Greetings adventurers and fellow miniatures enthusiasts! Christmas is right around the corner and you may be looking for the perfect last minute gift for the miniature enthusiast in your home. Or, maybe you're not. Regardless of the case, I've put together a miniatures gift guide.
None of these links are affiliated. They're presented for instructional purposes only. In most cases, I have experience with the recommended product.
[h=3]Miniatures Make Great Stocking Stuffers[/h] Do you have a miniature fan in your life, but only a few dollars to spare? Look no further than Reaper miniatures for most of your monster and hero needs. Reaper minis come in a variety of sub-brands (Dark Haven, Chronoscope, Bones) and are typically inexpensive, ranging from $2 - $5 for most minis and around $20 for larger creatures like dragons and the hydra.
Do you play D&D or Pathfinder? Reaper's kobolds are only $3.99 and include six of the beasts. How about goblins? It's the same deal. I also like their line of Lizardmen for $10.99 and lycanthropic minis averaging $3.99 each. The entire catalogue is available at Reaper's website.
For beginner painters, one of the Reaper Learn to Paint kits is an ideal gift, containing brushes, paints, a painting guide and three minis for only $39.99.
If you're looking for a random grab bag of pre-painted minis to throw into your game, Wizkids offers several lines of D&D and Pathfinder minis. These can be found easily at your FLGS or on Amazon.
Personally, I'm not a fan of pre-painted miniatures or random grab bags, but they're available in both individual packages (around $15 each) and “bricks” of eight for a around $90.
For D&D fans, Wizkids also has a great line of unpainted miniatures—Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures—that not only look good, but are pre-primed and ready to paint out of the box. For monsters, I love the Owlbear (which I got for $5 at my FLGS) and the minotaur. Heroes are also available for as little as $5 apiece. Prices vary based on the mini, but here's a handy, unaffiliated Amazon link for you to peruse at your leisure. I prefer to buy these locally, because they're a bit cheaper at my FLGS and Hobbytown than they are online. The only downside to getting these from the hobby shop will likely be the lack of variety.
While we're on the subject of Wizkids, I do quite the Wizkids Pathfinder Battles Deep Cuts dragon series. For approximately $30, you get a well sculpted, beautiful unpainted dragon mini in one of three flavors—red, green or blue. Each dragon is sculpted in a different pose and vary in size, horn type/quantity and wingspan. The green dragon is my pick at $29.99.
For the Warhammer 40,000 or Warhammer: Age of Sigmar fan in your life—or if you're just a big spender ($100 or more) — you can't go wrong with Speed Freeks for $127, but that's only if you really want to spend a lot on someone.
Regardless of what you choose, there's always time to buy minis, especially if you're near an FLGS or one of the 147 Hobbytown USA locations in the United States.
Contributed by David J. Buck (Nostalgia Ward) as part of the EN World (ENWC) program. When he isn’t learning to play or writing about RPGs, he can be found on Patreon or Twitter. If you enjoy the daily news and articles from EN World, please consider contributing to our Patreon!
None of these links are affiliated. They're presented for instructional purposes only. In most cases, I have experience with the recommended product.
[h=3]Miniatures Make Great Stocking Stuffers[/h] Do you have a miniature fan in your life, but only a few dollars to spare? Look no further than Reaper miniatures for most of your monster and hero needs. Reaper minis come in a variety of sub-brands (Dark Haven, Chronoscope, Bones) and are typically inexpensive, ranging from $2 - $5 for most minis and around $20 for larger creatures like dragons and the hydra.
Do you play D&D or Pathfinder? Reaper's kobolds are only $3.99 and include six of the beasts. How about goblins? It's the same deal. I also like their line of Lizardmen for $10.99 and lycanthropic minis averaging $3.99 each. The entire catalogue is available at Reaper's website.
For beginner painters, one of the Reaper Learn to Paint kits is an ideal gift, containing brushes, paints, a painting guide and three minis for only $39.99.
If you're looking for a random grab bag of pre-painted minis to throw into your game, Wizkids offers several lines of D&D and Pathfinder minis. These can be found easily at your FLGS or on Amazon.
Personally, I'm not a fan of pre-painted miniatures or random grab bags, but they're available in both individual packages (around $15 each) and “bricks” of eight for a around $90.
For D&D fans, Wizkids also has a great line of unpainted miniatures—Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures—that not only look good, but are pre-primed and ready to paint out of the box. For monsters, I love the Owlbear (which I got for $5 at my FLGS) and the minotaur. Heroes are also available for as little as $5 apiece. Prices vary based on the mini, but here's a handy, unaffiliated Amazon link for you to peruse at your leisure. I prefer to buy these locally, because they're a bit cheaper at my FLGS and Hobbytown than they are online. The only downside to getting these from the hobby shop will likely be the lack of variety.
While we're on the subject of Wizkids, I do quite the Wizkids Pathfinder Battles Deep Cuts dragon series. For approximately $30, you get a well sculpted, beautiful unpainted dragon mini in one of three flavors—red, green or blue. Each dragon is sculpted in a different pose and vary in size, horn type/quantity and wingspan. The green dragon is my pick at $29.99.
For the Warhammer 40,000 or Warhammer: Age of Sigmar fan in your life—or if you're just a big spender ($100 or more) — you can't go wrong with Speed Freeks for $127, but that's only if you really want to spend a lot on someone.
Regardless of what you choose, there's always time to buy minis, especially if you're near an FLGS or one of the 147 Hobbytown USA locations in the United States.
Contributed by David J. Buck (Nostalgia Ward) as part of the EN World (ENWC) program. When he isn’t learning to play or writing about RPGs, he can be found on Patreon or Twitter. If you enjoy the daily news and articles from EN World, please consider contributing to our Patreon!
