Best Non-RPG Gaming Sources of Minis/Terrain

[MoonSong]

Hmm, I've got a bunch of Castle stuff. Browsing the lego.com site I don't see those available anymore Searching for specific ones it shows them as retired (

Sadly

I do see;
- Nexo Knights; but they look a little punk to me. https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/nexoknights/characters

These were the cyberpunk guys I told you about.

- Elves; a but bright for my tastes, appear geared toward girls but see what you think. https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/elves/characters

Yep, these are Lego Friends figures. At least I know I can find female figures.

- Pirates; but it looks like most of those are no longer in production. https://www.lego.com/en-us/products/themes/pirates-of-the-caribbean

That seems to be a recurrent theme with Lego themes.

Buying them individually, or buying a set just for the figs has got to be expensive! Maybe you can find some collections on ebay that might be worth it.

I did see this, 20 figures from Ninjago for $4, but it's sold out https://shop.lego.com/en-US/THE-LEGO-NINJAGO-MOVIE-71019

Playmobil is similar I think, and you might find better deals there. Don't know.

On the contrary, Playmobil figures are quite cheap and easy to come around. There's tons of themes that work well -Dino, Pirates, Knights, Fairies, Princess, Dragons, History, and Fi?ures- and many of the Special Plus and Duo packages have viable figures. There is a store in the City that sells customs and lots of parts for cheap. The only problem is scale, as they are a bit big.

 

[Tormyr]

kre-o had a D&D licensed line for a while.

 

[Quickleaf]

Model railroad trees (I’ve mounted these on card stock and reinforced / textured with modeling paste, simulated vines with old electronics wiring, painted & flocked)

Woodland Scenics

Aquarium supply stores (look for deals & multi-purpose pieces as they can be pricey and take up space)

Dollar toy stores (usually Asian made and Asian-run, but sometimes you’ll find them in weird places, e.g. my friend found a bunch of $1 dino minis at Sea Life Park here on Oahu)

Board games (Conan by Monolith, D&D boardgames, Magic the Gathering sets with minis, several kickstarters)

Amazon deals on bundles of zombies, skeletons, dinos, etc.

Arts & Crafts stores (e.g. I couldn’t find “Eblis” minis so I bought little foam colorful birds and mounted them on olive colored 20mm garden wire and voila! Eblis minis!)

 

[Charles Ocenasek]

Check out the clearance section or 5 below for the Magic Plansewalkers board game. A ton of stuff for gaming uses.

 

[Li Shenron]

Do you know of some good playsets? Everything I can find is all modern stuff, star wars, weird ninjas and cyberpunk dragons, but not any fantasy set. I know the pieces exist, thanks to Lego digital designer, but as far as I know all of it is out of print and quite expensive.

There may be no Castle/Fantasy sets line currently from Lego, but themes are periodical and usually come in waves every few years, so it's always possible to see something like that again next year. Lego does a lot of licensed sets based on popular movies, so it might actually depend on whether there are fantasy movies coming out. In the last few years unfortunately, superhero movies dominated the scene after the end of the Harry Potter movies series and LotR/Hobbit trilogies.

At the moment I think the only Lego sources of fantasy stuff are NinjaGo, NexoKnights (not sure if this is still available) and the "collectible" minifigures series. But NinjaGo used to be a good source of snake-people and undead, now the main enemies are more like tech-pirates, and NexoKnights is a bit too cartoonish.

Collectable minifigures offer very sparse monsters (usually like 1-2 applicable monsters per series, and 2 series per year), and each series stays on sales for about half a year, so you won't be able to just get a good bunch at once. Still, they have been a very good source of PC and medium-sized monsters for us, as they included vampires, mummies, zombies, werewolves, medusa, ghosts, goblins, yeti... They're not exactly cheap, they started off for 1.5 bucks per minifig but nowadays they cost more like 3 bucks each.

You can find old Lego stuff for sales for example on www.bricklink.com, where minifigs in 'new' condition usually cost a few bucks each.

 

[MoonSong]

There may be no Castle/Fantasy sets line currently from Lego, but themes are periodical and usually come in waves every few years, so it's always possible to see something like that again next year. Lego does a lot of licensed sets based on popular movies, so it might actually depend on whether there are fantasy movies coming out. In the last few years unfortunately, superhero movies dominated the scene after the end of the Harry Potter movies series and LotR/Hobbit trilogies.

At the moment I think the only Lego sources of fantasy stuff are NinjaGo, NexoKnights (not sure if this is still available) and the "collectible" minifigures series. But NinjaGo used to be a good source of snake-people and undead, now the main enemies are more like tech-pirates, and NexoKnights is a bit too cartoonish.

I've seen NexoKnights, I find them not only cartoonish, but too technological looking for my tastes. Maybe I'll give Ninjago another shot, if only there was a good source of princess, fairy and elf parts. And obviously something for spellcasters.

Collectable minifigures offer very sparse monsters (usually like 1-2 applicable monsters per series, and 2 series per year), and each series stays on sales for about half a year, so you won't be able to just get a good bunch at once. Still, they have been a very good source of PC and medium-sized monsters for us, as they included vampires, mummies, zombies, werewolves, medusa, ghosts, goblins, yeti... They're not exactly cheap, they started off for 1.5 bucks per minifig but nowadays they cost more like 3 bucks each.

You can find old Lego stuff for sales for example on www.bricklink.com, where minifigs in 'new' condition usually cost a few bucks each.

Thank you, the link is quite useful, and cool. I only worry the shipping is likely to be pricey, I'll likely wait 'till I can buy in bulk.

 

[pogre]

Hit Michael's or Hobby Lobby after holiday season and they usually have a lot of their holiday village stuff on good sales. Some of the buildings can be used as is, but I have modified a few - mostly making them into ruins. The most useful pieces to me are the cobblestone and brick mats (like the LeMax pebble mat) - these are great for laying out urban scenes.

 

[MarkB]

Toy sections at Pound Stores are good for this. Big bags of off-brand Army Men provide endless mook figures. I also used them as FATE tokens in a military-themed game. It's not uncommon to find bags of dinosaurs or farm animals at scales reasonably applicable to a battlemat.