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View Full Version : Where do you get your Gaming Minis?



Scubasteve0209
2013-10-21, 08:44 PM
I've been playing RPGs for a number of years now and, as silly as it is, one of my favorite aspects of a new character/campaign, is finding the perfect mini to fit the characters. Some are easy to find (like sword & board human paladins) while some are far more specific & esoteric (crossbow-wielding Water Genasi Artificer from Eberron).

I usually have good luck with Reaper (and lately Stonehaven), but I'm curious where others go for their tiny tin game-board avatars.

~Scubasteve

RochtheCrusher
2013-10-21, 09:14 PM
As a DM, I have different concerns... I'd really like to have a good mix of stuff, because I'm looking for monsters, NPCs, good matches for the PCs, barrels...

Mostly, I buy the WotC and Pathfinder, prepainted plastic minis, in randomized collections in as large and cheap a collection as I can get... usually off of Amazon. I've got about three hundred by now, which, well. It's never enough, but I should be able to manage.

Now, if I could just find a way to trade duplicates... if my party ever needs four liches at once, they're gonna be in trouble. :-P

valadil
2013-10-21, 09:50 PM
Most of mine are Reaper. Sometimes I'll look on Amazon but I usually end up with Reaper then too. When I had more free time, I bought them by the pound from eBay. Got a lot of crappy minis, but I also got a lot of things that I wouldn't have picked out on my own, which really expanded my collection.

IronFist
2013-10-22, 02:55 AM
Most of mine are Reaper. Sometimes I'll look on Amazon but I usually end up with Reaper then too. When I had more free time, I bought them by the pound from eBay. Got a lot of crappy minis, but I also got a lot of things that I wouldn't have picked out on my own, which really expanded my collection.

by the pound?!
Tell me more. :smallamused:

ghost_warlock
2013-10-22, 05:10 AM
I acquired most of my minis piecemeal over several years. I started collecting individual pewter minis when I was in high school ('93-97). Since then, I picked up a bunch that I repurposed from Warhammer and then grabbed a bunch when WotC first started producing the painted ones. I bought some of the Pathfinder ones Paizo produced, but I'm not a big fan of the fragile plastic they used for them (admittedly, the Warhammer plastic minis that I've got have the same problem). Recently, I've started picking up Reaper's Bones minis sold by the gaming shop I frequent.


by the pound?!
Tell me more. :smallamused:

I can't say much about buying by the pound on ebay, but Reaper is currently doing their Bones II Kickstarter. It's a good way to pick up a heap of minis if you don't mind waiting until, say, fall of 2014 to receive them. :smalltongue:

valadil
2013-10-22, 07:33 AM
by the pound?!
Tell me more. :smallamused:

Not much more to say than that. Get on eBay, find the hobby/gaming section, search for 'minis lot' and the filter out the terms you don't want. Got a few shoeboxes of metal real cheap that way.

Lord Torath
2013-10-22, 07:54 AM
I've (almost) always used lego minifigs for my PCs and major NPCs. Battlebeasts (https://www.google.com/search?q=battlebeasts&client=firefox-a&hs=kMI&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=S3VmUqCWMeazigKq-YDABA&ved=0CFQQsAQ&biw=1673&bih=844&dpr=1.09) stood in for just about anything else.

DigoDragon
2013-10-22, 09:10 AM
The lion's share of my mini collection came from the WotC prepainted plastic minis I purchased at local hobby shops/gaming stores years back. After a while I bought some from eBay when I saw bundles of generics for cheap (I used to have a local friend that painted my duplicates). If I ever get a budget for more, I'd probably go eBay.

I also have all the giant dragons that were released, all bought from eBay stores. My players nearly pee'd themselves when I brought out that read dragon for the boss fight. :smallamused:

TheThan
2013-10-22, 04:40 PM
I use mostly warmachine and hordes minis as well as a few iron kingdoms minis, all from privateer press. I’ve also got a small collection of reaper minis as well as some games workshops minis, the old LOTR game and warhammer fantasy. Since I mostly play Iron Kingdoms now the minis are doing double duty (I also play warmachine/hordes).

Games workshop is a good way to get a large amount of one race. Although they’re hardly cheep, a ten man box of boyz will run you 25-30 bucks, you may be able to buy one cheaper off the net or locally. The up side is that once you have them, you probably won’t need to seek more. Plus you can always use them to play warhammer.

As for where I get my minis, I usually try to acquire them locally, but if not, then I usually get them from Miniatures Market.

As others have said, Reaper has a new kickstarter out right now.

AzureKnight
2013-10-22, 10:44 PM
My monster pieces I buy from WotC, but I prefer to buy my pc minis from reaper because I prefer to paint and customize my mini so he or she has a one of a kind look, even if someone else in the party has the same piece.

nedz
2013-10-23, 07:59 AM
Out of one of my figure boxes.

I have several hundred I've collected over a number of years. These days I will buy them from my FLGS or online direct from the manufacturer.

GybeMark
2013-10-24, 08:06 AM
Like many of the responses, I pick out a Reaper mini at my local game store for my PC (and am looking forward to the next Bones line...)

Having said that, my big problem when GMing is coming up with minis for enemies. Tokens just don't cut it.

You know those little plastic army men that are $1 for a baggie of 10? Where are the "baggies o' monsters"? While I do want my PC to look awesome, I don't need great looking monsters. I'm cool with malformed, half melted goblins, centipedes, bugbears, minotaurs and cheesy-fantasy-cliche-PC-races covered in flashing. Give me a collection of 50 assorted monsters for a reasonable price (say $20), and I'll be the first in line.

What I don't want to do is spend $45 on a Warhammer set of 10 orcs, gorgeous as their models are. Yeah, I know it's "cool" to bash Games Workshop, but their models are nice... just ridiculously overpriced unless your hobby is painting.

Anyway, that's my rant.

GallóglachMaxim
2013-10-26, 01:45 AM
Having said that, my big problem when GMing is coming up with minis for enemies. Tokens just don't cut it.

My solution to that was to say 'Ok, the models for enemies are never going to be cool enough unless I spend absurd amounts of money, and I can accept that', then use jelly babies for human-sized enemies and other things for larger ones. They don't look the part, but the players are happy because if they kill something then they get to eat it.

Belril Duskwalk
2013-10-26, 06:27 AM
Reaper Minis provides the PCs and some of the noteworthy NPCs. Less central NPCs and nearly all enemies are represented by Warhammer Fantasy models. Where possible I try to get a species match, but if not, my box of Skaven can cover any number of enemies the party could reasonably fight.

Remmirath
2013-10-27, 12:38 AM
A lot of them are Reaper. A fair amount of the older ones we have are Ral Partha or Grenadier. I tend to go mostly to Iron Wind Metals, Dark Sword Miniatures, or Thunderbolt Mountain for new ones these days (listed in the order of largest to smallest selection). We have a scattered few from other places that were picked up in various gaming shops, and I don't remember what they were. Those are a tiny fraction of the total collection, however.

For monsters, we use all sorts of things. Plastic soldiers on the right scale are pretty common, as are big bags of zombies. Old action figures or toys are often pressed into service, or even old stuffed animals for very large creatures. More important monsters sometimes get metal figures (we've got a few gnolls, kobolds, lizardmen, demons, and such around). NPCs almost all get metal figures, because we've got plenty to spare.

Calen
2013-10-27, 11:41 AM
I'll second the lego's. First game I DM'ed I made all the NPC's/enemies as lego figures. Several of my players brought/had figurines picked out. But they all decided to switch to lego figures to get the character "just right".

I still haven't figured out how to do goblins and other more oddball creatures though...

snowblizz
2013-10-29, 05:30 AM
I wanted to throw out one suggestion I haven't seen here yet.

For the fairly generic fantasy races you can get stuff from Mantic's Kings of War range. Goblins (and Trolls), Dwarfs, Elfs (+ Evil-Dwarfs and Elfs), Orcs, Undead and humans. Priced very aggressively for wargaming miniatures (in this day and age).
http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war.html

There's also Avatars of War, http://www.avatars-of-war.com
but those are higher quality and therefore more expensive, almost Games Workshop/Warhammer expensive for those who understand that. Their plastic offering is mainly Dwarfs though. Awesome characters for various races though.

CombatOwl
2013-10-29, 05:33 AM
I've been playing RPGs for a number of years now and, as silly as it is, one of my favorite aspects of a new character/campaign, is finding the perfect mini to fit the characters. Some are easy to find (like sword & board human paladins) while some are far more specific & esoteric (crossbow-wielding Water Genasi Artificer from Eberron).

I usually have good luck with Reaper (and lately Stonehaven), but I'm curious where others go for their tiny tin game-board avatars.

~Scubasteve

Well, recently I jumped in that Reaper mini deal on Kickstarter...

Templarkommando
2013-10-29, 07:44 AM
I'd personally recommend the WotC minis if they were still in big production. However, I do have a few tips in a couple of other respects.

My DM in a 2.0 campaign goes to hobby lobby pretty frequently and will buy some pieces of crafty kind of wood. (Small pieces about an inch wide and a few mm deep are just about perfect. In addition get some wooden dowel rods of various sizes.) I've seen home made barrels, chairs, tables, altars, pedestals, and wagon/carts. You can get as detailed as you want or not without much effort.

In addition, you can get some aquarium rocks of different colors (sort of gray, white, or black - natural colors probably work best) and glue those to a 2x1 section of that inch wide stuff, and poof - you've got some impassable debris. You can also buy some pretty life-like trees/moss from hobby stores that are used for modeling and such.

lytokk
2013-10-29, 10:53 AM
I bought a pretty big lot of minis off of ebay about a decade ago, has just about everything I needed from small to huge sized creatures. Occasionally I'll find a mini for one of my players and pick it up for them if I feel it really suits the character. Otherwise, when I don't have enough, I just use spare change.

Tyndmyr
2013-10-29, 01:07 PM
Games workshop is a good way to get a large amount of one race. Although they’re hardly cheep, a ten man box of boyz will run you 25-30 bucks, you may be able to buy one cheaper off the net or locally. The up side is that once you have them, you probably won’t need to seek more. Plus you can always use them to play warhammer.

I do this...skinks got the head fin clipped off to become kobolds for me. Nice models, easy to build and customize.

Some are reaper, some are obscure other things, one or two are 3d printed, one squad is custom sculpted and cast. I've got a stupid amount of minis, but never enough, sadly.

Magesmiley
2013-10-29, 03:40 PM
I buy most of my current stuff from my FLGS.

Ebay is a pretty good source of older figures.

And then there is Kickstarter. I particularly like the demi-human figures that Stonehaven Miniatures has been putting out.

That said, there are often times that I can't quite find the perfect figure, so I have taken up modding figures more and more. Weapon swaps, adding pouches, backpacks, shields, and other doodads is pretty easy to do, and can be a lot of fun. I highly recommend building up a bits box and trying your hand at it.