Skinplant and Stardock have released a series of premium "Mini Suites".  $5 suites that include the visual style, the icons, and the wallpapers. Just the basics -- done in a professional manner.

Check them out for yourself.

9,647 views 23 replies
Reply #1 Top
These 4 mini-suites look great. I don't want to gripe about this but I wish you would release something for those of us who bought the 4-pack of these Windowblinds from Skinplant. We would be spending $5 for each mini-suite just for the icons, and the wallpapers to match. It's sort of double-spending. I don't mean to complain. Forgive me if it comes across like that. What I do have to say on the positive is that all 4 of these mini-suites look amazing!
Reply #2 Top
I see where you're coming from but we're not involved with the Skinplant side of things. They provide us the suites and we sell them. )
Reply #3 Top
I agree with beesley...I already bought that pack of skins. I'd love to have the wallpapers...but not for $5 a pop.
Reply #4 Top
I agree. I, also, bought the pack of skins awhile back. I would like to have the wallpapers and icons, but not at an additional $5 per pack.
Reply #5 Top
I'm in total agreement!
Reply #6 Top
If I were to purchase one of these again (got the pack as well) I would like to see it fully skined with toolbar icons and avis.
Reply #7 Top
Thats exactley hopw I feel also..I already purchased the minipack, and then added IO and Minimus mini suites..Kinda a double whammy indeed...
Reply #8 Top
How about a seperate Icons & Wallpapers pack for existing customers of the original 4 pack of Windowblinds skins? I would pay for them like that...but I agree with everyone else...I already have the WB skins...and not willing to buy them again for a single Icon Pack and Wallpaper.
Reply #9 Top
I am with everyone here.. I went ahead and purchased 1 pack to see what it has to offer. Nice stuff but incomplete. doesn't have the avi's, there isnt' a full set of icons missing alot. Would have been nice to see a CursorXp set with each. Thats my mini-review of the situation
Reply #10 Top
I bought the 4 pack THE DAY BEFORE they switched it to seperate suites.

i e-mailed them hoping for some clarifiction on wether i (and other skinpack customers) would be getting the opertunity to buy just the icons and walls and any oither suite specific additions that come in the future for a smaller combined fee so we dont have to rebuy what we already have.

sadly i did not get a responce
Reply #11 Top
Give them some time to respond. They're good guys and hopefully will offer some solution. If not, it isn't the end of the world. I like the WB skins a lot and have already founf complimentary walls and icons, so I'll get over it. )
Reply #12 Top
I asked them the same question murassmeblade and the answer:

We won't be offering a seperate package, I'm afraid, for that.
The walls and icons were actually done by Mormegil, and we're selling it
through Stardock now as 4 seperate theme packs.

My problem is that I purchased 2 of the 4 suites and when I try and download it I just get a preview image in my temp folder and nothing else. Is there any other way other than stardock's way to get the 2 suites that I purchased?
Reply #13 Top
I agree with davad70 - these are good guys who have made plenty of free stuff in the past and invested hours of work into their designs. I've sold a few skins myself, and for the customer it's their choice of whether or not to pay extra to get a 'complete' desktop with the wallpaper and icons.

(Interestingly, of the $5 paid for the skin pack, I know that 25% of that is lost in the costs of handing the e-sales alone! Skinners are not about to become millionaires...)
Reply #14 Top
Murassmeblade, we have answered every single mail we've received on this subject.If there was no reply, we never got the mail.The reply you would have received is as B1uesummers posted.For any future suites of this type, they won't be sold on Skinplant first exclusively, so there won't be an overlap of this kind, and no one will have to end up buying the skins twice if they want the full set. This was purely a one-off, and wasn't intentionally done.
Reply #15 Top
Skinplant only provided the WindowBlinds skins for these mini-suites. The wallpapers and icon packages were created by Stardock. Perhaps they would be willing to package them up and sell them separately for those who don't wish to buy the WB skins again.
As Hippy said, this was quite unintentional and will not happen again. It has been an unfortunate side-effect of switching from our old store model to Stardock's.
Reply #16 Top
I wonder how many free skins the people complaining here have. Hundreds? Maybe Thousands. C'mon, let it go. These artists spend an enormous amount of time creating these works for us to grab up like hyenas. Don't complain about the premiums ones. To all you artists, keep up the great work.
Reply #17 Top
Mike and Hippy wouldnt do that on purpose, i know that its not a good thing to buy it over but all things come in good time, so if its not here now it will be later
Reply #18 Top
Feeling a bit uneasy after the whole experience.

1st, A windowblinds skinpack is released. Which is fine and was a pretty good one at that.

2nd, 4 mini suites come out including the windowblinds that were in the skinpack without any upgrades.

3rd, The mini suites are just that "mini" because only the main icons are skinned leaving my desktop looking like a reject with some icons skinned and many others using the default windows xp icons.

So, how much will the final.. final version of a single suite be? If I was informed that the suites were only half-assed then I never would have bought them even for a dollar.

If anywhere said that the iconpackager was a "lite" version then I'll eat my words and apologize. These mini suites might be okay for those who never had the windowblinds before but purchasing a suite for just icons and a wallpaper and then finding out that the iconpackager was only a lite version is very disappointing.

Oh, thanks goes to stardock for helping me with my downloading troubles. The info helped.
Reply #19 Top
I will add I did not have to pay for mikes appollo suite..which was free and very comrehensive..also several others..I just would rather have had the opp to buy it all togher in one big package..I love the idea of mini suites..They just had a little mishap here with this and I sress.."trial and Error" no biggy I will still purchase their future suites also..I just was kimnda bumed cuz all togher it cost 25 dollars to get everything...But good ideas guys and keep up the phenom work... )
Reply #20 Top
I would like all to know that i did not intend on complaining about the price, didnt think i even mentioned it, i would have gladly paid 20 dollars for the complete set had i not already boughten the original skinpack but since ive paid the 5 bucks for it and if i want to extras from stardock for ALL four suites total i would have paid is $25.

not the 20 dollars it costs for all four now.

but aside from that, the complaint im making is that no offer was made (by stardock apparently now since its there package now not skinplants)
for those of us that supporterd the guys from skinplant by buying thier work to get the newer package at a discounted price because we already bought the skins seperatelly.

what happends if i buy this new pack? does that extra 5 bucks i feel i dont need to pay go to stardock directly or does it go back to skinplant or split bewteen both?

if you think im complaining about the price in itself then i suggest you raise the price on skins you sell, i for one will still buy them if the skin is high quality and created with honest thought by the author, its just the madning confusion especially for me when i bought mine the day before the switch.

i am glad you are taking steps that it wont happen again.
Reply #21 Top
I have no complaints. I bought the skin pack in the beginning and I just bought them again for the wallpaper and the icons. I know the money is being used for good, if not have a beer on me.
Reply #22 Top
I just wish I *could* purchase them. I keep getting an error. Email sent. These look really great guys.
Reply #23 Top
Werewolf, you've getting an error from Stardock on this? Forward that email to [email protected] please.