| 28mmMan | 01 Feb 2009 4:48 p.m. PST |
Looking through the Star Wars and D&D minis, I have found a few…just a few, cause damn there are some ugly ones whew… (not promoting a company over another, just using the photos) picture link link link link link link link link link link and you get the idea…there are good droids and a few aliens from the star wars series… My question is if these commons are viable for miniatures gaming…why are they still available? I have not seen an of these in person…only game store in town is really a computer cafe' pretending to be a game store…so are they really terrible? |
| Jana Wang | 01 Feb 2009 5:12 p.m. PST |
Ah yes, we've encountered link #6 and #11 in our games before, and quite a few others besides. They are still available because there were hundreds of thousands made, and the tournament minis gamers don't want them. They're not terrible. They're not showcase art, of course, but they look good on the table during an rpg session where you need something to represent the monster until the party can get the safeties off their weapons. Then you can chuck it in the bin with the other plastic monsters until it is summoned again. Personally, I wish we could get more around here, but the FLGS's only want to deal with higher priced rares that are more in demand, which bring a better profit. Like CCGs, a lot of shops don't deal in commons at all. |
| Glenn M | 01 Feb 2009 7:37 p.m. PST |
Some of them are great, others are a bit shoddy. It depends on what you get. For example, the centipede is a great sculpt, with a horrid paint job, the giant snake though is mediocre all around. |
| palaeoemrus | 01 Feb 2009 7:37 p.m. PST |
One of the two available gricks is seriously just horrible in person. The other hopefully looks better. As a rule in the d&d minis series big stuff, stuff in full masked helmets, and stuff in hooded robes usually looks akay in person. Usually. Those figs almost NEVER look very much like their gallery representation. They tend to be far more simply colored, have terribly bent/warped weapons, or have randomly applied shading ink. Also it can be tough to guess what size they should be from their gallery pic. The solider of bytopia looks great in the gallery picture. In real life he's a gnome and not nearly so well painted. |
| Glenn M | 01 Feb 2009 7:40 p.m. PST |
The Harbinger Grick is an amazing sculpt and well painted, the blue newer one is a pile of  e. My opinion is that monsters and biggun's are great, otherwise usually garbage. |
| palaeoemrus | 01 Feb 2009 7:43 p.m. PST |
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| Boone Doggle | 01 Feb 2009 9:17 p.m. PST |
#6 and #11 are quite nice. I have #6 in my 15mm Newtling Army and #11 in my 15mm Shadow Goblin army. And a few others scattered around my other armies. Be discerning, only buy those you are sure you like and can use. I bought quite a few borderline maybes, most of which were left unused. |
| 28mmMan | 01 Feb 2009 9:24 p.m. PST |
wow…that is a bunch of cool stuff…average price for those pieces? |
| palaeoemrus | 01 Feb 2009 10:26 p.m. PST |
With Dreamblade most commons are about $.50 USD to $.75 USD Some of the online stores selling singles are pretty well picked over as far as the coolest minis goes but they tend to have some useful ones left. link
link
link Sadly you often have to watch the ebay stores for some pieces and e-bay makes them charge $1.00 USD minimum for single pieces so they often bundle them into 3 or more per auction/"buy it now" item and you have to get a combined invoice sent to you from the dealer or you'll get eaten up on the shipping. Some of the dumping ground stores seem to have "old" prices listed from late last year when Dreamblade officially died, so you might want to e-mail them and see if they'll cut you deal. If you want to order blind then some stores still sell booster packs for around $4 USD or $5 USD apiece and they each have 7 miniatures in them. The problem is you tend to get a lot of highly questionable "creative" crap like "evil magic scissors", "teddy bear with a pair of bloody shears", or or "flower pot demons". link The above store sells cases (12 boosters containing 7 minis each) of the three Dreamblade addons(Anvilborn, Baxar's War, and CHrysotic plague) for $31 USD + $11.65 USD for UPS GRound shipping. That's 84 miniatures(12 rares) for $42.65 USD which is around $.50 USD a miniature. They don't have the Night Fusion add on or the base set or a starter set though. Starters contain 16 miniatures (1 rare), a play mat, some dice, and the rules. You can often find starters for sale for $10 USD + shipping. Usually the shipping is unpleasant. Generally if you want multiples of singles then the ebay stores have the best selection and the best deals. The bases are all the same size and that can help you pick out the really huge minis in the series like the rhino giant and the dude with the giant arm. |
| tnjrp | 02 Feb 2009 11:42 p.m. PST |
That Dreamblade stuff is truly wacko (for once I don't wish to have some of what they took when they designed those) and I sorta wish I would've jumped on it when it was more commonly available. Is BTW to any know nominal scale, in regards to the more human(oid) figures? |
| palaeoemrus | 03 Feb 2009 6:53 a.m. PST |
Most of the humanoids are usually just a little too large to stand besides 28-32mm without some kind of excuse (shaved sasquatch, demigod, half giant, cyborg,demon in human guise, really big guy, etc.) A few of them are flatly just too big unless you want your character to be invading the "land of the muchkins", or "the valley of the halflings dwarves and gnomes". |
| tnjrp | 03 Feb 2009 11:33 p.m. PST |
Thanks, that's pretty much as I assumed then. But it's anyways the really weird thingies I'm really interested in so it doesn't really matter so much how big or small they are. |
| 28mmMan | 04 Feb 2009 8:06 a.m. PST |
Agreed…the lovecraftian stuff knows no stinking size boundries! |
snapped some photos of games he didn't get a chance to play in at Council of Five Nations.