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Wasn't sure where to ask this but I'm looking to see what companies do large monsters for fantasy games, obviously I know of forge world and have been looking at Mierce miniatures as well just wanted to know if there were any others of the kind of aesthetic and quality of build?

Cheers!

Reaper does. And some will be in Bones material, so cheap. What ones are you looking for? GW does some...but most are based on their universe.

A great alternative to monster-like creatures are toys. Theres a French toy company that makes static figures of orc like creatures, dragons, ogres and other fantasy related creatures. [I cant think of the companies name at the moment] but toy shops that primamrily sell traditional/educational toys tend to have a section of them

Sorry if this was too vague of a response

I believe there is a section on Dakka about using toys and the like in your armies. As far as fantasy is concerned, you can pick up dragons from loads of different places and in many scales, some of them are excellent.
So I'd recommend just browsing Ebay for dragons and seeing what comes in at your scale. Then see what else that same seller has. you'd be surprised what you'll find.

Should have said I've been a GW collector for years but never really branched out, I like models at that scale so i'll check out the ones suggested.

People have mentioned Kingdom Death miniatures but theres only a few available these days most of the others have been sold out for a long time and are very expensive otherwise.

These two companies make both monsters as well as humanoids in larger scale.

http://www.figone.fr/en/
http://www.terriblekidsstuff.com/

Haven't got around buying anything from them personally, but they look gorgeous from the pics.Not horribly expensive for the quality either. At least not when compared to GW pricing.

Reaper Bones is brilliant for large creatures. The material is far better in larger figures (normal 28mm miniatures in the material are really sub-par compared to metals or hard plastics --- passable, but barely). The larger creatures/monsters are fantastic.

 Zywus wrote:
These two companies make both monsters as well as humanoids in larger scale.

http://www.figone.fr/en/
http://www.terriblekidsstuff.com/

Haven't got around buying anything from them personally, but they look gorgeous from the pics.Not horribly expensive for the quality either. At least not when compared to GW pricing.

I've purchased figures from both these companies. I have only good things to say about TerribleKidsStuff, great models, great service.

Figone stock a great range of both their own figures and stuff from other small companies. It's well worth looking on their site, although I've had a couple of minor issues with them in the past it's nothing that would put me off ordering from them again.

There's also Schleich that I've seen around a number of toy stores, especially the larger ones like Toys'R'Us in the US.

Schleich does nice stuff, but it's not terribly cheap.

https://www.safariltd.com/

They have great dragons, Giants, Greek and Fantasy stuff, not to mention some animals and dinosaurs that fit the bill.

Think of Schleich on a budget.



Over in Toys R us, there are several selections of toys from Animal Planet, and The Corps that also fit in there.

Think of a modern day "Upgrade" for Marx toys.



Marx toys themselves. Sometimes you can get them on the cheap from Feebey.

Ok, we should condense our info and turn this into an article.
I did some research for my own benefit a while back. However the toy industry changes fast, what was a source five years ago is not a source now.
I will list by search criteria without description. Just use the search criteria to describe the items for yourself and see if they are fit for you.
Prepare to think outside the box, for example a chunky plastic toy castle for very young children set might not have anything at first glance, but the crossbows make for good ballistae, and have a chunky plastic catapult that with a little bit of conversion work makes for an excellent orc rok lobber. If i got that, who knows what you might find.


1. Intenet auction/car boot sale items.

While anything can go at any price at car boot or a lucky eBay lot that sails through unbid on. The point is that some types of toys are routinely underpriced, though not always.

MageKnight
D&D Miniatures (collectable)
Pathfinder Battles


2. Boardgames

Some miniatures boardgames have great miniatures. Msany have a large number of fantasy miniatures some painted some unpainted and of various scales. including several large monsters per boxset. The game is good enough it will hold a price, most of the below are, but you might find damaged or incomplete copies on the cheap to simply loot.

Decent - Journey in the Dark
D&D Miniatures (boardgame)
Runescape


3. Dedicated miniatures

Too many to list....
Reaper




4. Toys

Well they are all toys but some are more toy than others.

Safari
Playmobil


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 Grot 6 wrote:
https://www.safariltd.com/

They have great dragons, Giants, Greek and Fantasy stuff, not to mention some animals and dinosaurs that fit the bill.

Think of Schleich on a budget.

Over in Toys R us, there are several selections of toys from Animal Planet, and The Corps that also fit in there.

Think of a modern day "Upgrade" for Marx toys.

s themselves. Sometimes you can get them on the cheap from Feebey.

I have in the past taken a long look at the Safari Chimera for my Warriors of Chaos army.
I like the model and the price, but it will require different basing, probably a Rakky base, that I dont mind. I decided not to in the end because IMHO Chimerae should not be that big. They are fairly modest monsters, not large dragon size. I have a little Reaper Chimera for miniatures gaming, I might still get the Safari model for Warhammer, never liked the GW one, but my Warriors of Chaos list doesnt need it, and I would prefer to have moar horde if I had the point spare anyway.

If you're used to GW and especially Mierce quality, there's not much else on the market. Some Ultraforge models. CMON has some pretty great large monsters, too. But once you hit Mierce, that's the top of the spectrum.

There is no top of the spectrum. Its all a matter of opinion.

For some Rackham, for some Games Workshop, for some Plastic Soldier Company, it all depends on what you are after.

Also for some detail is everything, for others less is more. Crisp clean model with good quality to its details that isnt a 'hot mess' of 'junk detail' is the best. For others those 'featureless' models are crap and they prefer something covered in details.

While people cna agree generally on what a bsad sculpt is, there are many conflicting and contradictory criteria of what makes a good sculpt. I am not a fan of Mierce miniatures, some very very nice, some are OK, admittedly none are bad, but the style doesn't inspire me and some of their stuff is too busy. Gamezone have similar quality but are less busy, all the detail is relevant or left off most of their models.

There is no right or wrong, or best artistic vision, just different artistic opinions and values.

If you can find some of the older McFarlane Dragons, they make excellent fodder for miniatures.

In a few months Reaper has a thumping huge multiheaded dragon coming out in Bones - and the same figure was available in resin for their Christmas sale.



They also have an insanely huge undead dragon - but that one was an accident. (An accident that resulted in an awesome figure, but an accident nonetheless....)



The Auld Grump

Wait, Skalathrax was an accident? How so?

They got the scale wrong by about 25% so it is much larger than it should be.

 Orlanth wrote:
There is no top of the spectrum. Its all a matter of opinion..

Yes and no..

In terms of technical ability in the sculpting, Mierce are better than pretty much anyone.

Whether or not you like that style/aesthetic is down to opinion.

The two things are different.


Sources of monsters:

Wyrd have some fairly sizeable pieces with their emissaries, and a couple of other select figures, plus quite a few ogre/troll sized things (eg. sabre-tooth ceberus), but they tend not to be 'classic; fantasy monsters. They've just launched a kickstarter for an expanded game which features a range of big gribbly things. Again, not 'classic; monsters, though.

Some of the Hordes stuff gets pretty big from what I've seen around the web.

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
In a few months Reaper has a thumping huge multiheaded dragon coming out in Bones - and the same figure was available in resin for their Christmas sale.

I feel stupid for having missed this model, even more so when I saw the 60$ price tag it had :/