D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

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Kikoli
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by Kikoli »

Legendary Creatures wrote: Tue Dec 20, 2022 6:31 pm A miniature for an Astral Elf Star Priest to represent Andavier would have been much better than a miniature for a corpse, that's for sure.
I mean... Queen Neri in the Storm King's Thunder sets.

She's dead for months before the adventure even begins! She still takes up a slot in those mini boxes.
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KBirmy
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by KBirmy »

Cross-posting this for those who might not follow the Sales and Events thread: Cool Stuff Inc. has a bunch of the IotR Spelljammer minis on sale as part of their Deal of the Day, including singles, bricks for $85, and the ship-scale sets at almost half-off. (I believe they've offered this exact deal before.)
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by Imbalance »

So, I took full advantage of the CSI sale, nabbing the ship sets, a case of boosters, and the dreadnought. Total that with the discounted copy of the accompanying books I scored last month, and my Spelljammer haul ended up costing less than the SRP on the case alone. Overall, I'm pretty pleased. The books made the concept much more appealing to me than it had been at first glance, and the value for having both the vehicle options as well as the normal scale minis could not be beat at these prices. Granted, it's not a complete acquisition - those promos will elude me for a long time, and the elf-centric box sets don't do much for me at all - but to spend shy of the exorbitant CE price while getting plenty of what would matter in a D&D in space campaign more than makes up for the few that I'm missing in my eyes.

Thanks to all those who diligently report these sales.

That said, I did end up with some unfortunate gripes with Wizkids' QC. First was the rare Solar Dragon from the booster set, which was missing most of its spines. They were snapped off somewhere, but not found in the booster or bubble wrap, so I have no repair option. I'll be filing a claim for this.
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There isn't any severe carton damage, but there was no insert in this booster, either. I could understand the likelihood that it rattled around loose and broke the delicate spikes, but they should have been present. It looks like they were busted before it got packed.

My other gripe is the poor quality of the gargantuan Dreadnought. Damn, would I be angry if I had payed full price for this specimen. The thing is like a big rotocast chewtoy. The details are doughy and the assembly is not done well. The fitment of the upper jaw is so poor there's a gap under its eye. The seams are all filled with some kind of gross plastic weld or hot glue, and the underside and tail of mine are deflated. I do appreciate the attempt to employ magnets to hold the tail on, but the deformities with mine leave a gap big enough to stick a space elf's head in. Did anybody else notice problems with the way this beast is made? I'm pretty disappointed, but somehow on the fence about claiming this one. It feels like it may be easy for them if this set is as unpopular as it seems and they're sitting on a heap of these enormous minis. It's probably worth the hassle.
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This is too expensive.
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by coyotee »

That dreadnought is shameful. This may have just taken the number one spot for bad premium mini.
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by BBShockwave »

I'd return that, same with the Dragon. The missing spines are hard to replace. I assume since the mini is held by a bubble inside the booster, these broke off before anyone put it inside the box?

The mismatched seam assembly is sadly, not new. I have had that on some of my Adult Dragons too, but it is not as glaring or in your face as here. This is quite a bad place for the seam to be askew...

Btw, I keep hearing about the magnets in the tail, how does that work? The magnets are inside the tail stump and you don't need to push the tail in, just insert in a socket? Does that mean the tail is somewhat articulated?
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by Gopesh1 »

coyotee wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 12:57 am That dreadnought is shameful. This may have just taken the number one spot for bad premium mini.
I mean, I was unexcited about it, and I haven't been tempted to acquire it. But seeing those pictures and reviews really drops it completely off my radar.

Thank you guys for sharing your experience with it.
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by berk the black »

BBShockwave wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 9:28 am I'd return that, same with the Dragon. The missing spines are hard to replace. I assume since the mini is held by a bubble inside the booster, these broke off before anyone put it inside the box?

The mismatched seam assembly is sadly, not new. I have had that on some of my Adult Dragons too, but it is not as glaring or in your face as here. This is quite a bad place for the seam to be askew...

Btw, I keep hearing about the magnets in the tail, how does that work? The magnets are inside the tail stump and you don't need to push the tail in, just insert in a socket? Does that mean the tail is somewhat articulated?
There’s a large flat “socket” that the magnet secures the tail in. It has a tiny amount of play, but nothing I would consider posable.
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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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by Imbalance »

No, definitely not posable. Not intentionally. I think it's a great idea, and I think the general execution of the idea worked well for this product. It's just that the example I received is physically misaligned and warped, so that even though the magnets attract, the socket ends up having a lot of play and there isn't a good way to align it that won't be pulled away by the magnets. Like, I could almost pose it in a way that closes the gap a bit more snugly, but as soon as I let go, it attracts into a position that makes the gap worse. I'll see about adding a pic later.

And the Solar Dragon was one of a handful of boosters that had no insert, no vac-formed tray to secure it - it was in a large bubble wrap bag by itself, and the three smaller minis were also in individual little bubble bags, but there was nothing else keeping it in place. It was great that this was the only broken mini in the case; bummer that it was a rare. I'll be shipping it to WK tomorrow or Saturday.

The Dreadnought isn't on the replacement list yet. I'll have to follow up later to get that resolved.

The rest of the set is pretty cool, I must say, even if it's an uncommon opinion. Happily, all it took was showing the wife some flying space hogs and this (big) little guy to soften her disdain for my recent spree:
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This is too expensive.
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by coyotee »

Imbalance wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 10:57 pm
My other gripe is the poor quality of the gargantuan Dreadnought. Damn, would I be angry if I had payed full price for this specimen. The thing is like a big rotocast chewtoy. The details are doughy and the assembly is not done well. The fitment of the upper jaw is so poor there's a gap under its eye. The seams are all filled with some kind of gross plastic weld or hot glue, and the underside and tail of mine are deflated. I do appreciate the attempt to employ magnets to hold the tail on, but the deformities with mine leave a gap big enough to stick a space elf's head in. Did anybody else notice problems with the way this beast is made? I'm pretty disappointed, but somehow on the fence about claiming this one. It feels like it may be easy for them if this set is as unpopular as it seems and they're sitting on a heap of these enormous minis. It's probably worth the hassle.

Gopesh1 wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 9:29 am
coyotee wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 12:57 am That dreadnought is shameful. This may have just taken the number one spot for bad premium mini.
I mean, I was unexcited about it, and I haven't been tempted to acquire it. But seeing those pictures and reviews really drops it completely off my radar.

Thank you guys for sharing your experience with it.
I was super excited to finally get a dreadnought. I co GMed a double table adventure based around a dreadnought.
This is a total let down.

Looks like they are using the same material as the Kraken body, which my first though was also that it seemed like a chewtoy. I half expect them to squeak

If wotc and wizkids want to make cheap toys, the price should reflect that.
If they call it collectors items, the quality should reflect that.

The icons line has been inconsistent in quality , material, and style ( colored plastic. Bases. Flight stands.

And the broken spines on the solar dragon?! Come on...how many big dragons have we had now. Breakage should be solved by now.
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by Imbalance »

coyotee wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 12:06 pm Looks like they are using the same material as the Kraken body, which my first though was also that it seemed like a chewtoy. I half expect them to squeak
I might have to dig Kraken out for some comparison shots. It is the same manufacturing process, though the scale makes the difference here. Kraken would be in the same size range with the ship scale Dreadnought, toy size terms. IMO that Dreadnought, as well as the Kraken, had a decent amount of detail for being rotocast. My suspicion is that the rendering for the ship scale mini was scaled up in the software to make the gargantuan molds instead of the other way around. I'll have to look more closely at the two of them to be sure.

Rotocasting is absolutely the cheaper way to produce figures at this size category because it leaves the model hollow, but it is a different material mix that must remain more fluid than injection molded plastic - more of a soft vinyl usually. Both the material and the process result in less fine detail, but use a fraction of the resources. Usually, in lines with recommended age limits of 14+ (our hobby collectible space), they can add finer detail elements to the rotocast base to make a more complicated and interesting finished sculpt, seen with the lower jaw dangling bits on the Dread. It's a perfectly good way to make collectibles (Tokyo Pops, Little Ponies, Godzillas - cutesy stuff). And yes, chewtoys.

Even with that in mind, this isn't a monster that would necessarily need high definition to its appearance - it's not scaly or furry, doesn't carry any gear, nor is it particularly colorful. It's enormous and imposing and wants to swallow your spaceship whole. But even then, as a toy, make sure that it's at least put together properly and won't cave in on itself. More to the complaint, though, there's nothing premium here. Other than nailing the imposing size and licensed appearance, the product falls well short of expectations set not only by other toy and miniatures companies, but even WK themselves have done much, much better with past rotocast examples. Honestly, if it squeaked it would be an improvement.
This is too expensive.
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by BBShockwave »

I do not think the Kraken lacks detail. Yes, it is hollow, but many giant toys are like that. It helps with stability. And IMHO it has a lot of nice surface detail.
What both the Kraken and Astral Dreadnought suffer from is that due to their official art having bland colors, they too have bland colors. The Tarrasque has that problem too. We can blame whoever first designed their color art in 2E. ;)
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Imbalance wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 11:57 am And the Solar Dragon was one of a handful of boosters that had no insert, no vac-formed tray to secure it - it was in a large bubble wrap bag by itself, and the three smaller minis were also in individual little bubble bags, but there was nothing else keeping it in place. It was great that this was the only broken mini in the case; bummer that it was a rare. I'll be shipping it to WK tomorrow or Saturday.
Oh I keep for some reason thinking you live in Europe, LOL! Good that you can ship back to Wizkids. Most FLGSs also would replace damaged minis - Thiemtwork replaced my armless Verbeeg without a word.
This whole "no bubble" thing really needs to stop. Either they should use an inner cardboard frame for the boosters, or go back to bubbles, environmental concerns be damned. It was already a recipe for disaster with things like the Adamantine Golem and Bodytaker Plant - I still count my blessings all of mine had their vines intact.
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Clint
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by Clint »

That Dreadnought looks very shoddy, specially at that price. Not impressed.
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by Yeenoghu_it_is »

I like my Kraken! BB I agree with you about the colors, but for the mini, I think the red and bright water blue contrast enough personally.
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by Gopesh1 »

Dreadnought still sitting at like $119.99 on CSI daily sales with 20+ left. I wonder what their wholesale purchase price was.

The Pheonix I got for sub $100 with the 5% discount. I wonder if the Dreadnought goes sub $100 if I can justify picking it up.

I just don't even have storage room if I did pick it up. The avernace metal car thing, some big dragons, a balloon, and the giant pheonix chicken. I'm running low on space and only a few of these things actually look good enough to display on my limited shelf space.

Anyone else have a pricepoint they would jump on it?
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Re: D&D Icons of the Realms (Set 24): Spelljammer - Adventures in Space

Post by Mattnuke »

$40….same as the tarresque!
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