GOLEMANIA!

Friday, April 17, 2015

This week I'm revealing two amazing figures from June's Dungeons Deep set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic figures. The idea behind this set is to present high-utility figures based around a rough "dungeon" theme. This allows us to include whatever figures we want to, rather than attempting to adapt a specific adventure or Adventure Path. That's resulted in a few "dealer's choice" selections, letting us pick whatever we want for no reason other than "we think it looks cool."

Up until about a two years ago, "we think it looks cool" really meant "Erik Mona thinks it looks cool," as before that point I was more or less solely responsible for the selections in each set. That all changed when we added our Licensing Coordinator Michael Kenway to our team to help me out with the miniatures and other projects that involve working with teams outside the Paizo office to create cool Pathfinder-related content. Mike has been an invaluable assistant to me as he ushers sculpts, paint plans, comic sketches, soundsets, and scripts through the approval process.

But Mike Kenway is much more than just a paper-pusher. He got his start here at Paizo as an editorial intern, and has always had a keen interest in the Pathfinder RPG. In fact, every day at noon you can find Mike in our employee break room, running or playing in a daily Pathfinder campaign with several members of the Paizo staff. He knows his stuff, and his attention to detail is absolutely amazing.

So, a few sets back, I decided to reward Mike's excellent work by giving him an opportunity to choose a miniature of his own to include in a set—I think it was Legends of Golarion. Unfortunately, that set was the first to see a scale-back in the number of figures per set from 55 to 45, and Mike's enthusiastic selection didn't make the original cut for a variety of reasons. But it's been waiting silently in the shadows since then, eager for a chance to spread carnage when a slot became available.

Mike's first choice was this horrific Bone Golem:

The Bone Golem appears on page 133 of Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3, where it clocks in at CR 8 and includes a creeptastic power known as "Bone Prison," in which it tosses some of its constituent bones at you to form a cage of bones that crushes you. A great guy to have at a party, or to protect the evil lair of a necromancer. In the image above we see the Bone Golem from the front, a jumble of skulls, ribcages, and muscle tissue just waiting to give a great big bear hug to your deserving player characters. The detail on this figure is insane. Take a look at his back:

More skulls. Maybe one day he'll add yours to his collection? The Bone Golem is a Large, rare creature. Way to go, Mike!

While we're on the subject of golems, let's check out the set's other major construct:

Here we have the Clockwork Golem, from page 137 of Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2. If you're familiar with that book, you'll note that the design here is quite different. While the original version has a cool illustration, it didn't really sell the "clockwork" element as much as we would have liked, and its unusual limbs seemed ill-suited for a 3D miniature. So we had the creature re-illustrated for the Pathfinder Pawns Bestiary 2 Box, and that's the version we used as the basis for this miniature. The Clockwork Golem is a Large, rare figure.

And that's it for this week! To make sure you don't miss either of these two cool figures, please consider setting up a Pathfinder Battles Ongoing Case Subscription!

I'll be back next week (unfortunately one year older, as my birthday is Tuesday) with a special birthday treat—my personal favorite figures from the Dungeons Deep set!

Until then, I remain...

Erik Mona
Publisher

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Tags: Dungeons Deep Miniatures Pathfinder Battles
Dark Archive

The Bone Golem looks fantastic!
The Clockwork Golem looks also nice even if it comes along as a vicious crossbreed between a robot and a Wood Golem. ;-)

Have a very nice birthday and stay in good health - i´m curious as to your favorites, Eric. :-)


Happy BiRFDAY!!!! That said, golems are nice and the fact that they are rare is good, but I'm more excited to see what you show us next week!!!

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber

Have a great birthday Mr Mona. Very curious in regards to your favourites, although you may change your mind by then, after all With age comes wisdom.

Like the bone Golem a great deal, excellent mini. Clockwork is good but perhaps a little cartoony for me, a bit dragonquest, although I did love those games.


The Bone Golem is wonderful and I look forward to adding it to my collection.

To be honest I am less then excited about the other one though. Every time I look at it I keep seeing Space 1889 rather than Pathfinder. Now that does not make it a bad figure, just not sure what I will do with it. Maybe toss it to the Gnomes and let them play with it.


Can we have a redo of the Clockwork Golem? It doesn't work for me at all.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, PF Special Edition Subscriber

Here's the image it seems to be based on. Definitely looks like wood panelling was used in its construction. Odd. Looks cool in general though.

http://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderPawns/PZO1007ClockworkGolem.jpg

Silver Crusade Contributor

I like the bellows-type thing it has for a waist. I don't mind the wood too much, and it serves to distinguish it from the various clockwork constructs that aren't golems.

Also, am I the first one to look at the title and think "GOLEMANIA IS RUNNIN' WILD, BROTHER"? Or just the first one to post about it? :)

Dark Archive

That Clockwork Golem could double as a wood golem, so I don't mind it looking a little less "technological". And the Bone Golem looks great! Why does it have to be rare... I want at least 4-5 of them!


I personally find the clockwork golem to be good, and it was kinda expected for any mini to be based on the pawn art rather than the bestiary art. That being said the bone golem is a much better mini, just be virtue of it being flawless.


Still hoping for a pack of rare races based on Pathfinder art. We are in desperate need of more Tieflings, Aasimar, catfolk, tengu, etc. And pathfinder has the best design for these.


April Bowen wrote:
Still hoping for a pack of rare races based on Pathfinder art. We are in desperate need of more Tieflings, Aasimar, catfolk, tengu, etc.

I realize this is just my opinion, but I am kind of glad they don't do too many of these. I had a hard time dumping the tengu that I got in the Skulls and Schakles case. And the catfolk rogue from Shattered Star I had to give away to get rid of them.

While I know there is a small number of people who love these races, I am glad they remain very rare.

Paizo Employee Publisher, Chief Creative Officer

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I think the triaxians in Reign of Winter make good catfolk proxies, too.

Shadow Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder PF Special Edition Subscriber
Kalindlara wrote:

I like the bellows-type thing it has for a waist. I don't mind the wood too much, and it serves to distinguish it from the various clockwork constructs that aren't golems.

Also, am I the first one to look at the title and think "GOLEMANIA IS RUNNIN' WILD, BROTHER"? Or just the first one to post about it? :)

What you gonna do when golemania runs wild on you?

I'm certain that must have been the intent? Surely? Mr MONA?


danielc wrote:
April Bowen wrote:
Still hoping for a pack of rare races based on Pathfinder art. We are in desperate need of more Tieflings, Aasimar, catfolk, tengu, etc.

I realize this is just my opinion, but I am kind of glad they don't do too many of these. I had a hard time dumping the tengu that I got in the Skulls and Schakles case. And the catfolk rogue from Shattered Star I had to give away to get rid of them.

While I know there is a small number of people who love these races, I am glad they remain very rare.

I sell catfolk minis with decent regularity. The one tengu from Pathfinder sells indifferently, but the old kenku minis from WotC do pretty well (probably because they tend to run cheap.) There are several prepainted tieflings on the market, and most of them still do well. There are only a couple of named Aasimar, and they sell well, but honestly aasimar are pretty easy to sub for unless you're looking for something particularly flamboyant, and then you're probably going to need to paint your own anyway. But then again, there's the sheep factor to consider, and if you had a couple minis with "aasimar" in the title, that might sell a few extra. (And prevent a few other sales when people who could totally use that mini for their character say, "But my character's not an aasimar!" o.O)

If the requests I get from customers are any indication, the market could use more half-orcs, particularly a couple spellcasters, and ratfolk should get a nod. (Wererats would work if they were smaller.) I also tend to think that a tengu that looked more martial (maybe a magus?) would do pretty well. Maybe a grippli or two would go over well, and some vishkanya would be nice.


Hi Erik. Does the hiring of mike mean you're going to be freed up a little more to be more directly engaged in adventure/sourcebook writing?


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Vhayjen wrote:
Can we have a redo of the Clockwork Golem? It doesn't work for me at all.

It doesn't work because you probably forgot to wind it up properly.

Paizo Employee Publisher, Chief Creative Officer

Steve Geddes wrote:
Hi Erik. Does the hiring of mike mean you're going to be freed up a little more to be more directly engaged in adventure/sourcebook writing?

Not directly, but I have been a little more active in terms of writing, lately.

Occult Mysteries: I wrote the Knights of the Ioun Star and the 5th Volume of the Pathfinder Chronicles section.

Emerald Spire Superdungeon: I wrote the Throne of Azlant level.

Pathfinder Origins: I wrote the first and sixth issues of the new comic from Dynamite, and the backmatter in each (1 is out, 6 is still coming).

Occult Adventures: I played a fairly major role in setting up the outline for this book, concepting (but not writing) many of the magic items, and I wrote the sections on auras, chakras, and the esoteric planes.

I'm also currently writing two articles for Pathfinder #100.

So, while none of that stuff has to do with Mike coming on board (he's been here a couple years already), I have been trying to add more time for creative contributions into my schedule over the last year, and look forward to more of that sort of thing in the future.

Dark Archive

Clockwork golem does not do much for me either. Looks a bit like a wood paneled battlemech. Sorry.

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