Wow. After several years of lurking, you finally provoked me into completing my registration.
I don't agree with some of the critism posted in this thread. When Wizkids released their first D&D miniatures set (Tyranny of Dragons) I was sceptical, too. But I found that the minis look
much better in hand than on most of the images on the internet. The second set, Elemental Evil, had mostly the same level of quality, so my hopes are high that Rage of Demons will be similar, even if some of the minis seem to have new issues with too much paint applied and funky colors.
Anyway... the style of the new D&D minis is considerably different from both the old D&D minis and the ones from Wizkids' own Pathfinder Battles line. On the one hand, the paintjobs are somewhat minimalistic and usually lack a wash. On the other hand, the paint is applied in a much cleaner manner than on many of the Pathfinder Battles humanoids. There is next to no bleeding between different-colored areas. You can clearly see the pupils of the eyes on many of the commons and uncommons. I also didn't have extra glue on any of the bases of my 100+ minis, which has been a major annoyance with some of my Pathfinder Battles minis, including rares.
The minimalistic style has also grown on me when it comes to hordes of the same mini, because it makes it easier for me to add the little details in my mind rather than having a super-detailed army of clones. The Pathfinder Battles ghoul, for example, holds a skull in its hand. That's a nice touch if you are facing just one ghoul, but not so much if you face 10 ghouls. One thing that is also worth mentioning is that that most of the sculpts are superior to their old D&D counterparts. The Hobgoblin Marshal posted in this thread is a good example of an old D&D mini with a static pose that looks boring and unnatural from the side angles. The Hobgoblin Marshals I own also have completely unpainted faces, which means their teeth are the same color as their skin. While I agree that the Rage of Demons Hobgoblin Soldier seems to have an issue with his weapon (which some of the D&D minis from the earlier sets also had btw) and while I'm not so much into the the bright red skin tone, the miniature does have a more dynamic pose and a basic level of detail in the facial area that puts Hobgoblin Marshal to shame. I think I will order one to appoint him to lead the leather armor wearing Hobgoblins from Tyranny of Dragons.
For me, there hasn't been a single miniatures set in any of the aformentioned lines without a bunch of "hit or miss" minis in it. This is why I almost always buy singles. On the plus side, this set does not have a mindnumbingly high number of dragons in it, which has been my pet peeve with the first two sets of the line.