So my minis turned up today and they look great, but the obvious question is, when are FFG going to release pre-painted miniatures of all the monsters?? 
Pre-painted miniatures for the monsters...when???
never.
repeat: never.
Probably never. And if they do, it will probably be more expensive than most of the people jumping on this particular band wagon will be willing to pay.
Not likely. The massive amount of monster markers that exist, not to mention that it would be troublesome to deal with them during the game, makes it not worth to purchase, or in FFG's case, produce it. Sorry, not going to happen.
Wayyy back when people were asking for investigator minis, I said it probably wouldn't happen. Well it nearly didn't: they were announced, then canceled soon after. Clearly they've made a comeback, but if anything this should show that since the 48 investigators were a near-miss, the 100+ monsters will not be made into figures. If I happen to be wrong again, I wouldn't expect them to be pre-painted.
This company is called *fantasy* flight games, so please let me have my fantasy Yes, I can see what the reality is, but wouldn't it be so *nice* to have pre-painted miniatures for the monsters??? Yes, yes it would...so I will keep dreaming 
Once again, you can't random draw minis reliably.
heptat said:
This company is called *fantasy* flight games, so please let me have my fantasy
oh you can have whatever fantasies you like, so long as you remember thats what they are and will stay that way! 
Tibs said:
If I happen to be wrong again, I wouldn't expect them to be pre-painted.
dj2.0 said:
heptat said:
This company is called *fantasy* flight games, so please let me have my fantasy
oh you can have whatever fantasies you like, so long as you remember thats what they are and will stay that way!
I guess I should be grateful that we got the investigators as pre-painted miniatures, since they were originally cancelled! (Pre-painted is great for me because I can't paint miniatures for ****).
Yes, I think you have Mansions of Madness to thank for the investigators, two birds with one stone and all that. Happy painting!
Veet said:
Once again, you can't random draw minis reliably.
But you could draw the monster chit, then find the monster figure, and slide the chit into/under the figure.
Things like the Sky and Outskirts would be less fun because you'd have to rely on the cardboard chits alone.
Tibs said:
Veet said:
Once again, you can't random draw minis reliably.
But you could draw the monster chit, then find the monster figure, and slide the chit into/under the figure.
Things like the Sky and Outskirts would be less fun because you'd have to rely on the cardboard chits alone.
And that looks like what will happen as the Monster Minis in MoM are designed to hold a monster marker.
I wonder if they will offer prepainted monsters in a similar format to the Investigators.
jhaelen said:
I wouldn't say it will never happen. I mean, they already have the sculpts.
The sculpts they have for MoM are a very small percentage of the various monsters for which tokens exist in AH. Making a pre-painted "collector's set" of those monsters from MoM is not impossible, but making sculpts (let alone pre-paints) of all the monsters in AH is another story entirely.
jhaelen said:
Over time, add-ons will be released for MoM, probably including new sculpts.
While it's certainly no stretch of the imagination to say MoM might be expanded upon (possibly heavily, if it sells well) it's also not by any means guaranteed. Assuming MoM does well enough to see an expansion or two, I agree there will very probably be a few new monster sculpts in the mix, but it would take a rather unfathomably large number of expansions to cover all the monsters currently in AH. And this is assuming AH is done as of now. A lot of people seem to think it is, but I haven't heard an official announcement to that effect.
jhaelen said:
I can totally see them release pre-painted versions of monsters at some point. What I don't see are 'complete' sets of pre-painted monsters for a game. But individual minis or small sets? Sure, why not.
Because they would be prohibitively expensive, that's why. Some people are already bitching about $4 a pop for the investigator pre-paints, and that's the new and improved price compared to the original sales model FFG proposed. Can you imagine how expensive some of those large MoM monsters would be, pre-painted? I'm thinking something on the order of $7-10 each. Now multiply that by however many tokens you have, since you never know when you'll end up drawing all of a given monster token in a single game...
There's a reason that the randomized CMG model has taken off while the few non-random mini games have general faltered and died. Selling individual painted minis is only profitable if the average consumer buys a considerable volume of them. Say, a metric ton of useless commons while aiming for one or two rares. What about online stores that sell singles, you ask? Take a look at the prices for the more popular figs. That's what you'd be looking at for individually marketed monster pre-paints, as a ballpark figure.
If they wanted to market a pre-painted set of monsters, the easiest and cheapest way to do it would probably be to sell a "pre-painted MoM" box with all the minis inside painted. That way they can incorporate the cost into the package price and count on the whole shebang to help move units. It doesn't appear that this is part of the plan based on press releases thus far. Perhaps they're saving it for a surprise launch or something, but that's risky since people who pre-ordered or rush out to buy the regular box on release day might miss the memo and then get pissed.
Tibs said:
Veet said:
Once again, you can't random draw minis reliably.
But you could draw the monster chit, then find the monster figure, and slide the chit into/under the figure.
Things like the Sky and Outskirts would be less fun because you'd have to rely on the cardboard chits alone.
You mean you want yet another step to the game?
I could live without some monster minis but surely the Dunwich Horror deserves to appear on the board as a painted miniature.
Steve-O said:
Because they would be prohibitively expensive, that's why. Some people are already bitching about $4 a pop for the investigator pre-paints, and that's the new and improved price compared to the original sales model FFG proposed. Can you imagine how expensive some of those large MoM monsters would be, pre-painted? I'm thinking something on the order of $7-10 each.
Myself, I would be fine paying up to about 8$ for a well-sculpted, pre-painted monster mini. I wouldn't be interested in getting multiples of most minis, though. You'd rarely need them anyway. Note, that they are also of great use for the CoC RPG. In other words, there's a market that is larger than the Arkham Horror player base.
jhaelen said:
Note, that they are also of great use for the CoC RPG. In other words, there's a market that is larger than the Arkham Horror player base.
That market is tiny and wont make any difference to the bottom line.
If there are any plans for a line of monster minis, it's been subtly planned through the Mansions of Madness game. There was even a hint of it at the seminar they held about the game during Arkham Nights. Some comment about how the slots on the bottom of the minis just conveniently the size of the monster markers with all the appropriate holes to reveal the vial information. The fact that the character molds for Mansions are the same molds for AH investigators (just unpainted) is also a subtle clue, IMO. Though that could just be pseudo-corporate penny pinching. Regardless, I can't help but wonder if the recent Mansions news post about the monster minis not being "up to specs" so to speak isn't a clue that they're trying to shrink some of the larger pieces. I saw a wide variety of them on display at Arkham Nights, and thought they were great sculpts that didn't need any work. If used with AH, however, the Shoggoth was waaaaaaaaaaay too big. Anyways, my two cents on the whole thing. Take it or leave it. I'm not trying to support or deny the theory, just giving my thoughts.
After seeing the investagators, MoM miniatures, the pre-paint boxes for City of Thieves, and that miniatures are a good market. I will certainly not be surprised to see AH monster pre-paints in the future. I, also, wont be surprised if I am not alive when it happens, but... The thing is they may make them, because they would sell. That does not mean they are great to actually use in AH but thats up to the customer. Those minis could be used for AH, a Cthulhu rpg, or to decorate shelves of Mythos fans world wide. FF knows this, and will probably put them out. AH, has grown into a label over the years that can be used for branching into other things, like a new line of novels, dice, minis. I personally would like to see a set of AH coasters. for game night.
dj2.0 said:
That market is tiny and wont make any difference to the bottom line.
I wouldn't mind being wrong, but Id much rather see a blender expansion, it would be much more akin to a 3d Arkham than some plastic things. I would not be surprised if MoM minis were purposefully designed to hold AH tokens and they gradually did it that way (even though it would be very unlikely to fill out the full complement of tokens).