D&D Miniatures - Thumbs up or down?

[MeepoTheMighty]

the quality of the plastic is cheap. not the price.

to me they are overpriced.

i have 14000 lead minis that didn't cost me as much as the 400 plastic ones i just bought.

You're being more than a little unfair there. You obviously bought those minis 20-30 years ago. By the same token, you probably filled up your gas tank back then for what it costs to buy a gallon now.

14000 lead minis at today's prices would come out to around 40 grand.

 

[Romus]

Speaking of miniatures, does anyone know where i can find a good, Giant Spider Mini?? I have never seen one.

 

[Wormwood]

Thumbs way, way up.

Before WotC, my miniature 'collection' was simply of a box of poorly painted hand-me-downs and a few blisters of cool-looking (yet unpainted, fragile, and expensive) pewters.

I don't paint minis, so I was stuck with what I could get.

Now I've got dozens and dozens of painted minis, the vast majrity look straight out of the Monster Manual. Every PC has found a satisfactory character as well.

Aside from the price (awesome), my favorite aspect of the D&D minis is that I can chuck them all in a bag at the end of a session without worrying about breaking off pieces or chipping paint.

 

[MerricB]

Speaking of miniatures, does anyone know where i can find a good, Giant Spider Mini?? I have never seen one.

There's a Large Monstrous Spider in the Dragoneye expansion.

Cheers!

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Thumbs way way up.

I get them mostly to have for games I run. Eventually one i'll be able to have the entire MM in mini's pre-painted.

The paintjobs (for the price) are GREAT. Sure they arent as good as the kind of job an experienced artist might be able to do given a few days work, but its good enough that 2 ft away across the table it represents its figure perfectly.

The thing is, the paintjobs, they get better.

I have 24 Dragoneye mini's and their paintjobs are a good 200% better then the Harbringer ones.
I'm sure the Archfiend and Giant mini's will be even better then that.

As for bent plastic (which someone mentioned on the previous page), simply put your mini in boiling water for a good 10-15 seconds and bend the plastic back into place. It will be good as perfect.

My only qualm is that the local area (brooklyn) doest have many people playing "yet" so trading/buying singles was difficult.

However getting and trading in and of itself is easy. At Gencon after the Tourny was over I traded with 2 people for 4 mini's. A Rare for a Rare and 3 Uncommons for 2 Uncommons.

D&D Mini's is the best bang for your buck. Though you'll really get shoit finding a case for them. (ouch).

 

[ejja_1]

Way thumbs up for me, and heres why.
I paint my own minitures both plastic and metal, I take a lot of pride in the hard work it takes and the time I spend on them. I hate when players who are not currently playing, decide to bend the swords, play with them like 3 year olds and generally disregard and disrespect my figs.
While after one session, I dont have to game with those paticular rude jerks, if I want to game with new people I dont know or know whether I can trust then I would rather have a cheap plastic alternative that really doesnt bother me if the sword gets bent. Heck it already comes kinda bent as it is.
I dont have to paint them, and I get minitures that I normally would not buy and paint. IE: UmberHulk, Shambling Mound, Gnomes, Halflings, Kobolds and such.
I also just played the skirmish rules with a couple of friends and it turns out to actually be a lot of fun, in fact I can see this as an alternative for when my regular gaming group cant all get together.
Also since the rules are pretty much the same as the current rules for the RPG, I am refreshing my memory on the tactics aspect of the miniture part of the game.
All in all a very valuable thing to me, and even the collecting part isnt really that bad. Opening the boxes to see what new mini's I have picked up is kinda cool, especially when I get something that I didnt have before.
So thumbs up for me.

Ejja_1

 

[ejja_1]

Thumbs way way up.




D&D Mini's is the best bang for your buck. Though you'll really get shoit finding a case for them. (ouch).

Cheap plastic fishing lure cases at walmart- $1.39
The look on your friends face who spent upwards of $40.00 for a case made specifically for mini's- Priceless.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Cheap plastic fishing lure cases at walmart- $1.39
The look on your friends face who spent upwards of $40.00 for a case made specifically for mini's- Priceless.

D'oh!

But it was Gencon! I couldnt resist!

 

[howandwhy99]

I voted middle thumbs (?)

I find mini's to be useful for displaying the intricacies of combats and I believe that WotC's line is opening up that style of play to more players.

On the other hand, I don't own any mini's of my own because they are such an expense and (normally) time commitment. Prepainted plastics at least remove the latter, which is good (IMHO).

I know minis are really for me, though. I prefer games where the DM has a strong visually imagined sense of what is going on in game and then tries to convey that to the players as best as possible. Minis can really help in this regard, especially in very complex battle scenes. But just like a rock band with no drummer or bass guitarist to keep the beat, a lack of description from a DM's imagination can throw everyone else off. Many minis games I've played in have leaned to far to the wargaming side for my tastes.

 

[Kanegrundar]

The new minis get a thumbs up from me.

I still like metal and hard plastic (like the ones found in Warhammer Quest) better, but they take time to put together and paint. While I can do a much better job on the paintjobs, most the the D&D minis really only need some touch-ups and drybrushing to make them look a LOT better. Plus, they are cheap and easy to transport. Two MAJOR plusses in my book.

Kane