JoeGKushner
First Post
D&D Icons: Gargantuan Blue Dragon
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D&D ICONS: GARGANTUAN BLUE DRAGON
Wizards of the Coast product number 957890000A
$39.95
When I heard about the gargantuan blue dragon, I wasn’t eager to have it. First off, it’s more expensive than the previous gargantuan dragon, the black. Second, the black dragon looks stupid. What’s worse, the big boy of the bunch, the red dragon looks stupid. Instead of looking like some regal and powerful creature, the two biggest dragons look like people who are well, doing their business and waving away those who would watch them do so.
The gargantuan blue though, is a different sort of beast. With the blue dragon though, It’s like the designers realized they trapped themselves by the number of grids that the creatures have to take up and unlike the first two, this one is not doing the trick of standing on it’s hind legs like a good dog waiting for a bone. This one is actually on all fours. The thing about it though, is that the designers cheated when making this figure.
I’m not a huge player of table top games but most rules will show case that if you modify the figure, such as by adding some statue or something cool for the figure to stand on, and that figure exceeds the miniature’s base, that figure is not legal for game play. Well, the designers here, wisely, choose to blow right past the base on several areas.
First of those is that it’s tail shoots way past the back end of the base and then wraps around. Second, it’s wings eclipse the base. Third, it’s head is past the base. Fourth, it’s right front arm is past the base. By squeezing the rest of the dragon onto the gargantuan base on it’s feet, they’ve given the creature a menacing look as opposed to some gimpy looking pose that’s desperately trying to adhere to the miniature base.
The creature is also… thicker than the black dragon. It’s also more colorful. Painting job isn’t bad but it’s not something that even a moderately skilled painter can do. Having said that, it’s already done for you and is defiantly better than the red dragon.
The only thing that the black dragon has going for it, is that it stands taller than the blue dragon. Not much of a victory for the old boy waving his arms in the air.
The figure also comes with some other stuff. To be honest, the ‘lair’ that it came with went into a box and I haven’t pulled it out since. It’s a great tool for those playing the miniature game or those who want to attack the creature in it’s lair as I think ‘desert’ setting is one of the few map sets that WoTC, Paizo, or the old flip mat people haven’t gotten to yet.
The other piece it comes with is a monster card. No offense to the game editors at WoTC, but most of the time I can’t read those things because they subtotal feats and abilities into the stat blocks and then hide the feats so things look wrong at first and I don’t feel like doing the backward math. I’ll leave that for people who know what they’re doing like John Cooper and stick with the Monster Manual.
For the price of an unpainted, unassembled metal dragon, you can have one of the iconic dragons for the Dungeons & Dragons game ready to go.
________________________________________
D&D ICONS: GARGANTUAN BLUE DRAGON
Wizards of the Coast product number 957890000A
$39.95
When I heard about the gargantuan blue dragon, I wasn’t eager to have it. First off, it’s more expensive than the previous gargantuan dragon, the black. Second, the black dragon looks stupid. What’s worse, the big boy of the bunch, the red dragon looks stupid. Instead of looking like some regal and powerful creature, the two biggest dragons look like people who are well, doing their business and waving away those who would watch them do so.
The gargantuan blue though, is a different sort of beast. With the blue dragon though, It’s like the designers realized they trapped themselves by the number of grids that the creatures have to take up and unlike the first two, this one is not doing the trick of standing on it’s hind legs like a good dog waiting for a bone. This one is actually on all fours. The thing about it though, is that the designers cheated when making this figure.
I’m not a huge player of table top games but most rules will show case that if you modify the figure, such as by adding some statue or something cool for the figure to stand on, and that figure exceeds the miniature’s base, that figure is not legal for game play. Well, the designers here, wisely, choose to blow right past the base on several areas.
First of those is that it’s tail shoots way past the back end of the base and then wraps around. Second, it’s wings eclipse the base. Third, it’s head is past the base. Fourth, it’s right front arm is past the base. By squeezing the rest of the dragon onto the gargantuan base on it’s feet, they’ve given the creature a menacing look as opposed to some gimpy looking pose that’s desperately trying to adhere to the miniature base.
The creature is also… thicker than the black dragon. It’s also more colorful. Painting job isn’t bad but it’s not something that even a moderately skilled painter can do. Having said that, it’s already done for you and is defiantly better than the red dragon.
The only thing that the black dragon has going for it, is that it stands taller than the blue dragon. Not much of a victory for the old boy waving his arms in the air.
The figure also comes with some other stuff. To be honest, the ‘lair’ that it came with went into a box and I haven’t pulled it out since. It’s a great tool for those playing the miniature game or those who want to attack the creature in it’s lair as I think ‘desert’ setting is one of the few map sets that WoTC, Paizo, or the old flip mat people haven’t gotten to yet.
The other piece it comes with is a monster card. No offense to the game editors at WoTC, but most of the time I can’t read those things because they subtotal feats and abilities into the stat blocks and then hide the feats so things look wrong at first and I don’t feel like doing the backward math. I’ll leave that for people who know what they’re doing like John Cooper and stick with the Monster Manual.
For the price of an unpainted, unassembled metal dragon, you can have one of the iconic dragons for the Dungeons & Dragons game ready to go.
