Wiz kids to launch line of unpainted fantasy miniatures (pics pg2)

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**Kid_Kyoto**

2-stage heroes (low and high level)
Monsters (1-3 of each monster)
Treasure and items

150 figures in the first wave

Pre-primed

No word on prices or casting medium.

Late 2016

WizKids Unveils New Unpainted Miniatures Line for Late 2016

Partners with Leading Licenses to Feature Iconic Characters, Creatures and Scenery

Hillside, NJ — March 16, 2016 – Leading board game and collectible miniatures creator WizKids today announced a brand new line of unpainted miniatures, featuring more than 150 unique fantasy sculpts, set to be released in Q4 2016.
The collection will include iconic characters, creatures, and even scene-building elements, all available in three types of specialty packs that will each contain a variety of sculpts:

Hero Packs will contain both a low-level and high-level sculpt of the same featured character.
Designed with army-building in mind, Monster Packs will contain 1-3 miniatures with different poses of a single monster.
Item Packs will contain scenery and items for detailing adventures.
The highly detailed miniatures feature an enhanced sculpting process, which highlights minute elements, and includes deep cut surface detail and scaled features for easier hand painting. They also come in dynamic and exciting poses, are pre-primed with Acrylicos Vallejo paint, and are ready to go directly out of the box. Customize the look and feel of your characters and campaign like never before.

The new line is set to launch in late 2016 and will be available at friendly local game stores world-wide.

http://wizkids.com/blog/2016/03/16/wizkids-unveils-new-unpainted-miniatures-line-for-late-2016/

**MLaw**

I'm curious as to what their stable of creatures will consist of. I imagine all the public domain type monsters are a shoe-in but can they get close to D&D/Pathfinder type monsters without stepping on toes? Will this just be Mage Knight sculpts cast in better material?

**privateer4hire**

They did that with Mage Knight before IIRC. They came in boosters just like the regular ones as I recall.

**Stormonu**

Hmm...wonder how this will do against Bones? Seems like that would be their primary contender for unpainted, cheap minis (I don't expect they'll be metal, honestly).

**TheWaspinator**

Potentially interesting. I do like that they've split up stuff into categories, so if you just want a bunch of terrain you can do that.

**overtyrant**

Stormonu wrote:
Hmm...wonder how this will do against Bones? Seems like that would be their primary contender for unpainted, cheap minis (I don't expect they'll be metal, honestly).

If I can get them over here easier then Bones then I will, be very happy.

**Azazelx**

MLaw wrote:
I'm curious as to what their stable of creatures will consist of. I imagine all the public domain type monsters are a shoe-in but can they get close to D&D/Pathfinder type monsters without stepping on toes? Will this just be Mage Knight sculpts cast in better material?

Well, Reaper has a ton of Not-D&D monsters in both it's regular and Bones ranges...

**ced1106**

These aren't blind boosters, right? I don't want to get a mage when I need a barbarian, or a tree when I'm looking for dungeon dressing!

Given today's price for similar boutique miniatures, WizKids did some not-too-expensive prepainted MageKnight artifact sets and castle pieces. I wish I picked up more sets and that WK would rerelease them.

http://icv2.com/articles/games/view/797/wizkids-announces-dungeons-artifacts
http://www.trollandtoad.com/p294470.html

**BrookM**

Ha! Oh man, if these were blinds it would be perfect way to ruin a great idea.

**TheWaspinator**

Given that we're talking about the makers of Heroclix and blind-packed D&D and Pathfinder miniatures, I fully expect blind packages.

**Maccwar**

overtyrant wrote:
If I can get them over here easier then Bones then I will, be very happy.

Bones miniatures seem pretty easy to obtain in the UK or at least that has been my experience.

Miniature Heroes carries the entire range and regularly re-stocks

http://miniature-heroes.co.uk/

There is also Spirit Games

http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/disp.php?menu=5&sub=13&tagno=8797

And plenty of eBay sellers including this one:-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=miniature_empire_online_shop&_armrs=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbones.TRS0&_nkw=bones&_sacat=0

**Compel**

Yeah when I read the announcement, my first thought was, "oh they're going after a piece of Reapers pie."

One thing is, since DnD Attack Wing is a thing, they might be licensed to do some DnD models, especially if it's a case of "these are game pieces and therefore licensed differently from the "Collectors Miniatures" range."

Its some of the smaller companies, I wonder about. Otherworld miniatures, for escape have what looks to be great metal sculpts of various rpg models.

There's also Heroforge as well, which is a great concept and people should really check them out.

**Da Boss**

Interesting. I hope the price is more reasonable than the Attack Wing lines. And I also hope the sculpt quality is a little better!

At least Wiz Kids reliably distribute in Europe. I'd love to get some Bones but I'd have to order it from the UK and I hate relying on the unreliably delivery services over here.

**Polonius**

The press release mentioned licenses, so it might not be all public domain stuff.

It's a cool idea, I think it's a slightly different niche than bones, especially with the two stage hero packs. I think this is aimed at the most casual of players, to really ease them into minis.

The devil will be in the details: sculpt quality, price point, and availability. 150 figures in the first wave is an impressive investment though!

**ced1106**

Hmm... More idle speculation

but...

Attack Wing and Reaper Bones are sold in visible packs, so mebbe WK will sell these unpainted fantasy miniatures the same way.

WK already has a relationship with WotC and Pathfinder, so the licenses would be D&D or Pathfinder.

Painters have blogged that WK has some very good sculpts in their prepainted lines.

I figure if the target of the mini's are, like Bones, RPG'ers and painters, customers will buy individual figures, rather than buy them all.

Reaper mentioned that they'll have a KS for prepainted figures from their Bones line (Bones plastic was originally for a prepainted miniatures line), so fair's fair!

**jmurph**

Interesting. These seem aimed at the RPG crowd, but definitely have wargaming potential. Since most of the D&D stuff isn't IP specific (or can be skirted fairly easily with squid men and floating eyebeasts), it shouldn't be a problem covering most "iconic monsters".

The descriptions don't indicate blinds as the hero packs are the same hero as are the monster packs. I guess it could be random which hero or monster you get? I am guessing it will be more like the MageKnight boxes, though.

**NewTruthNeomaxim**

Considering Wizkids has the worst q/a industry-wide, and has repeatedly proven to be incompetent games-makers who value sales above all else, I will be sure to avoid this on principle alone.

It was a lesson I took too long to learn, but everything from Heroclix, to Dice-Masters, to Star Trek has just been an embarrassing cash-grab, leveraged on nostalgia and good IPs.

Edit: Incidentally Attack Wing isn't fully sold in visible packs. Their OP kits have exclusive ships in blind-boosters. That crap business-model is at their core and they find a way to include it in everything. I expect the same here, 100%.

**overtyrant**

Maccwar wrote:
overtyrant wrote:
If I can get them over here easier then Bones then I will, be very happy.

Bones miniatures seem pretty easy to obtain in the UK or at least that has been my experience.

Miniature Heroes carries the entire range and regularly re-stocks

http://miniature-heroes.co.uk/

There is also Spirit Games

http://www.spiritgames.co.uk/disp.php?menu=5&sub=13&tagno=8797

And plenty of eBay sellers including this one:-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=miniature_empire_online_shop&_armrs=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xbones.TRS0&_nkw=bones&_sacat=0

Thanks for those links! Never could find what I wanted on Ebay and those two webstores never showed up on Google, thanks again!

**Chairman Aeon**

From ICv2:
http://icv2.com/articles/news/view/33979/new-unpainted-miniatures-line

WizKids has announced a new line of unpainted miniatures, planned for release in Q4.

The company will partner with leading licenses for a line of Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons minatures which will feature more than 150 unique fantasy sculpts, including iconic characters, creatures, and scene-building elements.

The line will come in a variety of three packs: Heron Packs, Monster Packs, and Item Packs. Hero Packs will contain both a low-level and high-level sculpt of the same character. Monster Packs will contain 1-3 miniatures with different poses of a single monster. Item Packs will contain scenery and items for adventuring.

All miniatures are pre-primed with Acrylicos Vallejo paint.

Also they have a picture with 3 miniatures. They are too small and I'm too lazy to repost.

I think the interesting thing is the minis will be from both licenses including iconics.

I'm on the fence. Bones was a neat idea, but the minis don't set the world on fire. I don't think these will be anymore adventurous than the pre=painted stuff we've seen. I'm not expecting resin quality minis, but if they dip into Mage Knight and throw in some steampunkiness they may get my attention and some $$$.

Iain.

**Compel**

Actually I'm kinda impressed (though they could be masters)...

Those three are a heckuva lot better than anything I've ever seen from DnD Attack Wing.

**JNC**

So the PB Iconic Heroes are getting a reprint this early. This is a letdown considering I already have set1-6 and most of the main-line figures I want as PPM, and don't really want hordes of unpainted(that's why I buy PPM). I wouldn't say WizKids has bad sculpts at all. And considering they have both the D&D and Pathfinder figure licenses I wouldn't expect off-brand monsters. The reveal of the non-ppm reprints is a major blow.

The only thing that interests me is the 2-tier heroes and set pieces.

If MageKnight

Spoiler:

is the PPM line you're most familiar with, they've made lots of progress since then. Most of the sculpts(if deemed bad) are a result of the 2-d art, not really the casting. Anything bad is offset by the variety.

If I had to pay 5-15$ for every sculpt I owned-I wouldn't own them(unless they were worth it)

The average 'large' uncommon, in both fantasy PPM lines average 6$-not bad at all compared to bones. And that's PPM over non-painted. Bones isn't the right size either.

I wouldn't even say Bones' sculpts are that great, it depends.

**vfults**

Compel wrote:
Actually I'm kinda impressed (though they could be masters)...

Those three are a heckuva lot better than anything I've ever seen from DnD Attack Wing.

I have those figures in their prepainted form. Those are the actual minis, not masters. WizKids' Pathfinder figures have amazing detail.

**Bossk_Hogg**

Those actually look pretty good without the gallon of goopy paint they slop on them. If the swords have edges I might pick up some. Most of the pre-paints look like silver nerf bats.

**Compel**

My main direct experience with Wizkids models is Star Trek: Attack Wing. Where not only could they not manage to prepaint in the lines, but they're not able to glue the models together properly, or avoid thick blobs of glue over the model.

I've got a couple of Heroclix ones too (chase figures no less) and they're like, below mediocre but not as bad as Star Trek - though the painting's just as bad.

The DnD models look just as poorly made/painted as the Star Trek ones.

Those examples though, just great.

**JNC**

If someone wants to hand paint 1000-3000 minis, then store them where they will not break or take up half a room, do so. Not me

Absolute quality for a coolminiornot painting competition, need not apply.

**AegisGrimm**

Too bad this'll get the usual Wizkids treatment. Since Mage Knight, they have such product ADD it's crazy. They'd do well if they weren't just out for the next big thing.

**bound for glory**

Hillside, nj? Is that where wizkids are based?

Just wondering as i lived right near there most of my life...

**Kid_Kyoto**

Pathfinder AND D&D?

Together?

I thought they were like Sharks and Jets or Ninjas and Pirates?

**Polonius**

I also thought reaper was making pathfinder models. As in, they were part of the Bones III kickstarter but won't be released until September.

**Kid_Kyoto**

They are, they've had the licence for years.

It's possible the contract is written in a way there can be more than one mini maker, the way Knight Models makes 'unpainted Batman gaming models' while Wiz Kids makes 'painted collectable Batman gaming models' and someone else might make 'painted Batman statues and figurines'.