Wizkids "Nolzur's" Miniatures - Bones alternative - any thoughts?

[beefcake]

I think I'll be getting a bunch of those. If not for me, for my kids to practice painting on. The detail looks excellent for what it is on the video.

[Elbows]

Can't find the video but Dr Faust did a look at a few of them.

The 2 packs aren't the same person, but different sculpts that fit the same character class with different archetypes. The female Paladin had one sword & board and one with what looks like a great sword...

Like the video in the first post? 

[Conquistador]

I will wait to see what they look like in the flesh... plastic.

Nothing in the video wowed me.  Maybe something to fill a niche for my FRPG friends...

[ced1106]

I just ordered some should get them soon.  From what I have seen in some unboxing videos they look to be smaller than a Reaper type figure.  they also seem to be the same person (like a 2 stage character) which I like I wish some company would do some 3 stage characters again I always thought that was a cool concept.

You are correct!

"Hero Packs will contain both a low-level and high-level sculpt of the same featured character." : http://wizkids.com/2016/03/16/wizkids-unveils-new-unpainted-miniatures-line-for-late-2016/

Of course, you don't have to paint them that way. Maybe, for Frostgrave, you could use the low-level wizard as the apprentice and high-level one as the wizard. Also, not all the hero sculpts look dramatically different between the high and low level. Some of the mini's have a melee pose and a ranged weapon pose. I think that would have also worked as a selling strategy, since, in roleplaying games, melee and ranged have different effects on play. http://wizkids.com/dnd-unpainted/

The videos are just advertising. The mini's will be sold retail, so you can definitely see for yourself! I'll still be funding the Bones IV KS, since I'm more interested in a library of mini's, and am not looking for a specific one. If WK ran a "bucket-o-mini's" KS for their unpainted mini's, I'd definitely be throwing money at it!

[Dentatus]

Just ordered a batch from Miniature Market for gaming with grandsons 1 and 2. (Cheap, plastic, cool looking, what's not to like?) I'll take photos when they arrive.

[Conquistador]

You are correct!

"Hero Packs will contain both a low-level and high-level sculpt of the same featured character." : http://wizkids.com/2016/03/16/wizkids-unveils-new-unpainted-miniatures-line-for-late-2016/

Of course, you don't have to paint them that way. Maybe, for Frostgrave, you could use the low-level wizard as the apprentice and high-level one as the wizard. Also, not all the hero sculpts look dramatically different between the high and low level. Some of the mini's have a melee pose and a ranged weapon pose. I think that would have also worked as a selling strategy, since, in roleplaying games, melee and ranged have different effects on play. http://wizkids.com/dnd-unpainted/

The videos are just advertising. The mini's will be sold retail, so you can definitely see for yourself! I'll still be funding the Bones IV KS, since I'm more interested in a library of mini's, and am not looking for a specific one. If WK ran a "bucket-o-mini's" KS for their unpainted mini's, I'd definitely be throwing money at it!

If Bones IV has something I want then I am in though I am highly irritated that I have not received, still, my Bones III figures.  I want my Mouslings!

[Spooktalker]

*steps up on soapbox*  

These seem to follow the trend of shortsighted and unambitious product management of new miniatures lines. I am so disappointed in Reaper for the Bones Product management. They had an opportunity to usher in a sea change. It takes pennies to produce a Bones figure, which we know from the fact that animals, larger and made with a higher quality, firmer PVC, and painted, cost something like 50 cents each from a party supply store. Product management is about collaborating with your customers, really understanding their needs and how they operate. A game master doesn't need 2 or 3 orcs. Having 2 or 3 orc miniatures is literally less useful than having zero orc miniatures. If you are a product manager with half a brain you sell a party of orcs, at least 8. And all of them are different. And all of them are the same style. You don't sell 5 kobolds. You sell 20 kobolds. And with PVC you can sell them at a price that will light up the face of the game master and it's a no-brainer for them. Instead Reaper, in an act of concentrated idiocy, didn't look above the horizon of the model of selling miniatures one at a time, and instead of a revolution, they replaced a good but too expensive option with a poor quality and only marginally cheaper option, and then like jerks slowly raised the prices on the single figures over the past few years so that now a crappy bones figure costs what a metal reaper figure cost 12 years ago. And the waste with the Bones figures, selling them individually.

With these new lines you have the same lack of vision. Let's take Bones, and make two improvements so we have a slight edge in the market. The same sea change opportunity lay with Wizkids, Paizo and Hasbro, and the failed the roll just like Reaper. Instead of 1 figure for $4, we give you two. Instead of the crappy, super soft Bones material, you get the higher quality Wizkids material. Fine. It's fine for the larger monsters, but not awesome, only fine. For things like Orcs, it's the same concentrated stupidity. For the heroes, what a waste of material. If you want to sell them for $2 put them in a little bag as their only packaging and have a singles box of a hundred of them that can sit next to the register. But then also give an option where you can buy this whole wave of heroes, 1 of each sculpt, for $1 a fig in a pretty collector box. You please the impulse buyer, the kid just wanting a mini for her character, the GM, and the collector. They way they did it no one is happy and the earth is especially sad.

Completely aside from the above, these designs don't do much for me. I don't like the style and don't think all the busy crap in the clothing is suited to miniatures very well. They are what they are, slapdash 3D figures designed scale-independent and not designed for the size object they will become. And devoid of artistic flair. A few years back Wizkids seemed to hit a high water mark and there were two or three figures from each set that I was compelled to pick up. The owlbear named "Beaky" is a great figure. The female stone giant, great figure. There was an awesome iron golem. A year later there was a very cool D&D owlbear to rival Beaky. But the past few years, I get excited about a new set only to be completely let down after looking over the collection.

Since my D&D collection is 25mm, I am mostly interested in the larger monsters, where the product management failings are least felt. I might get the troll to convert into a stone giant. But the large monsters on the whole are very bad. It's odd, the larger the figure, the more overmuscled they are. The overmuscled look is really distasteful to me, and I think is dated even now. They are not going to age well. Look at a tiger. You don't see corded muscles like that. "It's fantasy" so fine, you like corded muscles you get them. But know people like me see your miniatures and don't think the muscles make the figures look "cool" or intimidating, they make them look like greased up muscle pageant show stooges.  

And did I say how dissappointed I am that they aren't selling 8 bugbears in a go, 12 goblins, 20 kobolds? When I was a kid, I loved star wars miniatures more than anything. I bought the figures one at a time. I was a good consumer and bought what was offered. I got a stormtrooper, and went on an bought the next figure. When I went to play, I wasn't smart enough to realize that what I needed to have a great time was ten stormtroopers. If they had sold ten storm troopers in a box for $2 a figure instead of 1 figure for $3, I would have bought the set, like a good consumer. Kenner would have earned more money, and I would have more fun playing. Consumers can't articulate what they need and can't tell you ahead of time what they would or wouldn't buy when it's before them on the shelf. A good product manager gets to know them, understands their needs better than they do, and delights them. When the kid sees the 10 storm trooper box there is a little spark in his imagination. Aha! That is what I need and I didn't even know it! That will unlock the fun!

*steps down from soapbox*  

[nic-e]

We got these in at work the other day.

The range is fairly extensive and the quality on the whole seems to average out at a solid "okay".

They are what they are, cheap gaming peices.
The detail suffers on some of the smaller sculpts and i'd advise picking them by hand to ensure you didn't get one that was primed a little too vigorously.

They really shine when it comes to the larger models like the gryphon, troll and gnolls.

 

[Conquistador]

We got these in at work the other day.

The range is fairly extensive and the quality on the whole seems to average out at a solid "okay".

They are what they are, cheap gaming peices.
The detail suffers on some of the smaller sculpts and i'd advise picking them by hand to ensure you didn't get one that was primed a little too vigorously.

They really shine when it comes to the larger models like the gryphon, troll and gnolls.

 

Sad, I was hoping for better.

[nic-e]

Sad, I was hoping for better.

I think for £3.50 for 2 figures or a large monster you can't really go wrong if you need something functional, and before I'd even got them on the shelves i had lost some to eager customers.

For me they fill an oddly overlooked gap which is generic rpg minis that aren't multi part of metal.A non modeller can just chuck these in a bag, paint them with some paint pens maybe, and they're good to go for under £10.


Display models they are not, but they aren't trying to be.

Think of them sort of like primed heroclix figures.

[Conquistador]

I think for £3.50 for 2 figures or a large monster you can't really go wrong if you need something functional, and before I'd even got them on the shelves i had lost some to eager customers.

For me they fill an oddly overlooked gap which is generic rpg minis that aren't multi part of metal.A non modeller can just chuck these in a bag, paint them with some paint pens maybe, and they're good to go for under £10.


Display models they are not, but they aren't trying to be.

Think of them sort of like primed heroclix figures.

Point taken but maybe I was looking for something slightly "Holy Grail" unconsciously.

[Jerekin]

@Spooktalker:

Give this man a medal. You perfectly sum up how I feel about a lot of the bigger players. In this case Reaper and WK, to some extent FFG, GW and Dust and even with the 1/72 modelling companies it's the same tragedy. Their horizon reaches just to the next streetcorner from their factory. (As we would say in Germany.)

So much wasted potential...
It's a shame.

Didn't want to sound all negative. There are a lot of positives examples too. But the really good ideas come imo from smaller companies, but sadly it's not unusual that their ressources can't keep pace with their ambition.

Guess that's the price of success.

But btt

Nevertheless I will give them a chance and use some stuff for Frostgrave (a very positive example imo).

[beefcake]

Point taken but maybe I was looking for something slightly "Holy Grail" unconsciously.

Well if I was a kid again and there were minis like this I would think them the holy grail.

[nic-e]

Well if I was a kid again and there were minis like this I would think them the holy grail.

As a student who wants to play SoBaH and doesn't wanna risk chipping my home set of champions of chaos, These are great because i can actually afford to engage in my hobby and better yet, Get others involved.

With staff discount these cost me £2. That means my hobby budget stretches even further and instead of one GW blister and a drink i can afford 1 gw blister and a selection of monsters and heroes from the D&D line. One mini becomes 5 and I can get my course mates to play games with me without worrying about someone in the sudio knocking the table over and sending my armies into a foundry.

[Dentatus]

My package arrived today. I'd say they're on the same level as the Blood Rage figs, detail-wise. They're crisper and more rigid than the Bones stuff I have for bulk SOBH baddies. I'll take pix tomorrow.

Not a ton of variety but certainly a fine, inexpensive way to build up figs for an RPG campaign or off-the-shelf SOBH dungeon delvers.