Demonweb - preview 5 is up

[Holy Bovine]

Wow, I didn't think one little post would get so many people up in arms.

I'll humbly admit that my post was a little strong in how I said what I did, and may have exagerated the impact of the quality of the new set. Sorry

Oh well, nobodies perfect. Yesterday was a bit rough.

Let me retry this:

For me, these seem to be some of their worst paint jobs yet. I only use D&D minis for RPG's, not DDM. And I have so many metal minis (of which I'll grant that most WoTC minis sculpts look better than most of my metal ones) that I really don't need a lot of monster minis anymore (for that matter I don't really need PC minis either, but I just . . . can't . . . resist). However, really good monster minis, if they are ones I don't have versions of, always catch my eye. To me, there just seems to be fewer and fewer of the good ones.

Also, except for the first couple of sets, it seemed I could rely on them fairly well to have good PC figures (although the really good ones always seem to be rare and therefore pretty expensive on the secondary market). The good PC figures seem to be getting rarer also. I wonder if the individual minis (if they do actually start selling individual minis*) are going to be just individually packaged versions of already existing minis, or an entirely new line?

IMO, I've only seen a couple of minis in this set that would make okay PC's, and only a few good monster minis, but none that really make me want to buy them, so far. Granted, we haven't seen the whole set yet.

However, there are quite a few minis on the teaser page that are way better than the ones WoTC has chosen for their previews. I really have to question the skills of whoever is selecting the minis that have been previewed. Even if you don't agree with me that there as bad as I think they are, I think most people would probably agree they haven't previewed the best of the bunch.




*(I thought WoTC was just testing the waters about this - and I haven't heard anything new.)

I think people might be more annoyed with the fact that you bring this up every single time a new set comes out. How many 'worst set evar' posts can one guy make anyways?

 

[Holy Bovine]

I do intend to agree with that. IMHO, the quality of the minis peaked with Aberrations and has steadily declined over the years. That's why I just pick a few singles from each set I like that aren't ridiculously overpriced and buy them online. The number of minis I like enough to buy as singles has been declining sharply in the last few years.

Whoa. Aberrations is not where I would have placed the 'quality peak' as it were. I actively hated more than 75% of that set.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I do think this set is better painted than the previous two, but I am trying to make the next one as good as I can.

What sort of monster figures catch your eye? If you could create your own miniatures, what would you pick?

(PC ideas are also welcome, but realize that I'm from 18 months in the future. Time travel's a pain.)

First - thanks for taking the time to speak to us nobodies (no offense to justanobody there!) I love the way most of the WotC DDM people take time to talk to us.

As far as ideas for minis I would like to repeat one I saw on these forums about a month ago (I think Merlin the Tuna made it) which is to have a PC mini that is represented at each of the 3 tiers of advancement. For example Boris the Elven Ranger could have a Heroic version (common? uncommon?) a Paragon version (uncommon for sure) and an Epic version (rare most likely maybe uncommon). He would have the same name for each version just the title would change. His equipment could start out very mundane looking and get more magical and fancy as he progressed. This is, of course, based on the old Ral Partha metals which had 3 versions of the same miniature on a pack I think they just called them 'Character 3 Packs' or something like that. I, personally, would love to see these come back as they were my favourite minis from back in the day.

Anyways that's it. Thanks for reading.

 

[avin]

Hey, another suggestion:

common human non armored, non weapon skeleton.

 

[Shazman]

Whoa. Aberrations is not where I would have placed the 'quality peak' as it were. I actively hated more than 75% of that set.

Well, a few from Abberations are my favorites to date since I was impressed by the level of detail in both the sculpt and paint job. So all of Aberrations may not have been spectacular, but the good ones really stick out in my mind. Iidon't think you'll find very many people to agree on what are the best or worst sets since everyone has there own opinion. Although, I think many will agree that Harbinger was horrid, and they have improved in quality over that set at least.

 

[El Mahdi]

I think people might be more annoyed with the fact that you bring this up every single time a new set comes out. How many 'worst set evar' posts can one guy make anyways?

Since I've only been a member of ENWorld since January, and never actually posted until about May or June (I can't remember exactly), and I'm pretty sure only one or two sets have come out since then, I'm not quite sure what you mean by "I bring this up every time a new set comes out". Perhaps you have me mixed up with someone else?

Now if you meant every time a preview comes out, that would probably be true. Guilty as charged on that count. I don't have a problem saying a product is bad if it is (at least if it's bad In My Opinion - since I'm neither omniscient nor omnipotent, I'm pretty sure any statement I make is only my opinion). Would you rather I was less consistent? Or maybe just kept my opinion to my self? In which case, if you don't want to hear my opinions, why are you, or anyone for that matter, even here on ENWorld? Seems like it would kind of defeat the whole purpose of having a forum if we all kept our opinions to ourselves. Now if it's that you just don't like my opinion, that's your right, and I respect that. However, there's not a whole lot I can do about it. I don't attack others in my posts for their opinions, and I don't think any less of someone I don't agree with. Edit:I don't even take issue with your opinion, such as "actively hating 75% percent of a set". I don't understand why your opinion is okay and mine isn't?-end Edit. I just state my opinion, although I'll admit, usually in a very passionate and probably more articulate manner than necessary. Both the passionate part, and the articulate part are just who I am. I Could not be that, even if I tried. As for the more colorful expressions, the one's usually expressed as "", I dare anyone to spend 21 years in the military and not have your speech laced with more colorful expressions. However, I can and do censor myself when in polite company, here I just cover it with more of these . (Not to say that ENWorld is impolite company.)

I don't give my opinion on everything. If I don't care about something, or I don't have either a negative or positive opinion, I don't contribute. I'll still read a thread about products, and read others opinion, in case I change my mind and I do become interested in said product. When something is good, I say it's good, with no ambiguity or equivocation. I can even get quite profuse in my praise of good products. I'm likewise just as sincere and profuse when a product doesn't reach my expectations.

If DDM miniatures start exceeding my expectations, I'll be the first to sing their praises. I absolutely love collecting miniatures, and especially enjoy miniatures of excellent quality. I want nothing more than for D&D miniatures to be the "BEST EVAR". If they ever reach that benchmark, I'll say just that. Until then, I'll continue to point out what I feel is lacking in them, in the hopes that someday they do reach that level.




Edit: I do have to admit, the fact that I and so many of my posts are so memorable to you, just gives me a warm feeling all over. It's very satisfying to know that out of the thousands of posts read here on ENWorld, mine are the ones that stick out in your memory. Thanks.

 

[El Mahdi]

What the--? These are fine, on par with most sets released in the past couple of years. People ARE interested in the mini's line. WotC clearly DO have their :eep:'s together with this line.

In YOUR opinion these are great, and you're 100% correct.

In MY opinion, they're horrible, also 100% correct.



See, at ENWorld, everyone's a winner.