Random packaging would have been okay with me if the overall product line had included a lot less of that "whacked out garbage." I'm happy to have Uncommon, Rare and NighUnobtainable beholders, illithids, upper level outsiders and cool dragons. But in the meantime I don't want the Commons to include "elite giant greenspawn razorfiend templars".
I could deal far more with the goofball commons, but it was the visibles that they foisted off in the later sets that were the real downer.
Seriously, large-sized unicorns? Huge-sized purple beholders? There's a pack I'll never buy more than one of.
I'm not the only one. The former and still existing stores in the area that were stocking DDM were bent about the visibles, because they were the ones stuck with packs of unicorns on their shelves that nobody wanted, but if they wanted to continue to sell minis, they had to buy more cases (which really weren't selling that well to begin with).
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I'm not the only one. The former and still existing stores in the area that were stocking DDM were bent about the visibles, because they were the ones stuck with packs of unicorns on their shelves that nobody wanted, but if they wanted to continue to sell minis, they had to buy more cases (which really weren't selling that well to begin with).
these were the packs that I would open for the store.... commons for 1.50 uncommons for 2.50 rares for 5-7 bucks would make as much as a pack, sometimes more. the visibles I would price for 50 cents to a buck, and some 11 year old DM using change from lunch money would pick them up. usually within 3 days of opening packs I would make the store's money back, and we have a small gamer population, its mostly comics
Pleased to be giving mez teh minis?!
Chief Technical Officer
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...there is a reason Wizards isn't doing them anymore.Yeah, but what is the reason, really? If production costs are increasing, fine.
I don't have *direct* insight into Wizards' costing issues, but my understanding is that costs on plastics in China generally have gone up tremendously over the last few years.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Isn't it about time FLGS's got into 3d-printing on demand? License sculpts from top sculptors and zap them on demand in the shops.
The quality has been improving for years and the machines are getting cheaper and cheaper. Or have I been reading too much Kurzweil and is it still a few years away?
Boy, I already posted this once today:
We've said this before, but basically, if Reaper ever decides that it makes financial sense for them to do prepainted plastic in the Pathfinder line, we'll be happy to let them. I wouldn't hold your breath, though—after all, there is a reason Wizards isn't doing them anymore.
I happen to know (and have worked for a company) that does quality plastic products -- I have also started speaking to them about the possibility of producing a line of cheap (but well printed) minis and they have been receptive.
I would absolutely love to be able to tell them that there is a company that would be interested in this product already out there but need a little more information before they will start the test runs on it.
Who should I send an email to about this Vic?
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Chief Technical Officer
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Boy, I already posted this once today:
We've said this before, but basically, if Reaper ever decides that it makes financial sense for them to do prepainted plastic in the Pathfinder line, we'll be happy to let them. I wouldn't hold your breath, though—after all, there is a reason Wizards isn't doing them anymore.
I happen to know (and have worked for a company) that does quality plastic products -- I have also started speaking to them about the possibility of producing a line of cheap (but well printed) minis and they have been receptive.
I would absolutely love to be able to tell them that there is a company that would be interested in this product already out there but need a little more information before they will start the test runs on it.
Who should I send an email to about this Vic?
If you're talking about on-demand 3d-printing, the volume they could do would not cover our potential needs. If you're talking about mass manufacturing of prepainted plastic minis, you can drop a note to lisa@paizo.com.
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Both hags are medium.
I've used this for an annis hag:
http://paizo.com/store/byCompany/w/wizardsOfTheCoast/byProductType/miniatur esGames/dnd/singles/underdark/v5748btpy7nig
If you want to try ebay, I'm sure you can get one at a lower price. DDM miniature prices have crashed in the past year.
...there is a reason Wizards isn't doing them anymore.Yeah, but what is the reason, really? If production costs are increasing, fine. But until someone better informed than me (which is pretty much anyone, to be honest) straightens me out, I have to believe that they just weren't selling enough, which in turn I believe to be a direct result of two decisions on their part:
1. Devoting so much of their line to things like "fiendish half-dragon fireborn necromancer beholderkin" instead of far more common creatures more likely to see use in a game; and
2. Random blind packaging of these figures, initially obliging buyers to acquire many useless figures in hopes of obtaining one or two they might want. (This became somewhat less of a comsumer issue once the aftermarket got going and a decent number of individual figures were available through third party resellers.)
In my humble and uninformed opinion, Hasbro/WotC hasn't demonstrated that prepainted plastic minis is an unprofitable venture, they've only demonstrated that they don't know how to do it.
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Agree 1,000,000% but would add that the secondary market did a lot to skew the numbers and kill the business.
Think about how many times you heard about guys buying crates of these things below cost to strip them of rares to sell on eBay. Each crate sold at cost for this purpose stole opportunities for sales from game stores, thus stealing support for the line those stores would have given. But each crate sold below cost, cost Wizards a lot more. You can imagine how over time the line was cannibalizing itself.
Blind packaging works for cheap cards, but there's so much more cost to manufacturing minis, and a secondary market competing with identical, unaltered merchandise, in a more convenient package is simply going to eventually eat the business.
I picked up the Reaper young red dragon and gargoyle today. Nice! My only real complaint are I wish they had regular bases.
Both hags are medium.
Good to know. Thanks.
If you're talking about on-demand 3d-printing, the volume they could do would not cover our potential needs. If you're talking about mass manufacturing of prepainted plastic minis, you can drop a note to lisa@paizo.com.
The second, and thank you very much.
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I seem to be a bit on the other side of the minis debate. I would love to see a line of unpainted plastic minis. I don't mind painting the ones I need, but I hate to spend that much effort just to have them all chipped & bent during storage/transport.
I imagine this would also help keep the costs down for everyone involved.
(...)
If you're talking about on-demand 3d-printing, the volume they could do would not cover our potential needs. If you're talking about mass manufacturing of prepainted plastic minis, you can drop a note to lisa@paizo.com.
Just to make sure that the later COLORED 3D-print versions are considered, check these HP systems:
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/en/ga/WF06b/18972-18972-3328061-4154659-4 154659-4154512-4154513.html
They can print with some specific 8 colors of plastics so the products wouldn't need painting for basic colored "grunt batches".
Production stacking of multiple models in printing batches of larger volume systems is possible but I can't be sure of the final quality/cost/life-expectancy it could bring out. I'm more familiar with the mono-colored prototype building.
3D printers still can't produce decent enough quality for miniatures.
Witness these figures:
(Taken from this thread: On-demand Minis?)
Until the extrusion techniques can match injection molding for quality output, it won't really be a viable option.
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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There is a post here that talks about why the Wizard's minis were randomized, which has more to do with production costs then anything.
I can tell you that producing miniatures of any kind is expensive. I worked in a bronze foundry for a time as a craftsman, and even the molding process of small items was costly. The smaller the piece, the more complicated and expensive the molding can become.
I know that there is a difference in the types of molds a bronze foundry would use vs. the types used my a miniature company. However, I do know that there is no such thing as a perfect mold that will produce an infinite amount of miniatures. After about an edition of 1000 a mold was in need of retirement, and the pieces it put out needed detailing work to bring them back to the artists standards.
The molds needed for plastics are also different then the molds needed for metals, and from what I understand they don't last as long. I don't know for sure, but I think the molds needed for plastic miniatures might even be more expensive then metal miniatures.
I am not saying I don't want plastic miniatures, I would love to have them. I would even love prepainted metal miniatures. I am saying that I understand why I might not see them for a while.
3D printers still can't produce decent enough quality for miniatures.
Witness these figures:
(Taken from this thread: On-demand Minis?)
Until the extrusion techniques can match injection molding for quality output, it won't really be a viable option.
Thanks for the references.
I agree that the detail are limited but I would still consider it for a 'Grunt-miniature set' principle. No, at this point it won't be as good as the pre-painted injection-molded options but it will certainly beat the tokens.
But $ is the main one to check. Large amount of batches still would come into play but large in the hundreds not the 10 thous.
Is there any company out there (maybe in Europe) still producing pre-painted plastic miniatures? My gut tells me yes and if so how do they do it successfully?
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Boy, I already posted this once today:
We've said this before, but basically, if Reaper ever decides that it makes financial sense for them to do prepainted plastic in the Pathfinder line, we'll be happy to let them. I wouldn't hold your breath, though—after all, there is a reason Wizards isn't doing them anymore.
The one thing WotC did was the work in building a community interested in plastic minitures. Now they dropped it, kinda like they did in 3.5. Now, whomever figures out how to produce cheap prepainted minis economically sets up their company up for success, much like WotC set up Paizo, though on a smaller scale.
All the Best,
Kerney
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Boy, I already posted this once today:
We've said this before, but basically, if Reaper ever decides that it makes financial sense for them to do prepainted plastic in the Pathfinder line, we'll be happy to let them. I wouldn't hold your breath, though—after all, there is a reason Wizards isn't doing them anymore.
The one thing WotC did was the work in building a community interested in plastic minitures. Now they dropped it, kinda like they did in 3.5. Now, whomever figures out how to produce cheap prepainted minis economically sets up their company up for success, much like WotC set up Paizo, though on a smaller scale.
All the Best,
Kerney
As much as I am not happy with how WotC did 4th edition, it was about the time that they Did put out a 4th edition though. 6-10 years and a new edition comes out is fairly typical. So they did nothing wrong there. I do not agree with WotC and the fact that they did not make it backwards compatible is a whole other argument.
Is there any company out there (maybe in Europe) still producing pre-painted plastic miniatures? My gut tells me yes and if so how do they do it successfully?
This was aways upthread. Reaper Miniatures has reorganized into Hobby-Q and spun the Legendary Encounters pre-painted plastics into its own branded company, Asylum Miniatures. They're available through Paizo's webstore, here. The selection is still somewhat limited, but I imagine they'll be experiencing a boost in business soon if they stay the only game in town, especially with the non-blind, non-random thing going for them. Hopefully a sales uptick will materialize and lead to a broader selection of figures. I've got most of the pieces produced in this line so far and find the quality to be excellent.
As much as I am not happy with how WotC did 4th edition, it was about the time that they Did put out a 4th edition though. 6-10 years and a new edition comes out is fairly typical. So they did nothing wrong there. I do not agree with WotC and the fact that they did not make it backwards compatible is a whole other argument.
I'm in the same boat. I was fine with the idea of a new edition, and the attractive price point for the box set (and the nice slipcase) is what sold me as a bibliophile. The execution, OTOH, lost me as a fan.
There are some things I like about 4e, but they are unfortunately mostly divorced from the rules system, and the lack of compatibility with previous systems makes converting any material difficult.
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Chief Technical Officer
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...I don't know for sure, but I think the molds needed for plastic miniatures might even be more expensive then metal miniatures.
They're orders of magnitude more expensive.
Temperatures and pressures involved in casting metal minis are moderate, so molds can be made of silicone; thus, they're cheap and easy to make. They do wear out easily, but since they're so cheap and easy to make, replacing them isn't that big a deal.
Plastic minis require much higher temperatures and pressures, so they're generally made using steel molds, which are way, way more expensive to make. They don't wear out as quickly, but when they do, replacing them costs much the same as making a whole new one.
It's like Psionics. It'll keep coming up on these boards until Paizo makes them or someone else does and they get the money instead.
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They're orders of magnitude more expensive.
Temperatures and pressures involved in casting metal minis are moderate, so molds can be made of silicone; thus, they're cheap and easy to make. They do wear out easily, but since they're so cheap and easy to make, replacing them isn't that big a deal.
Plastic minis require much higher temperatures and pressures, so they're generally made using steel molds, which are way, way more expensive to make. They don't wear out as quickly, but when they do, replacing them costs much the same as making a whole new one.
I don't care if they are plastic.. I just want them prepainted or does one have to go with ther other?
I haven't seen the question posed before ... or my search-fu is off ... but if plastic is magnitudes more expensive, then why not have prepainted metal minis, then?
I think this is because even as expensive as plastic has become it is still not more expensive than metal. Also colors are usually not sticking to metal all that well, even with (expensive) primer used.
In bulk, I believe plastic is significantly cheaper.
I'm not sure how the costs stack up in lower quantities.
For metal minis, I thought quality was superior.
Cost is also an issue - I don't imagine that plastic versions of current Reaper minis would be cheaper, and I wouldn't be willing to pay the same price for them, were they plastic. Something about the metal versions just seems "better".
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CEO
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#2, however, is a necessity, which has been explained several times by those in the know. Non-random visible packs simply wouldn't sell enough to be profitable. Too many sets/monsters/etc wouldn't sell, which would drag down the overall profitability. The random blind packs allowed the rare "chase" monsters (such as the cool dragons, beholders, illithids, etc.) to drive booster sales and subsidize the not-nearly-as-popular monsters.
The construction of the game around the minis was also a necessity, in my view, as it brought another group of buyers to the game. Undoubtedly, there was overlap between the mini-game players and RPG players, but there were a lot of mini-game folks who didn't care about the RPG. The game was a great draw to the RPG hobby, but even if they didn't stay for the game, they were still buying minis, keeping the line profitable.
You are right on the money, Brian. And thus is the crux of the problem. Customers don't want blind packed miniatures, but that is the only model that has a chance to make enough money to be viable. I could regale you for hours about the minutia of why this is the case, but I don't have time to do that. I've spent a LOT of time looking at making prepainted plastic miniatures and the ONLY way that MIGHT be able to do it in the future is the blind packed route. And a bunch of customers would be mad at that. So what to do?
-Lisa
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I've spent a LOT of time looking at making prepainted plastic miniatures and the ONLY way that MIGHT be able to do it in the future is the blind packed route. And a bunch of customers would be mad at that. So what to do?
-Lisa
I May fit the Minority here, but I would rather have a blind pack then none at all.
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You are right on the money, Brian. And thus is the crux of the problem. Customers don't want blind packed miniatures, but that is the only model that has a chance to make enough money to be viable. I could regale you for hours about the minutia of why this is the case, but I don't have time to do that. I've spent a LOT of time looking at making prepainted plastic miniatures and the ONLY way that MIGHT be able to do it in the future is the blind packed route. And a bunch of customers would be mad at that. So what to do?-Lisa
I know a retailer who buys in bulk, opens them, and then sells them as individual pieces behind a glass case, where they are a hit. If some version of that model is possible on a larger scale, that might be somewhere to start.
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You are right on the money, Brian. And thus is the crux of the problem. Customers don't want blind packed miniatures, but that is the only model that has a chance to make enough money to be viable. I could regale you for hours about the minutia of why this is the case, but I don't have time to do that. I've spent a LOT of time looking at making prepainted plastic miniatures and the ONLY way that MIGHT be able to do it in the future is the blind packed route. And a bunch of customers would be mad at that. So what to do?
-Lisa
I'm sure you are able to answer your own rhetorical business questions better than I.
However, I would observe this:
1- The perceived value of randomized pre-packaged minis to a hobby gamer is closely related to the cost of those or similar non-random minis, in the aftermarket; and
2- The perceived scarcity (and cost) of pre-painted mini products in the after-market 18-24 momths from now may be very, very different than it is now.
All of which suggests that the market conditions that will prevail 24 months from now will have a real impact upon the success of any miniature line you might undertake in the future and those market conditions that will prevail then are simply unknown, now.
As you must consider the pricing in an aftermarket of hobby resellers, it makes the core assumptions about their pricing that much more difficult to guess at, too.
This suggest that whatever it is you do, pulling the trigger one way or the other right now seems hasty. Waiting for as much as a year will allow the effluxion of time to clarify the wisdom of those possible choices and their outcomes.
A bit conservative, perhaps, but the ability to lose a lot of money on plastic minis justifies a more prudent business plan.
You can quibble about optimzation of business choices and market timing for consumer products, sure, but if it's fundamentally a good idea now, it will still be a fundamentally good idea 12 months from now, too.
It's like Psionics. It'll keep coming up on these boards until Paizo makes them or someone else does and they get the money instead.Probably, with the caveat that "get the money" might be replaced with "lose their shirts."
Business ventures have risk and aren't just a liscence to print money? Wha?
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Chief Technical Officer
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This suggest that whatever it is you do, pulling the trigger one way or the other right now seems hasty. Waiting for as much as a year will allow the effluxion of time to clarify the wisdom of those possible choices and their outcomes.
A bit conservative, perhaps, but the ability to lose a lot of money on plastic minis justifies a more prudent business plan.
You can quibble about optimzation of business choices and market timing for consumer products, sure, but if it's fundamentally a good idea now, it will still be a fundamentally good idea 12 months from now, too.
You lost me... we're *not* pulling the trigger right now. We're saying it doesn't make good business sense now, but we're hopeful that it may someday make sense.
#2, however, is a necessity, which has been explained several times by those in the know. Non-random visible packs simply wouldn't sell enough to be profitable. Too many sets/monsters/etc wouldn't sell, which would drag down the overall profitability. The random blind packs allowed the rare "chase" monsters (such as the cool dragons, beholders, illithids, etc.) to drive booster sales and subsidize the not-nearly-as-popular monsters.
The construction of the game around the minis was also a necessity, in my view, as it brought another group of buyers to the game. Undoubtedly, there was overlap between the mini-game players and RPG players, but there were a lot of mini-game folks who didn't care about the RPG. The game was a great draw to the RPG hobby, but even if they didn't stay for the game, they were still buying minis, keeping the line profitable.
You are right on the money, Brian. And thus is the crux of the problem. Customers don't want blind packed miniatures, but that is the only model that has a chance to make enough money to be viable. I could regale you for hours about the minutia of why this is the case, but I don't have time to do that. I've spent a LOT of time looking at making prepainted plastic miniatures and the ONLY way that MIGHT be able to do it in the future is the blind packed route. And a bunch of customers would be mad at that. So what to do?
-Lisa
There's the tactic from the comics tie-in figurines of having special paints or clear versions as Comicon exclusives and limited runs to pop the rarities. Kind of like having foil cards occasionally in a package of collectible cards.
I think part of the trouble is, to give an example, a GM who wants a beholder for his game doesn't want to purchase ten dozen pig farmers along with it, or even purchase ten dozen blind-packed packages to even have the chance of getting a beholder.
If, on the other hand, you had blind packed boxes that all had beholders, but occasionally one would have the special disco-ball bling-encrusted silver-and-sequins glam beholder (to give an example) the rarity collector would still be buying scads of beholder boxes while chasing after the rare hypothetical "Elvis Beholder" (or "Liberace Beholder") while most of the regular GMs would just go "Okay, I've got a beholder for my next game" and not worry about it, though if they got the Liberace Beholder, they might end up selling or trading it to a collector.
This would still give the trouble of some figures being more popular than others, but it might at least solve the trouble of dozens of pig farmers.
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You lost me... we're *not* pulling the trigger right now. We're saying it doesn't make good business sense now, but we're hopeful that it may someday make sense.This suggest that whatever it is you do, pulling the trigger one way or the other right now seems hasty. Waiting for as much as a year will allow the effluxion of time to clarify the wisdom of those possible choices and their outcomes.
A bit conservative, perhaps, but the ability to lose a lot of money on plastic minis justifies a more prudent business plan.
You can quibble about optimzation of business choices and market timing for consumer products, sure, but if it's fundamentally a good idea now, it will still be a fundamentally good idea 12 months from now, too.
Ah. Good enough then.
I guess I just misunderstood Lisa :) I know that the upshot was that you were looking at it but had not yet reached a decision. Her comment made me think that a decision might be pending. I misunderstood.
If the decision is: "not now, but maybe later" then that's a fine decision from my perspective, for all of the reasons stated (or implied)above. FWIW (and that's very little!) waiting sure as hell makes the most sense to me.
For the record: I'll buy random minis again. Half of my fellow gamers in my group would, and the the other half would not as they have acquired FAR too many of them already.
It's a question of price, quality and the underlying art direction as far as my buying tendencies are concerned. If the minis were priced approximately the same as they were in 2005/06 and at about the same quality and reflected the same art direction as appears in Pathfinder products? I'd be very interested in buying those minis.
To be clear, I'd buy them by the case, assuming 12 boosters per case at a price of about $120-140 from the retailer (same as we paid for our WotC minis at the same price; we were buying 5 or 6 cases at a time at that price). I'd want about 2.5 cases per set. I would certainly buy one set in a year and I would also buy two sets in a year. I *might* buy three sets in a given year. There is NO WAY I would ever buy four in a year. It's two or three sets per year, imo. Two is probably FAR safer as three can easily flood the market, and might be more than I could afforf. One set per yeaar is probably not enough for my tastes and I could afford to buy more than one set per year.
If there was a cool minis game to play with them? Even better.
My current price expectations don't appear to be realistic given the cost of plastic right now in China. All of which suggests that waiting to pull that trigger, it at all, is a very wise course of action.
Anyway -- looks like we're on the same page. Best of luck!
If, on the other hand, you had blind packed boxes that all had beholders,...
Y'know, the purple beholder I wound up with from the WotC blindpacks is already pretty glam. We even call him David Bowieholder around the house and he frequently bursts out in Ziggy-era song when he's used in gaming.
So as a data point for this discussion, I will buy any blindpacked Paizo miniatures that have the possibility of glamrock versions of classic monsters in them.
We should add the Arachnids of Akiton to the game, with appropriate miniatures, so David Bowieholder can have his Spiders from Mars.
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I would be much better able to deal with with blind packaging if it were split into 'Random Monsters' and 'Random Humanoid Adversaries and/or Player Characters' - as it is now, I (as a non-DM) buy a bunch of WoTC boxes, pick out the ones that might make a cool mini for a PC or an animal companion/summoned minion, and end up giving or trading the rest to my GM.
Our gaming group just pooled together to buy two cases of the Lord of Madness series to do a draft on, since they're being discontinued... GM's about to make a killing. :3
Anyways, hope Reaper/Asylum has some luck with the Legendary Encounters line; we bought some of their stuff, but the variety is somewhat lacking at present. Hopefully success will breed more options.
I also believe a hybrid solution would work. Box sets that are not completely random based around a "boss monster". For example, a Lich with random minions, or a Goblin Chief with assorted thematically related followers.
From a financial perspective I would rather pay $20 (or more) to have a good idea of what I am getting (ie definitely a specific BBEG and 3-5 linked minis and 1 or 2 randoms), rather than spending the same amount on several random boxes in which I am basically gambling on getting the one or two minis I want from a particular set.
Knowing that I will definitely know one or two of the figures I will get is way better than the WoTC mini "pay and hope for the best" system - particularly if the minis are not based around the table top mini game but actually designed to augment roleplaying.
Given the popularity of the Adventure Paths, having mini sets linked to the AP would be fantastic. For example having the exact "Carrion King" figurine in Legacy of Fire would add to the fun of playing the AP. If he came in a box with a bunch of gnolls and one or two randoms (possibly linked to random encounter tabels appropriate for the module) then you could really enhance the game experience. I suspect it may end up more expensive but a lot of gamers are happy to spend a lot of money to enhance their gaming experience (and I don't just mean buying gourmet pizzas instead of cheapie ones!)
WoTC did it with some sets (the name escapes me at the moment) where you could see the BBEG in the set plus 4 randoms. Ironically, following on from one of the posts above, in the set I bought on the weeknd (because the visible large BBEG would be ideal for an enlarged version of my current character) one of the randoms was a beholder :) Though with that set the randoms really were random, and not linked in any thematic way.
On the issue of 3D printers.... given the speed at which new technology becomes affordable (just think of how cheap a desktop colour laser printer is now comapred to a few years ago), I don't think we are too far off "print on demand" minis or even further on, downloading specs for minis to print on your personal 3D printer in the same way we can buy and download game PDFs.
I would be much better able to deal with with blind packaging if it were split into 'Random Monsters' and 'Random Humanoid Adversaries and/or Player Characters'
Problem there is that you now have two lines of minis.
By having a single line of blind-packaged minis, the lesser-desired minis can be subsidized by the others.
Instead of everyone buying one line, less people buy smaller lines, creating smaller production runs, forcing the prices to be higher until nobody wants to buy them.
I also believe a hybrid solution would work. Box sets that are not completely random based around a "boss monster". For example, a Lich with random minions, or a Goblin Chief with assorted thematically related followers.
From a financial perspective I would rather pay $20 (or more) to have a good idea of what I am getting (ie definitely a specific BBEG and 3-5 linked minis and 1 or 2 randoms), rather than spending the same amount on several random boxes in which I am basically gambling on getting the one or two minis I want from a particular set.
As you mentioned further down, WotC already did this. It didn't work out well, because nobody wanted to buy a bunch of unicorns, and dealers were stuck with them.
When WotC released the Legendary Evils set, the fastest selling boosters were the Elder Iron Dragon and the Elder Green Dragon.
The Balor was also pretty popular.
The huge Remorhaz? The huge Goristro? Not so much.
The Frost Titan and Storm Titan were pretty cool, too, but who needs more than one of those?
It's a lot easier to swallow unwanted dupes when they're random than when you're going and buying them knowing that it's what you're getting.
Knowing that I will definitely know one or two of the figures I will get is way better than the WoTC mini "pay and hope for the best" system - particularly if the minis are not based around the table top mini game but actually designed to augment roleplaying.
There weren't enough roleplaying customers to support the line WotC had.
Given the popularity of the Adventure Paths, having mini sets linked to the AP would be fantastic. For example having the exact "Carrion King" figurine in Legacy of Fire would add to the fun of playing the AP. If he came in a box with a bunch of gnolls and one or two randoms (possibly linked to random encounter tabels appropriate for the module) then you could really enhance the game experience. I suspect it may end up more expensive but a lot of gamers are happy to spend a lot of money to enhance their gaming experience (and I don't just mean buying gourmet pizzas instead of cheapie ones!)
Cool, yes. Ultimately, an AP-specific mini set is a product that's doomed to fail in a fairly short lifespan - they're oriented towards a limited-run product, and the monsters aren't going to be quickly reused in another AP (do you want to buy two APs released in quick succession that use the same monsters? I don't).
WoTC did it with some sets (the name escapes me at the moment) where you could see the BBEG in the set plus 4 randoms. Ironically, following on from one of the posts above, in the set I bought on the weeknd (because the visible large BBEG would be ideal for an enlarged version of my current character) one of the randoms was a beholder :) Though with that set the randoms really were random, and not linked in any thematic way.
The visible sets were:
Dangerous Delves (the set that contained the random Beholder Eye Tyrant)
Legendary Evils
Savage Encounters
Lords of Madness
One thing to note, which reinforces the whole notion that blind-packing is better business sense, is that WotC dropped the minis-per-booster when they went to semi-random packs, and also dropped the set sizes, knowing that they wouldn't be selling as many.
How many packs of that visible large BBEG did you buy? If you only bought one, why didn't you buy more of them?