Alternative Miniatures Show-and-Tell

[Lappy9000]

Miniatures are expensive. And even though I've amassed a small collection, it's difficult to plan encounters around what you have, and players may feel limited by the choices available to them. Fortunately, I'm insane and have never left a single LEGO behind, and with some nice support from LEGO recently, we've managed a fun way for everyone to truly customize their miniature.

I also enjoy telling new players to wait while I "boot up the Character Creation System"

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The CCS in all its glory

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Close-up of some of the sorted bins

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Several player made adventurers

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Some monsters; Kobolds, Orcs, Elementals, Minotaur, Death Knight, and Mind Flayer.

I'm curious if anyone has done anything similar. If you have, I'd love to see it, or whatever you use for minis

[Tanngrisnir]

This is scarily organised. I love it.

We don't bother with matching miniatures up too much. We have heaps of Warhammer ones from when we played that, so we just pick whatever has the right base size. If you can find one that looks vaguely like what you want then you grab it, if not then just make do.

[Sorcerer Blob]

Aside from purchasing the occasional WotC minis, I like to make my own. The official ones are expensive and are (sadly) hard to find these days. Hopefully when WizKids starts making minis again this fall....

That said, I recently purchased a lot of 40 old Mage Knight minis for about $.15 apiece. The Mage Knight bases are too large for D&D, so after breaking/cutting them off of their bases I glued them to 1"x1" wooden circles I found at Hobby Lobby. (I'll post some pictures later!)

[Altair_the_Vexed]

That is awesome!
I'm not the only one who noticed that Lego is about the right scale for RPG minis, then?

[Lappy9000]

This is scarily organised. I love it.

Thanks! They're even sorted by color. Pink is objects, Yellow is body parts, and Blue is monsters/scenery.

We don't bother with matching miniatures up too much. We have heaps of Warhammer ones from when we played that, so we just pick whatever has the right base size. If you can find one that looks vaguely like what you want then you grab it, if not then just make do.

One of my friends plays Warhammer, but he's mostly a 40k kinda guy. We have used the 30-ish saurians he was commissioned to paint one time for a kobold invasion

Aside from purchasing the occasional WotC minis, I like to make my own. The official ones are expensive and are (sadly) hard to find these days. Hopefully when WizKids starts making minis again this fall....

That said, I recently purchased a lot of 40 old Mage Knight minis for about $.15 apiece. The Mage Knight bases are too large for D&D, so after breaking/cutting them off of their bases I glued them to 1"x1" wooden circles I found at Hobby Lobby. (I'll post some pictures later!)

Ooh, I'd love to see that!

That is awesome!
I'm not the only one who noticed that Lego is about the right scale for RPG minis, then?

I suppose not! Although they are slightly taller than most RPG minis, they work just fine on a 2x3 plate. It also lets you get super creative with the monsters, like with the minotaur and the kobolds I have up there.

[Sorcerer Blob]

Here are some of the adapted Mage Knight minis:

First is a group shot of some WotC minis (on the left) adjacent to the adapted Mage Knight minis:


The second is a shot of a WotC Dwarf next to an adapted MK Dwarf:


Third is a shot of a WotC large creature beside an adapted MK large creature (Ogre and Werebear, respectively, I believe.):


Finally, is a shot of the bases I use for the adaptation. The medium sized one is a 1"x1" wooden circle and the large sized one is a 1.75"x1.75" wooden circle. I generally color them black with sharpie rather than painting them, the sharpie stays just fine once it dries. The painting works fine, but is messy and time consuming.


Bonus! Here is a shot of the custom dungeon walls I've made using foam board and super glue:

[Tyndmyr]

Tim, is this you?

One of my usual group has a scarily similarly organized batch of legos, and we do the same thing. Building a mini is a normal part of character creation/minion acquisition.

As an alternative option, consider raiding the recent Heroica sets. Smaller scale minis. You can mesh them with regular legos for showing tiny models and what not...we use the stubbier dwarf legs for showing halflings and the like, but for anything below small, we need to get creative.

[LrdoftheRngs]

Bonus! Here is a shot of the custom dungeon walls I've made using foam board and super glue:

Mind if I steal that idea?

And also, to the OP, PLEASE tell me how you ordered all those minis! I use LEGOs for minis in our group, but my selection is severely limited (I didn't really get in to legos that much when I was a kid, but have recently been buying the LEGO Castle line for use in D&D ) and I would love to have a collection like yours...

[Sorcerer Blob]

Mind if I steal that idea?

Feel free, that's why I posted it! I purchased a foam board that had a stone like pattern on it and used a razor blade to cut it into the sections I needed/wanted. It's pretty cheap and easy to do, as far as glue, I cannot stress how vital super glue is (or any of its variants!) Other glues just don't cut it!

I am starting on a full piece right now for a "Rogue's Challenge" that I am working on. I will post pics when I get it finished, but it will probably take me awhile.

[Tyndmyr]

Mind if I steal that idea?

And also, to the OP, PLEASE tell me how you ordered all those minis! I use LEGOs for minis in our group, but my selection is severely limited (I didn't really get in to legos that much when I was a kid, but have recently been buying the LEGO Castle line for use in D&D ) and I would love to have a collection like yours...

I would suggest grabbing the education set that's castle biased. Lots of unusual stuff in there. Note that the individual packs in the collectable mini lines have some that are gold, too. An inexpensive way to grab a few unusual minis.

If you're after something obscure, hit up bricklink.com

[LrdoftheRngs]

Well, good old eBay never lets me down! I got a bunch of orcs complete with armor and weapons for around 15 bucks, and it evens out to almost 1.50 a mini. I was lucky though; it was the last one

[Lappy9000]

Tim, is this you?

Ah, sorry, it is not.

One of my usual group has a scarily similarly organized batch of legos, and we do the same thing. Building a mini is a normal part of character creation/minion acquisition.

I'd love for you to get me some pics!

As an alternative option, consider raiding the recent Heroica sets. Smaller scale minis. You can mesh them with regular legos for showing tiny models and what not...we use the stubbier dwarf legs for showing halflings and the like, but for anything below small, we need to get creative.

Huh, this is the first I've heard of those. Neat stuff! Not too expensive, either.

And also, to the OP, PLEASE tell me how you ordered all those minis! I use LEGOs for minis in our group, but my selection is severely limited (I didn't really get in to legos that much when I was a kid, but have recently been buying the LEGO Castle line for use in D&D ) and I would love to have a collection like yours...

Most of them are just from collecting over the years, and I've always been a fan of the various Castle series. I pretty much just scour the LEGO aisle, and am lucky enough to have a LEGO store nearby. Recently, there have even been "battle packs" with 5 or so orcs, dwarves, etc. for about 10 or 15 bucks, although that was at least a year ago.

If you're looking for individual parts, this site is my favorite, although some things are quite overpriced. Ebay and Amazon can usually yield some fun results if you check them for a good while.

[EccentricCircle]

I've been using LEGO Minifigures in my games for many a year (its important to note that LEGO Corporation are fussy about how its written. LEGO is spelt in all caps, and using the term "legos" is heretical.)

theres some great stuff recently the prince of persia line brought out sheaths of Katanas which go on a figures back, and the Pirates of the Caribean sets have just introduced belt sheaths for cutlasses which work for a range of swords.
the collectable minifigure range is also excellent if expensive, as you can't tell what you're getting. but the bases they come with get around the old falling over problem...

the only problem is that they are out of scale with other RPG miniatures. Games Workshop figures are a bit bigger than the official D&D line, but LEGO are at least a head taller than both, which can cause problems especially when using dungeon tiles or an inch square grid.
we generally don't worry too much, but it can be annoying at times.

I reckon that LEGO are probably the best reusable customisable posable miniatures there are. "Building a Character" is an important part of the character creation process for any new game.

[Tyndmyr]

the collectable minifigure range is also excellent if expensive, as you can't tell what you're getting. but the bases they come with get around the old falling over problem...

You can fix this by glancing at the list of models in that run, and feeling for the unique parts. If you don't feel comfortable with this, ask the employees. Ive had them offer to do so at every LEGO store I've ever been to(three or four of em).

[Mando Knight]

Also, as a tabletop space-saver, the new LEGO Heroica looks perfect (with other microfig games like Minotaurus if you need more different characters). Plus, if you don't meet quota for your game night, you can play that instead.

I too have a massive collection of LEGO minifigs, but too many of those are scattered to the four corners of my little siblings' room or already part of a model to use them as gaming minis.

Alas, I haven't had disposable income dedicated to LEGO in too long: I don't have the Viking set with the red dragon, or the Ninjago white dragon set, etc. Let alone space to put them.

[EccentricCircle]

the Viking set with the red dragon, or the Ninjago white dragon set, etc. Let alone space to put them.

ah yes, LEGO Dragons are awesome. my favourites are the ones released with the castle set a couple of years back, they made red, black and armoured-green dragons, (albeit all in different and somewhat expensive sets.)
the viking sets included red, green, blue dragons.
and now NinjaGo provides a while one.
I'm sure I have a yellow (gold) dragon as well, though i'm not sure what set that came from.
then the classic sets produced a range of green and black dragons, including a chinese one.
I used to have them all lined up on a shelf, but alas I don't currently have the space. I must rebuild the viking ones though...

hopefully they'll do more metalic dragons at some point as the chromatic breeds are currently better reprosented.

[Lappy9000]

the only problem is that they are out of scale with other RPG miniatures. Games Workshop figures are a bit bigger than the official D&D line, but LEGO are at least a head taller than both, which can cause problems especially when using dungeon tiles or an inch square grid.
we generally don't worry too much, but it can be annoying at times.

Really? We've never had a problem with that. Put 'em on a 3x2 plate, and they fit in just fine on an inch grid (and don't fall over). The only way I think it could be a problem is if you get crazy with reach weapons or something.

I reckon that LEGO are probably the best reusable customisable posable miniatures there are. "Building a Character" is an important part of the character creation process for any new game.

And that's what makes them so awesome!

[EccentricCircle]

Oh it works fine, and is still by far my favourite miniature system.
its just that if someone wants to use a warhammer or D&D figure instead of a LEGO miniature then they look out of place next to the other characters.

we used to use the two by two plates, but phased those out for the three by four figure stands that come with the Minifigure packets in the last year or so. they make the figures stand up a bit better, but the base is slightly larger than one inch square. generally that doesn't matter, but it can confuse inexperienced players who feel that they should be occupying more of the space their miniature occupies than they actually do. (Five foot by five foot squares are actually huge if you measure them out!)
that is a problem with most miniatures though. not just LEGO figures , although they take it to an extreame.

(on an unrelated note I love this forum, where else can I write one post about the retirement of the space shuttle and another about LEGO!)

[Bhu]

u are mah new gawd

[BillyBobJoe]

We had a Pokemon Monopoly game a long time ago, but we lost the board to it. So, we ransacked the colored Ash minis, and use those for our characters.