I saw these at my LGS. Not super impressed but I never turn away a mini with a rapier...
Anyway, this cost me about $18 US with tax... This is the female tiefling rogue. Will take some more pics tomorrow... during assembly, but here is the Single sprue you get and the Instructions. First impressions... not a whole lot for $18...
Thanks for sharing the information.
I have been curious about these but the price is well beyond what I would pay.
Mrs. GG has sort of been “conditioned” to expect minis to cost between 50 cents to 2 Euros each thanks to my budget eBay shopping and companies like Victrix, North Star and WGA. A stretch would be a 5 Euro GW Middle Earth mini. So we generally pass on a lot of Modiphius, GW, Privateer Press, and such.
I find these modular DnD mini's far too expensive for what they offer. For the same money, you could buy a box of Frostgrave wizards and make up to 8 mages/sorcerers/warlocks and more. Or buy a couple of sprue's from Frostgrave and Oathmark and kitbash whatever you feel like. From adventurers, town guards, brigands and enemies. And that's what I will be doing for a TTRPG I am working on right now, using the ICRPG as its engine.
I let myself be inspired by the Frostgrave and Oathmark miniatures and build the world around them. Going to get from nearly every kit a sprue and some WA sprue's (Halfling, Lizardmen and perhaps the Dark Age Irish). Remove them from the frame and put them in a sorter box. At the first session that party can just kitbash their characters from those parts.
When these were announced, I was excited. When I saw the price, I thought, "Wow, how many are in the box?"
Neat looking minis, not going to touch them at those prices.
Well, I wanted to wait until she was finished to post, but... more yard work and my hands (arms) have developed the muscle strain shakes... so...
Here she is with a wargames atlantic body. First thought is she is quite wee... but i guess that is not a bad thing as she will be a light, duelist type character. I decided to go with the parrying dagger and the rapier (as the rapier was the whole reason i got her). I also pictured a duelist/ vigilante character so went with the face masked head. Though the other head is quite nice in person too. I saved all teh extra bits (not a ton), and think they will fit well with the Frostgrave female plastics).
Anyway here are some WIP pics, and then her mostly finished (just needs her left handed rapier and the rapier's sheath) next to a finished conquistador duelist.
Overall, not a bad mini, but... a bit on the small side and not many options... Lets see you get:
A) Sword and dagger
B) Dagger and dagger
C) Crossbow
other than that, you get 2 head options... Its detailed enough, but for $18 i could get a nice resin mini at much higher detail. So,
Option wise (D), its passing but not something you want to show your parents.
Detail wise (B), not bad... but better minis are out there at this price.
Size wise (B), a bit small but the character i have in mind is small (5'2 - 5'4...)
Overall a C+. I am not upset about the purchase but dont know if I will be getting anymore in the future.
$20 for a single mini? Pass. She's cool looking, just way overpriced. The detail is decent, but nothing amazing.
I guess they're banking on the D&D brand name to justify the price? Is the Critical Role gang hawking these? I guess I can see people who only know about D&D through the popular channels picking these up, because they don't know any better, but other than that I just don't see who these are for...
@Benjamin Hayward Good question, most strickly RPG players/GMs seem to prefer prepaints, and the D&D brand is probably why its costs too much.
@Brian Van De Walker Yeh, I am not sure why they think they can justify this price... other than (people will buy it... so charge what we want!" and unfortunatelt that is probably true... at $10... I would have gotten all of them. It would still be more than they are worth but being able to customize (albeit a tiny amount) is kind of cool, and I can see non-wargamers (people not used to custoimizing minis) feeling like they truly designed something that matches their character...
At that price, I'd go for pre-paints, or HeroForge to build and pose exactly the character I want.
For minis I'd assemble and paint myself, Reaper "Bones" PC and other character minis at Kickstarter Core Set prices are under two per mini and look great these days, and Wargames Atlantic are an even better bargain with some multi-part build-it-yourself options right in the box, and even more flexibility when bashed against a host of other multi-part wargaming kits.
Even GW, the Frostgrave Wizards and Knights, and Warlord kits like those for Project Z manage a better price-per-mini.
Interesting that they went with realistic proportions in a hobby full of "heroic" proportions - which would be the reason she looks weirdly slender next to WGA's figures. Nothing wrong with that, but it can look a bit strange when mixing minis from different manufacturers, especially next to very exaggerated characters (see some of GW's figures, or some of Reaper's dwarves or barbarians...), and there are some gamers who are extremely, vocally, table-flippingly sensitive to the differences in proportions.... Maybe it's intended to spark a mini proportions holy war?
That said, that's not a bad looking mini at all - not sure it quite justifies its price unless you've really got the money to spare or this is EXACTLY the character you were looking for, but it looks fantastic.
@Yronimos Whateley
Reference:
Amazingly, this still doesn't come close to GW pricing.
Here's a single sprue human sized character with limited equipment choices:
You can find him on sale for $27.20ish here and there, but that's still almost 10 dollars more than the D&D offering.
@JTam Yeah, some of G-Dub's prices on special models is downright obscene. Their detail is nice, but so is everyone else's these days. I'll still pick up some GW stuff here and there on eBay when I find a steal, but for the most part I stay away from them.
As for the D&D minis, like Yronimos said above, for the same price, or a little more, you can make a custom mini on Hero Forge.
Eh, it ain't my money, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I suspect GW is setting a standard other companies want to emulate thanks to GW publishing record profits year after year.... but GW rarely gets my business.
Thank you WGA for making products I like at prices I am willing to pay!
Although the single character miniatures of GW are very expensive (and a lot of their stuff in general) there is a reason for that. How many people are going to buy that commissar? Only people that play as the Imperium and if they like to have a commissar in their army. How many commissars are they going to buy? 1. Same applies to all the single characters for all factions. But as a company, they still have to create those moulds.
So that's one of the puzzle pieces behind the prices.
@Berggeit
A good point.
But substitute "Tiefling Thief" for "Commissar" and "D&D with minis" for "Imperium" in your statement... and the statement is still true, the mini is just 10 dollars cheaper.
Also... here's a GW human sized "character" in resin:
But as a company, they still have to create those moulds.
That might partly account for the ratio between troopers and heroes, but it does not account for the ratio between GW and WGA. Main reason they can (or at least could in the past, before the sum of human knowledge was available online) get away with those prices is that their gullible teenager customers walk into the store, see the cool game and are pointed towards the "obvious" minis for it. I was like that once. Now though, hunting for deals has become a fifth facet of the hobby and I will absolutely not pay five bloody monies per black guard trooper.
Also... here's a GW human sized "character" in resin:
Aren't those made on ancient, long-amortized dies intended for metal? Makes that price tag even more obscene.
Oh wow, I wasn't even thinking of GW's character minis, I was just thinking of the rank-and-file plastic troops, which are bad enough, but nowhere NEAR the price-per-mini we're talking about with those special character minis.
Which is pretty far over the top, considering you could reasonably cook up your own special character minis in HeroForge for the same price as any other HeroForge mini. Which can optionally be printed in full-colour these days for about US $45. Maybe not QUITE as nice a mini as one of GW's resin pieces, but... hell, they're still quite nice, AND you don't need to be a skilled painter to get a nicely pre-"painted" character mini!
HeroForge: It's not an exact match for the GW character, and a skilled painter could do nicer work with actual paint, but for only 20 minutes spent in HeroForge quickly picking a few default options and fiddling with a couple custom colours and tiny adjustments to the pose, it's not a bad substitute, for only $12 more than the unpainted, unassembled GW mini! And a little more than a breezy 20 or 30 minutes of time and patience could probably result in a much better selection of costume, weapons, pose, and so on.
The GW mini is, no doubt, the only way to go if that is exactly what you want your character to look like, but if I needed a stand-in for that character and had over $30-$45 to spend for it, the only thing that would make me pause would be if I really wanted to paint and assemble the mini myself.
And if I wanted to paint and assemble the mini myself an an exact match was not a requirement, I could grab a Wargames Atlantic Grognards Command kit and be able to assemble a figure that's in the ballpark of GW's model (albeit with a different uniform and hat), plust the bits for a handful of great heavy weapons with crew, for just about GW's price for one figure.
So, yeah, I'll have to draw a line between the GW boxes of rank-and-file soldiers, which are pricy enough, and GW's characters, which are outlandish!
In any case, that D&D character model looks pretty good, but wow, are they asking us to pay a premium for that, when $44 and HeroForge can produce a pre-assembled, pre-"painted" mini of pretty reasonable quality, depending on how much fiddling around you want to do with the HeroForge controls to get just the right colours, pose, and so on, and how much you can tolerate the HeroForge chunky weapona and heroic aesthetic. (For most casual gamers, I would bet that a gift certificate for HeroForge might be the gift they would appreciate more than a build-and-paint-your-own official D&D character experience, unless the official D&D mini were the perfect match, and money and time/effort/talent/skill for painting were no object! A gamer who likes painting could get as many as two unpainted HeroForge figures for just about the same price, if that's their preference!)
@JTam
Funny fact is the Cannoness is based on a famous John Blanche artwork from ... 2nd ed: GW just do keep pleasing veterans and bringing back grognards.. after the Squats and the Ash Nomads. And now whatelse? As long as people are going to buy it, GW will not quit such a lucrative habit.
@Steven StGeorges I really like a lot of what GW makes... and still pick up stuff occasionally. The last that I bought personally new was a slaanesh start collecting box, and a slaanesh vs Khorne boxed set... I think both 2 years ago... I have gotten some other stuff on ebay (like the hobgrots) and have gotten stuff as gifts... (Drazar, the Incubi and the Blissbarb archers)... but evertime i get excited to buy a new GW thing i get shocked at the new price level and then just dont... Wizkids and D&D seem to be heading in that direction.,.. The new d&d skirmish miniature games is going to be $129.
Expensive D&D skirmish game link
this is probably something I would buy... but at that price... wont.
@William Redford
As I said somewhere else, I do really enjoy nowadays GW models cause of the quality of the sculpt and the fact technology is able to produce armies we were waiting for decades -like the Adeptus Mechanicus for instance or the Cannoness above. BUT the pricetag is killing me all the time, so roaming second or third hand sites is the sole way to grab some of the newer minis -sometimes NIB, NOS, primed, painted...- or even older versions. Since last Jan, I brought 2005/2008 Orks since I do need some models to depict Uber-Orkoid breed alongside my RT-era models. I am looking for 90s Eldars, 00s Dark Eldars, Necromunda, Kill Team, whatever I can -with wife's approval.
Hobgrots are on my wishlist too (since I would like to scratchbuild Citadel Morrison's old Citadel Hobgobelins with them and bits from other sets) but 65$CAN for a box is too expensive.. so will wait for them to appear on X-hand sites.
@Steven StGeorges I like the Hobgrotz a lot. I see them pretty frequently on Ebay. 10 for $10 or $20 for 20... but occasionally I see a 20 for $10 as well. The 00's dark eldar... are pretty painful to look at... but a have a bunch... also ebay... the old Raiders arent as bad... But of course you cant mix the old with the new unless you dont mind the size difference or treat the old ones like teens... I dont mind... but some do.
Edite: Actually that would be a good topic for you to start. Discount minis and where to find them. I would certainly be interested.
@Blutze
Reference:
Here I'll defend GW a little.
Comparing GW and WGA pricing is not completely fair. GW has and continues to develop a giant universe/IP. This takes money. They run physical stores that create new gamers, that takes money. They advertise a lot, creating more gamers, that takes money. GW does have to cover those costs somehow.
WGA does little to none of those things. To some extent they ride GW's coat tails for free. My personal completely pulled out of my a*s guess is that the Deathfields kits represent 80% of WGA's sales, and 90% of those buyers use them to play 40K. The recent Conquistador kit was evidently a smash success and that was probably 90% due to Warhammer players.
The D&D kit versus GW kit costs is a fairer comparison as they have semi-similar overhead costs.
REF:
No, she was designed from the ground up for resin fairly recently.
Everyone once in a while GW does break out an old metal mold and will sell old Space Marine Captains or whatever .... I can't remember what they sell those for.....
@Steven StGeorges
I was aware of that. I started collecting Sisters as allies as soon as that 2nd Edition Sister's codex came out.
The second edition Sisters metal minis still look pretty good.
I have no complaints about the new Sister's plastics either. (Except maybe about scale creep.) (Oh, and the price.) They look like the 2nd edition Sisters, just better.
@JTam ... and create a streaming service with limited content, that takes money... and help run FLGS’s into the ground, that takes money.... and fight numerous lawsuits, that takes money.... money that results in some of the highest profits in the industry...
GW charges what enough people will pay. I rarely will pay their asking price but occasionally do and when that happens I help perpetuate the issue. I am aware of this.
I will be open and say I hate how GW and 40k dominates the hobby but it demonstrably does.
@Yronimos Whateley Pfft, at that price pre-paints are cheaper🤣.
@William Redford
00s Dark Eldars are really painfull to look at... but I would like to finish an auld project to scratchbuild Exodites and/or Corsairs with since 2nd or even 3rd ed plastic arms Guardians are now almost impossible to find out -found some complete metal models but still too expensivea bit, 5 for 20$CAN + shipping. Waiting news from my "fixers".
A threat with discount and X-hand sites... You want to steal my Precious? 😁 But could be a nice idea.
@JTam
... tu quoque amici
I knew you were un homme de goût. I sold my 2nd contingent a long time ago, I do really miss the Militia models.
Excepted for the scale, the new Sisters minis are awesome... managed to find out a way to collect models from Imperium magazines -sold South of the Lines and in Western Provinces only, argh- from some fixers of mine there. But what to do with... that is another question.
@Grumpy Gnome
... creating a streaming service -with exclusive minis- blackmailing YT content creators -work for me, close down or wait for my lawyers- and bringing back some well-known members of the Studio like Jervis Johnson to convince veterans and grognards to join.
Nowadays GW is only improving -to excess- a pattern Mad King Brian created in the late 80s.. thanks to folks eager to spend a lot of solid bucks for the metal Thunderhawk. If people are willing to spend so much for one sole mini -but what a mini-, they will keep spending money as long as you supply them with fresh models... and new bugged edition of rules set... and more minis.. and another more bugged edition of rules set.. ad nauseam.
GW is dominating the Hobby and the Market thanks to her pioneering position back to the mid-80s following Mad King Brian's visionary agenda: focusing on a couple of games and releasing tons of new models every single month. Ral Partha and Grenadier were too slow getting into position since GW hogged the fantasy/scifi miniature market for almost a decade with both did finally release rules sets for wargames. As long as people are still going to pay full price for an handful of minis, GW is not going to change its habits.
@Steven StGeorges Sad but true.
Games Workshop basically price based on the *points* a miniature costs in their games. Metal, plastic or resin doesn't affect that. And remember that they have owned their own CGI-sculpted-through-to-robot-carved-steel-mould plastic manufacturing process for a very long time (the moulds might be 3D printed now, though). Their overheads are likely lower than any other business in the industry - their pricing is totally a marketing startegy to maintain prestige status.
And... GW achieved their market dominance mostly by their aggressive retailling. It's the same as McDonalds - they put a GW store in every shopping centre, world wide. And bankrolled the tornament scene... but only for 100% GW product armies playing 100% GW rules. While providing overpriced but quality paints. In the 90's and 00's you may or may not have been able to get alternatives, but you could always get GW paints and be sure they would do the job well.
How much interest is there out there for character figures on the sprue do you think? We've been talking about a range like this with the Classic Fantasy types and/or possibly a sprue that lets you customize to have your RPG character at different levels. Any interest in that type of product? What would you want for how much $?
@Hudson Adams given that there are some good RPG and tabletop rules already out or coming soon, I think a ten figure sprue set with optional heads, weapons, etc. to build characters would work very well. A generic body, with leather jerkin, some 17th Century clothing, swordbelt suspended on sashes or scabbards to place upon the back, then male and female head choices with long hair, floppy hats with feathers, goatee beards, different races, etc. and you're into the realms of fantasy and historical / Lacepunk adventures.
A sprue with only one character? If there are enough extra bits, I would buy it like an upgrade sprue that happens to contain an extra body. However, I would prefer something more like the Frostgrave Wizards box, or your Grognard Heavy Weapons/Command box (replacing the heavy weapons with more bits, or a mounted version with steed). I don't know about other gamers, but I would enjoy building various load outs or gear options, so I would want a couple/few sprues in the box (like the Grognards and Wizards), the number making the box worth the price.
I suppose you can sell the hero sprue as an upgrade sprue, but it would have to be competitive with the single sprues from your other boxes that many sites sell.
Let me put it this way: I'm pretty well interested in a few of the D&D sprue minis, yet I still haven't bought a single one, even at Miniature Market discount prices. If they had triple the number of optional bits, I'd likely have bought one or two of them by now.
The nearest successful example I can find comes from the world of Steampunk. However, these were / are a little over-priced and make figures that are quite overly tall.
http://wargameterrain.blogspot.com/2015/01/wyrd-miniatures-through-breach-plastic.html?m=1
I understand the desire to have big frames with loads of options to make a bunch of figures - it is after all what we do now. I'm more interested in blisters with one or three figures on a small frame with a variety of parts and what your interest would be.
If the character is very much like the run of the mill figures in the troop box i'd likely not be interested, with just minor changes in clothes/headgear or uniform
but if the character is different enough i'll pay decent money (i grab the occasional GW character, but not many of them)
Maelstrom's edge do some of the cheaper single character sprues i've come across recently ($10.50 for the one below) but they really feel pretty sparse for what you get , i'd rather pay a bit more ($15?) for a larger sprue packed with a lot more stuff, either as a small group of characters (general/bodyguards/adjutant) , or even just one with a mad load of options
Edit: it also depends were its going to be sold, if its online only i have to add shipping costs and buying a single character alone is not attractive because of that (although if i'm buying other stuff that helps), where a small group is a bit better as cost per mini doesb't go up so much
I, too, have spent a lot of time attempting to want to buy Medge character sprues. I keep failing.
@Hudson Adams I'd prefer something like the Frostgrave magicians sprue, still a useful number of bodies, but a shed load of heads, arms and customation bits. However a small sprue with one body and a lot of options would be good.
The Maelstrom's Edge single character sprues aren't the best, they may as well just released those in resin since there is little to no customization option with them.
@John Wilson I'm thinking along the lines of one of our 1/2 sprues - or maybe one the size of the Prussians that has all bits for making 1-3 character figures.
the more snazzy hats (or heads with different snazzy hats) you put on the sprue the more tempting it is
@OrlandotheTechnicoloured LOL
@William Redford yikes I just took a closer look at that frame. Man whoever is designing these for them doesn't understand making figures for injection molding!
So something like this guy on foot here: 
One onehanded sickle, two different twohanded swords; left hand holding a crossbow, holding a shield, or petting the dragon; two or three different heads (I think I've only ever seen these two); always the same armor and always with the dragon pet. May have (needs to have, according to the rules) two different cloaks.
When hunting for Warhammer heroes or D&D player characters, I'm usually trying to get these to below 7€; as a DM with tons of townguard captains and BBEGs and whatnot to show I'd be looking for something below 5€. The amount of bits this example has though would allow me to turn multiple troopers from 30-minis-for-30-monies-boxes into heroes, so I might be willing to go as high as 10€.
Really I think the important part here is that (I think) we are looking for heroes. Slightly larger minis (maybe), slightly oversized (maybe) and decorated (definitely) weapons, special hats and insignias, extra details, more ways to be unique - but also a significantly smaller number needed.
I'll also signalboost Orlando's question about retail vs shipping, Makes a massive difference on a potentially very small purchase such as this.
@Blutze everything we make gets widespread (and growing) distribution with retailers worldwide. I suspect in the not too distant future you'll be able to find our products wherever miniatures are sold.
@Hudson Adams Epiccc. Hopefully showing other companies they don't need to charge an arm and a leg to be successful.
@Hudson Adams Could have a character model with maybe 3 different poses and multiple weapon, head, and extra bit options. Depends on how grandiose the model is as well. if it's a normal-sized and based character that's "generic" looking maybe $10.00? Idk if that's too little.
however, if there was a character model that has a lot of uniqueness and maybe some extra pieces for basing like trees or rubble, etc. Maybe $15-$25. I haven't been in this mini hobby long and aren't very familiar with prices.
If you had something HUGE like the Great Unclean One from GW or large battle suits I think $30 or even the normal $40 you charge for your kits would be more than fair if there were maybe 2 models or a few extra minor models. (Like a massive spider that has multiple goblins on top riding. On a platform even perhaps?)
@Hudson Adams I love, love, love the idea of a three body pack - as it could give the progression from low-medium-high level characters.
If you go down that road, please make a decent barbarian/gladiator ->greco-roman mercenary-> warrior/emperor style progression. I think I wouldn't be the only one keen on it ;)
@H M That is a great idea with the three levels of progression on a single sprue.
@Hudson Adams Right, you said blister. I was in a sprue headspace, and my local store doesn't carry any of those.
Character progression is certainly an option if the kit has multiple bodies. Could maybe even work for intermediate leaders in wargames, even if it is more tailored towards RPGs.
@Hudson Adams
You and the 8+ guys may hate me for this but actually, if I was limiting myself to multipart and looking only at fantasy kits for D&D I would just use something like the Frostgrave soldier set for PCs unless I had a theme in mind.
I say this because it covers most weapon options and converting them into spell casters and clerics is not that hard. Plus it has extra bodies to make hirelings, dungeon thugs, town guards and NPCs such as Villains, maybe not enough for something like a siege scenario but works for most human encounters.
The only thing that I might really want that it doesn’t have is additional race options like elves, Trifling’s and Dragonborn, maybe civilized beastmen.
@Brian Van De Walker Hate is a strong word, but I get what you're saying - the NorthStar kits are really pretty great, and i'm a big fan of them myself, but they arent without thier own issues. Primarily low quality in the early sets (soldiers 1 and 2, cultists, the Ghost Archipelago stuff) is kinda 'meh' in quality - thier later offersings, such as the knights, knolls, wizards 1 and 2 and so on have all been great, but the initial ones are purchases that I made of one sprue each and don't plan to repeat.
The other is of course that Frostgrave designs first and foremost for it's own aesthetic, which is great - but if I want to play something more swords and sandals heroic fantasy, ala Conan, or other such fantasies that veer away from D&D the Frostgrave stuff doesnt provide any options.
But then there's also the point that eventually, no matter how hard you try all of your figures are going to end up as variations of each other without somemore bodies in the mix, so added variety is always good. To that end it might be wise to slightly scale up any "Wargames Atlantic Partswork" to match the North Star figs, which tend to be (at least for the knights) just a tad bigger than typical W.A stuff.
On a different note, I have come to conclusion that if this project were to take off the range cannot possible launched without a "Wargames Atlantean". It's just too perfect given the company name.
I actually recently decided I would use Northstar figures as the foundation of my miniature collection for ICRPG (a great system for TTRPG’s), Xgrave and Rangers of Shadowdeep. Love Northstar’s aesthetic, gives me a bit of a more retro vibe. Already had the Stargrave kits, that game dragged me into participating in the hobby last summer (yet I still have to play any (war)game). And they are really lovely to cross-kitbash. Gotta love Sci-fi Vikings, inspired by someone that posted up an FG Barbarian with the Death Fields Upgrade sprue and Viking Death Squad (a TTRPG by the same author as ICRPG).
I chose their range, besides the aesthetic, for three reasons: They gave me great inspiration for world-building, love all the different equipment pieces and weapon choices and they also have a whole bunch of monsters/characters. The last two are also very relevant for players to create their characters. Hope to start with a session where players can assemble their characters through my bits box (and who knows, drag them to the world of wargaming).
Personally, I haven’t really found any problem yet with the soldier kits, although I do have to admit that the Wizards and Knights sprue look cleaner. (Although I did assemble an archer I couldn’t find a proper place to glue down the quiver on that particular body).
Can’t wait to kitbash FG Demons with WA Lizardmen to create a Dragonborn/Lizardmen Paladin. Or FG Snakemen with the WA Lizardmen to create some Sci-fi Lizards. Certainly planning to get WA Halflings and Spiders.
@Brian Van Der Walker
Already mentioned the Dragonborn option. But for the Elves and Dwarfs, you can take Oathmark. Although there are no female options in plastic.
