News from the GAMA Trade Show!

We could use a detailed Cockatrice! The one I have now leaves me wanting more. Excellent choice.

The Doppleganger is interesting. I never really know what to do with Doppleganger minis, because they're usually in some other form. But this guy certainly looks like he could assume just about any other shape.

I hate unpainted minis and avoid the use of them.
Only if i can't get my hands on a PPM or it looks bad, i use reaper metal minis (unpainted) like in the case pf Runelord Karzoug.

But the ITEM PACKS sound like they could work unpainted/in one color.

I got 2 "flying" cockatrices from D&Ds last set, but as always the PB version looks much better.

The doppelganger has it's uses (like reverting back when dead) and looks very cool.
It has been one of the 5 images in the original ICv2 article for Deadly Foes, so we know that the other 4 will be in this set too.

So we know 8 out of 52 minis (6 of them dressing pieces) or 8 creatures of 46 in the set.

I am really excited for the Protean.

Also Vic Wertz and James Jacobs have strongly hinted at a Red Mantis Assassin in the near future, so i guess we could get at least 1 and up to 4.

Some NPCs and creatures from CotCT are also a strong possibility.

Thanks for finding the time to post a blog despite being busy on the GAMA!

I hope the stars align again next friday! ;-)

My intuitions about the mini business are almost bad enough that I think I should just start assuming they're all wrong. I would have confidently predicted Wizkids wouldn't drop the rate of painted releases to venture down the unpainted route.

I'm hopeful someone will be pleased by the unpainted option. Personally I have absolutely no interest , but cool for those who do,

I like the two PFB minis though!

I'm totally in for unpainted minis. Probably because I really enjoy painting, and I don't like the pre-painted ones since the level of detail is (understandably and necessarily) much lower.

The price for the packs is good too, I guess WizKids are taking a cue from their Dice Masters sets, aiming for high volumes of lower cost packs. Will be easy to add a pack or two into each of my subscription orders...

EDIT: and they're pre-primed! That's awesome! Prepping and priming minis is the bit I always hate doing. It's really dull and can take as long as painting them, sometimes...

Pre-primed is indeed a nice feature, although it decreases in value quite a bit if there are, for instance, visible mould lines, so I hope they're careful about that. I think it's a cool development, though, and I'm especially curious to see what dressing they produce.

The fact that both of today's minis are monsters that WotC have released recently and that both of Paizo's look a couple of orders of quality better than WotC's makes me wonder (a) whether Paizo's trying to rub Wizards' faces in their inferior quality, and (b) why WotC continues to use the *same company* (Wizkids) to produce remarkably inferior pre-paints. How is it possible that they have not pointed to the minis Wizkids is making for Paizo and said, "We want quality like this"? I find this baffling.

Last note: Erik's new sign-off is making me nervous. People out there who know him, any recent signs of burgeoning worship of the Elder Gods in Paizo's high command? o.O

Last note: Erik's new sign-off is making me nervous. People out there who know him, any recent signs of burgeoning worship of the Elder Gods in Paizo's high command? o.O

I think "worship of the Elder Gods" is listed as an essential characteristic on Paizo Job and Person Specifications.

Nice! Looking forward to all of this!!!

The details on the new Valeros sculpts look pretty nice. If they hold true to the production minis, I will definitely be picking some of these up. I'd actually prefer them unprimed, but easy enough to remove the primer if too thick.

I already have hundreds of unpainted minis from Reaper and other companies. Wizkids now following route just makes me *sigh*.

I guess I'll need to see more of the sculpts to decide if they are another group of minis just sitting on my shelf waiting to be painted.

I do like the idea of how they are setting them up into packs. I think that will make picking what figures to buy and paint that much easier. And I hope the iconic heroes won't be the only ones in the heroes packs. Some generic hero types would be good for PCs.

I need a half dozen or so of the cockatrice, if for no other reason so that I can paint them up as variants for an underground cockatrice-fighting ring. Doppelganger, I can use, but who knows how frequently. He kind of reminds me of the white martians from the DCU (not the Justice League Cartoon though).

So, at low-level Valeros has no armour?

So, at low-level Valeros has no armour?

That's Mythic Valeros. I guess he doesn't need armor. :)

Hmmm...just had a thought...buy these cheap unpainted iconics then paint them stone gray for petrified or white with a gloss finish for invisible...hmmmm.

I have been wholly unimpressed by the Pathfinder Battles painted minis produced by Whizkids as presented on this blog - the detail looked subpar and the paint jobs...less than good.

These unpainted minis actually look very good, and I now consider buying a Hero Pack to see if the quality matches the photo.

The unpainted minis choice is an interesting one. I still have plenty of Reaper ones to paint, so I will probably only buy up the Item ones. But I do expect to buy a fair amount of those, depending on their type, of course.

I like both the previewed minis. The rarity seems appropriate, at least given the criteria Erik has provided thus far. I doubt I will ever need more than 1 unshifted Doppleganger, but the paint job looks relatively easy, so I can understand the rarity choice.

I like the idea of cheap unpainted minis. They will be appropriate for my young adult games, where they can lose the pieces with no real effect. They can also personalize their character.

I hate pre-painted and random minis. So this is a welcome change. Should supplement my Reaper Bones collection quite nicely.

PS. Pocket editions? Say what?!

Erik, will the unpainted new sculpts eventually be repurposed for minis in the Pathfinder Battles PPMs?

Idle question: who owns the sculpts of the minis in the Pathfinder Battles line, Wizkids or Paizo?

Erik, will the unpainted new sculpts eventually be repurposed for minis in the Pathfinder Battles PPMs?

Not that I am aware of. I suppose it is possible that the digital sculpts could be "re-posed" to create unique sculpts, but if that's the actual plan I have not heard about it.

Eric can you say if the plastic used is softer like reaper bones or harder more like the preprinted figures?

Vernon Fults wrote:

Erik, will the unpainted new sculpts eventually be repurposed for minis in the Pathfinder Battles PPMs?

Not that I am aware of. I suppose it is possible that the digital sculpts could be "re-posed" to create unique sculpts, but if that's the actual plan I have not heard about it.

Does it need to be re-posed? I don't think that the 'I never buy unpainted' crowd would object to sculpts that had already been used to satisfy the daubers.

If you get a kick-ass sculpt done, I think everyone would be happy to benefit from it.

There is a picture from the ICv2 article where HARSK the dwarf ranger, the human hunter and SEELAH the human paladin are shown in the same look as the 2 VALEROS minis.
These are the exact same sculpts as the ones from the ICONIC HEROES NOXED SETS, only unpainted/orange-brown.

Still, i think the detail is so good that for the low price of $3-4 i will buy ALL 150 minis (in 1, 2 or 3 packs) IF THEY ARE NOT IN BLIND BOOSTERS!

Eric, do you yet know if they are in blind boosters or not?

Thank you.

I've been using an Ithsyn as a cockatrice, and the only complaints I hear from my players is that they don't like cockatrices.

It's an unpainted mini, but slap a little paint on there and you've got a rubber chicken cockatrice!

I like the cockatrice but it will all come down to the final paint version. If it's good and the paint doesn't cover the features I acan see myself getting a few, For repaints. There have been two previously and while the old WotC one had good detail and a good enough paint job it was medium size. The recent one from the icons line is atrocious; it's small, a good thing, but the paint is awful and completely ruins it. I know it's hard at the scale were talking mall minis are harder but they've done some real winners in the past.

That doppelgänger is incredible. I love the creepy, alien feel it has and that face is scary. Awesome job. Here's hoping they don't overpaint and crowd out the creepy muscle detail. Unlike some others, I think the tongue works but then I like it in the ghouls as well. I just want the mouth to be large enough that the tongue is clearly a separate entity. In some of the ghouls in RDI the tongue and mouth are difficult to distinguish.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the hobgoblins. The inclusion of themes has been a little hit and miss, although much more hit than miss - guards, ghouls, bugbears where all good for me. The gnolls were disappointing, awesome sculpts but the size was a little too much on the small size, a bit larger than a standard adventurer and they would have been the best gnolls available.

I also hope we get another Orc or two. I like the ones released so far but think their ranks could do with a little boost.

Non-randomized item packs? Sold!!
Heroes and monsters? Meh. I have enough. But I imagine that will make a lot of people happy. But it does means WizKids is competing with Reaper and their Bones line. Ballsy.

There is a picture from the ICv2 article where HARSK the dwarf ranger, the human hunter and SEELAH the human paladin are shown in the same look as the 2 VALEROS minis.

These are the exact same sculpts as the ones from the ICONIC HEROES NOXED SETS, only unpainted/orange-brown.

Still, i think the detail is so good that for the low price of $3-4 i will buy ALL 150 minis (in 1, 2 or 3 packs) IF THEY ARE NOT IN BLIND BOOSTERS!

Eric, do you yet know if they are in blind boosters or not?

Thank you.

Don't read too much into those other images. My understanding is that they were there to show off some of the detail and the materials used, but they are not going to be in the line in those poses.

There is nothing "blind" about this line. What you see is what you get.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the hobgoblins. The inclusion of themes has been a little hit and miss, although much more hit than miss - guards, ghouls, bugbears where all good for me. The gnolls were disappointing, awesome sculpts but the size was a little too much on the small size, a bit larger than a standard adventurer and they would have been the best gnolls available.

Incidentally, for the first time in this set (Deadly Foes), I've received a sort of "line-up" of all of the figures together, so I can judge their size not just in an abstract way, but also against each other. I'm not saying I definitely would have made the gnolls taller with this resource, but it seems likely. I'm very pleased with this development, which is just another example of why WizKids's digital sculpting methods are far superior to the old way of doing things.

what determines the rarity of a particular piece?

Can you tell us a little about the plastic used? I ask because oft times when i pock up a bones mini I need to straighten out a sword or fix a bow etc... Are these going to be a similar plastic or a bit harder? I know there is a trade off in durability but not having to reshape pieces would be worth it.

what determines the rarity of a particular piece?

I know sculpt and paint complexity are part of it. The more steps a piece needs to go through in production, the rarer it has to be.

No blind boosters? Okay, now interested. (:

Will there be a way to order the complete set through an OLGS? I wouldn't mind a less expensive big box that contained all the mini's in bags (ie. no retail packaging).

I also hope you look into gaming tiles.

No blind boosters? Okay, now interested. (:

Will there be a way to order the complete set through an OLGS? I wouldn't mind a less expensive big box that contained all the mini's in bags (ie. no retail packaging).

I also hope you look into gaming tiles.

Remember that this is a Wizkids product rather than a Pathfider/Paizo one...

Marco Massoudi wrote:

There is a picture from the ICv2 article where HARSK the dwarf ranger, the human hunter and SEELAH the human paladin are shown in the same look as the 2 VALEROS minis.

These are the exact same sculpts as the ones from the ICONIC HEROES NOXED SETS, only unpainted/orange-brown.

Still, i think the detail is so good that for the low price of $3-4 i will buy ALL 150 minis (in 1, 2 or 3 packs) IF THEY ARE NOT IN BLIND BOOSTERS!

Eric, do you yet know if they are in blind boosters or not?

Thank you.

Don't read too much into those other images. My understanding is that they were there to show off some of the detail and the materials used, but they are not going to be in the line in those poses.

There is nothing "blind" about this line. What you see is what you get.

That is very good to hear.

Thank you for clarifying that, Eric.

I now only hope they don´t come out in october, same as "Deadly Foes" (which i´m gonna buy a case of), but in november or december.
But even if they do, i should be able to get at least all "Item Packs" and the Pathfinder "Hero Packs" and "Monster Packs" i want.

With all new sculpts all around there will be at least a few pieces that i can use unpainted in the above shown color and detail.

Hopefully till next friday. ;-)

The doppelganger could easily double as a bodak mini.

Wizkids have posted a pic of the "Invisible Stalker" mini from
"IotR 4: Monster Menagerie" on their facebook page.

It is the 27th of 45 minis revealed.

Today should see another double preview on the D&D page.

If the invisible stalker isn't just a blank base, I'd be at least a little disappointed. ^_^

It wouldn't even be the first such miniature Wizkids has produced.

Not quite a blank base. I like the fact it's indistinct though.

what determines the rarity of a particular piece?

A combination of sculpt and paint complexity mixed with frequency of use at the table. A simple orc with a bow or sword would likely be slated in the common rarity, whereas a powerful orc king with a colorful outfit is more likely to be the type of figure that requires a detailed sculpt and lots of paint steps, and that would likely appear only once in a campaign, so I'd make him rare.

That said, sometimes unanticipated complexities (or efficiencies) come up in the production process, and a figure gets moved to a different rarity than we'd originally planned for. This is pretty rare, but it does happen.

If the invisible stalker isn't just a blank base, I'd be at least a little disappointed. ^_^

It wouldn't even be the first such miniature Wizkids has produced.

Ant-Man, anyone?

Dungeons & Dragons has 2 pics of the Gelatinous Cube on it's facebook page.
One shows the Dwarven Rogue from the computer game inside it's insides.