Question about the D&D Minis. (plastic and metal)

[ChampaignSupernova]

Ok, money is getting tighter and tighter. I have a fairly decent collection of the 1st two sets. With a few odds and ends in Aberrations and the Archfiends. There is no way I could ever go back to playing without miniatures now. But there are still several that I lack. No decent size dragons; no demons or devils, no giants, orgres or trolls; no beholders or manticores; no owlbears, minotaurs or giant spiders. These are some pretty basic monsters. Most are larger than human-sized and 20 to 40 bucks a pop to buy them on the second hand market. What I am wondering is which would be the cheapest route for me to go. Spending money on booster after booster or breaking into buying a metal minis I need and painting it myself. My collection doesn't need to be the greatest collection of minis ever assembled. I'd just like a fair representaion of most of the monsters you would associate with D&D. A giant or two of each type. Two demons and devils of most of the well knowns, a few giant spiders, a beholder, a couple of trolls, a couple of ogres, and of course a fair collection of dragons. So, could someone please advise to give me the most bang for my buck?

 

[Stormrunner]

Well, the Huge uncommons from Giants of Legend are generally available on the Web for about 6-8 US$ each, and they include a bulette, a cloud giant, a fomorian giant, and a treant. That's WAY cheaper than the equivalent-sized metal minis.

Bullyland makes a number of mythical critters as children's toys, including dragons in several colors and sizes from 1 inch to about 2 feet long (the small ones are hard rubber, the Colossal ones are soft foam rubber). I also picked up a three-headed Cerebus and a giant owl from them.

My old Clash of the Titans action figures make good giants/titans (duh!). A few Spawn figurines are good as demons. Several of the Yu-Gi-Oh figures are useable - especially the Killer Needle (giant bee) and Dark Sage (wizard), though they are around 35mm scale so a little large compared to most minis. But for the bees it doesn't matter, and they're only 1 US$ apiece.

Giant spiders/scorpions/snakes/lizards can be easily found cheap in toy stores - I picked up two packs of "Rainforest Critters" for 2 US$ each, with about 10-12 "critters" in each, about half of which were suitable as minis right out of the bag.

The next set of WotC minis has a Beholder rare, otherwise you're going to have to go with metal AFAIK.

 

[MerricB]

The cheapest option? Trading.

Honestly, if you get a few rares from boosters, you are very, very likely to find people who will trade you a number of good RPG miniatures for a smaller number of Skirmish miniatures (or vice versa).

I've got a couple of friends here in Ballarat who have gained a very, very respectable collection of miniatures with a minimal outlay of booster purchases.

www.maxminis.com is probably the best place to trade.

Cheers!

 

[JoeGKushner]

If you're looking for the biggest bang for your buck, I'm going to buck the trend here and say go with Counters from Fiery Dragon. I understand that the Digital version pretty much has everything, but if you get their Gold Collection and their Summoned Creatures, you're pretty much done with it.

I use them and miniatures, and other things because I like to mix and match and use whatever tools I have. I also like to paint miniatures. However, you're asking about the value per dollar or the utility per dollar and the Digital Counter Collection, from what I hear, allows good control.

 

[pogre]

One other possibility is to make your own. A tube of kneadatite is $12.00 and is more than enough to make most of the miniatures you mentioned. You could also make them out of polymer clays - even more cheaply!

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

If you're looking for the biggest bang for your buck, I'm going to buck the trend here and say go with Counters from Fiery Dragon. I understand that the Digital version pretty much has everything, but if you get their Gold Collection and their Summoned Creatures, you're pretty much done with it.

I'm going to back Joe up on this. I love miniatures, both metal and the D&D plastic ones, but if you want the best spread of monsters for the littlest output of cash, go with Counter Collection Digital. Every counter that Fiery Dragon has produced as of the time it was published, which is everything you could possibly need, and then some. All the monsters from the SRD are in it.

 

[diaglo]

I'm going to back Joe up on this. I love miniatures, ... metal ...ones, but if you want the best spread of monsters for the littlest output of cash, go with Counter Collection Digital. Every counter that Fiery Dragon has produced as of the time it was published, which is everything you could possibly need, and then some. All the monsters from the SRD are in it.

i'll back the other guys on this too.

my hat of the d02 WotC plastic piles of stuff knows no limits.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Welcome to the Boards, by the way.

Besides eBay, I recommend www.maxminis.com - There you can buy, sell or trade miniatures. Maxminis also has a list with prices you can use as orientation.

Decent size dragons: The problem with that is that they are among the more expensive miniatures: You're probably speaking about Large Red and Silver Dragons and of course Huge Red and Gold (I got a huge gold in a booster - the only rare Huge I got out of a booster). But at least with the large ones, you might be able to get them for less than 20 bucks (go got them for less than 20 €, too)

demons or devils: To be frank, there aren't that many of them, especially the two Big Ones are missing (and will be for quite some time, as their stats would be so far beyond the Skirmish Scope, but I think they should do them nonetheless, and to hell with skirmish ;-)). Dretches, Quasits, Hell Hounds, Abyssal Maws, Abyssal Eviscerators and Lemures are non-rare, and therefore not too expensive. Bearded Devils will be a problem, because they're Harbinger (which is out of production), but Erinyes, Bone Devil, Vrock should not be that expensive, and Glabrezu isn't as cost-intensive as the Dragons.

giants: Cloud Giant and Fomorian are uncommon huges, and therefore not that bad. Storm Giant is rare, but it was the rare huge that cost me the least (if you don't count the Huge Gold, which I got out of a booster). Then, we also have hill giants, which are probably less than 20, too.

orgres: Look for Ogre Zombie and Ogre Ravager - the Ogre is from Harbinger (again, OOP and therefore more expensive).

Trolls: again, Harbinger. Try the Ice Troll

Beholders: So far, we only have the Gauth, anyway. The real Beholder's coming in march.

Minotaurs: Look for the redone one in Giants.

Giant spiders: That one confuses me: It's quite high in price for something you can get in every toy store.


For your convenience, I have looked up the maxminis list prices for the minis (note that these are prices for direct shopping. You'll probably get better prices when you trade or buy them via maxminis or ebay - I have paid a lot less for most of those):

Large Silver Dragon 21.59
Large Red Dragon 22.48
Huge Gold Dragon 34.98
Huge Red Dragon 39.99

Bearded Devil 19.99
Bone Devil 12.09
Erinyes 9.53
Vrock 12.35
Glabrezu 18.65

Hill Giant 21.23
Cloud Giant 4.79
Storm Giant 17.31
Fomorian 5.42
King Snurre 15.99
Frost Giant 25.50
Fire Giant 21.98

Ogre Zombie 10.09
Ogre 27.31
Ogre Ravager 12.78

Troll 25.98
Ice Troll 16.24

Gauth 12.45
Manticore 12.89
Owlbear 21.50

Minotaur (Harbinger) 16.04
Minotaur (Giants of Legend) 8.75
Minotaur Skeleton 8.03

Large Monstrous Spider 12.64

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Apparently ogres and trolls will be in an upcoming minis release and IIRC they will be uncommon not rare.

 

[der_kluge]

Don't listen to any of them.

Giant Spiders

Beholders

Mummies

I recommend getting little bases for all these. For the beholders, you can superglue, or hotglue them to the base. The eyeball itself can serve as a facing for the beholder to know where the anti-magic cone is. All these things are perfect scale. And you can not beat the price. I use all of them. This site has numerous other little things that work well for monsters, too.