I was counting my collection today on a one-by-one basis (with over 3,600, that took a while).  I noticed something surprising.  The bases from the minis from the most recent sets start to get a fuzzy white look when stored for several weeks.  The older minis have solid black bases, and I rubbed the white off the recent ones to make it look blacker.  This tells me that they changed the plastic to a lower grade recently, which is quite disappointing.

Humm...I noticed it too.It looks like they are made of a lower quality plastic.It is dissapointing,yes but more dissapointing is the paintjob in and ridiculous sizes in the last set and WotC do not mind about that.

I thought the serious increase in warped bases was the dead giveaway in quality decline. My Harbinger bases are in perfect shape. Unhallowed/Night Below bases are almost all severely warped.

With the rising oil prices the only way to avoid rising costs for miniatures (made from some form of petroleum) is to change the formula to use less oil (thus decreasing the quality of the plastic).

The paint jobs are not always bad just some but I'd also include the sculpts in there as well.  We get flaming turds like the Runecarved Eidolon and Magma Brute which are probably the worst sculpts and paint jobs since uh... ever, then we have beauties like the Howling Hag and Emerald Orb Wizard which are simply impressive. You'd think that larger minis would be easier to paint nicely, apparently not.

then dont buy them. Not every paint job/miniature in the old sets were works of art. Lets not rewrite history. People used to complain about older miniatues all the time . One miniature was called WTF as a nickname. I cant disagree that some of the the mins in the recent sets are crap but not all of them. Stop complaining and do something about it. Stop buying,go to another mins company or create your own. I'm not a completist and i dont buy cases so the changes are minimal to me

"Don't buy them" fails to be a good argument when the company that makes the product puts it in a randomized sealed box.

I was not talking about paint quality nor sculpt quality at all, wicked cool. I was talking strictly about the plastic. I noticed something today that I had not noticed before, as it had surprised me. I don't know what causes the black plastic bases in the more recent sets to start developing a funky powdery white on the surface. To me, this is inferior plastic. I don't get your comments about older minis art quality when I made no comment whatsoever about this in this thread. If you don't care about the quality of the plastic used, so be it. I was not advocating any course of action by simply pointing out that the quality of plastic is decreasing.

I was wondering about the powdery white stuff myself.  I thought it had to do where I was storing the minis rather than the quality of plastic.

We need a chemist. What's going on? How bad is the degeneration?

No sign of degenerescence for me. I'll look after this though.
From what you're saying, it could be that the new formula they're using hasn't been tested on a long-term basis and one or some of the additives do not mix well and segregate after a while.

On what specific set did this lower quality plastic substitution start, by the way? Does it apply to the bigger Icons dragons as well?

My Night Below minis are covered in 'powder', but not any of the other sets; it's not evey mini from the set, either. The newer sets may not be 'old' enough to show this condition yet.

I really hope it's not some form of corrosion; I don't want my NB rares disintegrating. WotC will get an angry letter with a demand for compensation if they do.

I wonder if it has to do with the clear plastic?

This was not specifically clear plastic. I am sure Night Below had participants in the powdery problem. It may be that Desert of Desolation also did, but I am not sure about that set, nor am I sure about Dungeons of Dread. I think that nothing before Night Below was affected, but once again, I am not sure.

None of my minis from any set seem to have this problem. Perhaps it's your storage solutions?

I doubt mine's the best in the world (keep them in the cardboard boxes from the cases), but my minis are all powder-free.

Mine were in a tacklebox in the basement, some humidiity; but not much more than the upstairs.

Most of mine have been in a tacklebox in a dry area, still collects some stuff on it but how do you tell the difference between the powder and dust?

I don't know if there is really powder--I don't think there is powder. It is not a substance on the base, but more like the base starts to look like someone put a mist of powdery white stuff on it. When I wipe the base with my finger, nothing comes off. But the coloring reverts closer to black. There is very little humidity here. I usually have the minis in plastic containers. But the older minis have been in the same containers for much longer and have not been affected.

I always thought it was dust - but the thing is that Night Below is the ONLY set that gets this.

Well I hadn't looked at mine in a while, but some of my UH and NB have this problem.

My Wulfgar is bad, and one of my LBD's is ate up with it. Not just on the base, but it has moved up it's side.

Has anyone asked WotC about this yet?

I haven't noticed it on mine... But then again, I haven't been looking for it, either. perhaps I'll take a second gander.

Hopefully its just paint dust or regular dust. You are correct Corim when you say you were only talking about the dust and not sculpt quality,warped based or size creep. Other posters tried to take this thread there. I'm sorry if it came of as though i was jumping on you.

This sounds like the plastic is separating, is it in hot temperatures?

Great  WotC found a way to make minis ouf of plastic that decomposes faster than regular PVC

Well, some plastic begins to separate (like decompose) under constant temperatures. Like it's settling. Just curious if you lived in a warm climate.

Indoor temperatures that never get above 80, and vary from 60-70 normally.

I like in a climate which is fairly dry, and which goes from about 90-100 F outdoors in summer to about 10 F in the winter. My minis are kept indoors, where the temperatures range more from 65 to 80. Sorry these are all in fahrenheit and not celsius.

This has not been happening with the Star Wars minis.