Further (Nicer) Thoughts on D&D Minis

Despite my impassioned rant (and remember, Internet anger equals about a third of real anger) against the new Demonweb set, I did pick up four boxes, just to see what I'd get. There were a few minis I wanted in the set, and I wanted to see if I would wind up with tons of mushrooms, etc.

Well, yes and no. The fact is, having bought four boxes, I got a half dozen minis I thought were pretty cool, and only a few that I thought were ridiculous. Only one Kruthik, two "Scythejaws" (what the hell are these? When will I use them) and two Guard Drakes, which would have been handy for the 1st level adventure I ran a couple months ago, but are almost useless now.

I got four rares in four boxes. One was a Girallon, which was annoying because I already have two, and also because the new Girallon mini is kind of ugly. The others, though, were without exception pretty nice. The red and brown-colored Autumn Ranger is a nice piece, and should make a great mini for one of my players. A Black Dragon is always welcome (even though I've already got about three, of varying sizes, from other sets). But my favorite was the *massive* Brutal Ogre Warhulk. You put that solid piece of plastic down on the table, your PCs are going to know they're in for a fight. It's bigger than the dragon, and has some nice detail as well.

The other standouts were the new Warforged (pretty nice, although not really useful to me until 2009 when Eberron returns) and the Drow Assassin. I've got lots of drow, but this is a really nice mini.

I'm not sure how many I'll buy out of this set. I dodged most of the ones I didn't want (the Slaad, the evil mushroom, the sarcophagus, the kruthik) and there are only a few in the set I'd really like to get (the Rakshasa assassin and the Cyclops, both rare, and the common Hobgoblin Warcaster). I'll probably try a couple more, but the odds of getting something I don't want have gone up, since I had a pretty good early pull.

So I take back a little bit of the venom I slung at this set a few days back. But I still think it's beyond stupid that there are no Uncommon or Common Dragonborn, and even moreso that all the Dragonborn they've presented have been variations on the paladin and fighter.