Hasbro Announces Will Stop Selling Pigs in a Poke; Customers Pathetically Grateful

Posted on by Joshua Macy

  • Questing GM; A Borneon Gamer: Word of Wizards – D&D Miniatures Changes Announcment

    • Yesterday, Wizards has made an announcement that in Spring 2009, they will be releasing two new lines of miniatures; D&D Heroes and Dangerous Delves.

      D&D Heroes will be a non-randomized miniature set featuring miniatures for the classes and races from the PHB and PHB II. The first of the series will have 6 packs (2 for Martial & Arcane heroes and 1 for Divine & Primal).

I mean, I’m glad for the D&D 4e players that they actually have some hope of getting at least the minis that they need to represent the PCs, but coupling the end of an evil policy with a price increase is hardly grounds for the hosannas echoing across the RPG blogosphere.  Of course, as Art Asylum’s Minimates prove, just because you always know what’s in the pack doesn’t mean you won’t end up with a bunch of figures you don’t want just to get the one that you do.  Take it from someone who has more versions of Wolverine than he could possibly want.

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6 thoughts on “Hasbro Announces Will Stop Selling Pigs in a Poke; Customers Pathetically Grateful”

  1. Yeah, I’ve been begging for non-randomized minis from WotC (or anyone for that matter, so long as it’s pre-painted plastic and affordable). So this is good news for me. However, monsters are still semi-randomized (which continues to be full of suck for me, since I usually DM) and the price increase seems entirely unneeded. I mean, do they have to pay extra to get someone to sort the minis to be sure that they are appropraitely non-randomized? No, I don’t think so.

    I suspect, however, that the price increase is more a case of WotC keeping up with the inflation and a struggling economy and they figure: new approach to minis, good time for a new price.

    But in any case, with this announcement WotC is closer to making me a happier D&D player, but not quite as happy as I could be.

  2. Given that I never used minis before even when I did actually play on a real tabletop (I used chess pieces of differing colors – and the player with the Queen was always the brunt of jokes) what sort of annoys me are the power cards that are going to be included. I think it’d be better if they printed powers from the PHB in the little cards to get new guys wet for ’em – not make a bunch of random new ones. But that’s just me.

  3. We use LEGOs (and assorted other toys for monsters). They’re not really any cheaper, but you can mix and match them, and they’re very cute. My wife’s interest in using the minis has gone way up since we switched to them.

    And the “Special Cool Powers, Free in Each Box Of Dungeon-O’s!” is pretty wince-inducing.

  4. Thanks for the link back, I think it’s my first time getting something like this, so I’m pathetically grateful.

    I have to say that WoTC is finally taking steps in the right direction (although they claim it is from the feedback of DDM fans) but they are still thousand of miles away from hitting the sweet spot. I would have prefered if they made the monsters non-randomized (which was what the initial announcement said before it was official, check back one of my links in that post) instead of just the heroes. That would have been my no. 1 priority.

    New powers in power cards is also one of my biggest iff about the miniatures.I was expecting this change to be a decent call from WoTC to their D&D fanbase but this added bonus implies something less decent because it looks like its appealing to someone else.

    Price-wise, I can’t really complain much. RPG stuff has always been very expensive for me because of the lack of supply and demand here. At least, it’s cheaper than Warhammer.

  5. Actually, I didn’t realize how much these things would cost. LEGOs are actually cheaper. A “battle pack” of warriors or skeletons is $12.99 for 5, which works out to $2.60 per, almost a dollar cheaper than the $10.99 for 3 of the new non-randomized sets. And if you order them by “pick a brick” you can get them down to about $1.50, though a lot of the nifty helmets and such aren’t available. Still you could field a decent force of crossbowmen or skeletons.

  6. It really is another fine example of WOTC’s ability to give the customer what they want, without giving the customer what they want.

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