Ed Pugh, CEO of Reaper Miniatures, took exception to the statement in the new issue of the ICv2 Retailers Guide to Games (see 'ICv2 Releases 'ICv2 Retailers Guide to Games' #11') that the market for metal fantasy miniatures was being negatively affected by the D&D Miniatures Game.  He feels they are two different markets:

While many people would like to believe they (D&D painted plastic & metal fantasy miniatures) are connected in some way, they are not.  People that buy miniatures to paint generally do not purchase plastic ones as the detail and paint adhesion qualities are very poor.  People looking to fill dungeons with monsters generally do not buy expensive unpainted metal miniatures to do so.

The customers that WOTC tapped into with PPP miniatures were the people that have been using tokens, counters and stones for their dungeons and games.  This is a newfound customer that was not spending money on Reaper products anyway.

The customers we have enjoy the hobby and craft of painting miniatures.  A person that has been painting miniatures for a hobby will not suddenly stop their hobby and purchase PPP miniatures as a substitute for the hobby of painting.

In summary it is like saying that since they are making movies about Spider-Man, the comic book sales for Spider-Man must be declining since people going to see the movie will stop buying the comic book.  While yes they have a common subject, they (the movie and the comic book) each have a unique customer base to draw and maintain sales from.

Currently we are on top of another record year in sales and growth.  Sales on all of our core product lines are up (Dark Heaven, Warlord, Master Series Paints).  We are a top 10 vendor with Alliance, ACD and every distributor we deal with.  Our website currently averages 377 human clicks a second.  Our table top game, Warlord, is going into its third core rule book print run (full color hardback at $24.99).

In closing, I will add that while it is true that customers will make choices, I am NOT saying that a customer has never chosen to purchase PPP miniatures instead of metal miniatures.  I am saying that their choice to purchase PPP miniatures has had no measurable or detectable impact on our sales.

Now if the dollars spent on D&D plastic didn't come from us, where did they come from?  Our information indicated the dollars spent on PPP miniatures came heavily out of the small press publishers pockets and lightly out of the big press publishers.  It was a very easy and even an invisible trade off for the customer to make.  Out of a budgeted amount to spend on RPG products it was easy to pass over the obscure or novelty RPG book they might read or play and spend those dollars on the collectible PPP minis.