Love your videos! 3:54 The Drow Elite Warrior seems to have a Tentacle Rod, which is a Rare magic item of Drow origin. :) 9:49 REGULAR GNOLL! REGULAR GNOLL!
Thanks for watching! We're trying to make these as fast as we can but we both work other jobs and these longer videos take about 30 hours to film and edit so we aren't able to release them as frequently as we'd like. -Grady
Great to see more older sets review from you guys! I liked this set though lot of people resented the duplicates. And for some reason (maybe because they are high CR and people only need one of them, the Golems are really super low on the secondary market. In fact, most of this set sells for a lot less than most sets. I dunno why. I like the new 5E Sphinxs, sure not human faced, but they are unique. Size-wise they are certainly better than the new PFB Androsphinx that is just tiny. Glad that now we finally have 3 of the 4 main Sphinx varieties covered as minis, now we only need the Criosphinx. Nice to hear good things about Kobolds. :D I like how 5E made them less evil, and the idea that they could live harmoniously with other races under their cities is a fun one. I always liked this species. Those gnolls are weird - apart from the Flind later, first ones to finally have tails, but their tails are catlike? They are nicely large and impressive but I do wonder why they are naked. :D The Black Pudding is one of the best slime minis ever, love how you can put a Medium mini inside. The rarities are way strange in this set - why the Galeb Duhr, Grick and Utghart Barbarian are Rare when these are creatures encountered in packs, and not that high CR either... Also don't see why they keep making high level Angels like the Solar and Planetar Uncommon too. That Hippogriff is amazing though. The dragon babies are adorable. And as Uncommons, affordable too. I still think of Wargs as Medium sized, but I am guessing it was the Hobbit movies that changed the general concept. I do like the more reptilian looking head shape and snout though. Makes them more distinct than just being intelligent wolves with red eyes. The Elf Fighter to me looks more like a Cleric - probably because of the warhammer which I find to be a more traditionally clerical weapon (many gods only allow bludgeoning weapons after all) Anyway, thanks again, great work as always!
I was reluctant about getting this set due the quality of the minis. However the list is so amazing that I decided to give it a try and get one booster. The minis blended well with others from newer sets. Just ordered a brick to enhance my collection.
Now, the word puding has another meaning for me, very impressive effect. There's one half dragon in the "Baldur's gate frost giant fury" comic and I think that mini looks a lot like the character and now I want it and the insivible copy too. On thing I like abut the bugbears of this set is that they're females! and they look fitting even with bugbears of older sets, which I find EXTREMELY useful. On the other hand, new sahuagin minis are not monstrous enough. That beholder's face look like it's saying "ugh, humanoids, disgusting..." which I think it is a very real reaction. Great video!
The Drow Elite Warrior is actually based on the art for the Drow Priestess from Rage of Demons. :D The tentacle staff Lolth's priestesses have is clue! :) I am not complaining, having a Common Drow Priestess is a great thing.
Indeed! Thanks for the heads up! Not sure why they don't name things a bit more accurately when they're clearly designing these off of particular monsters. But, at least we have experts like you to help us identify them! Thank you! - Theo
@@TheGallantGoblin You are welcome! Yeah I think someone at Wizkids made a mistake - Rage of Demons has stats for both the Elite Warrior and Priestess of Lolth and likely they thought the artwork belongs to the former. I guess could have been worse, like the "Tridrone" Kraken Priest. :)
Oh, almost forgot - the Half-Gold Dragon Sorcerer is actually based on the artwork of n NPC, Zindar from Tomb of Annihilation. He is mostly a trader but can also give quests to adventurers. But you are right, this guy doubles well as an Aurak Draconian (took me ages to get that mini!)
Ah, very nice! Always appreciate you adding these bits of knowledge in. Wish it was easier to make edits to the videos after they're up. But, that's what makes the comments section important to read! Thanks again! -Theo
@@TheGallantGoblin Well, with newer sets you can hang out on Minisgallery, you can gather the info from there. If you review older sets, feel free to ask me via mails and I will share the info I have in advance!
I think Wizkids is a fan of Heroes of Might and Magic III, hence the Gnolls with flails. :D I too fondly remember that game and thus flails kinda became the weapon I imagine Gnolls with, sinc the Fortress units wielded those.
Oh man, you're bringing me back in time now, BB. Wow. That's exactly right, and now that's the only thing I'll think of when I see gnolls with flails. :-D -Theo
@@TheGallantGoblin Hehhe, great minds think alike! :) That game remains one of my favourite games ever. So wish Ubisoft would remaster Armageddon's Blade too like they did the main game. The sprites look amazing in HD. Also I liked how many D&D-style creatures were in Fortress - Basilisks with 8 legs, Wyverns with poison stingers, 4-legged Hydras, metal-scaled bull Gorgons. Whoever designed that faction must have been a huge 2E AD&D nerd, since these creatures looked very different in other RPGs (Gorgons were another word for Medusae, for example). I do wish D&D would adopt the Dragonflies as an official monster someday. :)
Btw we wrecked our minds a lot about this on Minisgallery at the time, but we came to the conclusion the Halfling Rogue is holding a purse she just lifted. :) Also, we came to the conclusion that the Bugbears in this set are likely meant to be females.
Oh, good call on the bugbears. That makes me like the figures a lot more. Ah, I figured she was either holding a pastry or a human heart that she had just stolen. The purse makes more sense! -Theo
@@TheGallantGoblin With the female Hobgoblins in the set too, this set gave us quite a few female humanoid minis we lacked before. Now we only need some female Orcs!
Heh good point! I could see the female orcs being more lacking because lorewise female orcs are treated as property in orc society so we're less likely to get warrior sculpts of them like the other races where females could be encountered as monsters. However there is always a need for noncombatant minis as well, and with Pathfinder's goblin village having civilian goblins and Dragon Heist having civilian humans, orcs would be a good one to expand upon! -Grady
@@TheGallantGoblin Volo's guide does introduced stats and pics for Claws of Luthic, who are female Orcs tasked with guarding the lair and raising the young. Maybe we can get minis for them in the Volo's and Mordenkainen's Foes set. But yes you are right, they do not generally allow females to be warriors, save for these priestesses.
Looking at some of the pre-painted mini's reminds me why I paint them myself. It would be nice if every mini was available unpainted as a lot of them would be nice to have. but some of them just have horrid paint jobs.
A lot of these sculpts end up in the Nolzur’s Marvelous Unpainted Miniatures line so you can always check to see if one you like is available there, but it’s not a consistent thing and sometimes they can take years to show up. -Grady
@@TheGallantGoblin At the moment I only buy from the unpainted line, but there are some pre-painted I would like to have since they are not all available yet in Nolzur's or Deep Cuts.
Just one last thing - that unnamed Beholder is basically Xanathar, at this point just based on the original 2E classic artwork. This was before Xanathar's Guide or Waterdeep Dragon Heist came out, which oddly enough, created another mini for the same character - yet the two are not the same mold, there are subtle differences in the scales and eyes, not just that the named one uses rings on his eyestalks. You could do a comparison video - I remember you guys reviewed WDH already.
Ah, yes, I thought I saw people refer to the MM2 beholder as Xanathar in older posts. I decided to err on the side of how it looks today in light of Xanathar being in Waterdeep, which is why I mentioned that beholders in close proximity have similar color schemes, meaning this beholder would work well as another beholder in the region around Waterdeep (or even be one dreamed up by the current or previous Xanathar, which could set up an interesting homebrewed plotline of a rival beholder or an imposter Xanathar trying to seize power). We do plan to do more comparison videos in the future once we finish opening up all the sets we have! -Grady
@@TheGallantGoblin I meant that actually the whole scowling pose is a hommage to the old Forgotten Realms 2E book cover "Waterdeep and the North" ! i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1435423486i/291526._SR1200,630_.jpg Xanathar also appeared in some of the old Marvel-created Forgotten Realms comics using this purple-beige colors and the insect-limb-like stalks. So it is a bit funny that we got this as a hommage to the 2E art first, but then WotC created a whole Waterdeep adventure where he was one of the main villains, necessitating a second mini. I never check how that influenced the price of the MM2 on the secondary market.
Heh, I see your Red Wyrmling too has that "using his wing as an umbrella" pose. I actually used the hot/cold water treatment to straighten out the wing, and it holds - and looks much better that way. I wonder if the wings get bent during packaging?
We got ours off eBay so it's hard to be sure when it got bent but I had thought it looked about right based on the minisgallery photo as well, though upon closer inspection it does look like their dragon has more outspread wings. -Grady
By the last breath of the four winds that blow I'll have the RU-vid channel of Theo Smile in his face I'll say "come let us go I've a cask of Amontillado" Sheltered inside from the cold of the snow Follow me now to the vault down below Drinking the wine as we laugh at the time Which is passing incredibly slow Part of you dies each passing day (Say its a joke Grady and I'll come to no harm) You'll feel your life slipping away You who play D&D and whose troubles are few May come around to see my point of view What price the fame of your RU-vid throne When you're chained in the dark all alone Part of you dies each brick I lay (Grady bring back the light in the name of the Lord) You'll feel your mind slipping away
A+ vid, as usual. You guys have quickly become one of my fave channels. And, yeah, the paint job on this set is pretty bad. The faces, while almost never good in any set, are particularly terrible here.
jaypob Indeed! And thank you! The monk’s face is rather disturbing. I’ll note again though that we don’t do the little minis any favors by zooming in so close to them. They generally look fine on the table from a distance. But, yeah, they did better on future sets. - Theo
And true, I almost stopped buying cases after this set because of the 2$ prices of Golems on the secondary market and disappointingly low prices of the Commons and Uncommons, making it a loss for trading investments. Thankfully later sets got back to normal prices. Of this set, only the Black Pudding, Human Wizard and the Gnolls and Hobgoblins fetched high prices
I wonder if the golems may actually go up in the future if they are used more extensively, though there's always the risk that new minis of them will come out too like how Trobriand is effectively a new Iron Golem in the Mad Mage set. Unfortunately, while they are quite true to the original artwork, the sculpts themselves are not super inspiring either, especially for the clay and stone golems. And of course the stone golems could be replaced by statue minis as well. -Grady
@@TheGallantGoblin I would also expect that with PF 2.0 coming out, they will make Golem minis too. I think they only made the Iron and Clay ones, plus a much larger Huge sized Stone Golem in the form of Runelord Karzoug. So there is a good chance they will make more in future sets. And yeah the D&D Stone Golem is kinda specific to a mayan/incan style.
Amazon is not usually great for Icons sets unless you’re buying individual boxes. They’ll sell bricks for some but that price isn’t always good. Toward the end of our FAQ we include a list of other sites you can also check out-it’s not a comprehensive list but it’s sites we’ve bought from and didn’t have trouble with (and we are not getting any financial benefit from any of the listed links) www.gallantgoblin.com/post/wizkids-minis-booster-sets-demystified
