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Why no bases for the Pre-Painted Plastic Minis?


orclord2
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And while I know I can go online and order tons of bases in a variety of styles and quantities on the cheap, this is the type of base I'm more likely to pick up in a blister pack as an impulse buy at my FLGS - keep it less expensive than comparable GW bases, and it will be priced just fine.

 

And you don't need to spend $8 is shipping for $5 worth of bases.......

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(Apologies to the OP, but I think you're right about the Hijack...)

 

Kristof, I suppose these bases would be a nice thing to have available as "impulse" buys...I always keep them on-hand for my pewter people that I don't think I'd ever pick any up at random, but I could see how PPM customers, especially, would like it.

 

I think if the cost were reasonable - $3-5 bucks for an 8-12 pack of 1" discs* - and a good opening marketing "blitz" for them to make retailers aware they can be used to turn any mini into a DDM - then they would sell pretty decently.

 

While this price-point is less than the comparable packets from GW, it's still not low enough for me to pick it up at random. But, as said before, I'm not the real target customer for this idea. The marketing blitz idea is a definite necessity, though...there would have to be a clear connection b/t these bases and the adaptation of LE for D&D.

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And you don't need to spend $8 is shipping for $5 worth of bases.......

 

Ah, but if you buy your PPMs and your bases at the same time, you may well spend enough for free shipping at many mini sites. :devil:

 

Even so, it is true I would prefer to support my FLGS rather than some ethereal store on the web. But my FLGS can also get many of these items in, if I ask. Just takes a week or so.

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Round 20mm bases are available in the form of 1" washers (or is it 3/4"?) - anyway, whenever I get a mini with a particularly shaky base that's what I base on. You can get 'em by the handful at a hardware store for like a buck. For filling the large hole in the center, use greenstuff, apoxie or sculpy or whatever you have on hand, then sand the bottom until flat. You can then texture the base to your liking.

 

When I get done painting up Lorna (my first P65 mini) you'll see how it looks.

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Washers?!?

 

WASHERS?!?

 

My god man, are you trying to destroy the miniature base manufacturing economy entirely? Bad enough that Froggy bases on pennies, and now you want to send people to the hardware store for washers?! I've never heard such...I mean!...well, I never!

 

Harrumph.

 

[/false apoplexy]

 

::P:

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Washers?!?

 

WASHERS?!?

 

My god man, are you trying to destroy the miniature base manufacturing economy entirely? Bad enough that Froggy bases on pennies, and now you want to send people to the hardware store for washers?! I've never heard such...I mean!...well, I never!

 

Harrumph.

 

[/false apoplexy]

 

::P:

Yeah, and I'll recommend Apoxie over Games Workshop "green stuff" - 1/10th the price for 2000% more sculpting material! :-D

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  • Reaper User
We've had a few things, like the original "best of pro-paint" caddy that we sold on-line, but the stores could still buy it at discount if they wanted to.

What was this? Is it still available?

This was the "old" pro-paint. We did this in our on-line as a test to see if they would sell. We sold a few... but they were available to all you you friendly retail guys if you wanted them. We just didn't "market" them.

 

There are now new caddies with the new pro paints

 

09958__19001-19054

09959__19055-19108

09960__19001-19108 w/two caddies

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Frankly, the shape of the bases concern me less than the lack of new product. It's been a long time since the last wave and there has been no word on when we'll see the next releases. As for selling single figures vs. packs of figures, most casual rpg players will want to buy a figure that represents their current character; they won't want to buy a pack of three figures to get one that they want. Gamemasters, on the other hand, will buy multiple figure packs to fill out their npc/monster rosters. One of the advantages that Reaper has, imho, is their vast selection of pc/npc figures in their metals line that can be adapted to the LE line. The big failing of DDM is the lack of high quality pc/npc figures; Reaper can blow them out of the water by turning out a dozen or two figures like the female ranger in the last LE wave. As a gamemaster, I don't mind average quality for monsters but as a player, I want a top-notch figure to represent my pc.

 

Regards,

 

V

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Point Of Information: The DDM bases actually are not 1" and 2" round, they're a tad smaller.

 

The 4" DDM bases were actually square (the Icon Dragons had 4" bases).

 

...they were available to all you you friendly retail guys if you wanted them.

But I wasn't a friendly retail guy then... :mellow:

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...they were available to all you you friendly retail guys if you wanted them.

But I wasn't a friendly retail guy then... :mellow:

Did you just not know about them, or did someone here tell you, you could not order one? You should have been able to get one for your store, if you knew they were around to get.

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Cheap Bases

 

1/4": Metal washers

 

20mm: US Pennies, metal washers

 

25mm: Metal washers, wood disks, British 2 pence coins, US Quarters, Upwords Tiles, Othello disks, Mosiac tiles.

 

40mm / 1.5": Poker chips, mosaic tiles, metal washers.

 

50mm: Metal washers, Mosaic tiles

 

75mm and 100mm: Canned food lids opened the 'opposite way" with a hand held can opener.

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This is good discussion. I just sent some greens out for casting and have to find bases, and select which ones for an upcoming endeavor. Lots of food for thought here.

 

Back on topic, I think the original poster made a good plea for standardized bases, but Reaper is in a Catch 22. If they go with round, people who want square will woof, and vice versa.

 

I currently like the LE models as is. I've been meaning to buy Reaper skeletons for a while. If I want to use them as proxies for Chronopia undead, I can just use some sticky tac and put them on a round base. For Warlord, square. For Savage Worlds, where everyone in our roleplaying group is also a tabletop player, we don't even worry about the shape of the base, or whether the Dwarf model we're using is too tall.

 

As much as I want to see more plastics from Reaper, I think they've done well in not overextending themselves with this line to the point where the metals suffer. I haven't noticed a drop in new models coming out, if there even is one.

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I was pretty excited about LE when they came out too, being not much of a painter at the time and seeing the need for low-cost models not bundled in ten-packs or sold "blind".

 

But yeah.. price IS a deterrent for me now. The lack of savings over metals..even unpainted metals...was enough to incline me to learn to paint. I still don't paint very well, but even at my level of lack of ability with paint, the DHL Classics four-packs are a much better deal.

 

The other problem seems to be the single-pack approach. While I agree it's no fun to have to buy nine minis I don't want to get one I do want, having to buy my skeletons one at a time because the store only stocks a few at a time means I may never finish populating my dungeon.

 

PLeeease keep the three-packs. Besides, reducing packaging is Earth-smart.

 

____

 

And as for basing.....I like the ovals. They can be glued to round or square or six-sided or whatever. FWIW HobbyLobby sells pre-cut wooden square tiles and circles that could make nice bases depending on the size you need.

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