Man, Lords of Madness are looking awesome!!

[frankthedm]

This set does look good!

I do have a few questions though.

Any idea what the break down is in the box in terms of common/uncommon/rare? And what does the new Very Rare mean - is is 1 per 4 box? Does the Very Rare take the place of the Rare?

I'm guessing the very rare is the distinction given to the "Huge Rare". Huge rares have always been rarer than 'Rare' since the show up less often than "one per pack".

 

[Zaukrie]

Peter, since you asked, I'm hoping that means we definitely get more minis next year.............

As for the mix, I'd have to give that more thought. It has a good balance between humanoids and monsters, so I'll get back to you. As always, I want more monsters we don't have yet (and, I'll admit I'm the only one likely to say this), but we have plenty of dragons. Bring on the monsters we don't have any of at all. This set has been in production for a long time, and you all knew Dark Sun was coming for a long time - I'd have liked some unique Dark Sun monsters.

I love, love, love what I've seen so far. Very unique sculpts.

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

I'm guessing the very rare is the distinction given to the "Huge Rare". Huge rares have always been rarer than 'Rare' since the show up less often than "one per pack".

Judging by their monster entries and from what I've read here, not all Very Rare minis are huge minis (and vice versa):
- Dispater, Iron Duke of Hell - medium
- Elder Blue Dragon
- Elder Copper Dragon
- Heroslayer Hydra
- Kalliroth, Githyanki Pirate - medium
- Mephistopheles, Lord of Cania
- Mind Flayer Noble - large
- Neogi Great Old Master - large



Now back to the wish list:
How about some primordials? Imix and Ogremoch, for example.

 

[Shazman]

Fomorians were around LONG before 4E, so were Dragonborn (half-dragon templates galore IME). So that arguement doesn't hold water.

(The new water archon might get a slight mod in to my Causticsoul Thaneborn Barbarian with his helm of battle)

Except that the 4E version bears little resemblance to what Formorians used to look like. Someone not playing 4E might as well use a storm giant for a formorian than the 4E mini. I don't mind dragonborn. They do make good half-dragons, and they were around before 4E. I'm just saying that making newer sets less 4E specific would give them a broader appeal.

 

[humble minion]

As for a wish list (though it's not going to be a long one, since most of my wishlist has been covered in the past set or two! Bebiliths, nalfeshnees, death giants, hydras, green dragons and so on):

- Demogorgon
- Some human minis with a non-European aesthetic. Personally as a Savage Tide GM I'd kill for some Aztec-looking minis, but I'll take what I can get - Aztec-style, Indian-style, Oriental, African, Egyptian WITHOUT being a mummy, Mongol, middle-eastern, native American, Australian Aboriginal, whatever. While there's been a few generically dark-skinned minis over time, they're all basically dressed in standard-issue Euro-medieval fantasy clothing and equipment (with the exception of a few samurai and ninjas). It'd be nice to have something a bit more non-standard for when PCs inevitably visit strange and foreign lands. And even WotC settings are stuffed full of cultures that are direct ripoffs of historical human cultures after all...
- non-rare lesser outsiders, particularly ones found in large groups like bearded devils
- keep up the couple of non-combat minis that have been included in each set recently. Treasure chests and bear traps and the trebuchet and so on. I'm not a fan of the astral portal (how often do you need one of those?) but I'm a big fan of the principle. It'd be great to see more non-combat CHARACTER models though, rather than object models - nobles, commoners, shopkeepers etc of both sexes and various ages would be great. It's incredibly hard to find a non-armed miniature for an non-combatant NPC in need of rescue or protection.
- a pennagolan and a hopping vampire
- a big fat crime lord/thieves' guildmaster with an oversized cigar
- a couple of amorphous sinewy horrors covered with eyes, tentacles and teeth (foulspawn are far too boringly humanoid for my Far Realmy taste)
- Modrons! (yeah, can't see that one happening...)

 

[Jhaelen]

Ah, I didn't put a smiley face so it was recognizable as being...ya know...a joke.

I sometimes forget how a smiley face makes or breaks an attempt at humor with gamers online. Of course you don't need those minis, that's why it's not to be taken seriously.

I'm sorry, then.

I blame the language-barrier: Not being a native English speaker makes it double-tricky to detect humorous posts.

 

[Fifth Element]

I'm just saying that making newer sets less 4E specific would give them a broader appeal.

Broader, but less specific. That is, being 4E-specific can be a draw for 4E fans, and if you take that away, you might lose their interest. So it cuts both ways.

 

[Jor-El]

yeah, I'm not a big fan of "Very Rare", but then again, I'm not a big fan of randomized packaging of any sort. But, I realize the issues with selling minis.

I wish they'd try selling minis in packs with the commons and uncommons visible, and one hidden rare (or very rare). That way you pretty much know what you're getting, and you're driven to buy more of the common figures to see what the hidden rare is. Especially if the hidden figures end up being the large or huge minis.

Anyhoo, as to what I'd like to see more of...I'd love to see the rarity based on the qty of the critter you're likely to encounter in a game. Since the skirmish game is no longer supported, and the minis are purely produced for the RPG, the figure's rarity should reflect how many you're likely to encounter.

I also want to second the notion that the RPG division and the Mini division should work together to make sure that the minis in development will match the RPG releases. I find it baffling that Dark Sun is the big release this summer, but there aren't any Dark Sun minis other than the Thri-Kreen...which isn't even Dark Sun specific. I mean, c'mon! Folks have been complaining about the disconnect between the two divisions for years...it just seems like a no-brainer.

And I know that release schedules can make it difficult to release at the same time. They don't have to, but they should be fairly close.

 

[Herschel]

Except that the 4E version bears little resemblance to what Formorians used to look like. Someone not playing 4E might as well use a storm giant for a formorian than the 4E mini. I don't mind dragonborn. They do make good half-dragons, and they were around before 4E. I'm just saying that making newer sets less 4E specific would give them a broader appeal.

You're kidding, right? Fomorians have been twisted, ugly, bug-eyed behemoths since 1982.

 

[Herschel]

So people should just sub dwarves for gnomes and halflings because they're all smallish?

The 4e dragonborn doesn't look like the 3e one or really, any other dragon variant we've seen.

In some cases, gnomes and halfling minis are really close.

As for the dragonborn, you're SoL apparently because wanting a concept artist to do a vulcan mind meld with you from across the earth in order to draw up exactly what YOU want a dragonborn/half-dragon to look like is completely unrealistic.

Seriously, some times expectations are just so ridiculous and/or steeped in edition hate that there's no making some people happy.