D&D Miniatures... Dead?

[Asbestos]

Just went over to E-bay to check out the D&D Minis there, for kicks, and ... wow... not a lot, but what is there is selling for dirt cheap compared to a few months ago. A lot of 5 dragons is going for 16 bucks... which is about what one of those dragons goes for on Miniature Market. Miniature Market's prices seem to be pretty stable, but judging by what's going on with E-bay I wonder if anyone's buying DDM from them.

Basically, its a buyers market for painted elves and orcs. I think I have more than enough for a darn long time though.


Did/does anyone here play the DDM skirmish game?

[Thurbane]

We used to play it a little, before the new version (i.e. 4E tie in). I mainly collected minis to use in my pen and paper D&D game, but I haven't bought any in quite some time.

I found the quality of the last few sets I bought from (Dungeons of Dread, Against the Giants) to be of decidedly lower quality that the sets before that. When they changed the rules, the minis seemed to take a nosedive - the quality dropped to as low (or worse in many cases) than the very early sets like Harbinger and Dragoneye.

Old Grick
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/GoL_Gallery/72GoL51Grick.jpg

New Grick
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/Dungeons_of_Dread_Gallery/Grick.jpg

[ericgrau]

Sweet I guess it's time for me to start picking up minis. So just ebay? Any particular vendors or just from private sellers?

[EndlessWrath]

Just went over to E-bay to check out the D&D Minis there, for kicks, and ... wow... not a lot, but what is there is selling for dirt cheap compared to a few months ago. A lot of 5 dragons is going for 16 bucks... which is about what one of those dragons goes for on Miniature Market. Miniature Market's prices seem to be pretty stable, but judging by what's going on with E-bay I wonder if anyone's buying DDM from them.

Basically, its a buyers market for painted elves and orcs. I think I have more than enough for a darn long time though.


Did/does anyone here play the DDM skirmish game?

tougher economy = drop in prices because less people buying entertainment. which means, Entertainment is first to go when we tighten our belts.

Yes, I play dnd minis. I like it..but i only can play skirmish, i dont have enough units to make squads =/



Yes

[Tyndmyr]

D&D minis, sadly, are on the lower end of the quality range. I tend to use games workshop minis, which, while more expensive, hold their value much better if properly assembled and taken care of.

Keep in mind that painting, in particular, drops value of minis like a rock unless it's done extremely well.

Honestly, if you just want a good pile of minis to represent various stuff, and quality isn't a huge deal, exploit the current prices.

[ericgrau]

Honestly, if you just want a good pile of minis to represent various stuff, and quality isn't a huge deal, exploit the current prices.
Bingo! :smallbiggrin:

So, ebay right?

[woodenbandman]

Dice/grubbing friends' minis for the win.

[ericgrau]

"Wait so the D20 is the ogre?"
"No, the D20 is the troll. The D12 is the ogre."
"An ogre is bigger, he should be the d20."
"They're about the same size and... just forget it. Whose turn is it again?"

Yeah, no thanks. I'm cheap but not that cheap and my time isn't worthless. I do plan on borrowing friends' minis whenever they have the right ones and I have some giveaways too.

[Asbestos]

"Wait so the D20 is the ogre?"
"No, the D20 is the troll. The D12 is the ogre."
"An ogre is bigger, he should be the d20."
"They're about the same size and... just forget it. Whose turn is it again?"

Yeah, no thanks. I'm cheap but not that cheap and my time isn't worthless. I do plan on borrowing friends' minis whenever they have the right ones and I have some giveaways too.

Yeah, using actual miniatures really adds a lot more to the game imo. Also, if you have a decent assortment of minis its a lot easier to get into gaming groups...

[Darcand]

Just went over to E-bay to check out the D&D Minis there, for kicks, and ... wow... not a lot, but what is there is selling for dirt cheap compared to a few months ago. A lot of 5 dragons is going for 16 bucks... which is about what one of those dragons goes for on Miniature Market. Miniature Market's prices seem to be pretty stable, but judging by what's going on with E-bay I wonder if anyone's buying DDM from them.

Basically, its a buyers market for painted elves and orcs. I think I have more than enough for a darn long time though.


Did/does anyone here play the DDM skirmish game?

I was excited to see mention of Miniature Market! I buy alot of my stuf from there, but only because it's about thirty minutes from my house.

[Lappy9000]

Meh, I'm still convinced that LEGOs are far superior :smallbiggrin:

[Volkov]

We used to play it a little, before the new version (i.e. 4E tie in). I mainly collected minis to use in my pen and paper D&D game, but I haven't bought any in quite some time.

I found the quality of the last few sets I bought from (Dungeons of Dread, Against the Giants) to be of decidedly lower quality that the sets before that. When they changed the rules, the minis seemed to take a nosedive - the quality dropped to as low (or worse in many cases) than the very early sets like Harbinger and Dragoneye.

Old Grick
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/GoL_Gallery/72GoL51Grick.jpg

New Grick
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/Dungeons_of_Dread_Gallery/Grick.jpg

CHEAP PLASTIC!!!! :smallbiggrin: Sorry I couldn't resist.

[Eldaran]

"Wait so the D20 is the ogre?"
"No, the D20 is the troll. The D12 is the ogre."
"An ogre is bigger, he should be the d20."
"They're about the same size and... just forget it. Whose turn is it again?"

Yeah, no thanks. I'm cheap but not that cheap and my time isn't worthless. I do plan on borrowing friends' minis whenever they have the right ones and I have some giveaways too.

You just described half my D&D games. Of course, killing that pesky D20 is a lot more satisfying than you'd think.

[Volkov]

If the D20 is the troll, then what's the tarrasque? Is it the legendary D10,000 I hear so much about?

[Asbestos]

I was excited to see mention of Miniature Market! I buy alot of my stuf from there, but only because it's about thirty minutes from my house.

Sir, with all due respect, I hate you. :smallwink:

[Studoku]

Meh, I'm still convinced that LEGOs are far superior :smallbiggrin:

Quoted for truth.

The best part of character creation is choosing the lego bits.:)

[tcrudisi]

Sweet I guess it's time for me to start picking up minis. So just ebay? Any particular vendors or just from private sellers?

Seconding this question. Any particular vendor or just from private sellers? I run a couple of different games and it's annoying that I don't own any mini's. Actually, in one game I end up using Star Wars Monopoly figures. I've never seen Star Wars, so it's annoying to me when they say, "I attack Obi-One." I'm like, "Which one is Obi-One?" "No, no... that's Princess Leia."

[Runeclaw]

I've never seen Star Wars, so it's annoying to me

The best solution to this is to see Star Wars. Immediately. The originals, mind - episodes IV - VI. You can then decide for yourself whether to watch I - III.

[Volkov]

The best solution to this is to see Star Wars. Immediately. The originals, mind - episodes IV - VI. You can then decide for yourself whether to watch I - III.

Watch all episodes of the star wars clone wars mini-series. That should take about another movie's worth.

[Jack_Banzai]

D&D minis, sadly, are on the lower end of the quality range. I tend to use games workshop minis, which, while more expensive, hold their value much better if properly assembled and taken care of.

Keep in mind that painting, in particular, drops value of minis like a rock unless it's done extremely well.

Honestly, if you just want a good pile of minis to represent various stuff, and quality isn't a huge deal, exploit the current prices.

Games Workshop minis are definitely of superior quality when it comes to detail, but their stuff is also woefully out of proportion, and doesn't really fit my D&D campaign.

If you're looking for gorgeous minis of high quality that look awesome when painted and also feature humanoids with non-ridiculous proportioned gear, you might try scouring eBay for metal minis from the lamented Confrontation game. Beautiful stuff, and if you can get your mitts on any, it's pretty cheap right now.

[blackseven]

GW's various lines and the Confrontation line are good minis, but they dont' make enough of a range to fill D&D needs, IMHO.

GW's stuff is 28mm "heroic" scale (minus the LOTRs stuff). That means the head/face and limbs are not scaled the same as torso. Plus a lot of their stuff is not generic enough.

Confrontation is really distinctive. Most of the stuff doesn't drop into generic high fantasy, imho.

Both abovem and Reaper are good for PCs. but for enemy Mooks, I'd say D&D minis are your best bet: cheap, generic, prepainted.

[fusilier]

GW's various lines and the Confrontation line are good minis, but they dont' make enough of a range to fill D&D needs, IMHO.

GW's stuff is 28mm "heroic" scale (minus the LOTRs stuff). That means the head/face and limbs are not scaled the same as torso. Plus a lot of their stuff is not generic enough.

Confrontation is really distinctive. Most of the stuff doesn't drop into generic high fantasy, imho.

Both abovem and Reaper are good for PCs. but for enemy Mooks, I'd say D&D minis are your best bet: cheap, generic, prepainted.

Almost all miniatures aren't scaled correctly. Compared to real-life proportions they are very "chunky." The question isn't whether or not they do this -- ok, that is the question for people who are looking to include miniatures in dioramas of their very realistic model vehicles, where proportion is a real big deal to them. The term they use is "anatomically correct" when referring to realistic metal minis. *shrug* -- Anyway: the question isn't whether or not their miniatures are "thicker" than real-life proportions, it's how well they pull it off. Some sculptors exaggerate the hands and heads too much, and their minis look comical to some people. Or just exaggerate everything too much, and they look like the "Hulk."

There's also the question of scale. There are two different ways to measure scale. The old style appears to have been the "average" height from the feet to the top of the head. The new style is measured from the feet to the eye (it has the benefit that it's easier to measure even when the miniature is portraying someone with crazy headgear). The old style isn't used too much any more, but it's still used by some manufacturers. 25mm old style is close 1/72nd scale (popular model scale), whereas 25mm new style is more like 1/60 scale.

Old Ral Partha miniatures were usually 25mm new style (and fairly well proportioned). This is actually perfect for D&D where 1 inch = 5 feet. Due to scale creep, miniatures have gradually gotten bigger. Also they've become a bit more chunky. This allows for more detail. 28mm is now pretty typical, but 30mm and larger are showing up more and more especially in fantasy/heroic settings. This can cause problems for people like me, who have a ton of historical miniatures (which can be useful in fantasy games), that don't mesh well with the heroic minis. It can also be frustrating because the manufacturers will still label them as 28mm.

A couple of millimeters difference is usually acceptable, but sticking 25mm minis next to 30mm will look wrong. Also the "thickness"/"chunkiness" of the miniatures can make a big difference. Even if they are the same height, thin minis will look small compared to thick ones.

I haven't actually purchased any myself, but if you are looking for a bunch of metal minis cheap, check out Mega Miniatures.

Old Glory Miniatures also sells them pretty cheap (if you don't mind lead pewter), but they are primarily historical minis. They are also not as well proportioned as others, although some lines are better than others.

Foundry Miniatures in England, is probably my favorite for well sculpted historical minis. They have plenty of Middle Ages/Ancient stuff that could be useful.

[Jack_Banzai]

Both abovem and Reaper are good for PCs. but for enemy Mooks, I'd say D&D minis are your best bet: cheap, generic, prepainted.

Reaper has a line of prepainted minis that don't look too bad and can really round out your orc and skeleton hordes.

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Legendary%20Encounters

[chiasaur11]

Meh, I'm still convinced that LEGOs are far superior :smallbiggrin:

True.

It also allows for more custom monsters. The dreaded "Kinda looks like a spaceship thing" will be the thing of nightmares for parties for untold generations.

[Zocelot]

I have a large collection of the minis and play Skirmish. However, I've been playing Skirmish less and less lately, due to the lack of interest from just about the entire world.

[Xzeno]

Well I find myself often unable or unwilling to by miniatures, so I get some pencil-tip erasers and draw little faces on them. The name of the character can then be written at the base of the eraser. Add neat stuff depending on your artistic ability. Gel pens are best. They fit the battle map, are noticeably different and are a lot of fun to make. I strongly recommend this to anyone looking for an alternative to minis.

[Darcand]

Sir, with all due respect, I hate you. :smallwink:

Honestly I was amazed that the rest of the world knew about the MM. I thought it was a St. Louis thing. I don't go too often, because there is a great shop about two miles from my house, but I do place alot of my large orders from there. Due to some miracle of postal magic I can place an order before noon and take the standard shipping option (free if it's over 75$!) and have it in my mailbox the next day.

If you don't mind a longer wait though try Troll and Toad..or is it Toad and Troll? I think they're in england and the shipping time is often a month long, but they have an enormous selection and slightly better pricing.

[AslanCross]

I have to agree that the quality of D&D's miniatures has decreased significantly. There are still a few really shiny ones, but more and more of them look like they're not worth the hefty price tag.

War Drums Orc Mauler.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/war_drums_gallery/Orc_Mauler.jpg

Dungeons of Dread Orc Raider.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/Dungeons_of_Dread_Gallery/Orc_Raider.jpg

They're practically the same, but all the detailing is gone. Both are commons.

Here's the Frost Giant from the even more recent Dangerous Delves set:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/dangerousdelves_gallery/frost_giant.jpg

It's pretty darn impressive, but that's because it's a visible figure (you can see it in the blister pack). The other figures I got in the same pack (the hidden ones) looked like this:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/dangerousdelves_gallery/grimlock_minion.jpg
Grimlock Minion

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/dangerousdelves_gallery/githyanki_warrior.jpg
Githyanki Warrior.

Guess which one is rare.

It's the Githyanki, which is more than a little annoying because I remember hearing in a podcast that each miniature is going to have more paint steps in this new marketing scheme.

[The Tygre]

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in distaste for the new minis. Their plastic is poor quality, their paint-jobs are absolutely abysmal, they have all the detailing of melted-wax, and their ever-increasing price tag is absolutely horrifying. I remember back in the old days, how the minis used to be super-detailed, even the commons. I didn't mind paying $20 a pop because I knew they were quality items. The first time I saw the Deserts set previewing 4th edition, I knew nothing good could come of this. My first set of minis was a revised Harbinger starter box, back when Arch-fiends and Dragoneye were just going out of stock. I got it with the Slayer's Guides to Harpies and Medusae and a set of little Godzilla minis from my Gameboard. Man, I was there for Giants of Legend, and I was frakking -pumped- for it. I got this latest Giants set and started wondering if I should brave my garage for a bucket of LEGOs or two.

[Jarawara]

Personally, I like the differences in scale between manufacturers. It allows me to have different races (and subsects of races) that really do look different in size. Put some Grenadier miniatures up against some Ral Partha's, and those poor dinky Ral Partha's are going to be cowering in their blister packs.

Of course, back in my earliest of days, we didn't have a huge collection of monster miniatures, (barely having enough to cover the characters themselves), so we used whatever we had available...

So the party, with my Gnome Fighter, gets attacked by a large group of Kobolds. Lacking Kobold miniatures, the DM uses chess peices instead. All the Pawns are used up early, then the bigger peices are used, until I'm stuck going head to head with a 'Queen' and a 'King' Kobold three times the size of my little Gnome warrior.

I was quaking in my boots, ready to surrender to the towering opponents before me, until someone pointed out that Kobolds are shorter than Gnomes!

[Mercenary Pen]

I usually end up just using cardboard counters to represent monsters, using monster manual illustrations to fill in the gaps in my players minds as to what exactly makes A2 look different from M7.

Most of the PC's in my game borrow monopoly pieces for combat (because that's a lot quicker than finding the perfect miniature to represent a character who might die in two weeks and not be raised...)

[Leon]

D&D Miniatures... Dead?
Yep. The game was good before Mark 2 came along and it changed significantly, then $e arrived and basically became DDM Advanced and they deiced to swap from having the Mini's game to making Miniature Packs for the various books.

There have always been some rather bad sculpts in the mix but the number of those rose dramatically with the new edition.

[RandomNPC]

I prefer these kinds of minis.

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/Celtceres/?action=view&current=tonberrycropped.jpg

lynky posted because my computer gives me issues with straight immage posts. also it looks much better when its not all zoomed in like that

[Elfin]

I usually just use dice and/or old Ral Parthas, but just recently I was thinking of trying out some D&D Miniatures. The newer sets look pretty terrible...are the older sets out of stock, or are they still being made?

[AslanCross]

I usually just use dice and/or old Ral Parthas, but just recently I was thinking of trying out some D&D Miniatures. The newer sets look pretty terrible...are the older sets out of stock, or are they still being made?

They're already discontinued, but I'm sure you can find them on EBay or Amazon.