Pathfinder Battles: Iconic Heroes Set #4

While the Pathfinder miniatures line has always done good work on their painting and sculpting, I NEVER expected this level of detail on a plastic miniature before. Usually when I ordered plastic miniatures from other companies I get one or two that are just a bit disappointing (a memorable one was when they put a Maralith's fangs just a bit too high so instead of fangs it looked like she had a milk mustache). With the high level of detail that Wayne Reynolds puts into Pathfinder's Iconics, I had thought I would get some similarly humorous mistakes. But I was gobsmacked. Not only did they include the minutest details I had thought they would just write off (arm tattoos, weapon decorations, ect.), but NOTHING was askew, mis-coloured, or warped. My only complaint was that they were secure enough in the packing that I thought I might pull them off their bases when I tried to get them out, but that is a petty and small complaint not really worth mentioning. Overall 5 stars, keep up the good work guys.

Set 4 has great painting. I mean great. The figures are all very cool. I don't use guns in my campaigns, but one of my friends has worked them into his, so Lirianne, who is an awesome fig with 2 guns becomes useful, too.

Kolo is cute. The 5 humanoids are so detailed - I keep noticing more features on each that really bring out character.

Jirelle, Hakon, and Shardra have so many small details that I enjoy.

These would all make great PC minis or NPCs. The details at every level are exceptional.

I think these rank among the best pre-painted I've seen. Wow!

The others hit the nail on the head the minis in this and it looks so much better than their pictures online it is very hard to take a picture of a 28 mm figure and blow it up to the size of The thumbnails you see online little details that don't matter because you do not see them in hand show up in the pictures this causes undue criticism where there shouldn't be any . These minis are beautiful just like the previous sets if anything Crowe is the only one that did not seem to have quite as crisp delineations between colors in My set

As Cat said, there must be a major difference between each wave of this set. While not perfect, these are in line with the other three sets.

I'm not going to go over each piece. Cat's review sort of touches on everything about the pieces worth discussing, in my opinion.

More importantly, those choosing not to purchase these based on pictures are losing out.

Sometimes photographs don't do a piece justice. When photographing a tiny piece of plastic up close, the features aren't going to be as flattering as they would be from a distance. For example, at least the last two Pathfinder Battles releases, many of the close-up pics of each piece had me worried. And yet when my case actually came, I was overwhelmingly happy with the quality.

This has been the case for many of the Pathfinder Iconic pieces, too, including this set. After reading the negative reviews and seeing some pics of the pieces, I was worried. And yet, when my Set #4 got here, it was close to a home run for me.

I'd venture to say that two things are happening:
1. There is a major difference in quality from the first to the second wave.

2. People are reviewing these based solely on some bad pics, even when they don't actually have the set itself. Bushtroll, for example, stated "these are just from the pics", which might mean he didn't even have the set in hand when doing his review.

I urge everyone to ignore any review (in this hobby or elsewhere) of a product by somebody that doesn't actually have the product in hand. There is a major difference between being disappointed with the pictures of a product and the actual product.

I've learned to do this in other hobbies, too. I collect statues, mostly from companies like Sideshow, XM, Tweeterhead, Pop Culture Shock, and others. Recently, Sideshow released a Power Girl statue (from the DC comics line). The pictures on their site of the actual piece look pretty bad. I've been collecting long enough that I was originally turned off from the piece solely based on the pictures. But after watching numerous YouTube videos once the piece was released, I changed my mind. Most videos made it a point to clarify that the piece was much better looking in person. The piece looked better in video than the pics, but I was still concerned. I bought it anyways, and it's actually one of the better pieces the company has put out in the past year.

I consider the first set of Iconics a fraction better than the other sets. But this set--at least the one in my hand--is on par with the other pieces in terms of quality.

If anyone is interested, I'll try and do a video to show the pieces from different angles.

Finally, let me urge Paizo to take better photos of their pieces once they are in hand. The Sideshow statue I previously mentioned is about 22" tall, and even that looked bad in pictures. Many of these photos I've seen on here of these much smaller pieces are more a turn-off than incentive to buy.

Final Grade:
I'm going to give this set 4-1/2 stars.

I can't say the quality is as flawless as the first set in this line, but it's as close as set #2 and #3. I agree with Cat regarding the "overcrowding" of weapons and items. It works in the art, but doesn't translate as well in-hand.

I'm going with five stars, but consider it a 4-1/2.

I can only assume their is some serious variation within this set because the ones I received are superb. The sculpts are very clear, if a little overcrowded with detail, and they are all very well painted. Each face is clear and shows the necessary detail, none of the blobby over painting you can see in prepaints, and more importantly the eyes and mouths are in the right places. The tampos (I believe that's what the stamps/transfers are called) are all applied very well highlighting cloak trims, tattoos etc

The figures are smaller than those in the earlier PF battles line but I actually think the scale settled on now is a better size. These do line up with the last few sets, appearing appropriately sized next to my rusty dragon figures.

All in all I think it's a solid Set, maybe a little overcrowded in terms of detail on the figures, a legacy of the Wayne Reynolds art. These details work extremely well on the art but don't translate quite so well into plastic, well at a 28mm scale there's only do much detail you can squeeze into plastic.