New For DiceMasters

Here is info on the new DiceMasters products releasing in the next couple of months. Let us know if you want to pre-order any of it as we will likely skip the playmats and bags with out a pre-order:

Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dice Building Game Alliance Retailers, Be sure to submit your preorder numbers for the next two Dice Master releases from WizKids! Please contact your Alliance Account Representative to place your preorders or visit our Retailer Services website today.  Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War, which releases Wednesday, May 11th, brings the exciting Civil War storyline and upcoming movie release to the tabletop with this industry-acclaimed competitive game! Will you choose to stand by Captain America and his Anti-Registration heroes, or will you side with Iron Man and his Pro-Registration forces? Introducing more than 30 heroes and villains (and their dice!), Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War will be sure to stick out as a highlight of your Dice Masters collections! Choose your side with Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War and defeat your opponents! Coming to you Wednesday, May 25th, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dice Building Game brings the heroes in a half-shell from the inner-city sewers to your tabletop! These pizza-loving superheroes offer a special delivery of action to new and veteran players alike. Featuring Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo and MORE, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are joined by friend and foe alike in this all-new Dice-Building game boxed set! More than a dozen heroes and villains (and their dice!) can be found in this latest addition to the Dice-Building universe. Cowabunga dudes!   Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Starter WZK 72258, $19.99 Whose Side Are You On? Introducing more than 30 heroes and villains (and their dice!), the Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Starter Set features fan-favorite characters like Spider-Man, Nitro, Jessica Jones, Captain America, Iron Man, and more! Plus, Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War premieres the Thunderbolts and the New Warriors, as well as the "Enlistment" and "Resistance" mechanics! This innovative collectible contains everything two players need to play and allows players to increase their Dice Masters collections or jump straight into the excitement! Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War 90 Count Gravity Feed WZK 72260, $89.10 The Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Gravity Feed takes epic dice battles to thrilling, new heights! Introducing more than 30 heroes and villains (and their dice!). Each Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Foil Pack contains two cards and two dice that players can add to their Dice Masters collections. Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Playmat WZK 72261, $19.99 Measuring 24" x 13", this durable and portable Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Playmat displays all of the information one player needs for their Dice Masters game. The different play areas are color-coded with instructions and spaces for Character Cards, Basic Action Cards, and, of course, DICE! Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Team Box WZK 72262, $19.99 Crafted from flexible, durable plastic with a magnetic closure, the Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Team Box contains two internal boxes and three dividers to make organization of dice and cards fast and easy. Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Collectors Box WZK 72265, $24.99 Each Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Collector's Box comes with everything one player needs to play including the Starter Set with 20 custom dice (12 all-new pearlescent Basic Action Dice and eight all-new pearlescent Sidekick Dice), a felt dice bag, 10 Basic Action Cards, and four Indicator Cards, as well as a Full Art Promo Card, four Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Foil Packs, and two dice storage trays designed to hold over 300 dice! Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Dice Bag (Captain America/Iron Man) WZK 72263, $14.99 Measuring approximately 6.25" x 8" complete with draw strings, this durable Marvel Dice Masters: Civil War Dice Bag features images of Captain America, Iron Man, and friends.   Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dice Masters: Box Set WZK 72222, $34.99 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dice Masters features fan favorite characters including Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Splinter, and more! Introducing more than a dozen new heroes and villains (and their dice!), players can decide to build their team of heroes, villains, or some combination of the two! Perfect for new and seasoned players, alike, whether they're interested in a game or two over pizza or building the perfect team, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dice Masters is sure to deliver an experience that will leave you saying, "Cowabunga!" Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dice Masters: Dice Bag WZK 72228, $14.99 The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dice Masters Dice Bag features fan-favorite characters including Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Splinter, and more! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dice Masters: Playmat WZK 72293, $19.99 Crafted from flexible and durable material, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Dice Masters Playmat measures approximately 24" wide and 13" long, and displays all of the information one player needs for their Dice Masters game including a life meter and areas for their character and Basic Action cards and dice, and features each of the play areas, color-coded for players' convenience. Each Playmat can be easily rolled up for safe transport and storage, or left out to display.

Changes to Dice Masters Tournaments

WizKids just sent out the following change to sanctioned DiceMasters tournaments:

Hello Dice Masters Fans!

We’re working on rolling out a change for how Swiss Rounds for Dice Masters are played in tournaments. Instead of Best of 3 Matches, the suggested format for the Swiss Round portion of a tournament will now be single-game matches with a suggested time of 30 minutes per round. This will apply to Monthly OP and Storyline OP events.

This may seem like a major change, but in talking with players and store owners we believe the net change will result in more meaningful and positive play experiences. Spending the majority of a round trying to claw back from a first-game loss can be frustrating, as can waiting for other games to finish if yours ended early. Getting you to your next game sooner should actually provide skilled players who were unlucky a better attempt to place well in a tournament.  Additionally, feedback has been that players change their play method in the final games to draw them out to time — this isn't good for anyone. Furthermore, unlike other games, there is no hidden information in Dice Masters for players to have things go very differently in games two or three.

For stores, shorter round lengths should make Dice Masters events more accessible. Players getting to play against more unique opponents lends itself better to growing a Dice Masters community within the store. Running events on weeknights is also more viable when rounds can be shorter. As always, at the beginning of an event the format should be made clear to all players; for example; 4 Swiss Single Game Rounds followed by a 4-person top cut with Best of 3 Single Elimination.

Stores are still welcome to allow Best of 3 play if they believe that is what is best for them, and Best of 3 is suggested for top cut playoff matches, particularly for large turnouts.

We appreciate our fans’ continued enthusiasm as Dice Masters continues to evolve as a game and a brand.

-The WK team

How to Kill Your Hot Game in One Easy Step

Sales of the Adventure Time Card Game Decks and DiceMaster boosters are demonstrating how easily the lack of product for a hot game can dampen interest in said hot game. 

When the first two Adventure Time decks, Finn vs. Jake and Lady Rainicorn vs. BMO, released, we could not keep them in stock and neither could most other stores with which I spoke. Demand hit such levels that sales on the secondary market hit levels of $50 per deck and higher. Unfortunately, both decks had sold out by the time the For the Glory booster packs released and, our order, which I thought would be enough for only a few weeks, has lasted until now.  The Princess Bubblegum vs. Lumpy Space Princess decks which arrived this week, despite our promotion of them on Facebook, the store website and in-store, have been met with a collective yawn by customers. Even  Cryptozoic’s plan to launch an Organized Play for them sometime in the (hopefully) near future, has not generated much excitement, save for the two or three really big fans of the game. Casual fans haven’t shown much interest, though that may change when OP details get released (and if we get decent promotional material for it).

Similarly, WizKids DiceMasters has really died off here and at other stores as well and, once again, it is the lack of product that has done so. In this case, it is just the plain “We cannot get the product” consistently that is putting paid to DiceMasters. Though DiceMasters is a great game with a wonderful price point (99 cent boosters, anyone), it is truly had to sell a 99 cent booster when you cannot get any. 

Similarly, though WizKids did publish workarounds to compensate for the lack of starters, customers do want the official starters rather than using generic six siders in their pool and not having them has really hurt sales because I really need a starter to sell to a new player, not directions to hand to them on how to make a starter pool out of dice they already own. In fact, the DiceMasters situation is worse than the Adventure Time, since we, at least, have had the Adventure Time boosters available to sell to customers

DiceMasters Date Changes

Sigh:

The followig WizKids products have changed their release dates from
September 3rd to October 22nd 2014.

WZK 71658 Marvel Dice Masters: The Uncanny X-Men Dice Building Game Starter Set
WZK 71660 Marvel Dice Masters: The Uncanny X-Men Dice Building Game 90 Count Gravity Feed Display "

New DiceMasters Product

I would be a lot more excited about this if they had a steady stream of product available now:

   As enthusiasm surrounding Marvel Dice Masters continues, we’re happy to announce a new product, the Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs X-Men Set Up Box! Since this is different from many of our other offerings, we wanted to take the opportunity to explain this product for you and your customers.

   Each Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs. X-Men Set-Up Box comes with everything one player needs to play from the Starter Set. Each set includes:

• 20 custom dice (12 all-new pearlescent Basic Action Dice and 8 all-new pearlescent Sidekick Dice)
• 1 felt dice bag
• 10 Basic Action Cards, and 4 Indicator Cards.
• 1 Storm – African Priestess Full Art Promo Card
• 4 Marvel Dice Masters Avengers vs. X-Men foil packs
• 2 dice storage trays that hold over 300 dice!

   The Marvel Dice Masters Avengers vs X-Men Set Up Box is a great entry point for new players because of its contents. However, with its Quarriors-Style storage trays it becomes a must have item for veteran players looking for a place to keep their Dice Masters collection with the ability to keep dice organized much better than in a box or bag.

DiceMasters Organized Play

In response to requests, we will start WizKid's DiceMasters Organized Play on Sunday July 6 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m and run the same time every Sunday until the end of July. Entry fee is $5 for the whole month. You will earn 1 point for each Sunday you show up, 1 point for each 3 game match you play and 1 more point for each match you win. If you have at least 4 points at the end of the month, you will receive a promo card, with the 3 highest scorers receiving a 2nd limited promo card.

Since boosters are not expected to be available, we will use a constructed format and will post details regarding it this weekend.

DiceMasters Update

Here is an update on DiceMasters from WIzKids:

   We have the following updates on shipments planned for Marvel Dice Masters: Avengers vs. X-Men: There are several shipments of reprints on their way to the US.  The next wave of Starters will arrive at the end of June with another wave of Gravity Feeds arriving in late July.  Despite our best efforts to fill demand with these reprints, the product is still pre-selling before it arrives.   We were able to bring on a very sizable amount of capacity, which has enabled us to add a reprint to the schedule (available in September).

   We are also keeping an eye on the longshoremen labor dispute on the U.S. West Coast, and will deal with that issue if and when it happens.  Obviously, any sort of strike will ripple through most of our product lines so we’re monitoring the situation keenly.

   Briefly on the factory/capacity situation: we believe we are, or will be soon, the largest dice manufacturer in the world.  Fortunately, making dice and making small plastic figures is essentially the same process.  As we get our arms around the demand, moving volume between factories is pretty straight-forward and it is one of the reasons we are able to add reprints while also printing the next set.  We appreciate the patience as we grow the Dice Masters business.

Update on Dice Masters

WizKids sent out the following update on the DiceMasters situation:


MDM Reprint #1 (Starters):  The starter reprint is arriving as we speak. We took the opportunity to split the air shipment between a west coast warehouse and a mid-west warehouse, to speed our time to market.  It looks like we will start shipping orders late next week , with some trailing orders hitting the beginning of the follow week.    Additionally, there is a portion of this reprint that went by boat and should be arriving in a few weeks.  However, due to the chance of custom holds and other delays, we are unable to project when this portion will be available.


MDM Reprint #1 (Boosters):  The first reprint for the boosters is scheduled to hit in July.  We’re looking into options to expedite this shipment due to the continued high demand.  We’re going to have to send another update out when we have more clarity on the shipping.

The reality of the situation is that even with these inbound shipments, we are still far short of the back order demand.  We placed this reprint last March and the numbers had just started to ramp up at that time.

MDM Reprint #2 (Starters and Boosters):  This reprint was issued before launch and should infuse a good amount of supply into the channel.  I am confident it will make a significant dent.  The problem is that this shipment is not slated to arrive until the end of August.  Again, we’re looking at options to expedite the delivery, but I won’t have clarity on that topic for a few weeks.

A short aside:  Air shipping is very costly.  As most of you know, we’ve been aggressive in our pricing for this product. Instead of raising the price we are trying to find the right balance between supplying the market and keeping the price where it is.  Air shipping all of the product would require raising prices across the board. Nobody wants that.

MDM at Origins Game Fair 2014:  As part of the belt tightening leading up to the launch of MDM, we released all of our reserved product to the distributors. This means that we have no starter product for our scheduled events at Origins.  Instead of peeling off product from the reprint, we’re going to cancel any MDM events at Origins that require the purchase of sealed product.   I’m confident this is the right decision in the long term and for the good of the business.

MDM Set 1 Collation: We always receive a lot of questions on this topic.  Given the Quarriors DNA of the MDM, many people are asking about the cost to collect an entire set.  As a policy, WizKids will not comment on collation, nor do we guarantee collation of a randomize product. It is a long-standing policy, one that we have proven out through experience, and one that we’re not going to change.  However, based on feedback, we’re going to tweak the next set, The Uncanny X-Men.  First of all, we’re going to move to a HeroClix sized Gravity Feed unit which will fit 90 MDM booster packs.  This should allow for a little more space for the packs to lay flat.    Also, we’re going to change the insertion rate to target one or more Super Rares per gravity feed. As always, we do not guarantee collation; it is simply a target we strive for.

Marvel DiceMasters Starter Shortage

In case you were wondering why we, not to mention every other store in the country, have no starters for the WizKids DiceMasters Avengers vs. X-men game, WizKids explains the shortage here.

While I understand the shortage, it still doesn't help matters for those people wanting to play the game who have no access to the basic cards and dice and rules for that matter, needed in order to play.

WizKids has a track record of problems with shipments in recent years. The last several releases have been bumped back anywhere from 2-4 weeks because of shipping problems, including the new Deadpool boosters and Fast Forces sets, release dates for which have moved to the end of May. One would think, if your supplier keeps delaying the release of your products and does so consistently, you would look for another supplier.