Will Catalyst produce and sell more plastic miniature sets?

[Easy]

cleanup

[DaRedOne]

This is going to come off as me being very mean here, but in the interest of transparency and honesty the Alpha Strike Lance packs not selling should come to the surprise of no one.  I think the Battletech community has some sort of beer goggles when they look at the miniatures being produced for this game or something.  These Alpha Strike mini's were god awful, ugly, not even at the bottom of the barrel of what is an acceptable level of quality for release in the gaming markets today or even 15 years.  They would have sold more Alpha Strike Lance packs if they were cardboard stand ups to be frank. 

This box set they released for the core game now is the first time in 35 years that I have seen a miniature produced for this game that is worth purchasing.  Sadly, the success of Battletech's ambition to grow as a game, expand their profile and reach out to a larger community is entirely dependent on them producing better miniatures for the game going forward.  No amount of books and expanded content is going to do the trick, they must accept that Battletech is a miniatures game and the single most important thing for a miniature game is a steady release of high quality miniatures as is the standard set by today's competitive miniatures market.  E

Even that may not be enough as the competition in miniature market games is quite stiff.  The games rules for Battletech are fairly dated and while that has some nostalgic weight with gamers, in the end, I believe the games mechanics really need a refresher.  The game as it is, is simply way too long for a game that has so many rather randomizing mechanics.  It really needs a 2nd edition, that focuses on modernization and streamlining the rules a bit if you really want to appeal to the modern markets.

This is a good opinion, even if the words are a little rough. I agree with it.

I got into the game recently (as in, with these new boxes) And I honestly don't belive the bulk of these purchases were from veteran players as it was told earlier in this thread.

I do belive a lot of new people are like me, and want a cool game about giant robots. People who played the recent Computer Game and are excited by the way better looking miniatures and the fact it is a game that actually feels like a bunch of huge machines punching/shooting at each other.

I'd love if Catalyst continued to support and release plastic miniatures. It's an expensive investment, yes, but I think the community and game would rise a lot more if we kept getting quality plastic like the ones in these boxes.

[Charlie Tango]

For whatever my opinion is worth, the next logical step would be something along the lines of a Boxed Set to follow on to The Game of Armored Combat set, as a "next step".  I think such a set would be the ideal to do the rest of the "classics" or "nuseen" or whatever we are calling them now that aren't in the first two boxes, plus a Star of the iconic Clan mechs and vehicle counters,  to introduce all of those rules as the next stage beyond the current Boxed Sets.

It would obviously have to be a somewhat high-price-point set with all of those, but I think it would make a great next step.  Plus, just as the Game of Armored Combat set pairs well with the Battletech Manual, this type of an "advanced" set would pair very well with Total Warfare.

[Sartris]

something tells me the base product line isn't going to include vehicles any time soon

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=60405.msg1389013#msg1389013 (locked thread, can't quote directly)

Try to look at it this way. Flavor. If you’re running an ice cream shop, you can’t just do vanilla, your need chocolate and strawberry. Honestly, you’d be best with a dozen assortments, right?

What seems to be the case, at least talking on the business side, is that “vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry” isn’t “Mechs, vehicles and infantry,” but instead “Mechs, other Mechs, and more Mechs.” Vehicles and infantry are the flavors you experiment with once you have your solid dozen flavors.

[House Davie Merc]

I would personally LOVE to see lance packs similar to the
older ones ,but with less repeats per box .
(Light ,medium ,heavy , and Fire especially )

If the quality can be kept high with the plastics I think a lot of you would
be surprised how many players would grab them over metal .
I'd like being able to carry a hundred minis and my 3D terrain into the
LGS  without a forklift . Also dropping a plastic mini doesn't usually
result in terrain damage either .
Metals are nice-but well done plastics can be great as well for
the average gamer .

IWM has been there for us  over the years -perhaps helping them to get
into this technology could be a boon for all of us .

[Sartris]

I wouldn’t be surprised about plastic classics being more popular. I always assumed the no assembly and price point were the biggest reasons for plastic mechs’ popularity

[Psycho]

For the most part, I agree. Really, there are pros and cons to both materials. The caveats on lance packs would be that we as consumers don't know how much (or even if) CGL turned a profit on the previous sets, and what price point they'd need to sell at for new sets to be profitable. Remember that by re-using existing molds they were able to cut costs substantially.

IWM being able to effectively utilize plastics is a question of volume per sculpt. They know their sales numbers and what that means to their bottom line. The average right now is nowhere close to what would be needed. Maybe if CGL can bring in loads of new players - and keep them with some solid follow-on product - there will be enough of a change to support that kind of move.

[Cache]

I wouldn’t be surprised about plastic classics being more popular. I always assumed the no assembly and price point were the biggest reasons for plastic mechs’ popularity

The price point is something I wonder about. How many people actually paid retail price for theirs? If memory serves, the forum didn't go wild about them until the were on clearance (50% off or so).

[abou]

Looks like on Facebook they posted a new version by ShimSword of the Orion. Looks like we are getting remodels. But who knows what that roll out will look like.

[Sartris]

did you also see: https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=64318.msg1484301#msg1484301