Those DND minis

[Lord Ravinous]

I'm gonna try Wal-Mart.com, and see if they sell them, they had such a rockin deal on 3.5, I'm hoping if they sell them that they'll have a similar deal. Not Likely.

You can always hope in one hand, and not let anyone near the other.

 

[Xiryc]

I should see if I get my employee discount at walmart.com.....hmm......

 

[shady]

I purchased an entry pack and 4 expansions. Up to now, and in my current incarnation of playing, I used counters; I fancied a move back to minis but don't have time to paint them. So I'm bang in the middle of what was the target audience (or so I thought, more on that later). What I got was as follows (in order of mini number):

Dwarf Axefighter
Hound Archon
Human Commoner
Jozan, Cleric of Pelor
Axe Sister
Cleric of Corellon
Crested Feldrake (2)
Elf Ranger (2)
Gnome recruit
Krusk, Half Orc Barbarian
Wild Elf Barbarian
Azer Raider
Wolf (2)
Half Orc Fighter (2)
Human Executioner
Kobold Warrior
Medusa
Wight (2)
Skeleton
Troglodyte Zombie (2)
Wolf Skeleton
Zombie (3)
Drow Fighter
Ghoul (3)
Gnoll
Human bandit (2)
Hyena (2)
Kuo Toa (2)
Ogre
Orc Archer (2)
Orc Spearfighter
Orc Warrior
Tiefling Captain
Troll

The quality is not great, but it's good enough. The heft is good for play, and they feel more durable than the wizkids pieces (the plastic is more rubbery, less brittle than wizkids). The main issue with the paint jobs, once you discount the quality is that too many are drab (far more so than in any of the photos and advertisements you'll see). For this reason the better commons to get are, in particular, those with a splash of armour, notably the skeletons and the dwarf axefighter (of the ones I've seen). The worst are the crested feldrake and the gnome recruit (but there are a fair few in the C- category, mainly the undead).

The spread is quite decent, better than I expected, with a few annoyances among the commons. The selections are slightly weird, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the inevitable flock of feldrakes ("the feldrake farm of elemental evil", anyone?). And why a troglodyte zombie, rather than just a troglodyte, to start? The hound archon is one of the nicer pieces (being more colourful) but ... you get my drift.

I get the impression that the common/uncommon balance is designed to have you stumble towards a set of "warbands" configured around cores of orcs, undead, elves and humans. It strikes me that the RPG intent of the minis took a back seat (maybe it never had a front seat) to the rather insipid skirmish game; as a result you can't use this line (right now) to make the wholesale conversion to minis that 3.5e seems to want you to.

In particular you'll have difficulty picking up PC characters, and non-monster NPCs. All the "iconics" are uncommon, apart from the only druid in the set, which is rare. The iconic wizard, sorceror, paladin and ranger didn't make the cut. Nor did the human fighter, the gnome bard (introduced in 3.5e, bard now being the gnome's favoured class) or the dwarf cleric. There are only 3 wizards in the set - Nebin, Gnome Illusionist, the Evokers Apprentice and the Elven Pyromancer - and none of them look like "conventional" wizards, though in extremis you could draft the cleric of order. I find this bizarre, if WotC wanted you to "get into" minis to play. Also, once you have an iconic then in most cases you probably won't want two, unless you're planning on fielding a regiment of Jozan clones.

So the best thing WotC could have done, in addition to the warbands, would have been to issue the iconics, or a separate set of "PC party minis" as a set, maybe as the starter set. And ideally male and female versions for the core classes. But I see that the warbands, which is the only release along these lines, are "based on feedback" from the release and so WotC have already written the feedback before releasing the product.

This reads as overly negative, maybe. I applaud Wizards for releasing the mini line, and I'll be buying more. But given the size and spread of the set, with "only" 60 more in the new year, you won't be able to play a mini-based RPG exclusively with this line. So the opportunities are:
- paint (no thanks)
- buy pre-painted pewter minis (very few on market, more expensive)
- buy mage knight minis (do wotc really want me to do this?)
- it encourages some others to enter the market for cheap pre-painted plastic minis, since unlike wizkids, there don't seem to be any patented components.

I'm hoping for the last of these. We'll see.

 

[Mystery Man]

Hound Archon
Wight (2)
Troll

I'm curious, how are these three quality wise. I've noticed the rares and uncommons seem to have been paid more attention to in the painting process.

 

[MEG Hal]

First the quality is fair, but for $1.25, fair is good for standard fodder--I would never use one as a PC.
I am shocked that no one talked about the other stuff included in the intro pack, the templates, grid sheet and the map pieces...those are nice----
WotC---ya gonna sell any more of those map pieces or just tease us with enough in the starter pack to want more? .

I am a player and I am going to buy a pack...or 3+ . But I am a sucker for these things.

 

[madriel]

They come with stat cards too, which makes them very useful. My Saturday night group bought a couple of packs yesterday and I used the wolf mini and stat card for my druid's animal companion. No searching around on my character sheet or flipping through the Monster Manual for the wolf entry in the middle of a fight. I like the convenience.

 

[Cerubus Dark]

I too like the new D&D models, at there price its fairly nice to have some (cheap) models to use in a D&D game. Although these will never really replace the models I like to paint. So far my little collection (2 starters & 1 booster) has:

Troll
UmberHulk
Large Earth Elemental
Kobold Warrior
Devis, Half-Elf Bard
Nebin, Gnome Illusionist
Gnome Recruit x 2
Sun Soul Initiate
Man at Arms x 2 (not the looser from He-Man)
Crested Felldrake
Gnoll
Cleric of Yondalla
Human Wanderer
Lidda, Halfling Rouge
Half-Orc Fighter x 2
Orc Spearfighter
Orc Warrior
Dwarf Axefighter x 2
Goblin Sneak
Elf Ranger x 2
Drow Archer
Human Commoner (read farmboy)
Tordek, Dwarven Fighter
Elf Archer
Kuo-Toa
Wood elf Skirmisher
Hyena
Wolf
Hell Hound x 2
Zombie x 2
Wolf Skeleton (play dead, good doggy!)
Skeleton
Tiefling Captain

Not to mention the 2 d20s, 16 terrain tiles, 2 battle sheets etc....

Truth be told I do like these, they look like someone new to painting (no shading,blending or highlights) was working on them but they still look great. I can't wait to use these in my next D&D game. I might even see about starting a Skirmish league at my LGS. I think he would love that.

 

[shady]

I'm curious, how are these three quality wise. I've noticed the rares and uncommons seem to have been paid more attention to in the painting process.

I suspect it's more a case of the better/more interesting models getting raised a grade, by and large. As I said the Dwarf Axefighter is a common but the painting is probably in the top quartile.

I do think the jobs on the poster in Dragon, and the advertisements (notably the Axe Sister in the ad) got more attention than the ones in the box.

Hound Archon - one of the better jobs
Wight - downright poor in both cases. Especially the face, but also on the feet etc.. The poster in dragon looks like a lot better than the ones I have,
Troll - OK-ish, it's a bigger model and not particularly colourful so was probably less difficult. What you don't see on the poster is an obvious seam where the arms have been attached ... I initially thought they might move, like on an action figure (they still might ... maybe they're just stiff).

 

[Wombat]

Then again, look at ccgs over the years.

Each set appears to have one (Ultra) Rare (or fill-in-the-blank equivalent) that is a poor card; the only thing going for it is Rarity.

Might that not also be happening with certain D&D minis?

 

[Michael Morris]

D&D Miniatures

Ok, I went out and bought $100 worth of the D&D miniatures. Here's my opinions on them both as a painter and miniature enthusiast.

I've been looking forward to this launch for some time. The click bases of the Mage Knight minis make them unsuitable for use with other minis, and to date they've been the only prepainted minis. Also, I've never been that impressed with the mageknight minis at all.

As minis these are very well done, lots of details - often more details than the painters manage to get. I need to find out what type of paint was used to make these so I can do some eye touch-ups on some minis, but other than this quibble most are very good. Quality is very consistent from mini to mini though this is sometimes a bad thing - some of the mini's are badly painted. Here I must stress that the great majority are very well done and in any event they are worth the money spent (At $10 / pack of 8, they are actually cheaper than unpainted minis of years past).

My intention was to use these minis as "the extras" and continue to paint my own minis for PC's. I think that intention will be well served by this bunch.

Particularly noteworthy was the owlbear - it is just gorgoues. The displacer beast is also cool.

I'll give this first batch four out of five stars - there's room for improvement but overall I'm impressed, pleased, and expect to go out and buy about a thousand dollars worth.