Review: Wizkids D&D and Pathfinder Unpainted Miniatures

Today we're taking a close look at Wizkids' official Dungeons & Dragons Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures and Pathfinder Deep Cuts miniatures. Watch till the end for some close up photos. In the photos even I saw more flash than while I was recording. I'm knocking off one point for excessive flash, but they are still very nice for the price.

---------------------------------------
Follow me on Facebook:
--------------------------------------

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Family Vacation by Russ Huddleston & Robert Smith, Jr
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

[rosycheeks]

As someone who currently plays exclusively 40k I saw the $3.99 price tag and reflexively thought it was $399

[jziran]

Hey Doctor Faust, Justin Ziran from WizKids. Thanks for the very detailed review. To answer some of your questions.

Packaging: Given the composition of the plastic we didn't want to risk breakage in transport, it was VERY important to us that customers received their minis in pristine condition. We worked very hard to keep the footprint small and didn't want to go overboard so on the larger figures, we opted to insert them in sideways/diagonal vs moving to a bigger packaging footprint.

Why 2 Minis?: Good question. Internally, we called these 'level-up packs'. If you look closely at the minis you'll notice a few upgrades in terms of weapons, armor and equipment. The 2 mini combo is a snapshot of the PC class at two levels (low/medium or medium/high). We loved the idea and consumers seem to be digging it as well - especially since we could maintain the continuity of the actual person under all the equipment. It's the same guy/girl just with different/better equipment.

If you get a chance, pick up the Wizards packs (or any of the spell casters) - It illustrates the level up concept well and also shows off the use of the Clear Effects that allow the painter to bring some spectacular effects to the table.

[peronne]

I'm so glad you reviewed these. I bought a few packs as soon as they came out, and they absolutely blew my mind. Now I've purchased and painted 10 packs of them so far and I'm probably going to end up getting them all. I'm a DM, so having this much variety is fantastic. For only $2, this level of detail and strength is a total game changer. I am still waiting a year and a half later for my Reaper Bones 3 kickstarter, and then these come out? I'm completely in love.

[VikingFyre]

I would hope this doesn't kill Reaper bones, only encourages them to revamp the plastic formula for more solid figures. I am however excited to find some of these, those bugbears are amazing. I hope they come out with some owl bears and beholder figures in the future

[TylersTerrain]

I've got 58 of these minis arriving any time now :D they had cost 79 dollars total (purchased at 20% off). Thats 1.36 cents a mini on average! Now I just need to spend 200 hrs painting them all.

[jhansen]

Someone pointed it out to me that the reason there's two of the same kind of character for a player character is that you're supposed to play the dinkier looking character at lower levels and play the more tricked out looking one at higher levels

[olschoolgamer]

Nice miniatures based on bad artwork. I am an old grognard and I think the new style of art that came out with 3rd edition, while a 100 times more professional, doesn't "feel" like D&D. Great video Doctor.

[JoshPrzy]

Love the Bones line of figures but these look awesome! Thanks for the new summer project idea!

[marielindemann]

I do think pre-priming them is a smart move. Not bc someone would buy them for it, but bc the detail pops out way more than with the Reaper bones, which are, considering the prices, the direct competition.
For a person that is completly new to miniatures those new Wizkids Minis look way better when you see them side by side in a store.

Edit: I have heard a lot of positives about packaging 2 of the same type together. They're supposed to be a low level and a higher level version of the same character.

[rucaslicks]

I just bought the "Gnolls". They were surprisingly fantastic! I really like the style that wizkids brings to the table.

[desperado]

Great review! Certainly got my attention on these awesome looking products. I'm very eager to see how you end up painting these, particularly that great paladin model. Would love to see how you do all the metal armor parts.

[Blandco]

The only thing Reaper bones has over this is the huge variety of larger minis. If wizkids FIXES it's marketing of these products then people will clearly rather deal with a better detailed product like this.

[rotwang]

I'd love for Wizkids to release some of the monsters in ten or five figure packs, you need more than two Goblins or Orcs in most games. Other than that they are pretty awesome at that price.

[motorbreathjazz]

From what I know the two of the same mini in the pack is to represent a character early in their adventuring career and the other later in their career. I believe the clear mini thing is for shading, you can use most shade paints and still keep it translucent, just a guess on that one thought.

[terrainmancer]

Great and accurate review! I picked up a half dozen heroes and goblins and trolls from this line at my local hobby shop. Excellent price mark and detail. They appear to be more fragile than the Bones line from Reaper, but one will have to decide if quality of detail is worth sacrificing for durability. I think these are fantastic, but feel Bones will still endure in the market. Time will tell whether or not Wizkids can keep this momentum going.

[VecksSeeker]

As for helping determine what's going on with the miniatures, there is a computer render of the mini on the back of the packaging to give people an idea of what it looks colored.

[peronne]

For the clear bits: suncatcher paint. Works like a charm! I got a 12-pack in the kid craft section of Walmart for $3. They dry really well, can be combined in interesting gradients, and the result is beautiful. I could upgrade paints at some point, but honestly, this stuff is working so well.

[Unclebillyr]

Can't wait to see you pant one of them.

[TheGamerZapocalypse]

Interested to see how well the flash cleans up...REAPER BONES is horrible to clean up.
Glad to see some quality returning to budget miniatures.

[Blandco]

Excellent Review! I haven't gotten mine yet and I was very disappointed to not learn about the translucent minis until very recently. Wizkids apparently sent off production run minis to random twitch painters months ago but none of them did a good job of showing off the minis. I am not sure why WotC is throwing their lot in with Twitch so hard.