DDM: Player's Handbook Heroes - Dissapointed?

[avin]

I am disappointed with the Goliath, after that WONDERFUL preview that made me think some absolutely gorgeous minis were coming.

Then we were presented to the green goliath...

Judging by previews there will be...

Some horrible pieces:

Some fantastic jobs:

I'm not concerned with paintjobs, but with some out of proportion sculpting. Too early for judging I feel, next player's set will shed more light about what quality we're going to see.

Compared, War Drums painting and sculptiung styles were superior.

I'm buying only the Goliath (two players in different games playing goliath barbarians) and that guy above.

 

[unan oranis]

The photos of their minis have allways looked pretty lame compared to the real deal in my opinion.

I'm just glad they're seperating these out from the monster packs.

 

[Klaus]

Well, we've been putting up previews. Looking at the ones on my desk, and looking at the photo previews, I don't think the photos do the minis justice. The strong lighting mutes the details.

Here are the links to those articles:

Martial Heroes 1
Divine Heroes 1
Arcane Heroes 1
Primal Heroes 1

More previews are coming out next week.

I love minis. I have a bunch of metals painted and unpainted, and use our pre-painted too, and I’m absolutely thrilled with this product. It's a fully painted, good looking miniature, for a price lower than what I would pay for an unpainted metal mini. Some of you may be snorting, but I would have killed for this product when I was a kid. And that makes me more than a little giddy.

Now move along, or I'll hit you with my cane.

While there are a few minis I don't like, most are awesome, Stephen! But my favorite PC-type minis yet are the Vampire Hunter and the Pentifex Monolith. Both could show up again in the Heroes line.

That being said, I think it'd be more comprehensive to release these minis divided by armor type: heavy (plate, scale and chain), light (hide and leather) and unarmored (cloth). This would cover all power sources and allow the line to focus on offering most (if not all) PC races (preferably in male/female variations).

Also, a suggestion regarding packaging: Safari Inc. sells pre-painted plastic miniatures in transparent tubes called Toobs (most would be Large by DDM standards), and come in packs of about 12. I bet the packaging would be cheaper this way, and they could be sold in toy stores.

 

[avin]

Also, a suggestion regarding packaging: Safari Inc. sells pre-painted plastic miniatures in transparent tubes called Toobs (most would be Large by DDM standards), and come in packs of about 12. I bet the packaging would be cheaper this way, and they could be sold in toy stores.

It would be hard to put the power cards in but I can live without them.

 

[Klaus]

It would be hard to put the power cards in but I can live without them.

The point would be to aim them less at D&D gamers and more to the general toy-buying public. Sure, D&D gamers can walk into Toys'R'Us and get a tube of orcs (1 chieftain, 1 eye of Gruumsh, 2 skirmishers, 2 barbarians and 4 drudges), but the bulk of sales would come from kids and their parents.

See how popular generic fantasy is with kids. You have fantasy-themed Lego, Mega Blocks, Imaginext, action figures (including WoW, Narnia and McFarlane Fantasy), toy castles (some almost in D&D scale). And you could release larger creatures with a few points of articulation and a detachable (D&D-scaled) base.

I bought a black dragon of the Warriors of the World line from BBI toys that is larger than the Huge Tiamat, with 8 points of articulaion and detachable flaming breath, for less than US$8. It even has forward-facing horns, like the D&D black.

I made a Huge base for it, and it barely fits (but it's a bit smaller than the Gargantuan Blue Dragon). Now imagine if this bad boy came with a detachable 3x3 base. You'd be expanding the counsumer base a hundredfold, because you're expanding the utility of the miniature.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I agree with you Kalus. It's bad out business sense to sell these things as D&D miniatures as opposed to toys.

 

[El Mahdi]

I've been really critical of the last couple of sets. However, judging from the pictures (which Yeah, really aren't very good pictures) it does look like they've made some significant improvements in paint quality. I wouldn't say these are the best (when compared to all of the previous sets) but they definitely aren't the worst.

The sculpts aren't bad either. I like that most of them, this time around, do not have arms or weapons that are molded into the bodies or cloaks, etc. This makes them better suited to be able to modify them with different weapons and such.

However, and this is my only big criticism, I DO NOT LIKE RECYCLED SCULPTS. The Human Cleric is just a repaint of the Cleric of St. Cuthbert from Aberrations. I would hope this doesn't become a common practice.

But, this is only "So Far". We've only seen a limited number of the figures, and haven't seen any of the monsters yet. So, we'll have to wait and see if this level of quality holds true.




Unfortunately though, this is all moot for me anyways since I'm quits with WotC. That includes any future purchases of their minis (except for buying minis from older sets through various online stores). But, since I've been so critical of the last couple of sets, I thought I'd give them my favorable impression this time around.

 

[El Mahdi]

... However, and this is my only big criticism, I DO NOT LIKE RECYCLED SCULPTS. The Human Cleric is just a repaint of the Cleric of St. Cuthbert from Aberrations. I would hope this doesn't become a common practice. ...

Player's Handbook Heroes preview number 5 is up here...

...and guess what, another recycled sculpt.


The Female Eladrin Fighter is just a repaint of the Drow Sergeant from Archfiends.


I don't think I like this trend that's developing!

​

 

[Zaukrie]

Peter has been clear - they changed plans w/o much time to produce new minis, so this first release has some repaints. It is not their long term plan.

As for the latest repaint, it is such a different repaint that I'm not convinced most people will notice. From the picture, it looks like one of the best paint jobs we've seen yet in this set.

 

[El Mahdi]

Peter has been clear - they changed plans w/o much time to produce new minis, so this first release has some repaints. It is not their long term plan.

As for the latest repaint, it is such a different repaint that I'm not convinced most people will notice. From the picture, it looks like one of the best paint jobs we've seen yet in this set.

Fair enough. I didn't notice Peter saying that anywhere, although I'll admit I haven't been reading every release over at the Wizards site either. I'm sure I've missed quite a bit (even moreso lately).

But, if he's been upfront about it from the start, cool beans.

And yeah, I'd definitely agree there seems to be marked improvement in the paint quality.