Thanks to improvements in manufacturing, small publishers can now produce miniatures at scale. Here's a list for gamers who need miniatures at the table or are just starting out.
Please Note: Products listed on Amazon fluctuate in price and availability, so if you want this in time for the holidays be sure to order early.
For the DM who values flexibility over form, these tokens are perfect. It accomodates large and medium-sized creatures and is double-sided. I use these for my weekly games and honestly if your players don't mind, it covers 90% of all use cases for miniatures.
Miniature combat can be complicated under even the simplest circumstances, but flying minatures adds an additional axis that can make it very hard to see who is where. Enter these transparent combat risers, which give a sturdy platform for your characters and monsters to fly (or fall).
This set features a large chimera, mimics, assorted monsters, and other objects. Some of them are very unique (Krampus, deformed godling, axolotl warrior), while others are of limited use (I love mimics, but I really don't need a mimic of everything). Of this set, the "mysteries" are great, and this set includes quite a few decent character miniatures: a tabaxi rogue, satyr bard, two tiefling types ("cursed orc" is rather tiefling-y, and the demonic cleric).
This set features a large giant, three large elementals (two are translucent, the acid and air elementals) and a naga. There are multiple versions of the same monsters, which are relatively common: harpies, dire wolves, wild boars, and then several humanoids: knights, ghouls, bugbears, werewolves, bandits, cultists, oozes, and mummies. There's a few strange outliers (I don't know what a "gas serpent" is and there aren't many Medium-sized giant worms in D&D). This is one of those sets to fill out a DM's arsenal and overall it does a decent job.
This set is known chiefly for its huge miniatures, including an overweight dragon (Themberchaud made an appearance in the D&D movie and we'll never be the same), a "rhino monstrosity," a cyclops, and an ogre sorceress. The rest of the set features three miniatures in different colors (gray, orange, green) and different fiendish types, mostly monsters with a couatl thrown in for good measure. I'm particularly fond of the pumpkin-headed monster because I am using one in my campaign.
In case you were wondering where the other elementals were from the earlier set, this set has them: a water and fire elemental, both large, along with a huge dragon, and three large figures (ogre, dire bear, and troll). The rest is your standard monsters in varying amounts (giant rat, kobold, gnoll, troglodyte, goblin, orc, skeleton, giant spider, gargoyle, giant fire beetle, and zombie). There's a magma ooze for some reason, plus a few banshees and ghosts. There's also a dragonkin shaman, a tiefling sorcerer, and a half-elf for PCs. And of course...a huge dragon!
