Dungeons of Dread...disappointing

[Thurbane]

Today I bought the Dungeons of Dread Starter Pack, plus 4 booster packs.

And after opening them all up (37 minis in all), I would say only 6 or so are decent. Overall, it seems to be a real step backward, to earlier sets with poor quality sculpts and even worse paint-jobs.

The 4 rares I got were Ascendant Hellsword, Balhannoth, Death Knight and Mind Flayer Scourge . The Death Knight and MFS are truly awful - the DK paintjob is so poor he doesn't even have eye sockets. The AH and Balhannoth are OK, but nothing to write home about.

The lowlight is the Grick - seriously, this looks like something from a plastic capsule obtained in a coin operated machine more than a gaming miniature.

...and then there is the usual shoddy distribution of rarities, with some rares and especially uncommons being far more prevalent than others. Of 4 booster packs, I managed to score a whopping 2 large minins (the Blahannoth and the Magma Brute).

Needless to say I won't be wasting any more cash on this set of minis, and will be waiting for a positive review before I touch any future sets. I think I'm going to buy myself a booster pack of Heroscape figures just to get the bad taste out of my mouth...

 

[adwyn]

I liked the deathjump spider I got, but over all I too was unimpressed. Even the eye of flame was only so so. The gnoll marauder was the worst paint job I got - I've owned new cars that weren't that glossy.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Overall, it seems to be a real step backward, to earlier sets with poor quality sculpts and even worse paint-jobs.

I preface this statement with the fact that I haven't seen any of the minis "in-hand," but I agree 100% based off the previews I've seen on the WotC site. To be blunt, a lot of them look simply horrible. Like what we used to get back with Harbinger or Dragoneye. Seriously, the quality control is sorely lacking. Dunno why, maybe they've cut corners to save money or changed suppliers but the end product is simply unacceptable. Take away the "cool factor" of clear plastic and the set is a big disappointment.

I'm going to pick up some of the rares and a couple uncommons but I'll be saving big-time cash on this set.

 

[DaveMage]

I've heard the starter set minis are good, but the rest not so much.

Anyone here bought a starter set?

If so, what did you think of the minis and the maps that came with them?

 

[WhatGravitas]

I've heard the starter set minis are good, but the rest not so much.

Anyone here bought a starter set?

If so, what did you think of the minis and the maps that came with them?

The maps are basically poster maps. For DDM probably great, for D&D usable. Not great, but usable. The minis were good - at least the fighter, dwarf, and yuan-ti were pretty well painted (for a DDM), the dragon looks a bit goofy, but also well-painted for DDM standards. The elf warlock was... a nice sculpt but bad choice of colours.

My impression was that the quality of the paintjobs was closer to the Night Below Uncommon to Rare standard, i.e. pretty good for DDMs, well at least my batch.

However, I've touched them up a bit, which helps a lot, especially in the case of the warlock. And give the green dragon freaking pupils, then he looks less stoned!

Cheers, LT.

 

[TerraDave]

There has been quite a bit of grumbling on these over in the 4E forum.

Anyone else see them in the, er, plastic?

 

[Ebon Shar]

There has been quite a bit of grumbling on these over in the 4E forum.

Anyone else see them in the, er, plastic?

I bought two booster sets yesterday and I was underwhelmed. They seem to have really jobbed the paint job on most of the mini's. The Human Fighter in particular is terrible. As mentioned, the Grick is...bright. My two rares were the Vrock and the Lamia. The Vrock is pretty good, but the Lamia is horrible. I thought the bugs on her were leaves or some other form of vegetaion.

Edit: Oh, the Bullette is fantastic.

 

[Zaukrie]

and then there is the usual shoddy distribution of rarities, with some rares and especially uncommons being far more prevalent than others. Of 4 booster packs, I managed to score a whopping 2 large minins (the Blahannoth and the Magma Brute).

This is just silly. You bought 4 boosters, of course the distribution wasn't what you want. There are no distribution issues, sorry, there just aren't. This is analyzed set after set on the boards - the issues are with small sample sizes of individuals, not with WotC.

As for the quality, I own a ton of these things, and this is the first set in many where I have not purchased a case. The paint jobs and sculpts are overall disappointing on many of the minis (I've seen nearly all, even if I don't own them all). Many of the rares are just not painted well at all. It looks like a step down from my perspective as well. The runecarved Eidolon might be the worst sculpted and painted rare EVER in the entire series.

That said, the detail on some of the minis and some of the paintjobs are great. It just appears that is not the case for as many minis as in previous sets.

 

[Oryan77]

I thought the bugs on her were leaves or some other form of vegetaion.

Those are bugs and not leaves? WTF...I'll have to check that out again when I get home. I thought they were leaves!

I thought the set was ok. There are some stinkers but overall I thought it has some good minis. A lot of the people complaining about them already have a ton of minis. So the re-sculpts aren't useful to people that already have a bunch of that creature from other sets. But I think they are nice minis for people that don't already have a bunch from other sets.

The Eye of Flame is disturbing to me though. It really grosses me out. It looks like some kind of prop from a horror movie. Some kind of human organ or something. Yuck.

 

[HeinorNY]

Could anyone post some pics? Those images in the DDM site can be a little biased, if you know what I mean.