New WotC Miniature pictures

[Temperance]

Here is some news on the new WotC/D&D line of miniatures. There is a typo in the first one -- it claims that the figures are 40-65mm large, but it\'s been assured that they\'re actually the typical 28mm size that we all know and love. (If you look carefully in some of the pictures, you\'ll see some of the old Chainmail sculpts and they\'re in scale.)

http://gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=7666&mode=thread&order=0

http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=7674&mode=thread&order=0

http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=7688

I\'m actually kind of excited about it. I was never taken in by MageKnight because the base size made the figures useless in my RPG games. I\'ll definately pick some of these up. Hopefully they\'re a harder plastic than the old MageKnight figures so they can be repainted, but I doubt it.

 

[Impernouncable]

I can\'t see much from their photos and I don\'t like what I do see.

It\'s the same problem I have with most plastics especially MK, they don\'t have crisp details. A good paintjob can make MK figures passable, and I suspect that the same will apply for the WoTC equivalent, but I have never enjoyed repainting or stripping plastic. I also hate \"random figures\". I generally buy what I buy for a reason: it looks cool. No such luck with randomly sorted collectable figures.

Sorry WoTC. No sale.

 

[Errex]

I\'m utterly unimpressed...

These things might only be useful as cannon fodder, or if you really need to bulk up your DM bestiary.

My heros will remain Reapers, Chainmails and Warhammers.

 

[Tuubje]

I really don\'t like these mini\'s i\'m seeing. They look very cartoony and like they said, barely a detail niticable. If you\'re used to Rackham mini\'s..... a day and a night\'s difference (like they say here in belgium but translated roughly )

 

[No Such Agency]

Bah. The painted Mage Knight and Heroclix minis look like crap, and these appear to look like crap too. If I wanted blobby minis I\'d sculpt them myself. With heroic effort they could be repainted but why bother when we all have 10 pounds of unpainted pewter in our closets? And the random packaging thing kills any real usefulness as \"emergency\" minis for D&D gaming.

I\'m still pissed that the only X-men minis released to date have been about the quality of a 25c vending machine toy

 

[mlavanish]

pants

 

[Glenn Harris]

So far they don\'t look like a painter\'s line of models, they look like a non-painting D&D player\'s models. But they should serve as an ideal \"I\'m not a painter\" line of models for DM\'s, if not the next to perfect models. I wonder if that is really WOTC\'s target audience? After having attended dozens of cons and RPGA events it seems very rare indeed for a DM to break out a set of painted metal models. More likely the players are fighting dice, clicky base plastic models, or mystery models from the bag of old unpainted lead. Perhaps WOTC will have a new and useful product on their hands after all. Now if we could only do away with that random collectibles nonsense....
Glenn Harris

 

[Dragonsreach]

No Such Agency

And the random packaging thing kills any real usefulness as \"emergency\" minis for D&D gaming

Random Packaging sucks & blows at the same time. It\'s a way of getting multiple garbage figure out so the people end up spending too much to get the elusive \"Rarities\".

I\'m trying to find two copies of the heroclix BATMAN. (you try opening the box for a quick peek and you will hear the words SOLD!)

Don\'t think too much of the scultps, but then againg I may have been spoilt by too much CMON.

 

[hagness]

of course, they\'re crap, but...

You\'re missing the point. As a DM/GM, it\'s incredibly hard for me to do 2 things simultaneously:

1) use my well-painted minis in our DND game when I know they\'re going to be severely banged up. So the same ones get recycled over and over until all the paint is falling off.

2) have enough variety in my minis to be able to whip out an actual random monster. as it is, i have to take a trip to the local reaper store whenever i plan to use a different monster or npc. that sucks.

If you\'re a GM, you want a cost-effective way to use minis in your game, and this line solves that problem. You can always replace the crappo WOTC bugbear with a well-painted Chainmail or Reaper bugbear when you get around to painting one. But don\'t knock the tools that make the gaming experience better and easier. Besides, their line makes my minis look better.

 

[Temperance]

As a DM, it\'s hard for me to plan a good adventure and have all the miniatures painted. Which is a big reason for why I haven\'t DMed for a while -- I\'ve been too interested in painting. This will hopefully help cure the \"every figure needs to be painted\" problem that I have when running an adventure.

I\'m not too worried about the randomness/rarity of the packs, as long as those commons are critters like \"Orc\", \"Goblin\", \"Skeleton\" where it\'s a good thing to have a handful of them. I\'d never play MtG with 20 goblins in my deck (stupid rare goblin king!) but I would run a D&D battle with 20 goblins.

 

[Kelly Kim]

pros and cons

As a professional painter, you might expect me to really hate the idea of pre-painted rubbery models (or as my business partner calls them, \"plastik squeezins\").

However, I\'ve been playing RPGs even longer than I\'ve been painting models, and pre-painted models are a pretty good idea for most GMs. As long as they\'re cheap (cheap enough for GMs to have lots of them), durable, and have enough detail to be recognizable. Plus, they have to be of comparable scale to the better quality metal miniatures that players will use to represent their characters.

However, I agree that the random packaging is rather silly. Remember all the extra land cards that Magic players ended up with? If your campaign has orks as the predominant enemy race, are you going to be happy with boxes and boxes of kobolds or gelatanous cubes?

As a player though, there\'s still nothing better than a nicely sculpted model with the best possible paintjob, preferably with some conversions to best match my character. One or more coats of dullcote will protect the paintjob from continuous use, as well as some sort of fig case to protect it from carrying it from your place to your buddy\'s.

In my gaming group, miniatures have never been a problem. Between all the Warhammer armies, Chainmail warbands, Warmachine models, etc., we\'ve always had the perfect painted model or a near-perfect proxy on hand at any given time. I confess, we\'re luckier than most, and I acknowledge that WotC \"plastik squeezins\" might be the answer for those less fortunate than us.