WOTC Gnoll Skeleton Mini = Bad Design ?

[KB9JMQ]

I have gotten over a dozen of this mini and all but one has been bent at the ankles.
I don't mean slightly either. They are laying over touching their base.
The one was perfect so I realize they are supposed to be standing up
I know the trick about hot water to fix them but this doesnt seem to be a random packaging issue as much as a bad design issue.
Anyone else have this problem with this mini? This is the first one to me which has been a widespread issue.
BTW I am not complaining about the mini's in general I like them so lets not get into that arguement.

 

[diaglo]

Lidda from the Harbringer set was similar. very poor design

my hat of the d02 WotC pieces of crap knows no limits.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Lidda from the Harbringer set was similar. very poor design

I only had two of that one and yeah one was bent pretty bad but I wasnt sure if it was as widespread as the gnoll skeleton which came from 4 different cases in two different parts of the U.S.

 

[Cintra]

The Bladesinger was like this, too. I think all these minis just have really bad ankles. (I can sympathize.)

Actually, the Alusair mini was designed so the sword tip touched the base specifically to avoid this problem. So I think they know it's happening on minis with thin ankles, and they're trying to fix it where they expect it to be really bad. I guess they just didn't realize this one was going to be quite so bad.

 

[Gez]

my hat of the d02 WotC pieces of crap knows no limits.

And your collection of them now kno limits either.

I've always some trouble believing people who claim to have a thousand samples of a luxury product, and then in the next post claim to hate them and consider them crap.

Maybe you should seek professional help, if you really buy stuff against your will.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I 100% agree that the gnoll skeleton minis have a crappy design. I have a dozen of them and about 3/4 of them have the leaning problem. The hot water trick doesn't fix it either (at least, not for more than a day or two). If you look at the ankles, they're too thin and I believe they were popped out of the molds and left to harden too soon and the ankles couldn't support the weight of the rest of the figure.

 

[diaglo]

most of the problem ones i've noticed are:

Vadania, Lidda, and Mialee

plus the undead (skeletons, ghouls, and zombies)

 

[diaglo]

And your collection of them now kno limits either.

I've always some trouble believing people who claim to have a thousand samples of a luxury product, and then in the next post claim to hate them and consider them crap.

Maybe you should seek professional help, if you really buy stuff against your will.

my view is you have to try something to really determine if it is worthwhile or not.

so what if i have over 1000 of the little blighters. i believe it gives my opinion more weight to say they are crappy. as it shows i have actually bought, sold, traded, and used the things.

they don't hold a candle to real minis.

 

[exile]

Downtrodden minis not limited to D&D

I'll second diaglo's thoughts, though it's probably more diplomatic for me to say that I prefer metal to plastic miniatures; that said, I've bought a ton of the Star Wars minis (mostly because it's hard to find the metals from WOTC anymore...not to mention the range they represented in metal sucked), and (now for the point of this post) the Battle Droids from the Clone Strike set really have a hard time standing up too. Now all I need is a Jar Jar mini to get tangled in one.
Chad

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Plastic minis are the way of the future. To say they don't hold a candle to metal minis is an overexaggeration; some of the plastic minis do and some are even better. But the real point is price. I have probably close to 500 plastic minis; to buy that in metal would have cost probably 5x as much. I can get plastic minis off Ebay for, on average, 0.50 to $1 a piece. Try doing that with metals (and the price of metals keeps going up).

Yes, metals are probably better for most diehard mini enthusiasts. But to the majority of average gamers who just want a goblin mini to represent a goblin, plastic is the way to go.