First New Monster Minis Previewd

[MerricB]

I'm going to have to disagree with you on this. The sculpts from the entire Legendary Encounters line were all early Dark Heaven models, and none of them are particularly exciting. They're more expensive, and have a much lower variety. That's the trade off for having non-blind assortment.

I must say, I'm completely astonished that the entire range of Legendary Encounters stands at 17 figures.

(Just checking, yes, they do intend to make more).

However, for almost two years of them being available, that's not that impressive a number.

(Interesting sidenote: the cost of making painted vs. unpainted plastic metals for Reaper isn't that different; see link above).

Personally, I think the new wave of D&D miniatures look pretty good, with the orcs and cyclops being the standout figures. It's obvious that whoever designed the gnoll was paying attention to their link to hyenas, although the mini really doesn't look that good on the page. I can't tell anything about the kobold.

Cheers!

 

[Jhaelen]

I'm still underwhelmed by these. They're going to break down to $3 each, which is comparable to metal or plastic that are far better sculpts. The cyclops is okay and probably worth $3-6, but $3 for the awful gnoll? $3 for those orcs?

I think you're forgetting about the different rarities. The commons will be a lot cheaper and the rares (which will all be large) more expensive. You'll see that once the individual minis are sold by Auggies and the other usual suspects.

I've looked at the pre-painted reaper minis and they cannot compare to most DDM minis. Besides there's just too few of them. I also don't like using duplicate sculpts.

And metal minis? Well, I have a couple of hundreds of them and basically stopped using them after getting hooked on DDM minis. While the metal minis' sculpts are more detailed, they're more expensive, unpainted and have a tendency to break (especially the glued ones).

In other words: Metal minis are fine for collectors who enjoy assembling and painting them to be put on display in a glass case. DDM minis are meant to be used in the game.

 

[pawsplay]

The cyclops has good looking features. Unfortunately, the pose is terrible. It's not an action pose, yet I can't imagine him carrying that heavy weapon around in that fashion comfortably.

The orc eye of Gruumsh... is wielding a sword. Maybe I missed the boat, but isn't Gruumsh associated with a spear? It's true, 3.5 had the silliness of the Eyes wielding double axes, but a sword? At least in this photo, his face does not look as expressive as the War Drums minis. The orc terrorblade also has an unimpressive face, and looks to be suffering from a skeletal defect on the order of a Rob Liefield illustration. What would he look like if unhurled his arms?

The gnoll huntmaster looks like an enlarged kobold fitness instructor.

The arbalester looks fine.

 

[Dragon Snack]

The skeletons pale compared to those that they "copied" from the DDM line.

I would like to know what you mean by "copied" as well...

The sculpts from the entire Legendary Encounters line were all early Dark Heaven models, and none of them are particularly exciting.

Actually, some came from Reapers Warlord line. They may not be "particularly exciting" (even the Warlord sculpts were 'grunt' models), but Reaper sold out of them. The Bathalian was pretty good though, and cheaper than the DDM Mind Flayers (except for that junk half-whatever one) to boot.

The orc eye of Gruumsh... is wielding a sword. Maybe I missed the boat, but isn't Gruumsh associated with a spear? It's true, 3.5 had the silliness of the Eyes wielding double axes, but a sword?

The 'Cleric of Gruumsh' from Harbinger had a spear...

 

[questing gm]

I'm very skeptical about the paint quality of the monsters after seeing the PH Heroes minis. While the cyclops looks good but what's stopping it from looking like the Goliath when it is comes out?

The distribution plan, on the other hand, sounds very good if true though.

Looking forward to today's preview too.

 

[Klaus]

I'm very skeptical about the paint quality of the monsters after seeing the PH Heroes minis. While the cyclops looks good but what's stopping it from looking like the Goliath when it is comes out?

The distribution plan, on the other hand, sounds very good if true though.

Looking forward to today's preview too.

Goliaths are Medium, Cyclopses are Large.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Does anyone know if WotC has quit showing pre-production hand-painted figures in the previews? I remember that I stopped paying attention to the previews a few sets back when it became clear that they were using design models that look much better than the final product. These minis don't look that good, especially considering that they're now more expensive. I know I was expecting better for the price hike. But are these even representative of what the final product will look like?

 

[questing gm]

Goliaths are Medium, Cyclopses are Large.

I was referring to the paint job quality of the Goliath that looked good when they said it was going to be painted as a rare but the final preview that came out was not even close to what was being shown previously.

I'm afraid that the same would happen to the Cyclops which might downgrade the look of the miniature in the preview when it comes out as a final product.

 

[Echohawk]

Does anyone know if WotC has quit showing pre-production hand-painted figures in the previews?

Yes. IIRC correctly, they have used pictures of production models since about War Drums.

 

[avin]

Yes. IIRC correctly, they have used pictures of production models since about War Drums.

Except for the Goliath shown when DDM was canned.