Best Premium Miniature Set of 2021

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Choose a premium miniature set you believe deserves the title of "Best of 2021".

Poll ended at Sun Nov 13, 2022 10:05 pm

Monsters of Wildemount Udaak Premium Figure
(Critical Role)
4
6%
Adult Blue Dracolich (Boneyard)
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
4
6%
Adult Green Dracolich (Boneyard)
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
5
7%
Archdevil Geryon
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
1
1%
Orcus, The Demon Prince of Undeath
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
8
11%
Gargantuan White Dragon, Arveiaturace
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
7
10%
Adult Blue Dragon
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
1
1%
Adult Gold Dragon
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
4
6%
Adult Green Dragon
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
2
3%
Adult Red Dragon
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
5
7%
Frost Giant and Mammoth
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
9
13%
Gargantuan Tiamat
(D&D Icons of the Realms)
13
19%
Treerazer (Bestiary Unleashed)
(Pathfinder Battles)
2
3%
Mengkare, Great Wyrm (Pathfinder Darklands Rising)
(Pathfinder Battles)
5
7%
 
Total votes: 70

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Kor
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Best Premium Miniature Set of 2021

Post by Kor »

Vote for a pre-painted premium miniature set released in 2021 which you believe deserves the title of "Best of 2021".

Members may cast votes for up to two premium miniature sets. The sets which receives the most votes will win this category. In the case of a tie, a panel of judges will be convened to break the tie.

Voting is open until the end of Sunday, November 19, 2022
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BBShockwave
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Re: Best Premium Miniature Set of 2021

Post by BBShockwave »

Maaan, I just realize all these minis came out in one year. No wonder I am running out of space to put them. :D
Does whatever a Spiderdragon can!
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berk the black
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Re: Best Premium Miniature Set of 2021

Post by berk the black »

BBShockwave wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 5:43 am Maaan, I just realize all these minis came out in one year. No wonder I am running out of space to put them. :D
I don’t know where you put everything, as I see you getting a lot of Transformers in addition to all this D&D stuff. Notbto mention the plushies and other collectibles that go beyond the tabletop. There’s no way I could store all that stuff.
Disclamer: I prefer black bases, and as such have painted many clear bases black. Pictures of my collection will reflect this, varying from the original way the mini was produced.
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Marco
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Re: Best Premium Miniature Set of 2021

Post by Marco »

I refuse to vote for that "gargantuan" (actually it is colossal on a 8 x 8 base) $400 monstrosity of a mini.
Tiamat is what began the size creep $$$ grab imo.
Go to the nine hells and stay there!
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Guyra
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Re: Best Premium Miniature Set of 2021

Post by Guyra »

Okay, this one's difficult for several reasons. So I'm going to go through each and give my thoughts. I'll put it in a spoiler tag:
Spoiler
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Udaak - Simultaneously a cool and very unique Gargantuan/Colossal creature, and unknown to most D&D players and not really possible to "proxy" as something else. I personally like it a lot, but it has very few uses. I almost want to count it among my favourites, but the competition is just really hard!

Adult Blue Dracolich - Very cool dracolich design! But I personally really dislike the flight peg, and feel they could've changed the pose slightly and make the tail the flight peg instead, as it's already touching the base.

Adult Green Dracolich - Also a great dracolich design! And while I get that the colours fade and change from the decay, but I would've liked to see a bit of green on it anyway. On the other hand, this way it could possibly be used for other colour dracoliches as well.

Geryon - I honestly wanted to like this mini. The snake part of him is really nice. The rest feels very bland, and for some reason reminds me of the bad CGI The Rock as the Scorpion King. Price point also became a bit ridiculous with $50, when it looks like a mini that should at most be half that on the aftermarket if it was released in a blind box. (And with the Huge size, it certainly could've been!)

Orcus - Okay, cool design overall. Far from my favourite design, but that goes for a lot of 5e designs. I don't like the flying pose, which also means it has a ridiculous flying peg that goes into its back. And as we've seen, that flight peg breaks easily, often arriving broken in the box. And also, the painters really messed up the eyes!

Arveiaturace - This is a very, very cool dragon mini! Colossal in size, and with a removable saddle with a dead skeleton on it, in case you're using the mini as the particular dragon its named from. However, there was the whole "unpainted" debacle, and I'm personally still not buying into the "it was an accident" explanation, when they had made fully painted versions for reviewers already. And then they doubled the price for it after starting to paint it completely. (Though they seem to have settled on a ~60% increase from the original price since then, at least.) All in all, great mini, worth the original $100, but there's some history that leaves a bad taste in the mouth for me here. Yet I still count it as one of my favourites.

Adult Blue Dragon - Honestly just a really nice blue dragon! I think I might like to have this one at some point, but I'm just not on board with current Wizkids prices.

Adult Gold Dragon - This is an absolutely awesome gold dragon mini, and particularly nice to get as we don't really have that many options for gold dragons in the first place! I think it's a weird choice that you change out the entire head, and not just the fire breath effect. I also find it to be a missed opportunity to not have a head with a closed mouth as well, if the entire head's being removable anyway. That said, this one's definitely among my favourites of 2021 premium minis.

Adult Green Dragon - Definitely a cool mini for a big Green Dragon! However, I personally prefer nonflying poses. Yes, I can see situations in which dragons with flying poses work better, but in general I prefer to have them on the ground and instead put them on risers if they're flying. That's just my personal preference, and honestly I wouldn't mind having both standing and flying versions of all dragons. But standing minis takes preference over flying minis for me.

Adult Red Dragon - Again with the flying pose, which detracts points for me personally. Especially when it's almost touching the base anyway, could've changed the pose and design slightly to not need that terrible flight peg. However, it is a very nice Red Dragon miniature in and of itself. Me grumbling about flying poses and flight pegs certainly does not change that fact!

Frost Giant and Mammoth - The last of the four non dragon premiums of 2021, and the modular nature of this one makes it practically three minis in one! Even if the mammoth's oversized, I don't think that's actually a problem in this case. It's just not your regular mammoth, but one bred for giants to ride on! The minis also just look well sculpted and painted. Definitely another of my favourites.

Gargantuan Tiamat - Honestly, I find this entire thing to be ridiculous. Yes, it's cool to have an official, properly sized Tiamat miniature. But the price is way too high, and absolutely artificially inflated because Wizkids knows there are people willing to fork out the money for this. However, I personally don't think this mini actually looks that great, even if it is the legendary dragon goddess.

Treerazer - Give it to Pathfinder to deliver something different! A dragon with a huge axe! I think this is a super cool miniature, and it's really well done! The dragon design differs from D&D ones of course, but I honestly really enjoy the design of this dragon a lot.

Mengkare - Alright, another Gold Dragon, but the Pathfinder version! Honestly, if I wasn't familiar with D&D and Pathfinder at all and just saw these two Gold Dragon minis next to each other, I might just choose this one over the D&D one purely for aesthetic reasons! The downside to this one is the rock, of course. I'm personally not a huge fan of miniatures with terrain on their bases. On the other hand, I do prefer a large, anonymous rock over a flight peg. Overall, this one's certainly one of my favourites.
Well, those are my personal, completely unasked for thoughts on each and every one of these. :P Having to choose two, I think I'll have to go for Mengkare, and the Frost Giant and Mammoth. Adult Gold Dragon gets a close third!
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coyotee
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Re: Best Premium Miniature Set of 2021

Post by coyotee »

Tiamat was oversized and overpriced.

Arveiaturace the Grey Unpainted Dragon was a disaster I hope people do not forget.

Orcas. I don't understand how this mini wasnt recalled. The advertised pics vs what we got for face and eyes was a disgrace.
And it was so brittle that a major Canadian store I buy from wouldn't even ship them! In store sales only!

Going with Frost Giant just because it was well executed.
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BBShockwave
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Re: Best Premium Miniature Set of 2021

Post by BBShockwave »

berk the black wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 5:57 am
BBShockwave wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 5:43 am Maaan, I just realize all these minis came out in one year. No wonder I am running out of space to put them. :D
I don’t know where you put everything, as I see you getting a lot of Transformers in addition to all this D&D stuff. Notbto mention the plushies and other collectibles that go beyond the tabletop. There’s no way I could store all that stuff.
I use Leomund's Secret Chest, obviously. But psssst, don't tell the Githyanki, they might steal my Transformers and assorted stuff from the Astral Plane! ;)

Seriously though, basically I just only display my latest finds. The rest is put away in boxes, except for the really big minis and Transformers whom I just have to find place on my shelves or on my work table.
Here, some photos of my room, or at least the more presentable sections of it. :)
And I actually only have 2 plushies so far, the Displacer Beast and Mimic. They are on my covered bed and I move them and my giant teddy bear from my childhood, Maci Laci (Bear László, basically the hungarian name of Yogi Bear) to the couch every night, but I eventually plan to add plushie Tiamat to their trio as well. :)
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Marco wrote: Mon Oct 24, 2022 6:31 am I refuse to vote for that "gargantuan" (actually it is colossal on a 8 x 8 base) $400 monstrosity of a mini.
Tiamat is what began the size creep $$$ grab imo.
Go to the nine hells and stay there!
I bet some people would like to have her at an even bigger scale... see the new and even more expensive Sideshow statue.
We are really like cultists, buying bigger and bigger and flashier idols of our "gods" to gain their favour. "Notice me, Tiamat-Senpai!" :P

Guyra - Having rewatched the BRs of all 3 Mummy movies (yes, there are only 3... Tom Cruise? What Tom Cruise? ;) ) I also noticed the resemblance between Geryon and The Rock. Now we HAVE to get him on board for the next D&D movie. "Can you smell what Geryon has been cooking?"
Does whatever a Spiderdragon can!
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