D&D General WizKids Issues Refund for Baldur’s Gate 3 Character Boxed Set

WizKids announced they will issue refunds to all customers who purchased the D&D Icons of the Realms: Baldur’s Gate 3 Character Boxed Set from their webstore. From the statement:

As a company, WizKids seeks to create products that enhance and add to the enjoyment of game play. We want our customers to build long-lasting, fond memories around game nights with friends and family using our products.

Unfortunately, we missed the mark on this goal with the D&D Icons of the Realms: Baldur’s Gate 3 Character Boxed Set. If you purchased this set through our online stores, we will be offering a full refund to those who are unsatisfied with their set. To begin a request, please contact customerservice@wizkids.com.

We’re aware of the recent reports and complaints and are taking them seriously. Our team is currently investigating these issues and taking action to make this right for those whose purchases were negatively affected and to ensure these issues do not recur in future products and reprints.

If you purchased your set from a local retailer, please return it at your point of purchase for a full refund. If you have any issues, please reach out to us for assistance at the email above. However, if you wish for a product replacement, we ask that you create a case through Wizkids Product Replacement. We will work with you to provide a product replacement and ensure that it meets the standards expected.

A Reddit thread posted on Friday, May 16, shows images of the miniatures and complaints of poor quality on the details of the pre-painted miniatures. Here are examples using promotional images from pre-order solicitations next to the images from the Reddit user:

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[jhallum]

While the BG3 minis are on par with past minis, I feel like they are on par with past terrible Uncommon minis from base sets. Few paint steps, and very little detail, and a slapdash coat. Whereas, they are definitely not on par with the other small lot sets they've done over the past few years for Paizo, Critical Role, and other Icons stuff like Dragon Heist.

One of the negatives of the BG 3 character models is the lack of color and detail, and the minis exacerbate this, making it very unsatisfying with the wretched 'stay barely within the lines' paint job.

 

[McDeath]

Depends. I've repainted many Wizkids PPM. For some, it's better to just prime them again and start from scratch. These guys, for example:
View attachment 406027
And for others you can use the existing paint job as a base and fix it up:

View attachment 406028

The level of challenge kind of depends on your experience and how much time you want to spend. WK pre-painted miniatures are painted in factories that basically follow a very simple set of paint application steps, working very quickly. So you seldom get precise lines, and it is fairly easy just to clean those up. The Nergalid above took me maybe 45 minutes of cleaning up the original errors and then adding some highlighting and detail work, and I think it came out nicely. I'm an experienced painter but not an especially good one.

Holy WOW!

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

In order:
Shiddyhurt
Weathers
Well
Laze'l
Grill
Assterrorin

 

[humble minion]

The economics of minis from heroforge etc, or even the time efficiency of painting, kinda depends on purpose of course. The PCs in my game are mostly represented by custom-painted minis, carefully chosen by the players. But as a DM, sometimes you just need a bunch of monsters to chuck on the table for a once-and-done combat. If they’re not perfect, that’s ok, and it’s an expenditure of time I can’t afford to paint them up and customise them. Maybe you can spend a bit more effort on the campaign bbeg, or on recurring NPCs, but for routine combat fodder, prepaints are golden.

Having said that, I’m lucky in that I have a lot of the old DDM prepaints, which were vastly cheaper per mini than the newer wizkids ones. Quality varies, the wizkids sculpts are better but garbage paint jobs are common over both ranges. The big advantage of the DDM sets is the rare/uncommon/common distribution and the higher number of minis per pack made it a lot easier to bulk out a basic toolbox of goblins, skeletons, city guards etc. The downside was that the line was designed with the DDM miniatures game in mind, which skewed what was included on n the sets because the factions were alignment-based and in the interest of balance each faction had to get roughly the same love in each set. Which wasn’t helpful for DMs trying to assemble a bunch of monster minis to throw at PCs - I ended up with a truly ridiculous number of variations on ‘dwarf with axe’.

Wizkids have a much better distribution of monsters vs good guys, but the pricing and set size is such that you have to spend a LOT on randomised boosters to get what you want. And most other DMs will be targeting the same minis as you (the draconians from the SotDQ set are a case in point) so the singles market can be very expensive too.

 

[Clint_L]

Pre-painted minis were a lot more affordable on the singles market until a few years ago, as long as you weren't chasing rare ones. However, a lot of those sources have dried up in recent years (Troll and Toad used to be my go-to), and those that have remained are much more expensive. In general this suggests to me that the market for PPMs is shrinking.

Wizkids has also gone more for the "collectibles" approach to miniatures, so over the past few years we've seen boosters get more expensive while containing fewer and/or smaller miniatures (it wasn't that long ago that you could reliably get huge-sized miniatures in booster packs; in some lines, you were guaranted one per booster!). They've also shifted to emphasizing "premium" sets (like the BG3 one) and large individual miniatures, all the way up to ones like Tiamat which run for over $400. This is probably related to Wizkids becoming a subsidiary of NECA, whose whole brand is built around high-priced, limited run collectibles.

Kickstarters are a great option if you are fine with unpainted miniatures, or if, like me, you enjoy painting them. If you go this route, having enough painted miniatures to reliably field whatever you want for an adventure is very expensive in terms of time and money, so it kind of has to be a labour of love.

Folks who collect a lot of Wizkids PPM understand what they are getting and that the actual miniatures will bear only passing resemblance to the advertised renders, so I think this particular situation was probably a result of fans of the video game not knowing what they were in for. Props to Wizkids for offering refunds, even though I think it is kind of amusing that they are basically apologizing for what looks, to my eye, like fairly typical product for their PPM lines.

 

[Distracted DM]

Pre-painted minis were a lot more affordable on the singles market until a few years ago, as long as you weren't chasing rare ones. However, a lot of those sources have dried up in recent years (Troll and Toad used to be my go-to), and those that have remained are much more expensive. In general this suggests to me that the market for PPMs is shrinking.

Wizkids has also gone more for the "collectibles" approach to miniatures, so over the past few years we've seen boosters get more expensive while containing fewer and/or smaller miniatures (it wasn't that long ago that you could reliably get huge-sized miniatures in booster packs; in some lines, you were guaranted one per booster!). They've also shifted to emphasizing "premium" sets (like the BG3 one) and large individual miniatures, all the way up to ones like Tiamat which run for over $400. This is probably related to Wizkids becoming a subsidiary of NECA, whose whole brand is built around high-priced, limited run collectibles.

Kickstarters are a great option if you are fine with unpainted miniatures, or if, like me, you enjoy painting them. If you go this route, having enough painted miniatures to reliably field whatever you want for an adventure is very expensive in terms of time and money, so it kind of has to be a labour of love.

Folks who collect a lot of Wizkids PPM understand what they are getting and that the actual miniatures will bear only passing resemblance to the advertised renders, so I think this particular situation was probably a result of fans of the video game not knowing what they were in for. Props to Wizkids for offering refunds, even though I think it is kind of amusing that they are basically apologizing for what looks, to my eye, like fairly typical product for their PPM lines.

Pre-painted minis were also much more affordable pre-2016/17. I was able to pick up lots of WotC and Wizkids DnD/PF minis, 60-80ish random minis in a box for about $70. Once DnD started taking off in popularity again (the big stranger things/critrole boom ), those same lots were more like $200+ a year or two later.

I wonder if the increase in popularity also helped fuel the price increases at retail levels.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm debating whether it's worth the effort and expense to attach a weighted base.

Cheapest and best method that I have found is to glue an actual coin to the bottom of the base. I discovered recedes ago that bases cost more than physical money, and we used Canadian 5c Nickles on a bunch of goblins (small bases). We still use them and it holds them down perfectly weighted. IDK what coins you use at home, but I'm sure you can find cheap ones. Glue one on!

 

[Clint_L]

Cheapest and best method that I have found is to glue an actual coin to the bottom of the base. I discovered recedes ago that bases cost more than physical money, and we used Canadian 5c Nickles on a bunch of goblins (small bases). We still use them and it holds them down perfectly weighted. IDK what coins you use at home, but I'm sure you can find cheap ones. Glue one on!

More expensive but still relatively cheap: thin disc-shaped magnets are easy enough to find and have the added bonus of adhering to terrain trays such as the ones sold by DF, or any battle mat placed over a cookie sheet.