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As I was cracking open some LotR miniatures today I realized something. I like the idea of blisters. I like the idea that I can pony up $8 USD or so and get 2-3 miniatures and I think that's why I still like metal miniatures, besides the weight factor. Would plastic minis in a blister format work or am I just crazy? (Totally open to the latter.)

If they were cheaper than $20 a mini, perhaps.

That's exactly how GW used to be, IG squads were all metal and you got like 2 guys in each blister, they still sell the special weapons blisters with 2 models.

As noted in another thread, I'm currently putting together Guild Ball players. They very well sculpted minis, but yes, I would greatly prefer them in plastic!

GW's single plastic minis are outstanding and (ignoring the prices) one of the few things I can't fault them on.

Unfortunately, as I understand it, it's a pricey way to make minis and small companies aren't going to go down that road.

 Flashman wrote:
As noted in another thread, I'm currently putting together Guild Ball players. They very well sculpted minis, but yes, I would greatly prefer them in plastic!

GW's single plastic minis are outstanding and (ignoring the prices) one of the few things I can't fault them on.

Unfortunately, as I understand it, it's a pricey way to make minis and small companies aren't going to go down that road.

The cost of plastic injection molding has gone down considerably in the last 10 years, especially if you are using digital files and a CNC machine.

The largest issue facing the wargames industry is the lack of knowledge in plastic injection molding. It's not as easy as casting metal or resin models so there are fewer people with the experience necessary to set up an injection molding dept.

While you can learn it like any other skill, it's easier and less expensive for managers with no real experience to send everything to China for production (barring the exceptions like Renedra).

That way if things go wrong they don't have to deal with it or hold any responsibility, it can be blamed on the company in China and problems with their facility.

Another argument against blister packs in general is that store owners are now overwhelmed with miniatures and games from all sorts of companies all fighting for a limited amount of shelf space

So the stores owners are much happier to stock stuff with a limited number of SKUs, and that means box sets, starter packs and similar

Yeah totally be up for this. It's how I built most of my armies with the saved up change or pocket money blisters

Wyrd makes small boxes of 1-3 plastic minis each for Malifaux.

 tomjoad wrote:
Wyrd makes small boxes of 1-3 plastic minis each for Malifaux.

Aren't they like 14- 20 dollars each though?

 tomjoad wrote:
Wyrd makes small boxes of 1-3 plastic minis each for Malifaux.

Yeah, but aren't those PVC and also made in China?

I think OP was talking about proper polystyrene kits.

migooo wrote:

 tomjoad wrote:
Wyrd makes small boxes of 1-3 plastic minis each for Malifaux.

Aren't they like 14- 20 dollars each though?

Wyrd's a little pricey these days. I believe Izamu the Armor used to be 18 bucks before discount, and he was well worth it. I also bought another 10 Thunders plastic mini for about 10 bucks, but Wyrd have stopped putting those out in favor of big boxes with half a dozen minis that cost 40 to 50 bucks. I haven't bought any Wyrd minis in a year or two, so I could be misremembering.


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If you want awesome plastic kits, there are some Japanese spaceship minis the size of BFG cruisers on Amazon for about 6 dollars with free shipping. I believe they are from Spacebattleship Yamato, but really they are just amazing kits that make cool spaceships.

 mechanicalhorizon wrote:

 tomjoad wrote:
Wyrd makes small boxes of 1-3 plastic minis each for Malifaux.

Yeah, but aren't those PVC and also made in China?

I think OP was talking about proper polystyrene kits.

China, yes, but Wyrd miniatures are polystyrene kits, not PVC.

migooo wrote:

 tomjoad wrote:
Wyrd makes small boxes of 1-3 plastic minis each for Malifaux.

Aren't they like 14- 20 dollars each though?

Retail, yes. $11-13 for a single, $16-18 for 2, $18-21 for 3. GW is 15-20 for a single as well. You aren't going to get individually blistered HIPS figs for 5 bucks a pop though. The mold costs a certain amount, so they need to recoup that. If you don't have volume sales, that cost is spread over a smaller number of sales, meaning each figure has a higher total production cost. If it's something an individual buyer only needs one of, the market shrinks further due to loss of people buying additional units. Then you still need to package, ship,, etc. GW would also need to redesign its sprues to sell you 2 space marines, so more sunk cost.

Don't think it's too likely to be seen in all but the most comon figures for the biggest games. HIPS is best for units you're going to need alot of. Most folks expect those kind of kits to have lots of options for customizing and thus they wouldn't fit into a blister.

Other types of plastics and other materials are much better suited for the bargain-priced blister pack. Consider Reaper Bones as one example. PVC figs in blister packs at prices that are truely at "impluse" buy levels (i.e. the cost of a pack of magic cards or less). Brilliant marketing on Reaper's part!

I' prefer the 2 multi-piece box idea, with lots of options. A single mini with little versatitity isn't as desirable to me, add options, I'm interested. The Empire Wizards box was great. If they want to produced single named figures in a blister, so be it. Resin is over-kill at current figure quality.

In the future, I hope all box sets come with all options, for all configurations. Chaos Warriors without halbreds or great weapons is lame.

I miss the racks of metal GW blisters. You could walk into a store with just $10 in your pocket and walk out with a new addition to your forces or even the start of a new army. In fact, the absence of cheap, one off purchases has done more to curtail my spending than anything else.

I'm not so sure it would be unfeasible to do. But I'm in agreement with the_Armyman, it's half the reason I like metal. I've never been too keen on the customization and super pose-ability of plastic kits, especially for rank and file as I tend to leave the dynamic posing for the characters.

For those that miss the old GW metal blisters, there's always the current PP metal blisters Although those are going away too (in favor of the boxes with resin/plastic), the ones still in blisters are much the same idea as the old GW models. You can even get a couple of metal minis in one blister -- though the minis mostly anywhere from $8-12 / mini, so a two-mini blister just costs more. There are a few exceptions.

Of course single mini plastics in a blister are possible -- WD75 came with a free one And there are many character models. The issue is really cost, as these models are NOT $8 for a couple

Now, "back in the day" those metal minis were cool, but unconfigurable. They'd be less useful today, when you need to model your mini with [insert weapon name] to play. GW isn't really in the business of making those single-piece models anymore. Which is just as well, because the new ones are much more sophisticated.

I like the weight and feel of metal minis too, and they are easy to strip, easy to re-do a part of, and they have great nostalgic value. However, they all have undercuts (areas which are "dead") , anything greater than infantry sized fell apart if someone kicked the table, and they are a pain to pin. They also chip a lot easier, and if you drop one, it's much less graceful for models with parts that stick out. Occasionally, I miss 'em and I paint an old GW model for kicks, and then all of the sudden, I don't miss them anymore

Oh, Reaper has cheap metal minis that are fun to paint once in a while too. Some are really nice sculpts, and they cost a fraction of the price of a PP or GW single model mini.

if they had smaller pack sizes i would be more apt to pick up more from time to time .. instead of browing ebay for bits here and there ... and it honestly comes down to the cost per transaction ... easier to sink 5 to 15 here and there then 40 to 80 at one time.

 mechanicalhorizon wrote:

 tomjoad wrote:
Wyrd makes small boxes of 1-3 plastic minis each for Malifaux.

Yeah, but aren't those PVC and also made in China?

I think OP was talking about proper polystyrene kits.

China, through Wargames Factory (like Maelstroms Edge, IIRC). However, like Maelstroms Edge, it's all HIPS like GW plastics, not PVC.


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 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

migooo wrote:

 tomjoad wrote:
Wyrd makes small boxes of 1-3 plastic minis each for Malifaux.

Aren't they like 14- 20 dollars each though?

Wyrd's a little pricey these days. I believe Izamu the Armor used to be 18 bucks before discount, and he was well worth it. I also bought another 10 Thunders plastic mini for about 10 bucks, but Wyrd have stopped putting those out in favor of big boxes with half a dozen minis that cost 40 to 50 bucks. I haven't bought any Wyrd minis in a year or two, so I could be misremembering.

They haven't changed their release strategy. They release crew boxes (6-9 models) which consist of a master, henchman, totems and some minions (themed around that particular master). The minions usually get released as their own small box (because they tend to be pretty interchangeable between crews of the same faction), and then henchmen, enforcers and minions that don't fit in a crew box get their own individual releases.

Lately they've been playing crew catchup, so we've been seeing 2 crews a month and scattered other releases, but they still release a good amount of small boxes and individual models.

But yes, they've gotten a bit pricey of late. On the plus side, you rarely buy something twice.

Personally, I'm not a fan of metal. I work with it under sufferance with Infinity because the game and miniatures are so bloody good. But I much prefer plastic, and resin over metal, with metal a distant third.

I think it's the nostalgia factor that I love the most about those old blisters. Flicking through the racks of them was just so fun. Now you can still get them mail-order but it just isn't the same.

And Talys, I'd disagree somewhat on how much the uniformity of the metal sculpts matters. When I'm buying a pair of Guardsmen with a melta and a plasma gun, I know full well that they're barely going to be noticed among the throng of infantry. Marine Captains, Eldar Autarchs and the like though, I totally get you!

GW has plastic models in blisters but for GW prices

I think we're also missing the marketing aspects of GW moving away from blisters. Alot of it is simple merchandising perception.

When prices were lower, folks would gladly pay the asking price for a blister of 4, 3, 2 or even 1 (as time progressed the contents shrank) miniatures. As prices go up, GW needs to justify to it's customers why they're paying so much for something so small, so the blisters gradually go away and you get characters in nice pretty boxes instead.

To be fair, many of these characters are now in multipart HIPS kits, but it's largely a matter of attuning the merchandising (presentation of the items in store) to accommodate the customers expectation and perception.

I would be fine with single model plastic blisters for about 1/3 of the cost of metal/resin. Really the main thing putting me off all-plastic is GW's utterly ham-fisted and greedy way they put the idea into practice - Finecast was probably the worst quality resin on the market for the highest prices and yet it still kicks it's replacement's arse overall.

I'm fine with whatever GW wanna charge. Don't mean I'm gonna buy it, but if they want to charge £18 for a plastic sprue in a blister, fine by me.