Wizkids D&D Frameworks - Sprue Miniatures

[firespitter]

This actually inspired me to look at other sprue miniatures. I found Games Workshop Moria orcs which I like because they remind me of old school basic D&D orc minis. They work out to be about $1.35 per orc for a dozen unique poses (instead of $5 ea). And I can give away or sell my wizkids style orcs. So win-win.

*UPDATE* I received the Moria/Morannen Orc Minis by GW today, and though they are very nice sculpts, they are honestly a bit diminutive to be orcs, but are right on point for being Hobgoblins: The armor, weapons, shields, the scale fit right in with the existing D&D minis. So when these are painted-up I'll have over 25 unique Hobs to swarm players with.

[Mattnuke]

Renamed the topic to make it is clear this is about Frameworks.
Also, check out, found some preview pics of the Orcs and Kobolds that they sent out to a painter dude for review/painting. He says the price is whack, but the minis are awesome.

Well...he said they were pretty good. He didn't seem that impressed by them. He also thought they came with a poor choice of accessories.

This entirely. He was not happy that they basically had useless extras and mostly empty sprues. I agree. Having worked with GW minis for 20+ years, their sprues are generally wonderful. I like it when I actually have lots of spare bits left that I can use to modify other minis in my collection. Arms, heads, weapons, shields, banners, rats, bones, debris, all sorts of stuff. WizKids has gone the path of least resistance and said…’we’re giving you 50 extra pieces!’ (Sorry they’re just three different sculpts of tiny jars).

[Clint]

Gallant Goblin just posted a video on the Balor mini:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qTeOGeeUBc

So, yeah. A hundred bucks. Reaper's entire KS6 Core Set is $125.

[Guyra]

Gallant Goblin just posted a video on the Balor mini:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qTeOGeeUBc

So, yeah. A hundred bucks. Reaper's entire KS6 Core Set is $125.

And Bones KS Core Sets usually comes with 150+ minis, including large and even huge sized ones!

Just saw the video. The details on the balor looks crisp and nice. But there were some concerningly large gaps on the mini! And while it could be that the boys just aren't that familiar with putting together sprue minis(which I don't think is the actual problem here either way), gaps of that size should not occur at all when putting together a quality sprue mini! Least of all one that costs almost a hundred bucks!

In fact, I'll say that this is just evidence that Wizkids don't know what they're doing yet when it comes to producing sprue minis. It's fine to make mistakes like that when starting out. Experience takes time. But it's not fine when you simultaneously set absolutely ridiculous prices.

balor-gaps.PNG (115.6 KiB) Viewed 1596 times

[Clint]

I thought those gaps were surprising as well, but chalked it up to GG doing an admittedly half-assed job (e.g. the backwards horn). Goobertown painted up the kobolds and orcs and I don't recall him having problems with those. However, when you are charging a hundred dollars for a sprue miniature it should be perfectly engineered, so if this isn't then that's (another) problem.

But I just don't get why this is so expensive. Their Hill Giant is, what, $40? That's still a bit pricey, but more in the ballpark for a high quality, huge miniature of this sort. What is the rationale for the similar-sized Balor costing $60 more than that? Especially when they already do a Nolzur's version for $15?

[Mattnuke]

[insert random excuse about shipping cost]

[insert random excuse about more demand for demons]

[insert random excuse about anything but price gouging]


Hmm, what was that Clint? I don’t think they want to tell us!

[breegull]

The gaps are because they didn't cut off all the little nubs of sprue. One of their Dungeons & Lasers reviews was the same. I remember it surprised me because the rest of their overview is so polished.

That said, there's zero reason to have those particular seams in that particular place. Total amateur hour.

[Brophy]

For those interested, these are due for release tomorrow April 13th.

[Kalcheus]

Considering my FLGS didn’t have Wave 16 yet last week, I doubt that they’ll have the sprues when I visit this week. Either that or I’ll see what GN has them for

[Mattnuke]

They are live at MM. the beholder is sold out (unsurprising). The mind flayer is at 16 units and almost everything else is at 20+. I’m actually interested enough to watch these and see how fast they sell.

[Cusm]

*UPDATE* I received the Moria/Morannen Orc Minis by GW today, and though they are very nice sculpts, they are honestly a bit diminutive to be orcs, but are right on point for being Hobgoblins: The armor, weapons, shields, the scale fit right in with the existing D&D minis. So when these are painted-up I'll have over 25 unique Hobs to swarm players with.

GW made these smaller scale, probably to separate it from the 40K Fantasy line which sucks. I have the escape from Goblin town and the scale difference isn't horrible for goblins and hobbits/dwarves, but the humans and orcs are more noticeable.

[Mattnuke]

Those escape from goblintown goblins make great starter frames for all sorts of creepy monster conversions.

[Mattnuke]

So, on a couple minis painting groups I am part of, these are not getting great reviews.

There are two main complaints (outside price).

The first is that they are very spindly and because of that they are hard to assemble/paint.

The second is that the spare bits aren’t useful for people to use with existing sprue minis. Seems WizKids picked a true 28mm scale for their characters (like Nolzur’s is) and the Warhammer folks want nothing to do with it. The bad thing about this, is what I was worried about from the start. If the warhammer folks aren’t into these, their direct competition is Nolzur’s. That could prove to be a lose/lose situation, because with current WizKids actions I don’t see them keeping the cheaper line if sales don’t support both.

I have the hill giant coming in, so I’ll share what I think about it when it gets here.

[firespitter]

sharing my pics of my "Hobz". Front three rows are mostly the GW sprue Morannon Orcs. As a side-note, the minis are sprue but fully assembled except for a couple of arms and a few optional shields. In the back are some heroclix LOTR orcs, as well as a reaper "bugbear", and a ghoul archer. A real wonder how so many different creatures look like hobgoblins.
From my remembrance of AD&D 1st ed, the hobgoblins had reddish orange skin, and eastern styled armor. Anyhow, they all look like a single warband to my aging eyes.

[breegull]

GW made these smaller scale, probably to separate it from the 40K Fantasy line which sucks. I have the escape from Goblin town and the scale difference isn't horrible for goblins and hobbits/dwarves, but the humans and orcs are more noticeable.

Yeah the different size is a contractual obligation of their license. The Tolkien estate people didn't want customers kitbashing LotR stuff into all sorts of goofy things, I guess.