D&D 5E WizKids Announce Frameworks Custom Sprue-Based Minis

[Jefe Bergenstein]

I love using and painting minis. Gluing them together? Not so much.

HIPS minis are generally pretty easy to assemble as the plastic cement welds them together. These look to have big chunky pieces, as opposed to something like Wyrd's who were designed by some manner of AI that hates humanity.

I'm excited to see these. I hope hey have a slightly bigger scale than the Nolzur's/Deep Cuts lines, which are somewhat dinky by modern standards.

They're being done by Archon, and I have a number of their Rampart and Dungeons and Lasers sets. Really good quality for the money, and the fact that they are done in-house rather than in China allows for faster reprints and quicker release schedules.

 

[pogre]

I certainly will try these. Putting together models is my least favorite part of the hobby, but I will happily do it for a better material and finish than the current Wizkids' models.

 

[teitan]

So the prices on these are more expensive than GW for the “army” sprues. 5 Orcs for $50? That’s really steep in comparison when I can get 20 orruks for $50 and they are just as customizable, if not more so. I can also get a variety of Orcs from Reaper for $4 each and a weapons pack for about $10 to customize them. The kobolds are also about $50 for 7! Yeah yeah, years and years of use blah blah I get it but when there are far cheaper options with similar or better quality why? Because of a logo?

 

[darjr]

From Sept but an example of some of them from the retailer sneak peak boxes.

 

[MGibster]

The rival of Games Workshop?

I think this WizKids models for a single regular sized character will come out to $15.00 retail which is a lot cheaper than the Games Workshop single regular sized characters which typically go for $30+ retail. Do they look as good as GW figures? Close enough in my opinion. I'll have to get my hands on one and paint it before I make a final decision.

Is it worth it for kitbashing? Or are there better cheaper ways to do that?

It looks great for kitbashing as each sprue set comes with multiple pieces including body parts, weapons, and accessories which you can't possibly use all of on a single model.

Yeah, and one of the reasons I was not impressed with the most recent BONES I got a couple weeks ago. IME, the more gluing you need to do, the less the parts align nice and smoothly, requiring more effort (and a liberal amount of modeling clay) to get them to look right.

While I like Reaper, I've grown less and less enamored of the Bones line as more time passes. While the miniatures are cheap, cheap, cheap, their quality is generally fairly low. I'm not exactly a master painter or anything, but a lot of the Bones miniature I have just don't look that great. Save for the larger Bones miniatures. I think those are not only a great value but for the most part they also look great.

 

[MGibster]

So the prices on these are more expensive than GW for the “army” sprues. 5 Orcs for $50? That’s really steep in comparison when I can get 20 orruks for $50 and they are just as customizable, if not more so. I can also get a variety of Orcs from Reaper for $4 each and a weapons pack for about $10 to customize them. The kobolds are also about $50 for 7! Yeah yeah, years and years of use blah blah I get it but when there are far cheaper options with similar or better quality why? Because of a logo?

Personally, I don't like the aesthetics of the Orruks. They're great looking sculpts, but I just find them aesthetically displeasing. I painted the boss from the Dominion boxed set and then traded away all my orruks for more Stormcast. Of course not all the prices of Orruks are all that great. For the price of $45 you only get three boltboyz. But for $5 a model, the gutrippaz box is a good bargain.

 

[Charlaquin]

So the prices on these are more expensive than GW for the “army” sprues. 5 Orcs for $50? That’s really steep in comparison when I can get 20 orruks for $50 and they are just as customizable, if not more so. I can also get a variety of Orcs from Reaper for $4 each and a weapons pack for about $10 to customize them. The kobolds are also about $50 for 7! Yeah yeah, years and years of use blah blah I get it but when there are far cheaper options with similar or better quality why? Because of a logo?

Oof, yeah, that’s not great bang for the buck…

 

[teitan]

Personally, I don't like the aesthetics of the Orruks. They're great looking sculpts, but I just find them aesthetically displeasing. I painted the boss from the Dominion boxed set and then traded away all my orruks for more Stormcast. Of course not all the prices of Orruks are all that great. For the price of $45 you only get three boltboyz. But for $5 a model, the gutrippaz box is a good bargain.


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I get it, I think they're great but they have other Orruks, like the Savage Orruks and the 'Ard Boys that are pretty cool but the Krule Boys are closest to D&D orcs but my point was more the price comparison for similar products. Personally I prefer the Reaper Dungeon Dweller Orcs which are coming soon in Bones Black, which is a GREAT material to work with compared to classic Bones and the Black Orcs from Reaper are even slowly creeping into Bones USA. The Bones 5 models that have been released at retail so far have been fantastic boxed sets too with the Dungeon Dwellers logo like the new 4 pack of Beastmen and Wererats for about 12-14 bucks, the 7 blood demons for 25 and the 4 large, gorgeous, Elemental scions that just came out as well. Beautiful sculpts that paint very easily with oodles of detail that even the Bones 4 initial Bones black minis were kind of hit or miss on. The detail is now superb in Black and rivals metal with Bones USA. For the price, Reaper really can't be beat. The new Henchman & Hirelings box? 13 minis, 40 bucks, excellent detail and very old school. I like one company better, Otherworld.

 

[teitan]

Is it worth it for kitbashing? Or are there better cheaper ways to do that?

Looking at the cost for the “army” kits, cheaper ways for sure. Looks like you’ll get lots of bits floating around. Weapon options yes but the customizability is small in poseability and variety. It’s more load out plus less minis per box than a kitbasher would really need considering the cost of $10 per mini or more. Still going to be mostly GW, Frostgrave and other companies for the plastic option on the kitbashing arena for cost effectiveness. I was, and I keep harping on it I know, looking at it with Reaper metal orcs last night and the Black Orcs in metal are average about $7 and a weapons pack about the same so $42 for metal orcs with a weapons pack with a little green stuff to repose or sculpt as needed. With Bones it goes way down, even with the higher quality black and USA only being about $4 each. I might get a couple single character minis but my monsters will still be Reaper/Nolzur’s (stripped and reprimed)

 

[darjr]

I wonder if a seconds market for the bits would be worth while?