War Drums- Too Many Humanoids!

[satori01]

This is a complaint I have about most of the Minature sets, but now that we are on the 8th or so set of minatures, do we really need more Orcs, or the common goblins, or the common Elves, or the common Dwarves.

I am playing Dungeons and Dragons, not recreating the Epic battles of Middle Earth. Less Bipeds and more Carrion Crawlers, Nightmares, and other hard to scuplt creatures that plastic minatures has an advantage over.

Memo to WOTC, please, please, please make themed Monster set, or themed Summon Nature's Ally Sets, so on and so forth. I understand that WOTC might consider the minatures to be a stand alone game, but I suspect that most of the people that collect them, play D&D as their considered "principal" hobby, and the minature game as a bonus.

Please WOTC, create a subset of the prepainted minatures that appeals to your Role Playing game fan base, and directly supports what many people want to see.

The thrill of opening new boxes dies a little bit inside when I get yet another Elf Ranger, in any shape or form.

 

[Nifft]

Too many humanoids in the minis? There have been too many humanoids in monster books forever.

-- N

 

[frankthedm]

In the history of D&D, the non bipedal monster minis on the market have been outnumbered by the humaniods. Metal or plastic it is always the same.

Part of it is PC minis sell more than the monster minis, part of it is the sculpters are too used to makng things wih 2 arms, two legs and a head.

 

[Graf]

In the history of D&D, the non bipedal monster minis on the market have been outnumbered by the humaniods. Metal or plastic it is always the same.

Part of it is PC minis sell more than the monster minis, part of it is the sculpters are too used to makng things wih 2 arms, two legs and a head.

Not that to be unsympathetic but there's a reason you've seen 3 mindflayers but no carrion crawlers yet.
If you look closely a lot of figures are similar in appearance (compare: half-orc Paladin with Warforged Hero) because they're using basically the same molds and sculpts.

All the exotic sculpts you want for your game are probably trival for them to do by hand in the Mini's office but getting that piece out to a factory in China or Taiwan where they can blast out 1000s (10,000s?) of them an hour is another thing.

Look at the dragons... they're gorgous sculpts but they're tiny because its easy to make money off of little pieces (why make a huge dragon when you can make a large or medium and have people desperately picking them up).

 

[Hawklord]

Not that to be unsympathetic but there's a reason you've seen 3 mindflayers but no carrion crawlers yet.

Actually there was a carrion crawler in Dragoneye, which was the second set they did

Cheers

 

[Mad Mac]

It's important to have a balance of minature types. Keep in mind that not everyone (Me for instance) started collecting mini's as soon as they came out. You don't want new prospective mini buyers being told "Orcs, Monks, and Elves? Oh, we don't do those anymore, because we had plenty of them in the out of production sets you never even heard of. Have some more rust monsters".

 

[MerricB]

Please WOTC, create a subset of the prepainted minatures that appeals to your Role Playing game fan base, and directly supports what many people want to see.

Err...

The reason that humanoids make the bulk of the figures is because humanoids are the most common type of D&D monster. Seriously. It might not be the case in your campaign, but over the game taken as a whole, orcs, hobgoblins and - especially - humans will be used again and again and again.

There are sub-themes that run through the individual sets - Dragoneye and War of the Dragon Queen have draconic themes; Archfiends and Blood War for outsiders; Aberrations and Death Knell are fairly self explanatory.

Then, there are also regular "figure slots" in most sets. An animal. A few undead. In recent sets, an uncommon "giant" (e.g. Ogre, Troll, Hill Giant, etc.) Many sets have at least one Elemental. A Dragon.

War Drums has a theme of armies, so it is not surprising that there are many humanoids in it.

Cheers!

 

[satori01]

Exactly take Underdark, there is a large Earth Elemental, it is a rare.
Meanwhile, the Mercenary is a common. Humanoids might very well be the most common creature used in game, (debatable, but true in mine, I have an urban campaign), but there is only so many you need. Humanoids might be the most populous type of minature in the pewter line, but again, I dont have to buy them, or rather when I buy the Balor Demon I do not have to be stuck with a slew of Halfling Sneaks to seal the deal.

The mutiple sizes of Dragons is great, as many people use Dragons now throughout their campaign. Why not the same with Elementals. Why not come up with a Dragon Set, that only contains Dragons? Why not come up with an Elemental Set?

Focusing on Humanoids is focusing on the type of minature that the sets do not do well. The color and Face painting of many of the minatures are subpar. As for the themes, well Aberations had a surprising lack of good Aberations in it. Mostly the "themes" seem more related to the rares, and frankly even then it does not directly correlate, (Elminster, Aspect of Kord for Underdark).

I wind up with minatures that I have no intrest in using, and not enough minauters that either inspire me, (wow look at that thing, got use that monster), or I find useful.

 

[TheAranan]

If you're not interested in using the miniatures for the miniature game and don't want to get stuck with a slew of "unusable" minis... stop buying random packs. Buy singles from a game store, an online store, or eBay.

It's the same as it is with any other randomly distributed game. If there are certain pieces you want, buy singles. If you want a bulk choice of a bunch of random stuff that you're likely to not use... buy random packs.

 

[JoeGKushner]

War Drums is also a starter set, not just an expansion. If you've never played before, this one's for you.