Big Things in Little Packages

Welcome back Paizo blog! Love the little guys! Looking forward to picking up some of these for Strange Aeons that I'm starting next month.

Also hope all are well rested after Starfinder and Gen Con!

Always like to see more minis that can easily be PCs, like the two ratfolk and the halfling.

I'm really glad art from Strange Aeons is getting used, there were so many good monsters that didn't yet have minis.

PUGWAMPI!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We need some Catfolk and Lizardfolk! I'm glad to see some Ratfolk though.

PUGWAMPI!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*runs screaming in a circle, arms Kermit flailing*

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!

Finally, ratfolk! We never get any animal race figures.

The Ratfolk and Derro are awesome! More like them, please.

I´ll be frank: I´m not too excited about this preview.

-Pretty Goblin: Common? How many of these guys do i need? One is okay, but a case will have six! this should be a rare.

-Ratfolk Artillery: The rarity slot is the right one, but the mini is tiny and not small!

-Halfling Butcher: Again, how many Halflings with two weapons do i need? Six in a case? No, actually none at all, as the last set had two.

-Ratfolk Alchemist: The render looks great, but the rarity is wrong.
It would be right, if the acid bomb wouldn´t be trailing a big fat vapor cloud, but this way it looks to be too unique to use more than once.
Well, maybe i can cut it off easily and use more than one of these.

-Derro Artillery: This looks great and generic enough to use a few of. It should have been a common, though.

-Pugwampi Gremlin: The size is right, as the Pugwampi is tiny. The mini looks alright, but if i compare it to the picture on page 144 of the Bestiary 2, it is comes off much weaker. Again the rarity is off, as i need lots of these, it should also be a common.

-Derro Magister: The only one that makes everything right: it´s looks are great (taken straight from the "Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Bestiary"), size and rarity are spot on.

Another thing i don´t like so much about this preview (but to a lesser extent) is, that these are seven humanoid creatures and i would have liked more "strange/freakish" creatures in "Maze of Death".

I like that the Ratfolk are in it (and there will likely be 1 or 2 more), as they have been underpresented.
But i really don´t need another halfling or Goblin - unless it´s a "Space Goblin" at common rarity for Starfinder. ;-)

Oh well, i guess every set needs some minis that are not as much loved as others.

Good to have the hopefully regulary blog back, much better to get it on mondays than on fridays, i hope it keeps it´s new schedule?

PS:
Wizkids still lists the set for an october release date, but it still has no exact one: Releases For Oct 2017

Agreed that the vapor cloud is problematic, it just looks way to solid for any "cloud" which IMHO is not realistic to pull off, even transparent 'flames' are more do-able in this medium than vapor cloud. As-is, the miniature works more as example of 'flaming alchemical beaker', not 'steaming'.

That doesn't mean the design intent can't be achieved by other means... Like... how about transparent BUBBLES coming off the supernatural brew? I still wouldn't make them as ginormous huge as the "cloud" shown here, more like equal or a bit smaller in size to the flask itself, but that would be a very do-able effect that portrays more or less the same thing.

I'm pretty happy with all of these sculpts but I do agree rarity could be better. The Derro and pugwampi will be needed in large numbers, the unique goblin and the halfling less so. I assume there are, as always, other considerations leading to the rarities.

I think all of these are great figures and I'm especially happy to see not one but two ratfolk! They're a favoured face to play for me, so they'll see a lot of use.

Two more Derro, what can I say? Hell yeah thank you and thank you twice for the awesome magister with the crystal staff. I'm glad they'll get a paint job to match portique and cadimus.

And that pugwampi is guaranteed to make my table weep - waiting soooo long for thank you.

glad to have you back Mr Kenway, this will bring a little extra joy to my saturdays (I'm is Aus so I see these blogs on a Saturday normally, nice little addition to my weekend)

the sculpts are good IMO, but I have to agree about the rarities being off.

Wizkids has updated their release schedule.
Maze of Death will be in stores on wednesday 25th of october 2017.
That's exactly 5 weeks from now.
23 of 52 renders have been shown, leaving 29.
That probably means we'll see 6 or seven previews a week, more if the blog returns to friday. ;-)

These are some unique sculpts, and I really like the inclusion of the ratfolk, however the alchemist seems a little too much like a Skaven plague rat to me. I think a ratfolk rogue would have been more appropriate.

I have extreme dislike for the "smoke" coming from the alchemist's vial. I've never been a big "sculpted spell effects" fan, so to me this glowing smoke trail really detracts from what is a pretty neat figure. On the plus side, a quick alteration with some clippers will fix that problem.

I've also never been a big fan of the alchemist class as a whole, so I also don't like this mini because of that -- but again with a small alteration and perhaps gluing on a shield to the potion hand will really improve the appearance of the mini for me.

As others have mentioned I am also disappointed that the "pretty goblin" is a common. One of these is enough for a collector, and I'm not even sure if non-collectors would even want one. This really should have been a rare. I really do not want 4+ of these in my case.

With all that aside, it great to see the level of detail and paint steps which have been applied to these small figures. Typically small figures lack both (especially in the competitor's line) so these all look great.

On a side note, are these Dero mini names being spelled with 1 "r" or 2? Should these not be "Derro"?

what is going on with the pretty Goblin anyways?

I applaud Pretty Goblin, it is yet another goblin piece that helps demonstrate the insanity going on with these humanoids. It's no wonder that none of the other Goblinoid races want nothing to do with these crazy pyros. I only need one Pretty Goblin for my gaming, but I'll take 4-5 over 0. She'll fit in fine with Reta and her bridesmaids.

So are battles posts gonna be scattered where ever in the week?

This is confusing. I thought this meant Mondays now,but no post today. O.o

So are battles posts gonna be scattered where ever in the week?

This is confusing. I thought this meant Mondays now,but no post today. O.o

Michael Kenway isn't answering questions. ;-(

I guess the monday blog was a one-off because of the very long GenCon delay and that friday remains the regular minis blog day.

Five fridays remain before the street date.

I also find it very unfortunate that we don't see the last renders a month before release.

Erik often showed us some pictures of the actual minis a few weeks (2 or 3 i think) before release.
These days you can see pictures of all actual production minis a week before the final renders are shown...

I´m really disappointed in Michael Kenway´s reliability.

He always writes "see you next week", but NEVER delivers on this promise. ;-(

I hate to say it, but i´m loosing interest in Pathfinder Battles miniatures as a result (That and Starfinder is exciting me more atm).

I didn´t order a full case the first time in years, because i don´t know what to expect in it.

I really wish Erik Mona was still doing these previews, because you could see he loved the Pathfinder Battles Minis, as he often commented on peoples comments and answered questions.

This set will be out in 4 and a half weeks and we havn´t seen half of it´s content.

So sad.

I don't think that kind of presure is what make Erik or Michael like to make the blog.

I realy like these blogs and look foward to them, but on the other side, this kind of post taste weird..

I remember Erik seems to like writing these blogs until he didn't anymore. With some search I bet I can point the week that change.

I think you could tone it down a bit.

If the guys at Paizo keep having fun doing what they do, it will be more fun for us and i'm sure they will come more often to us..

Dany

DanyRay, I very much agree with your call to staying positive. I can imagine it's been incredibly busy for the guys at Paizo after GenCon, the release of Starfinder and then all the trouble with the bindings on some of the Starfinder Core Rule books. They're probably super swamped, and I hope we can all be as understanding and supportive as possible. They've been doing a stellar job, and I've always felt like they've gone above and beyond to stay connected with fans and be as communicative as possible with everything they produce.

I do think I feel what Marco is feeling too though. I've been refreshing the blog page a lot the past few weeks, checking Twitter, the message boards, even keeping an eye out on some other forums just hungry for some news on Maze of Death. Just really want to see what else is in the set hoping it's as exciting as what I've seen already. It does make me a bit nervous investing in a whole case without some time to look over what's being offered and evaluate how I could use the various miniatures in my games. Especially as this will be only the second case I'll have ever bought.

I'm still very excited, especially with the huge elementals, the plant creatures, and since I'm currently running Curse of the Crimson Throne, the Ratfolk and the Derros. Even the ones I don't think I'll have any immediate use for I feel like have been great choices. Just want to see more, and have some time to digest my thoughts.

I haven't posted here before, but I want to echo Marco's frustration about the punctuality of this blog.

I don't generally play Pathfinder, so I only found out about this line of miniatures about a year ago from this very blog. Since then I have been following the weekly updates closely, and I've ordered a brick of every set that has come out (plus a few older ones).

Like everyone else here, I wait each week with anticipation for the next round of previews, refreshing the page during work, and it's legitimately disappointing when the day ends without an update.

Now, I have always considered this blogwork to be above and beyond my usual corporate expectations (after all, WotC has never been so forthcoming with minis previews), but it has always given me the distinctly warm impression that the Paizo team is as excited for the next set as I am. These days, only my fellow commentors seem to match my enthusiasm.

I'm really glad to get ranged and caster ratfolk. They sub pretty easy with wererats so I feel like melee ratfolk have been covered somewhat.

I'd really like to see more types of PFS (non-boon) races. I don't think there are any pre-painted wayang or kitsune minis. Plus some more featured and uncommon player races for home games would be nice.

It is disappointing that there haven't been more previews. I'm sure the set overall will be good. The previews have been good and they've been following themes so I don't think duds are being hidden. That said, it would be nice to know what is going to be in the set before it ships.