I was very disappointed that they were cancelled. Spending $13 a month and slowly collecting the entire set was fine with me. I've paid a lot more than that for single unpainted figures. The Tannhauser singles are about that much for one painted figure and a small booklet and board. To me, it was like an Asylum pack for the Cthulhu LCG, a small, once a month luxury item- about the cost of a few of my wife's Starbuck's purchases.

I know that a lot of people are saying they wouldn't spend $200 on figures- neither would I at a single drop, but I would not have spent that on Arkham Horror all at once, which would now be over $200. I certainly could not have justified getting into the boardgaming hobby if I started out making a $1000 purchase, but I've spent a lot more than that over the years. The whole point of the release schedule was to make pre-painted figures and make it a minor purchase that your spouse would not beat you over.

It's a shame that FFG did not at least produce the first set of figures from base AH and decide from there. I don't think it would have set sales records, but I think if the figures were staring at players from the shelves of their local game stores it would have done well enough to keep producing them.

Miniatures would be neat, but for that price...eh. I myself am art-savvy enough that I could get the modelling clay and craft them myself for a fraction of that price. I do like the idea of the monthly payment system though. I might go for that.

Something I would REALLY like to do though, is revisit my Warhammer days, and craft a 3D board using materials from train modelling kits. I'm positive that I'm skilled enough to do it, the only problem is that I have NO idea where I would store such a thing. After building the base board, and then sideboards for each expansion town? I'd need a shelving unit just to store it all in! Though I suppose it's reaching that point already, lol, maybe I should just go for it...

Mighty Maltim said:

I just lost 1 sanity.

Talk to this guy about making a model town.

Tibs said:

Oh my. I had no idea that someone already constructed a board like this. Very impressive. It seems a bit small though. I was envisioning something larger. Storage would be an issue though. It seems like it was the same case with this fellow here. Either way, it's very impressive. This'd be a good jumping point for when/if I get around to making one of my own. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

kroen said:

I would personally rather have sculpted monsters than investigators.

I think you are forgetting the real reason they stopped heading down this path. It was very poorly thought out. I personally doubt it was the reaction of everyone that scared them, because it didn't stop Warhammer 3rd and it won't stop Battle of Westeros. I also don't think it was money that was an issue.

Instead, the main reason I wasn't going to buy them, and the reason that others brought up, was because the two minis that they showed for first release were not from base game. One was and the other was from an expansion IIRC. At the time I was just getting into AH and did not have every supplement, so why would I have any desire to buy figures I don't need? One of my friends, was very vocal at the time and brought up other good points that did not have to do with money or the fact that it would take 2 years to "catch em' all".

16 for base, 8 for dunnwich, 8 for kingsport, 16 for innsmouth = 48

48/2 = 24 months or 2 years.

If they were to bring them back up I would sell them in bundles based on the supplement. First off 10 bucks for two painted figs...IS over priced. For 13 bucks I can get 5 well done Heroclix figs (and yes they are painted with same quality based on images provided by FFG). So, I will be generous and say 3 bucks per fig for Arkham.

16 x 3 = 48 bucks for 16 minis. BUT the generosity comes in the fact that each character should have investigator sheet included.

You have 2 big boxes of figs plus character sheets for the Base and Innsmouth or you can break them up into two sets with 8 figs and their sheets in a set.

This means for all the dunnwich figs and their character sheets (just in case buyer doesn't own dunnwich) they would be paying about 25 bucks, say $24.99. That is a very fair deal and eliminates one issue that was brought up.

The other issue is the fact that by releasing 2 figs a month some people would get stuck with the stands and others would get the minis. This would lead to the issue of once 3 or 4 minis are out players would tend to choose only the investigators with minis (if they had the expansion that the character came with).

To eliminate that issue you just have to release either all 4 sets at once OR all characters for one suppliment each month for 4 months. If production takes longer then make is every 3 months over the span of one year. Just make sure when characters come out for innsmouth and base, that BOTH sets need to be on shelves.

Anyways that is my two cents.

Personally I would only buy unpainted metal or plastic figures unless the packs had something amazing in with them (though I cant imagine what that would be)

I am someone who is not artistically talented. I have no great skill in painting minis, let alone trying to make my own. And I would have gladly paid the $13 a month for these figures. Granted, I would have liked if they came with something extra (alternate personal stories comes first to my mind) but just having pre-painted AH minis for me would be worth it.

Comparing AH minis to HeroClix, though, is a mistake. At its best, FFG might make 5000 copies of each mini and I'd be wiling to bet it would be closer to 2000 copies. The last HeroClix expansion had 8000+ cases at 20 booster packs each with 5 figures per booster. You're looking at 800,000 figures there. At those production numbers, the cost per figure drops significantly. There is no way FFG could produce minis for any of their games on the same scale as HeroClix, so the cost to manufacture is much higher.

And even though I have all current Arkham sets, and will pick up Lurker the first day its available, I would pay between $400-$600 for a COMPLETE, limited edition collector's set of Arkham. And I know people who would gladly buy an Arkham Big Box epic box packaging, with all expansions for $200+. I personally combined all my Descent games into the other boxes so I could store all of Arkham in my Descent box so I didn'y have to keep lugging out all the boxes when we wanted to play.

But I'm not sure if any of this conversation is going to get us our minis anyway.

Caputo said:

That's funny. I wouldn't buy unpainted minis, but I would gladly have bought these painted ones. I have painted minis in the past (and will hopefully paint minis in the future), but I have enough of a backlog of unpainted minis lying around the house. The last thing I need is MORE work. =P

JerusalemJones said:

I'm fairly certain it won't. FFG has already made their decision on these minis. This entire thread is just hypothetical and wishful thinking as far as I can tell.

painted or not painted, it would be awesome if I could collect those. especially ancient ones, like shub-niggurath!

I would like an Azathoth miniature the size of our world.

I would like a Yog-Sothoth miniature that only exists between dimensions.

Steve-O said:

Are you saying that FFG don't listen to their customers? I've discovered FFG recently so I'm pretty much a newbie but coming from PC Gaming I'm pretty sure our voices were heard sometimes. Yeah it's true that this post doesn't imply that the majority of the community wants those miniatures but what if the majority of the community really want them?

Looking at the forum's statistics it shows that Arkham Horror is one of the most (if not THE most) popular products of FFG. So, if releasing miniatures or a Collector Edition wouldn't bring profit to them then what would?

yewsef said:

Actually, FFG is very good at listening to their consumers, at least from what I've seen. And Arkham Horror is indeed one of their most popular games. But it's not about having many people who play the game. It's about having many people who both play, AND are willing to shell out for the product. The profit comes from mass production, not producing a small number of sets. If they can't sell enough to turn a profit, then what's the point? It's still a business after all. Initially, many people didn't want the minis for the price that was listed, and as a result of them listening to their consumers, they canceled the project.

yewsef said:

I wouldn't buy them.

I would buy replacement cardboard monster chits long before I bought investigator minis. After all, I have a bunch of homemade characters and they would be less interesting without the minis.

jhaelen said:

I would buy pre-painted or unpainted minis in any packaging, plastic or metal, at any price ($3 to $10 per mini).

I play Warmachine, their minis are metal or plastic, unpainted and cost quite a bit, $8 to $12 retail for single human-sized figures. I buy plenty of them.

yewsef said:

No, I'm not saying that at all. I love FFG because they DO listen to their fans. In fact, as far as I can tell the only reason FFG considered making these AH minis in the first place was because people kept talking about how cool it would be on these very forums. But then when the pricing and packaging was revealed, the backlash was pretty strongly against buying them, so FFG cancelled the plan about a week after they announced it. If anything, FFG's flaw is that they sometimes listen too much, and wild flights of fancy get taken farther than they should.

However, having had the experience and having apparently felt strongly enough to back out so quickly after announcing the minis the first time, I seriously doubt they would reconsider now. Nor do I blame them. There's a difference between listening to your fans and sinking your company into bankruptcy in an effort to please everyone who voices their far flung fantasies about these games.

They do listen, and I love them for it. I just don't think this particular issue is likely to be reopened.

Tibs said:

... Actually, I would buy replacement PLASTIC chits, like pogs or something. I worry that with the draw system, the cardboard pieces are going to get beaten up after a while.

Athenor said:

Correct, but the cardboard ones are already made and should be much cheaper for FFG to provide. If I had new monsters I would laminate them or something.

If they would make new monsters, they should remake them so all information is on one side. It can get annoying to have to flip them around throughout the game to check the dimensional symbol, awareness and name, when all of that could have fit on the other side (with some creative placement). At the very least, the dimensional symbol should be on the back with the main stats, so you can know when to move it without having to turn it around.

Grudunza said:

Grudunza said:

I always put them picture side up on the map and only look at the other side if I'm about to fight them. That way, all the info I need about that monster while I'm NOT fighting him is visible (dimensional symbol, awareness, and move colour.) The only ones that get annoying are green borders that have special move rules, but even those you eventually just remember how they move.

I realize the rules say you're allowed to look at both sides whenever you want, but this just seems the more practical way to do it. Plus you get to keep the monster art face up so you can SEE it. Of course, we also try to limit ourselves from looking at the back anyway, since we prefer to hearken back to the first edition of the game, where the investigator fighting the monster wasn't allowed to look at the back side (someone else looked at it when a fight began.) Makes things a little more tense. =)