Leo_Negri's page

I seriously am wondering where these reviewers were getting their miniatures from. I just did a second look over my first Brick from my FLGS and I found only TWO (2) glaring issues in the entire brick, and one annoying collation problem.

The two problem pieces first, the Eagle Knight Officer had the eye problems that have been mentioned prior, and the Toad Demon has VERY visible mold lines (and mild flashing) along both arms.

The Collation problem: Out of my Brick I got exactly ONE Large Rare (A Djinni with an absolutely FLAWLESS paintjob), not the 2 to 3 I should have, a minor quibble.

Other than those 3 issues, the set is passable. The scuplts are the quality I've come to expect in Pathfinder Battles PPMs, and the paintjobs, were adequate.

Now while I didn't get any major standout pieces (except the afore mentioned Djinni), I also didn't get the glaring drippy paint jobs and pooling washes that seem to have plagued other collectors. The goblin Pyros and Orcs I got meshed well with the ones I already had providing a color continuity not found in other PPM sets. I finally have enough variety in Orcs for Pathfinder to run an encounter.

My only other issue with the set is its name - LEGENDS OF GOLARION.
Having seen a full set list and compared it with my Brick, I find the set name misleading, as there are only 4 pieces deserving the term "Legend" in the Set (6 if you count the Iconics) and only a 1/4 of the pieces are truly unique to Golarion.

On the whole, a throughly average set, worth picking up for the commons and uncommons to fill out your collections, but not really anything earth-shaking in the Rare department.

Two sets out and this is the only mini I am really disappointed in. I wanted to like this dragon, it is truly a detailed sculpt, but it is just so SMALL. Maybe I was spoiled by the DDM dragons being at the upper end of their size ranges, but this just seems puny next to them. (Note, this is a problem endemic to the Pathfinder Battles Dragons - Phenomenal sculpts and excellent quality, but more than a little on the scrawny side [The Huge Black Dragon is smaller and lighter than the Large Elementals from Shattered Star; and the Gargantuan Blue is dwarfed by her DDM counterpart {although the DDM ICONS Gargantuan Blue Dragon is a bit on the largish side as well}])

Again, I must stress it is merely the size which costs this dragon a 4 star rating, as the quality is exceptional and the detail is acceptable considering the scale.

Due to the price tag, I have as yet, been only able to purchase 1 booster pack of the Pathfinder Battles - Rise of the Runelords set. That said, I sincerely hope that the box I got is truly representative of the set, as these 4 were, WOW.

I'll start with the Large and then go from common to rare on the 3 others.

Large - Stone Giant Champion - A solid, if lanky stone giant throwing a boulder. This one looks like it stepped right off the cover of the book, and the painting is clean, there are no mold lines. An excellent piece, especially when compared to other models currently available.

Common - Sinspawn Axeman - For a common this guy is very well done, once again, no slop glob paint job, but still relatively few steps. Equal to the best uncommons in quality from DDM (and better than 90% of the others).

Uncommon - Tusto Kaijitsu - Quite possibly the least useful mini in the box to me. He's an Asian Archer in western garb and while well done (though the fletching on his arrow is a little largish), he is very much a niche piece that I am just not sure how useful he'll be. If anything cost the box (at the set) its fifth star it is the prevalence of pieces like this that are really only useful in the AP and not anywhere else.

Rare - Warchief Ripnugget - My only Booster and I get the one rare I have been psyched about since the reveal. It looks even better in person than it did in the reveal and the reveal was pretty awesome. there is a slight mould line down the spine of the gecko and a visible seam where its tail is attached, but these are minor quibbles on an otherwise outstanding piece. The only real downside is that he is also a Niche piece (how often are you going to need a goblin on a Gecko? Seriously.)

It really should be 3 and a half stars.

First, this is sculpt-wise, an excellent representation of a Golarion troll. Although it is a little too small, it still qualifies as a large creature, standing 1 3/4" from foot to top of hunched back (I suspect that it would be closer to 2" tall if it was standing upright), that would put it at about 9 and 1/2 feet tall in a crouch, 12' tall if upright. So yeah, he's a little bit shy of the 14' height described in the Bestiary, but he's still way closer to in scale than most of the DDM trolls (which were far too large for their respective descriptions), a minor point and not enough to cost it a full star.

The paint job however . . . is barely adequate for a common mini, and is certainly not up to the standard set for a rare. An undifferentiated brown loincloth and only a 2-tone green for the body (Dark on the back, light grey-green over all) is just not enough, especially on one of the mini's that should have been a showpiece for the set; the Lich, Seelah, and the four Goblins set a high quality bar and the Troll should have been right up there with them. This knocks out the remaining star.

It will still see use in my campaign, lurking under bridges and in dark hollows, places where it's slightly smaller scale is a strength and the color issues I can fix, but it would have been nice not to have to.

First review I've ever written, but the Lich Miniature from Heroes & Monsters absolutely floored me. From the tattered edges and cuffs of it's robe to the goat-skull topped staff, this is one of the true stand-out pieces in the set (which has incredibly even quality in all of its sculpts and paint jobs). You can even pick out the details of individual finger on both hands (something that I intend to bring out with a very faint ink-wash). My only real complaint about the lich (and they are minor ones to be sure) are that the piece is a little tall for the scale (unless you assume that it is either an elven lich or that it is in fact hovering above the ground with an extra long robe, and then he's fairly close) as he towers over the other medium sized pieces in the set (exception, the succubus, but shes flying), and that it is a generic lich. I understand that there is a need for a generic lich piece for GM's but there are several named liches in Pathfinder whom I would have loved to see made, especially at this level of quality.