by Taylor Smart
Hello again mini figure fans. This last week has been somewhat crazy for me, at the time of this writing I am in the process of finishing up preparing for a move to Texas. By the time you are reading this I will be getting settled in and hopefully unpacking all of my toys. I couldn’t leave you all without your weekly dose of mini figures so let’s jump right in!
I have been eyeing these Pathfinder minis at my local game store for a while now, and as I had to pack everything up I thought this would be a good time to grab a box. Released in November of last year these figures are made by WizKids/NECA to be sold alongside the Pathfinder Role Playing Game. The box comes with four random packed, pre-painted, figures: one large based figure and three medium and/or small based figures. Retail price is $15.99 but I was lucky to catch them on sale for $12. The set has 45 figures in total, you can view a full gallery here. I had browsed the gallery before my purchase and the figure I want most is the Goblin Mutant, which happens to be pictured on the side of the box. You can locate some new Pathfinder goodies over at EE and you can watch our recent MiniMates review here.
THE MEAT
Ripping in to the box the packing forces you to see the large based figure first and the one I got is pretty awesome. The Forest Drake is massive compared to the other three figs! He towers over them but still looks good scale wise. Paint wise my only complaint is that the orange, which I am guessing was applied last, doesn’t seem to have the precision of the other secondary colors. The wings in particular have underspray and overspray. The face, which is normally the worst painted part on these kinds of figures, is quite good. The inside of the mouth is all pink, the teeth are all white, there isn’t any overspray where the tongue comes out, the eyes are straight, just about perfect. The sculpt itself is nice as well. I love how the tail seems to be made of interlocking vines, the horns on the head look like tree roots, and there are plenty of detail and wrinkle lines that give the figure texture.
The second figure is a medium based Green Hag. Paint wise she isn’t too exciting, it looks like a total of three colors were used. Green for the body, white for the tattered gown, grey for the hair, and then a grey wash over the whole thing to provide a shadow effect and give color depth. The minimal paint used left little room for error and the only problem I see is that one of her ears is mostly grey instead of green. Sculpt-wise I am a fan. The hunched over body looks great, having one arm raised and one foot leaving the ground creates a look of movement. Adding those two things together it looks like this creepy hag is shuffling toward you for a kiss, or to kill you, I'm not exactly sure which but I would say either is fair game.
The third figure is a small based Gnome Eldritch Knight. Not even half as tall as a Lego mini figure and he isn’t even the smallest of the four I got. Despite being so small his paint application is still pretty good, with seven colors present he almost has as much color as the Forest Drake. The eye application could have been better, the black dots used are too big and overlap down onto the cheeks which looks a little odd. Other than that the paint was done very well on this little guy, being so small and having so many colors I am surprised at the lack of over spray. Sculpt wise this figure is bland compared to the others, just standing there at ease holding his weapon doesn’t do much for me visually. The best part of any detail is in his face, plenty of wrinkle lines, a prominent nose, and a definite jaw and mouth add to the character quite a bit. There are some wrinkle lines in the sleeves but the couple of lines in the armor are so shallow that the only reason you know it is armor is because it is silver.
Lastly the smallest figure, small based Small Air Elemental. I think this figure was done very well and it probably wasn’t easy. Capturing air and giving it a “body” sounds really hard to me but this figure pulls it off nicely. With only one color of paint this figure still captures the essence of the character. Made with clear plastic, white paint was applied for highlights. The sculpt is great, twisting up out of the base it looks like a tornado with arms and a head. The leaning forward pose is also great for this figure, it looks like this thing is spinning toward you.
All of the figures have a collectors number and their name printed on the bottom of the base, this makes it easier to track which character you have if you are trying to collect the whole set.
THE POTATOES
Something that is very common in the gaming community is repainting these types of figures with completely different color pallets. People like them to match the idea of how they think their character looks in game. I won’t be doing anything to these as I don’t play Pathfinder and I like the way they look as is.
THE DESSERT
These figures are really a great deal for how much they cost, they are pre-painted which isn’t cheap and you are guaranteed a large based figure which uses a lot of plastic, for me they are easily worth the $4 per figure. I would recommend them to anybody who is interested in fantasy figures.
I will catch you next week from Texas!