Why Buy Miniatures?

I had a conversation a few weeks back with an old friend, regarding the gamut of miniatures and miniature lines, and found myself musing about a slightly bigger question: Why do people buy miniatures?

Back when Wizards of the Coast was considering getting into the miniatures business—when I was still in Customer Service—a "fact-finding committee" made of department heads from Marketing, Sales, R&D, and so forth asked me and my co-worker Adam to let them watch us play a game of Warhammer 40,000 and ask questions. Their big question was "What do people get out of using miniatures?"

The question was actually pretty difficult to answer, because back then, I hadn't heard of Richard Bartle or his classification of video gamers.

If you're not familiar with Bartle, or his taxonomy of gamer types, the quick run-down is this: Gamers get different things out of video games, based on their personalities and likes and dislikes. Bartle classified four main types—Achievers, Explorers, Socializers, and Killers—and explained what it was that they got out of video games that decided into which category they fell.

Unsurprisingly, a few years later, a luminary in the tabletop game industry, Robin Laws, did a similar breakdown for roleplaying games, listing Power Gamer, Butt-Kicker, Tactician, Specialist, Method Actor, Storyteller, and Casual Gamer as the kinds of people you would expect to encounter around the table at a typical RPG session.

Bartle and Laws both explained that these classifications not only explained what each player type would look for in their preferred game, but also what game developers and Game Masters should make an effort to provide, in order to hold their interest.

And after this conversation I had about miniatures, I realized that we could create similar classifications for miniatures buyers, based on the reasons they bought miniatures in the first place.

Non-Painters

This is the baseline. Non-Painters are the people who either use pre-painted minis, or unpainted minis, or just whatever's handy: anything from dice—"The d6 that's on a 5 is the orc chief, and the d6 that's on a 6 is the orc shaman, and..."—to miniatures from completely different games.

Non-Painters are perfectly happy using cardboard tokens or stand-up "pawns" to represent virtually every character or monster in whatever game they're playing...especially since those options tend to be cheaper, overall, than buying lots of plastic or metal minis. They're also likely to pick up some kind of reusable map that they can draw the terrain on. This is where and how a lot of the other types get their start in miniature-collecting.

Students

There are also the people who want to paint miniatures, and have at least tried it, with varying degrees of success. Students are the people who maybe use the wrong kind of paint, the wrong kind of brushes, or who maybe haven't yet figured out why primer and sealant are important...but they're really keen on learning everything they don't yet know.

"Learn to Paint" kits—a paint brush, a few bottles of paint, and a miniature—serve Students really well, primarily because it eases them into the hobby (as opposed to going to the local craft store and making a bunch of guesses about the best kind of paint and brushes). Learn to Paint kits only really work as a stepstone into the hobby, though, when they also include detailed instructions with lots of photos of the specific miniature in the kit.

Dilettantes

Dilettantes only paint miniatures occasionally. Maybe they buy and paint their character for whatever RPG they're playing in, but they don't have a lot of interest in collecting more minis than that. Dilettante painters can be really good, or really bad, but they're not going to invest a lot of money in the hobby any time soon.

What sets Dilettantes apart from Students is that they're already satisfied with their painting skills, and thus are only interested in buying just as much as they need. Miniature "bundles"—a customizable paint kit with a miniature, paints, and brush of the customer's choice—work really well for Dilettantes. And even though they're only buying a small amount at any given time, the Dilettante business model means that, when they're ready to paint a new miniature, they'll likely come back for the bargain price on the exact tools and materials they need.

Collectors

Collectors may or may not actually be painters, but what sets them apart from the other categories is that they buy a lot of minis, whether they paint them all or not. Sometimes they just like how the minis look and sometimes they think they might need them at some point in the future. People like these tend to have bins and drawers full of minis in varying states of "unbox."

The type of people who accumulate large amounts of miniatures are often attracted to a given miniature by its potential. They'll impulse-buy minis based on the paint job on the box art; they'll order a mini online if they see a tutorial on how to paint it.

As a result, Collectors are the perfect market for prepainted minis...particularly if they're offered some kind of "showcase-edition" miniature with a better paint job than they can manage themselves (or have time for). Collectors also respond well to limited-edition miniatures, since the "Fear Of Missing Out" factor is pretty high with them.

Tabletoppers

People who come at mini painting from an assembly-line mentality are mainly interested in putting minis on the table, but with a few caveats: They feel they must use minis, and they feel those minis must be painted, and they feel those minis must accurately represent the character or monster—if not in composition (pose, equipment, and so on), then in color scheme. They might be satisfied with tokens or pawns if they're on a budget, but not for long; they might even replace tokens with painted minis, the first chance they get.

Tabletoppers paint virtually every mini they get their hands on, even if it's not to the best of their ability, because they can't stand putting naked metal on their gaming table. But they need a lot of miniatures, so they're going to want an expanded version of the Dilettante's mix-and-match deal: lots of minis, plus lots of paint, and a nice mix of specialty brushes.

Tabletoppers will use a deal like this to buy all of the minis they need for a specific encounter in their game (or for a warband they want to put together for their favorite tabletop wargame), and to get the paint they need to get those miniatures looking just so. The brushes are an added incentive, since most miniature painters are always in the market for fresh brushes.

Artistes

Finally, we have people who are accomplished miniature painters (and often accomplished miniature modders), but who may or may not actually play with minis, themselves. A lot of Artistes do commission painting, or sometimes just paint minis as gifts, but what sets them apart is that they often don't keep the minis they paint.

Artistes view standard minis as amusing diversions, or maybe blank canvases on which to practice new techniques, but they're much more interested in challenges. They want "premiere" minis, with lots of detail and dynamic poses, with elements that require them to stretch their creative muscles.

They also want paint and brushes and bases (or plinths) that let them try the new techniques that those premiere minis deserve. Artistes want tools and materials that let them realize the vision in their head. Show them a paint that dries to look like cobwebs, and they'll snap up a bottle. Show them a brush that closely mimics the effects of an airbrush, and they'll have to try it out. Show them a tool that makes it easier to customize bases, and it'll go right in their shopping cart.

Artistes might never actually use these tools and materials, mind you...but they want to know that they can, whenever the mood strikes them. So they'll be the early adopters, and their YouTube and Twitch channels will motivate hundreds or thousands of aspiring miniature artists to buy those products, too.

Where Am I?

I developed these classifications based on the phases I went through, as a painter. At this point in time, I'm about 50% Tabletopper, 30% Collector, 15% Artiste, and 5% Student—but I have been a Dilettante and even a Non-Painter in my time, and there were some "dry spells" where I was mostly a Collector, because I didn't have time to paint...or an Artiste, because I didn't have the money to collect.

Theoretically, everyone who paints miniatures will touch on all of these classifications to some extent during their painting career. It's even possible that some will start out as Artistes and gradually become Non-Painters. No two miniatures artists are going to follow exactly the same path.

And that's why it's important to provide products and deals for each classification. The Artiste is no more going to buy the Learn to Paint kit for him or herself than the Student is likely to invest in token sets.

Selling miniatures to people who only have so much disposable income means that a "one-sale-fits-all" strategy isn't going to pan out for the manufacturer, in the long run. Developing subtly different product lines for different interests might result in lower sales in each category...but greater total sales, because the consumer can get almost exactly what they want, with every purchase, without having to go to six different companies for token sets, Learn to Paint kits, prepainted minis, warbands, customizable character minis, or premiere figures.