Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures
You’ve seen them. If you’ve ever been in a Hobby Game store, or an adventurer’s league game. Really anywhere that sells D&D stuff, they have these. Why? Because these particular mini’s are the Miniatures that are licensed through Wizards of the Coast to be the official Dungeons & Dragons miniatures. Miniatures are way less important in Tabletop RPGs than in Wargames. In fact, many many campaign groups will never use a single mini. So why would Wizards release such an extensive set of something not necessary. Because there is something satisfying about busting out the map, and getting tactical. Having a tangible, palpable demonstration of fights helps many people’s imaginations come to life. So how do these rank amongst miniatures? Pretty solid, actually.
What am I getting when I purchase these?
Well, the best part of the Nolzur’s Unpainted Miniatures series, is that they come in a clear plastic container letting you see exactly what’s in it. For this particular review, we went with a Dragonborn Fighter (purchasing anything through this link may bet this site a commission) and as you can see from the photo of it, it’s pretty obvious what’s inside. Finding a miniature that looks similar to your Player Character is about as easy as it gets this way. For those of us who are not the most creative, taking someone else’s statue, and borrowing it for the basis of our character’s visual appearance can help spark the imagination. This is especially useful, because the Nolzur’s unpainted miniature line covers quite a few types. Everything from Player characters, to select monsters, to furnishings. In the case of player characters, as we have here, there are almost always two of them packaged together.
How well do they paint?
Well, let’s start with a general disclaimer: I’m a poor painter. I’d like to chalk it up to the fact that I’m simply inexperienced, but as you’ll see I’m not putting any of the amazing shading and gradients into my minis that you’ll find in other miniatures. But, I gave it the old college try! True to the label, I went straight for it without any fear of priming the mini. I’ll leave you with a before and after gallery here:
As you can clearly see, they hold paint very well. I only painted one of the two for this particular review, but the whole process took 40 minutes including cleaning up after, and this required enough time for it to dry so that I could grab it to paint from another angle. I think it’s worth noting at this point that painting miniatures can be quite enjoyable. Obviously that’s a subjective statement, but if you enjoy working with your hands, painting minis may be an excellent hobby for you.
What’s not great about these?
When are they gonna make one of me?
There’s really not a great deal bad about these. The obvious one is that it may be tough to find a mini that fits your exact image of your character. Especially once you play a while, and begin collecting gear that becomes essential to your character’s story. And in any case, if you have a rare race character, or god-forbid a homebrewed one, you’re likely out of luck. For example, the “firbolg” player character race has been an official D&D option since November 2016, almost half of the time that the edition this line was made for has been out. In spite of this length of time that it has existed, there still is no Firbolg mini.
Overall, how do they stack up?
These are quite nice. When you put together all the factors, they’re a pretty good supplement to a collection of miniatures. You can often find 2 packs in your local hobby store for around $5-6 bucks. That is indeed a touch expensive if you intend to make an army of goblins. However, if you’re looking to get a more permanent version of your player character, or you want to surprise your party with miniatures of the same, $6 each, or $3 if they look similar is a goddamn steal. By comparison, a custom miniature from Hero Forge starts at $29 plus shipping. Even designing and 3D Printing your own custom miniature is going to cost 50 cents of material. To say nothing of the time cost required to make that happen. Ultimately (and this is slightly counter intuitive for a branded product) one of the biggest draws of this item is the affordability. Combine it with the high availability and the opportunity to know exactly what you’re getting and this is a pretty good pick up if you want to get tactical with your D&D!