The old DDM (D&D miniatures) line

[Kaiden | The Gallant Goblin/LPP]

Anyone know a good place to get the old DDM prepainted minis cases? Noble Knight Games only has singles last time I checked, couldn’t find any bricks. Also, what’s the quality of the paint jobs like compared to current prepainted minis? They lowkey look better then some of the earlier 5e Wizkids lines like Tyranny of Dragons and the awful Monster Menagerie ones, at least in the 2008+ ones, there appears to be washes on the majority which is mind blowing. But pictures can sometimes be misleading.

EDIT: Changed it from “old 4e/3e minis line” to its proper name lol.

EDIT 2: Turns out a bud of mine has a bunch of old DDM minis lmao, so I’m gonna see if I can get some off him. So post kinda resolved, tho if there’s anyone who has any they’re willing to sell I might still be interested.

[KingOfVrock]

Are you talking the end of the DDM line like Savage encounters, lords of madness, etc?

They didn't actually come in bricks, cases only. They are pretty hard to find, and expensive. Ebay would be your best option.

one seller in particular:

https://www.ebay.com/str/megagamingandc ... 61.l161211

has a brick and mortar location in Gainesville FL and has tons of boosters of the old sets, including some cases. He was willing to negotiate if you have the ability to visit the store.

[Kaiden | The Gallant Goblin/LPP]

Ah yes, that’s what I was talking about. That sucks, was hoping they’d be cheaper then that lol. Ah well, cool review idea scrapped ig.

[DnDYuan-Ti]

My experience is that the DDM line’s paint quality took a pretty big nosedive around the time that 4e minis started to come out. Washes, for one, were more common before then.

[Kaiden | The Gallant Goblin/LPP]

Ah, so older the better. Got it.

[DnDYuan-Ti]

Ah, so older the better. Got it.

I would say so, but other people on the boards have larger DDM collections than I do so maybe someone else disagrees. It just seems like the colors got more flat and overly aggressive during the 4e transition. Of course, there are some minis from that era that are really great! I also agree that early IotR is reaaaaally rough. That’s why I never got interested until Volo’s came out, iirc.

[Kaiden | The Gallant Goblin/LPP]

Browsing through the sets rn and I actually agree, the middle era of the line seems to have the best paint jobs. The earliest and latest do look rough.

[jaredh]

Its nigh impossible to find a sealed case of anything DDM....and you'll pay dearly for it. Finding sealed BOOSTERS is possible, but they are usually going to be expensive, and are very VERY likely to have been picked over reducing the chance you get something worth the money they will want for it.

Its probably been a decade since I saw a DDM booster in the wild.

The problem with DDM is the rares...are really rare (and the very rares are really very rare). It doesn't help they are usually great minis both in sculpt, paint job, and DDM game power. It drives speculative opening.

[Kaiden | The Gallant Goblin/LPP]

Oof, yeah… I’m starting to think it might be cheaper to just hunt down singles at this point, unless I stumble upon some treasure trove where they don’t cost nearly a thousand bucks ngl.

[Mattnuke]

Feel free to DM me what you’re looking for. I still have a ton of the old stuff, which is just collecting dust!

[berk the black]

Yes, cases and booster have pretty much all been open or squirreled away to never see the light of day at this point. But a lot of minis were released into the wild (singles) and as more and more 5th edition minis come out, a lot more of these are becoming available on the market (or dropping a bit in price). There are exceptions, but the singles market is your best bet. There used to be more vendors, but there are still plenty you can get them from.

[deadsmurf]

Browsing through the sets rn and I actually agree, the middle era of the line seems to have the best paint jobs. The earliest and latest do look rough.

The first three sets had bad paint jobs pretty much overall (improving set to set marginally), with a few exceptions, Giants of Legend and Aberrations increased quality a LOT, and it stayed good until War Drums, which was a big Drop off in quality for the one set, then it improved again afterwards, staying pretty consistent to the end, though the number of paint steps did lower on the commons and uncommons in the last few sets - they were at least still well applied.

Average Sculpt quality is pretty all over the place too - The first 2 sets were not great, but that seems to have mostly be solved by set 3 (archfiends) - It was reasonably consistent until the transition to digital sculpting, which unfortunately happened around the same time of the 4e Transition, so a lot of people associate the two things. I believe Deserts of Desolation was the first set with some digital sculpts included, and either Against the Giants or Demonweb being the first set that was entirely Digital Sculpts. The Sculpting team seemed to get over their learning curve, and have things more or less in hand and the average quality of sculpts was good again for the last 2 or 3 booster sets, and the boxed sets etc afterwards.

[Kaiden | The Gallant Goblin/LPP]

Feel free to DM me what you’re looking for. I still have a ton of the old stuff, which is just collecting dust!

Plot twist, I’ve just discovered one of my friends has a bunch of DDM minis and I’m in the process of convincing him to give me a bunch lol. If that fails I’ll take you up on that tho!

[Kaiden | The Gallant Goblin/LPP]

Browsing through the sets rn and I actually agree, the middle era of the line seems to have the best paint jobs. The earliest and latest do look rough.

The first three sets had bad paint jobs pretty much overall (improving set to set marginally), with a few exceptions, Giants of Legend and Aberrations increased quality a LOT, and it stayed good until War Drums, which was a big Drop off in quality for the one set, then it improved again afterwards, staying pretty consistent to the end, though the number of paint steps did lower on the commons and uncommons in the last few sets - they were at least still well applied.

Average Sculpt quality is pretty all over the place too - The first 2 sets were not great, but that seems to have mostly be solved by set 3 (archfiends) - It was reasonably consistent until the transition to digital sculpting, which unfortunately happened around the same time of the 4e Transition, so a lot of people associate the two things. I believe Deserts of Desolation was the first set with some digital sculpts included, and either Against the Giants or Demonweb being the first set that was entirely Digital Sculpts. The Sculpting team seemed to get over their learning curve, and have things more or less in hand and the average quality of sculpts was good again for the last 2 or 3 booster sets, and the boxed sets etc afterwards.

So basically: First three sets no, middle sets all good minus War Drums, avoid the first few 4e sets cause wonky sculpts, the last few are good with slightly more simplistic paint jobs for the commons etc.

[DnDYuan-Ti]

For the most part yeah, but there are good ones in every set! It’s just about the overall average quality to me.