maintains the unique Pathfinder Goblin look, while the skin color matches that of the Snow Goblins.

Medium size miniatures:

--Pale Tower Guard – I think I’ve seen some negative comments about this figure. I’m not sure why, as I feel like he’s the best-looking guard to date in the entire Paizo line of miniatures. There is clear definition to his armor, and the colors on my pieces haven’t bled into one another or anything. The crossbow on his back is great, and the big tower shield in his left hand is very nice. His faceplate is fine, and his two eyes are very discernable, if you’re looking at him for that purpose. For my table, he’ll likely serve as the go-to tower guard for any campaign. This guy is no Knight of Ozem or Eagle Knight Officer.

--Commander Pharamol – One of my favorite pieces in the entire set. There is a lot going on with this guy, but the detail—both sculpt and paint—do his illustration justice. Perhaps using him as a Triaxian isn’t your cup of tea. But he’s so well done and can easily pass as a catfolk ranger or something along those lines. His face is well done, and there is no paint overlap anywhere on the piece I received.

--Ratibor The Bold – I’ve seen a couple knocks on him, but every version I received in my case was just fine. His beard is fine and isn’t smeared all over his face. His eyes are accountable and aren’t too far apart. The body of this medium miniature is very well done, and there is no paint smear or overlap as a result of the various items on his belt. His shield doesn’t have any design on it, so perhaps that will bother you, perhaps not. I don’t mind a shield design when well done, but I like having a miniature without an insignia on the shield, so I can use him for more generic purposes in my campaign. In addition to the axe in his hand, this guy has a bow on his back and a quiver of arrows on his side, so you know he’s ready to fight. Buy this guy with confidence and don’t look back.

--Winter Guard Falconer – This character meets my expectations. I was worried he’d be too much to fit on one medium, non-rare figure. He’s not, as his miniature proves. The body of the miniature, including his gear is well done. The face and helmet look good, and I have no problem with his facial hair. If he has one weakness to him, it would be the falcon perched on his arm guard. It doesn’t look horrible or even bad, just not as well detailed as the stand-alone falcon miniature. Put simply, the falcon is no less detailed than the cat that accompanied one of the feamale pieces a few lines back.

--Dragon Legion Dragonrider – This guy makes for a fine soldier NPC or a possible PC piece. He’s a Triaxian, so despite his humanoid shape, his face is more blue-ish/fur-like. Everything about him is well detailed, including the face. His helmet covers a decent part of the outside of his face, but the rest of his face is clear. Unless you look closely, his mouth is a bit hard to make out. However, there is clear definition to be seen there, it’s just all one color. His armor is fine, and there is no overlap of paint anywhere on the pieces I received. If you’re looking to build up a race of Triaxian, or perhaps name them something else in your own campaign, this guy is a great place to start.

--Drakelands Barbarian – This is another of my favorite pieces in the entire line. She’s definitely one of my favorite miniatures. I’ve received a handful of this girl, and there are no imperfections anywhere on any of the pieces I received. Her armor is clearly defined and well painted. Her shield is well done and you can see the grooves in it that make it look like a wooden shield. Her sword is straight and not bendy. Her cloak is phenomenally done. The quiver on her back is evident, despite sharing the same color (but not texture) of her cloak. Her gloves match well with the purple tunic. If you look close enough you can clearly see how the tunic would be underneath her armor. Her face is sculpted nicely and you can clearly see her teeth. If you’re looking for a proxy for a catfolk barbarian, then look no further. I suppose she might even pass for a female barbarian, if you don’t focus on her for too long. I will say that when combined with the other Triaxians in this line, a DM can put together a solid encounter group of a unique type of humanoid for his or her campaign.

--Cesseer of Ning – I’ve seen a few complaints about this piece, but I don’t remember why. The piece I got has no paint issues, and her sculpt is very well done. She obviously works as a Triaxian monk, but can easily pass as a catfolk rogue. While I typically like my PC’s and NPC’s grounded, this works well for anyone that likes action poses. As one should expect, the detail on this piece is great, and you can clearly see the individual lines of her wrappings. There isn’t much else to say, though she’ll be a fine addition to your Triaxian encounter group. Buy her with confidence.

Large size Miniatures:

--Trolls – Both the male and female are absurdly well done, both in detail and paint job. I haven’t had any issues with them, although I’ve seen a few complaints of paint overlap from other people. Still, I received four or five of each in my case, and I didn’t have a single issue. I’m a huge fan of trolls, and these frost trolls are no exception. If you’re buying what you need piecemeal and you like Frost Trolls, then don’t pass on either of these.

--Catoblepas – This creature is excellent. His sculpt is well done and the paint job, while basically just a couple colors, is well applied. You can see the muscles in his body, and his mane is fantastic. His face is surprisingly great. His tusks are well done. I’m pretty sure this is the first Catoblepas in PPM form, and he does not disappoint.

--Wolliped – Whether or not you’re glad they included this creature in the set or not, it’s a well-made miniature. He’s a big, solid piece of plastic, much like the Catoblepas. This gives him that feel that he’s a big, strong creature capable of surviving any artic area.

--Winter Wolf – Another of my favorites in this set, I finally have a winter wolf that I like more than those found in previous lines from other companies. His mane is great, and the fierceness of his face makes it clear he is a creature to be reckoned with.

The four Rare Large sized miniatures are all great, and definitely worth the purchase.

Disappointing set

2/5 —

I'm surprised the other reviewers have ranked this set so highly. To me, it feels like the line is getting tired. No doubt exacerbated by the inherent problems of working with licensees, I'm starting to experience a certain sense of deja vu when Erik posts that he's "working with Wizkids to iron out the problems - the next set is going to be awesome..." (or words to that effect).

The paintjobs continue to be sloppy, the number of sculpts has dropped significantly and there were a whole bunch of combat-useful figures omitted so that goats, crows, foxes and owls could be included. It's nice to have those, but not four or five of each at the expense of miniatures with far more utility. I can now plot out a nice farmyard scene but what's the point? The location of each animal is hardly going to be important.

I wouldnt recommend this set to anyone who wasnt an avid collector. I think it would make a poor first impression. Far better to just get a few of the single minis (several of them are quite good - it's the set overall which I found disappointing).

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I am angry at myself for believing in Paizo's ability to get Wizkids to improve their QC. I am angry I trusted them both enough to buy a full case. :-(

Shame on Wizkids for allowing this garbage to ship out.
danielc wrote:

I am angry at myself for believing in Paizo's ability to get WoTC to improve their QC. I am angry I trusted them both enough to buy a full case. :-(

Shame on WoTC for allowing this garbage to ship out.

WotC had nothing to do with this set. Wizkids is a completely different company from WotC. Wizkids also took over DDM which is when DDM took a nose dive in quality.

Alex Smith 908 wrote:
WotC had nothing to do with this set. Wizkids is a completely different company from WotC.

You are right, I corrected my post. But my error in using the wrong company name does not change the fact there is once again several real bad paint jobs that do not even come close to the preview pictures.

Shadow Lodge
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

Hmmm, feeling a little down on this one. I was really keen to get mine, but reading these posts, and some from other forums, I'm not certain anymore. I really wish wizkids would put the time into faces, well NPCs in general. Part of me really hopes the decline isn't due to the upcoming WotC minis. Previews for that line look pretty good, lots of detail and NPCs look to have some well detailed faces, much like the first 3 sets for pathfinder ( Runelords, skull and shattered). then again these are proofs and the reign minis looked good in the proofs as well - especially Feiya.

Of course I'll wait until mine are in hand, I really want a lot of the minis from this set. I will be in for the next anyway since it basically contains more minis I want ( and that Shemhazian!)
Alex Smith 908 wrote:
Wizkids also took over DDM which is when DDM took a nose dive in quality.

Are you sure? I know they've recently been announced as the licensee for the upcoming D&D minis but I thought that was a new thing.

Grand Lodge

Steve Geddes it IS a new thing. Wizkids was never associated before with Dungeons and Dragons before the recent news that they are going to be producing the new line for WotC. So not sure where Alex is getting that information from. WotC was in charge of the minis the entire time.

This is disappointing in hearing the paint job complaints cropping up again. I was hoping this was resolved with WotR.

Cpt_kirstov wrote:

I would agree that with the less figures in the set, the case should be less packs. I have way too many of all of the commons and uncommons, and even some of the rares.

WotR: opening the last brick I needed a good 15-18 charcters

RoW: 1/2 way through my case (IE twice as many packs to left to open as the above metric) I only had 6 minis left to get a complete set. I could have saved $200+ and gotten two bricks + the singles I needed (as it is I'm only like 8 pieces away from a second complete set from one case)

One thing to keep in mind, buying 2 bricks separately is not the same as opening up two bricks from a sealed case. The high percentage of getting a full set is based on buying a case. If you buy the bricks separately, you could very possibly get two bricks that have almost the same minis.

Where I wish the minis were kept at 55, I understand why it was done. But one good thing (for me) is I will probably only be buying one case from now on as it seems you can pretty much get a complete set with many to spare.

Although if the bad paint jobs continue to happen, I may need to rethink on continuing to purchase the minis, however much I am a plastic addict.

Is there a way that Paizo can fire wizkids and go with a different miniature producing company? If the cost is equivalent maybe it's time to make a change.

Having all the PBM made by Reaper would make me super happy but seems unlikely to happen.

So, I'd like to chime in here because a lot of what people are complaining about seems off base and unjustified to me. And nit-picky.

I'm hearing crazy things like having Reaper do the minis, as if a company that sends minis in resin and metal unpainted would ever be able to create a pregenerated pre-painted plastic mini line, given labor costs in Texas... crazy. A Totally different company and product.

I have a large minis collection from all the sets, and even the D&D sets.

On mass produced painted minis, these paint jobs are about par with the majority of the minis.

There were a couple of sets (Skull and Shackles and Shattered Star) that had, in general, better paint jobs on the humans. There were a couple humans with someone that painted really good eyes. That wasn't the case with this set, but it didn't bother me because :

These are mass produced plastic minis. You're not going to get Games Workshop pro-paint level paint jobs on plastic minis that are mass produced. If you want really nice jobs, touch it up yourself, it's not that difficult to redo a face for example. And for your main characters, buy pro painted metal minis. You see how much those go for, way more than this set costs.

So let's get real.

In general, Pathfinder minis have better sculpts, but tend to be prone to breakage. I have way more broken Pathfinder minis than D&D minis, regardless of paint job. That to me is the real issue. I don't like the minis whith the plastic rods. Especially half my Worldwound drakes are all snapped off so far. They break way too easily. On the other hand, at least the pathfinder minis don't have floppy bases like the old Beholders, but I just feel they're brittle, and fragile. that is my main complaint.

But in general, they beat the pants off most of the older D&D minis. Especially the use of translucent plastic, and the scuplts and designs are way better.

Yes, I did end up with a few more goats, owls than I would have preferred, but in general, I was much happier with the sculpts in this release. The male ice troll in particular was awesome, I liked Baba Yaga's detail, and Queen Elvanna and the Dragon Rider was probably the best in the set. The White Dragon is also pretty awesome. A great "Ancient" or "Wyrm" type White dragon. I have one in every age category now.

You can't fairly expect to get perfectly painted minis when whoever is painting them is probably making barely any money and is under pressure to meet time constraints. I think instead people should be focused on improving the plastic type used so that we get less brittle minis. You can always touch up one or two bad minis like Feiya, who was pretty badly done, fairly easily. You can't fix the plastic. The packaging in general was much smarter this time around, I had only one mini with a pre-broken base, easily fixed with glue.

In general, I loved this set, I loved the adventure path and using this set with it is pretty special, but I would like to see less minis we'll never use (Owls ? Goats ? Foxes ? The Goat and the Fox could have been part of the Feiya and Radovan minis IMO and give us more mirror men ! They were dope) in the future. If the paint jobs on common human faces were improved, I'd have really no complaints. It's way cheaper to buy a case of these now than to build up minis on the after market anyway.
Zorka wrote:
So, I'd like to chime in here because a lot of what people are complaining about seems off base and unjustified to me. And nit-picky.

So you think this Feiya is ok as is and you would be fine with this fgure?

Well, that's a pretty bad Feiya. I have one (and only one) that I got from the set that isn't perfect either, a bad mouth, it's not quite that level of bad tho... :/

So yeah, I would say that one is bad luck, and under par, BUT...

To me, the point of these cases is if you don't like using 2D counters and you are a completist and you run games and want all 3D minis. So, it's cool we got one more iconic, I have some better painted iconics and some worse ones...

To me, if you really, really are actually using Feiya as a NPC or PC and you need a Feiya that looks awesome, I'd buy the Reaper one and either paint it or get a pro-painter to do a commission. You'd be a lot prouder, etc, especially since metal and to a less extent resin tends to be a better paint material than these polycarbonate mass production models.

So, I can understand if there are some bad paint jobs out there. but I mean the worst paint jobs were faces on the russian guards in this set, and at the scale you're likely to use them, it's not really noticeable in the game.

You lay out the figures and if you're having a great game, you aren't focusing down on the faces of the figures too much. They're russian guards..they look like russian guards... That to me is the value of these cases.

I mean I've bought a badly painted Warduke mini for 40 bucks on the aftermarket where the seller used the reference paint job image. You can always sell your mini on eBay like that. I touched him up (made his faceplate dark instead of silver, give a metal wash to make it better and redid the red eyes and he's tolerable now. But still, that's expensive. I didn't have much choice. I had to have Warduke.

I think you have to take the good with the bad on these types of products. We are lucky we even have a company willing to produce these sets, and the fact we've gotten so many from Paizo and the quality of them, I'm just happy with that, so I think bitterly complaining about individual bad paint jobs when we are on the verge of 3D minis being completely out of reach or super expensive on the secondary market, I think perspective is in order, that is all I want to say.

I don't want to apologize for bad paint jobs, I know there are probably people out there with better and worse examples but I've bought many, many sets and I found this one to be in general, par for the course with what I'd expect.

Fair enough Zorka, we all have our standards we expect and levels we can live with.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
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danielc wrote:
Zorka wrote:
So, I'd like to chime in here because a lot of what people are complaining about seems off base and unjustified to me. And nit-picky.

So you think this Feiya is ok as is and you would be fine with this fgure?

I am not okay with that.

Zorka I do agree with one of your points very strongly. The easy break plastic is awful. It is prett ymuch the only reason I have never bought a case of PBM. It doesn't matter to me how much detail you get if that detail will just snap off.
Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

I have been subscribed to Pathfinder Battles since the beginning. I have had two or three cases of every set. I have no problems with the minis at all and wish there were more sets coming out than there currently are.

But the distribution of the current set may get me to lower my subscription to one. Two was a lot of goats and ravens and owls. And other things that were just too many. On the other hand there were a few I would have liked more of... But I can buy those on the secondary market.
Grand Lodge
Vic Wertz wrote:
danielc wrote:
Zorka wrote:
So, I'd like to chime in here because a lot of what people are complaining about seems off base and unjustified to me. And nit-picky.

So you think this Feiya is ok as is and you would be fine with this fgure?

I am not okay with that.

My Feiya looks almost identical.

Zorka, I agree with many of your points. In general, this line has had minis which are superior to other lines which have been offered in the past. Even though I wrote a negative post, I feel that the majority of the miniatures I got in this set are well-sculpted and have acceptable paint jobs. Even the miniatures with horribly painted faces may have other features which are very well done.
However, we have seen better in previous sets. So I feel justified in asking for something better. Especially from a "marquee" miniature like the only iconic in the set. Also, this is the first time in Battles that I have received badly painted Large miniatures.
Shem wrote:

I have been subscribed to Pathfinder Battles since the beginning. I have had two or three cases of every set. I have no problems with the minis at all and wish there were more sets coming out than there currently are.

But the distribution of the current set may get me to lower my subscription to one. Two was a lot of goats and ravens and owls. And other things that were just too many. On the other hand there were a few I would have liked more of... But I can buy those on the secondary market.

The change. In distribution is a big deal to me too. If there's a way to revert to a larger number of minis, I'd strongly recommend giving it another look. I like subscribing to everything, but its harder to justify when you're almost certain to buy a significant number of figures you'll never use.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
danielc wrote:
Zorka wrote:
So, I'd like to chime in here because a lot of what people are complaining about seems off base and unjustified to me. And nit-picky.

So you think this Feiya is ok as is and you would be fine with this fgure?

My oh my, that is pretty terrible. LOL. Sorry, I shouldn't be laughing, but that paint job.

I can only hope mine won't be as bad.

I would honestly send that back and ask for a replacement.

My Iconic witch is every bit that bad too. Honestly this is so bad Wizkids should be replacing these as a "broken" mini.

I've got a russian gas mask dude missing an arm, and the witch is STILL more unacceptable.
Grand Lodge
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
Curmudgeonly wrote:
danielc wrote:
Zorka wrote:
So, I'd like to chime in here because a lot of what people are complaining about seems off base and unjustified to me. And nit-picky.

So you think this Feiya is ok as is and you would be fine with this fgure?

My oh my, that is pretty terrible. LOL. Sorry, I shouldn't be laughing, but that paint job.

I can only hope mine won't be as bad.

I would honestly send that back and ask for a replacement.

That...

That is bad. Comically bad.

I mean, she looks happy, with the smile and all, but it looks bad.

I can't wait to see mine. :D

-Skeld

I couldn't agree more with Zorka. A while ago (when those immense complaints about LoG hit the forums) I calculated how much I pay on average for a figure in a case (keep in mind that was before the new pricing model here on paizo.com - now it would be even lower).

Depending on how you spread the cost between Large and Medium/Small figures I ended up with something like $5-$7 and $1.50-$2.50 respectively. Which translates (in terms of local minimum wage) to about 12-15 minutes for a Medium/Small figure if we were to ignore any other type of production cost (development, sculpt, paint, packaging etc.) as well as distribution, merchant profit and such and put all the money I pay towards labour for painting.

I have gotten better (and faster) since I started painting miniatures but it still takes me about an hour to two for relatively simple medium/small figures. Far more for Large ones (I spent a whole weekend painting my first [Reaper's PF Red Dragon]). Eyes are still the hardest thing to do and I usually have to do them three times over and easily spent about 10 minutes just on that and would include 5 or more (at the very least 3) paint steps.

Yes, danielc, your Feiya is particularly bad and it hurts even more as she is a rare. But on the other hand that picture of her face is blown up to about five times her actual size, which makes it look worse than it would on the table, and again for about $2.50 I sometimes wonder how high a standard one can justifiably have if one is only willing to pay so much for it to be delivered.

Please take this posting with a grain of salt (or maybe a pinch). Of course I would like for the faces to look better out of the box. But do I think that the quality has actually decreased over time? I'm not too sure, looking back at some older figures. Expectations of one set outdoing the last have definitely increased, though.
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Guys, don't get me wrong, I do accept that my PPM will never look as good as the custom painted minis I pay $20 each for. But what I do think is reasonable is for the final mini I get to look at least close to the previewed mini or to the picture on the box.

I am not asking for the quality of paint job I get when I pay one of the pro painters to paint. I am asking for at least close to the preview or to the picture they show on the box.

If they are going to show X quality in the preview and on the packaging that should reasonably set my expectation. Regardless of what X quality is. If the preview or the photo on the box had looked odd and disfigured well then we got what we were shown.

But I also understand and agree with many of the points Isil-zha and Zorka have made. I agree that we should not have too high of expectations. Maybe the real question is; Are the previews and marketing photos on the packages too unrealistic and thus need to change to reflect the real quality that we should expect?

I think we need to keep in mind that (most of?) the preview images are paint masters, which are going to be better than the average outcome of the mass production process (because there are a lot more hours going into them and they are not mass produced).

But if you look at this previewed Feiya and scale down your picture to the same size which is only slightly bigger than "life size Feiya" the difference is not quite as big anymore. Again, I'm not arguing that yours isn't particularly bad, but the paint master only has black dots as eyes (albeit smaller and less "comicky" than yours) and a simple line as a mouth (albeit finer and seemingly of a reddish hue). [Edit: Mine is luckily somewhere in the middle between yours and the preview]

To me the nose (of the sculpt) doesn't quite live up to the preview which makes her face look really flat and intensifies the impression of a bad paint job. Overall pronounced facial features in the sculpt could help make faces look a lot better even without increasing paint quality much.

The Tower Girl is a very good example for that. The mouth is not painted at all but still manages to be convincing. The features of the sculpt's face work out nicely even without the red ink they use lately which yields a lot of "burnt face" syndrome because it is applied too generously, similar to some of the washes.

But all that is, in my opinion, not nearly as bad as it is sometimes made out to be in some of the posts we get to read on these boards every once in a while.

Edit: I'm not trying to make excuses, I think there are ways to improve usage of washes and inks without raising production costs and wizkids hasn't found the happy medium between too much wash (Machine Gunner) and too little (Wolliped) just yet. But speaking in overall quality consistency, there are humanoids suffering from "blob-face" in each set (though not necessarily all multiples, if any, share that trait) going back all the way to the half-elf cleric in H&M. So I simply fail to see the "decline" that is claimed so often lately.
Grand Lodge

My witch was also pretty disappointing, and a number of the other medium humanoids were similarly bad. The larger creatures turned out okay. Overall, I do have to say I am pondering my sub at this point. Only the case incentive for the next set is really giving me pause.
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danielc wrote:
Maybe the real question is; Are the previews and marketing photos on the packages too unrealistic and thus need to change to reflect the real quality that we should expect?

I agree with this in theory, but I suspect Erik doesn't really see the actual, finished product until a week or two before we do. It's probably just one of those things that's always going to be a little off. Even if you told the preview painters to "do it quickly, like the real thing" I suspect they'd be bound to take just a little more care.

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Isil-zha wrote:

I think we need to keep in mind that (most of?) the preview images are paint masters, which are going to be better than the average outcome of the mass production process (because there are a lot more hours going into them and they are not mass produced).

But if you look at this previewed Feiya and scale down your picture to the same size which is only slightly bigger than "life size Feiya" the difference is not quite as big anymore. Again, I'm not arguing that yours isn't particularly bad, but the paint master only has black dots as eyes (albeit smaller and less "comicky" than yours) and a simple line as a mouth (albeit finer and seemingly of a reddish hue). [Edit: Mine is luckily somewhere in the middle between yours and the preview]

Actually, I feel the difference is quite big between Daniel’s photo and the previewed image, even if his photo wasn’t already scaled up. I would have been completely fine with the previewed image (single black dot eyes and line mouth), but with Daniel’s Feiya, that actually looks like the face was melted.

danielc wrote:

Guys, don't get me wrong, I do accept that my PPM will never look as good as the custom painted minis I pay $20 each for. But what I do think is reasonable is for the final mini I get to look at least close to the previewed mini or to the picture on the box.

I am not asking for the quality of paint job I get when I pay one of the pro painters to paint. I am asking for at least close to the preview or to the picture they show on the box.

If they are going to show X quality in the preview and on the packaging that should reasonably set my expectation. Regardless of what X quality is. If the preview or the photo on the box had looked odd and disfigured well then we got what we were shown.

But I also understand and agree with many of the points Isil-zha and Zorka have made. I agree that we should not have too high of expectations. Maybe the real question is; Are the previews and marketing photos on the packages too unrealistic and thus need to change to reflect the real quality that we should expect?

This.

I don’t feel it’s unreasonable to expect we get the miniatures that are previewed/advertised, especially what is shown on the box. Most people don’t peruse the internet looking at the previews, only the dedicated collectors like ourselves. For your everyday consumer, they are going to go by what they see on the box.

Just think of this for a moment. A mother is shopping for her 12 yr old son who roleplays, or just likes to play with miniatures in general. She sees PFB boxes at the local game store, sees the good quality pictures on the booster boxes and thinks this is a good choice.

However, when the boy opens it up at home, he sees the example of Feiya, looks at the booster box photo, and is quite bummed. And the mother, she is quite upset (understandably so).

Granted, this is only theoretical example, but my point is what is advertised to the general consumer should be what we receive, or at least close to it.

I am hoping the example of Daniel’s Feiya is a rare exception, but then someone else indicated their Feiya is the same. So I hope this doesn’t become more widespread, as I can only think of Queen Ileosa of Legends of Golarian.

That said, I have found a majority of the miniatures look very good to stunning. So we know that quality can be achieved, and therefore I don’t feel we should make excuses because they are plastic minis compared to resin, or that they are mass produced.

I agree, you aren’t going to have professional quality, and that expectation is unreasonable. But again, you should receive what is advertised to you.
Grand Lodge
Hobbun wrote:
Isil-zha wrote:

I think we need to keep in mind that (most of?) the preview images are paint masters, which are going to be better than the average outcome of the mass production process (because there are a lot more hours going into them and they are not mass produced).

But if you look at this previewed Feiya and scale down your picture to the same size which is only slightly bigger than "life size Feiya" the difference is not quite as big anymore. Again, I'm not arguing that yours isn't particularly bad, but the paint master only has black dots as eyes (albeit smaller and less "comicky" than yours) and a simple line as a mouth (albeit finer and seemingly of a reddish hue). [Edit: Mine is luckily somewhere in the middle between yours and the preview]

Actually, I feel the difference is quite big between Daniel’s photo and the previewed image, even if his photo wasn’t already scaled up. I would have been completely fine with the previewed image (single black dot eyes and line mouth), but with Daniel’s Feiya, that actually looks like the face was melted.

danielc wrote:

Guys, don't get me wrong, I do accept that my PPM will never look as good as the custom painted minis I pay $20 each for. But what I do think is reasonable is for the final mini I get to look at least close to the previewed mini or to the picture on the box.

I am not asking for the quality of paint job I get when I pay one of the pro painters to paint. I am asking for at least close to the preview or to the picture they show on the box.

If they are going to show X quality in the preview and on the packaging that should reasonably set my expectation. Regardless of what X quality is. If the preview or the photo on the box had looked odd and disfigured well then we got what we were shown.

But I also understand and agree with many of the points Isil-zha and Zorka have made. I agree that we should not have too high of expectations. Maybe the

...

It is a rare incident despite what is shown for examples on here with Daniel's Feiya. Mine is not quite that bad, it is not so great that I am going to leave it like that as I am going to touch it up myself when I get a chance. It is not that big a deal to me.

But in your example though with the mother and 12 year old boy. Trust me... a Mother buying mini's for her son that role plays is not going to care that much if the boy does not care. :D

But yea the minis should pretty much match what is on the boxes. If they don't match exactly it is not "False" advertising... just a bad paint job is all. It happens, though it shouldn't.

Well, that was just an example, but one that could happen. And in my example, the boy ‘did’ care.

But besides even that, I agree with you that the aim should be that the consumer receives that is advertised. The issue with Queen Ileosa was quite widespread, and at least this one appears doesn’t seem as bad (as many), but it is something that should be brought up to try to eliminate it coming up again for future sets.
Grand Lodge
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

There's a certain amount of marketing that is acceptable and expected when previewing an upcoming product.

We insist on previews of the miniatures. Erik/Paizo responds by showing us what they have on hand at the time of the preview (paint masters, proofs, etc.). I personally don't believe there's any sort of intentional misleading going on.

However, I also think it's folly for anyone to expect that any given product they buy is going to look exactly like it does on the package or in the advertisement, especially when that product is well-understood to be mass-produced and hand-painted.

We know the previews are a "thing Wizkids painted one of" and the actual miniature we recieve is a "thing Wizkids painted thousands of." Personally, I try to temper my expectations when I look at the previews. It would be awesome if every miniature looked exactly like the preview, but reality doesn't work that way.

-Skeld
Grand Lodge

Skeld I feel the same way. I try and temper my expectations to match the mass production and understanding that they ARE still hand-painted. If I wanted professional or near professional paint job I would hire or paint them myself. I do not expect that they paint job is going to match the paint master.

I am not saying that everyone should accept when a mini is painted as bad as the example Daniel gave us though. No one should.. but we SHOULD accept that that one example is NOT the normal.

I first want to be clear that in my example, or post in general, was I ever indicating that it was false advertising. That was first brought up in Deanoth’s post, and then again in Skeld’s. I have never felt there was anything deliberate on Paizo’s, or WizKids, part on misleading us what is being produced.

I was just indicating that what ‘is’ advertised to us, the final product should hopefully be there, or at close to that. There have been phrases thrown around like “every miniature looking exactly like the paint master” or “professionally painted” in what shouldn’t be expected. And I want to clarify that is not what I was getting at. I realize mistakes happen, but they should be very few and far between.

But again, I have never felt there was any deception on their part. But to say “mistakes happen” and just to accept that from time to time with Daniel’s example of Feiya, or with Queen Ileosa, that should never be acceptable and should be monitored on both Paizo’s and WizKids part to keep it from happening again.
Shadow Lodge
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Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

I have actually seen pics on ebay of some acceptable Freiya minis ( ie the exact opposite of the one shown). I really do think wizkids need to work on NPC/PC faces and detail. They are a significant part of each set and seem to be the worst translated from proof to final, weird when you consider how well done the monsters are. Also I feel sorry for the folks at paizo, they must get just as disappointed as we do. Realistically though I think the stinker list may reach a dozen across the 5 sets from Runelords to reign, that's about 12 in 250 minis. Overall I'm still pretty happy with the line.

I don't think there's any intent to deceive on anyone's part, mass production has some issues.
Cat-thulhu wrote:
I don't think there's any intent to deceive on anyone's part, mass production has some issues.

I agree and to be clear I never said there was an intent to deceive. Nor did I say the mini I get had to match the preview 100%. All I said was I felt it was reasonable for me to expect the mini I get to be *close* to the previewed figure. I am a reasonable person and I do understand the final product might not live up to all the expectations that can be built up by the previews. And the figures that are close are wonderful and remain in my collection.

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Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I'm sorry, but no. There needs to be quality control on Wizkids' end. That Freiya should never have been packaged.

It's embarrassingly bad, even Vic agrees it's not ok.

If they can't meet the quantities needed in whatever deadline they set, then they need to change their delivery date and not take shortcuts on the paint jobs.

I will stop buying their product if they continue to put out s~~&ty paint jobs.

I will continue to buy their product if they take an extra month or two to get it right.

It's that simple.

I can also understand that not all minis are going to be painted with precision. But I too was a bit disappointed in the painting of the RoW set. We have been pretty lucky with only one or two okayish paint jobs in previous sets, but this one we had several with paint issues. Our Queen Elvanna is gorgeous except the blue splotch across her entire face. Only one of our Machine gunmen look good with the rest having big face painting issues. The rest of the humans are a mixed bag, (though the Triaxians look good).

Most of our large figures paint jobs look great with the exception of two of the Centaur archers with a hair color in face and flesh color in hair issue. Those I can live with or may be able to repaint to fix it.

That said, the giant weasel and the Dragonkin figures are by far our favorites (and the gargantuan white dragon is pretty cool too).

We only experienced one breakage and that was one of the falcon's white peg snapped just below the joint with the falcon body.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
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Vic Wertz wrote:
danielc wrote:
Zorka wrote:
So, I'd like to chime in here because a lot of what people are complaining about seems off base and unjustified to me. And nit-picky.

So you think this Feiya is ok as is and you would be fine with this fgure?

I am not okay with that.

So last night Erik, Lisa and I went down to the warehouse and pulled random singles, as well as every single Feiya we had on hand.

The good news is that our spot checks of figures other than Feiya went pretty well. The bad news is that about half of our Feiyas were pretty bad, and a couple of them approached the level of the photo above. This is especially frustrating because WizKids knows how important our iconic characters are, and they have regularly allowed us to add a few more paint ops to the iconics to make them even a bit nicer than the average rare.

Erik is meeting with WizKids at Origins this week, and he is bringing along our three worst Feiyas to show them. (I have also pointed them to this thread; that includes their CEO and their production manager.)
Grand Lodge
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
Vic Wertz wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
danielc wrote:
Zorka wrote:
So, I'd like to chime in here because a lot of what people are complaining about seems off base and unjustified to me. And nit-picky.

So you think this Feiya is ok as is and you would be fine with this fgure?

I am not okay with that.

So last night Erik, Lisa and I went down to the warehouse and pulled random singles, as well as every single Feiya we had on hand.

The good news is that our spot checks of figures other than Feiya went pretty well. The bad news is that about half of our Feiyas were pretty bad, and a couple of them approached the level of the photo above. This is especially frustrating because WizKids knows important our iconic characters are, and they have regularly allowed us to add a few more paint ops to the iconics to make them even a bit nicer than the average rare.

Erik is meeting with WizKids at Origins this week, and he is bringing along our three worst Feiyas to show them. (I have also pointed them to this thread; that includes their CEO and their production manager.)

That's awesome, Vic.

Carry on.

-Skeld
Liberty's Edge

I also had some quality issues with the set sadly :(. My Feiya was just as bad if not worse than the picture above, and quite a few of my minis especially the Russian soldiers and pale guards came without arms or bases. Mistakes on the minis are understandable for sure, but the amount of issues mine had, mainly with pieces completely missing, made me come to the product page here to see what was up.

It would've been okay if the pieces were at least in the bubble wrap (things break, it's understandable) they came in and I would've just glued them no problem, but they were nowhere to be seen.

At least I have some wounded Russian soldier minis now :/
Vic Wertz wrote:

So last night Erik, Lisa and I went down to the warehouse and pulled random singles, as well as every single Feiya we had on hand.

The good news is that our spot checks of figures other than Feiya went pretty well. The bad news is that about half of our Feiyas were pretty bad, and a couple of them approached the level of the photo above. This is especially frustrating because WizKids knows how important our iconic characters are, and they have regularly allowed us to add a few more paint ops to the iconics to make them even a bit nicer than the average rare.

Erik is meeting with WizKids at Origins this week, and he is bringing along our three worst Feiyas to show them. (I have also pointed them to this thread; that includes their CEO and their production manager.)

Thank You for the update and I respect that you shared this with us. I wish Erik luck in his conversations with Wizkids.

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Vic Wertz wrote:

So last night Erik, Lisa and I went down to the warehouse and pulled random singles, as well as every single Feiya we had on hand.

The good news is that our spot checks of figures other than Feiya went pretty well. The bad news is that about half of our Feiyas were pretty bad, and a couple of them approached the level of the photo above. This is especially frustrating because WizKids knows how important our iconic characters are, and they have regularly allowed us to add a few more paint ops to the iconics to make them even a bit nicer than the average rare.

Erik is meeting with WizKids at Origins this week, and he is bringing along our three worst Feiyas to show them. (I have also pointed them to this thread; that includes their CEO and their production manager.)

This is what makes Paizo the best company in the gaming business. Well, not the only reason, but how many large companies do you know where the CEO, CCO and CTO personally follow up on a product issue and then also keep their customers personally informed on the status and what they are doing to resolve it.

With another company you might receive an automated email from customer service saying “We appreciate your business and are doing our best to resolve your problem”, but that’s usually about the best you will get.

This is one of the reasons I buy from Paizo.

I just wanted you to know that we see this and that it is appreciated, Vic.

Well,

I have bought over 12 individual boosters of S&S, the quality is generally very good, however, when their bad, they are terrible, requiring many touch ups and repaints.

The double-ups are completely frustrating, what do you do with 4 x Rat Swarms, 2 x Cannon Golems and 3 x Selissa (water naga) figures?

It's all in the marketing model, I do not like the idea of paying for a random box of figures. I tried it and I have to say that I will wait for individual figs to be released.

I for one would really prefer they just offered us the individual figures at a reasonable price, whatever that may be. Then we can purchase what we like and pay for what we expect.

I also play Minis-Battles like "Arcane Legions", and out of 500 odd figures, not one is missing anything and the paint jobs are excellent.
I don't know which company made them but the QC is outstanding.

Everything else Paizo sells is top notch quality and I will continue paying for their literature. On that, very well done and thanks!

Final note: I can live with and expect some quality issues with mass-painting, after all I can touch them up, but the figures missing arms and extremities should not have made it past QC. Sorry! Just my honest opinion.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
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AJAG wrote:
Final note: I can live with and expect some quality issues with mass-painting, after all I can touch them up, but the figures missing arms and extremities should not have made it past QC. Sorry! Just my honest opinion.

No need to apologize for a completely reasonable opinion. No, actually, "opinion" isn't even the right word—it's a *fact*: Missing parts should not make it past Quality Control.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
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AJAG wrote:

It's all in the marketing model, I do not like the idea of paying for a random box of figures. I tried it and I have to say that I will wait for individual figs to be released.

I for one would really prefer they just offered us the individual figures at a reasonable price, whatever that may be. Then we can purchase what we like and pay for what we expect.

The randomization model is not about marketing, and it's not chosen because it's awesome—it's chosen because it's necessary. One of our other customers wrote up a pretty solid explanation of why it's necessary here. I hope you find it enlightening.

Liberty's Edge
danielc wrote:
Zorka wrote:
So, I'd like to chime in here because a lot of what people are complaining about seems off base and unjustified to me. And nit-picky.

So you think this Feiya is ok as is and you would be fine with this fgure?

@danielc At least your eyes Feiya's eyes and mouth are in the correct place. Mine has that bad flesh melt and a joker smile and derp eyes.

I received my brick today. Everything is perfect. I didn't get a Freiya so no issues there. Super happy to get Nazenha since I have a PFS character who looks really similar to her and has the same hyberboreal robe.
Paizo Employee Publisher, Chief Creative Officer

Had a great conversation on this issue (Feiya, specifically) with our folks at WizKids today at Origins. It was a casual conversation (our formal meeting is on Friday), but I am enthused by their response and hope to report something positive shortly.
Vic Wertz wrote:
The randomization model is not about marketing, and it's not chosen because it's awesome—it's chosen because it's necessary. One of our other customers wrote up a pretty solid explanation of why it's necessary here. I hope you find it enlightening.

Many thanks for your quick response Vic.

Not arguing, just saying...Whilst you say "it's necessary", I believe there is nothing prohibiting you to offer a complete set of any given line of figures, except for the cost to the customer.

E.g. I paid AUS$20/booster for S&S figs x 12 = AUS$240, I did not get all the figs. that I wanted, conversely, I would have paid $350 or more to guarantee the complete set.

I understand the costs may be prohibitive to some, however, I for one would be willing to pay a little more per fig if they are the ones I wanted.

I accept that employing both sale models does slightly increase the cost of boosters/bricks and cases per unit, however, it need not necessarily be that way! IMO the majority or "all" of that cost could and should, be transferred to the individual buying the single figures or complete set.

I am fairly certain that those with some spare cash would accept the extra cost for the choice. This then comes back to how many smalls/commons and "unwanted" figures are manufactured and the cost disbursement between the packs and the individual figs. However, all manufacturers need to get their production levels & pricing models right, including those products which are unwanted and therefore sit on shelves.
I am sure you have done your marketing research as to what is more cost effective and acceptable to most, but the idea of randomly purchasing booster packs is not my personal preference.

The main issue, I believe, is that many of those posting here are frustrated that it seems that there is "No Way" to guarantee that you have all the figures, from a given set, that one desires.
Even buying a case, does not guarantee this!
If there were a pricing model, that absolutely guaranteed "at least" one of each figure or "only one" of each figure, I am sure many would make that purchase, whatever the price may be. {eg. myself}(Whilst understanding that all extra costs should be the burden of that choice, which should in no way impact on the cost of the boosters/bricks and cases for others.)

I will continue to be an avid supporter of your literature, I just wish both sale models for figures could be employed to facilitate customer choice.

Wishing you all the best! :)

AJAG, you already have that option, ordering the singles rather than the case.
Isil-zha wrote:
AJAG, you already have that option, ordering the singles rather than the case.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking too. I share AJAG's desire for completeness, willingness to pay more and aversion to a surplus of commons, but it seems that our needs are catered for.

I can't really see what additional "pricing model" is needed. If you're prepared to pay extra, you can guarantee exactly the breakdown you need.
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