Doesn’t a Golarion miniatures set review seem way, way overdue? After all, the Wrath of the Righteous is technically already out. Well, Ben doesn’t quite have the latest set yet (as he gives Popular Collections a chaotic angry stare). As scary as it sounds, the fifth Pathfinder Battles set might actually be considered a crossroads set for collector Ben. Let’s find out why.
Inside the Numbers
Let’s start with the usual basics. Legends of Golarion is the fifth full set of Pathfinder Battles and includes the usual 55 pre-painted miniatures (including the promo). Once again if you order a case, you’re basically guaranteed to get a full set.
Ben re-ordered from PopularCollections.com and paid $335.98 for a booster case with the promotional gargantuan green dragon. Once again this online vendor had the lowest price around but the latest customer service might be a tipping point for future orders. Sure, it’s swell to save $20-ish but not at the expense of the orders taking forever to ship/receive. For the next go-around, Ben will have to take a closer look at places like Miniature Market and Troll and Toad. Paizo themselves can’t normally be considered because they are insanely higher than other retailers.
The set broke out categorically-ish like so:
- Monsters: 39-ish (lots of great new Orcs and Kobolds)
- Female Figs: 8 (can’t tell if some are fem)
- Good-ish Guys: 8 (like the Janni)
- Unique Characters: 6 (Queen Ileosa is slick)
Editor’s Note: These are loose counts as classifying some of the minis is open to interpretation (so please call off your team of Ernst & Young auditors).
Broken Heart
In what has become the norm, this set delivered several misfit miniatures that broke in transit. Ben unpacked 3 busted figs from the box (including one rather nice rare – gulp).
Previously resigned to be SOL, WizKids has finally updated their support website to include the latest Pathfinder Battle sets. Ben is going to submit his pieces for replacement as that process went rather smooth during his original Shattered Star replacement order.
The Envelope, Please
Honestly, our game group was quite unenthused during the fig voting but a lot of that apprehension can be traced back to our unfamiliarity with many of these Pathfinder-brewed monsters/heroes. We don’t regularly play the Pathfinder/3.5 edition so it was just hard to relate to some of their new specialty classes.
Still, Ben sat down and gave the set a thorough second review and really felt quite good about the selection on second glance. However, this was the first time that the great minis didn’t leap out at us.
Here’s the Pile’s Fist-pumping Fab Five:
- Orcs and Kobolds (latest iterations of these monsters are superb)
- Charrau-ka (Make ideal minions in green settings)
- Monkey Swarm (Needs no explanation)
- Ulat-Kini (Great face detail and pose)
- Dijinni (Awesome sculpt and color scheme)
The pièce de résistance of the set are the final two figures for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. Lini and Sajan are extremely sought after and for good reason. Ben and his daughter love, love playing the card game with the minis. The Sandpoint Devil miniature also gave us goose bumps as it’s quite the memorable card in the game.
Oh No
And now for the Bad News Bottomfeeder Five:
- Calikang (Goofy colors)
- Marsh Giant (Could have been so much better)
- Eagle Knight (Bad 80s hair band)
- Serpent Demon (Overdone monster)
- Toad Demon (Feels like its wearing bad designer jeans)
Strange note: For the first time in a long time, we all gravitated to the smaller sculpts and felt many of the larger size figs were just a little too corny/cartooney.
Too Fast and Furious
Believe it or, Paizo was beginning to release its miniature sets too close together. So much so the launch dates for a few sets were actually changed to appease gamers’ wallets. Even a fanatic like Ben was a little relieved that they slowed the pace a smidge.
Cheat Sheets
As usual, Ben highly recommends the Paizo blog for all the upcoming set sneak peeks and the Pathfinder Minis website for your one-stop shop for full galleries and set lists.
There and Back Again?
Did everyone catch WotC’s recent announcement that they’re getting back into the miniatures game?! The big reveal shocked the heck out of the Pile crew. Ben truly wants them to succeed but previous letdowns have tempered our enthusiasm.
And there ya have it! We actually snuck in our review before officially receiving the Wrath of Righteous. The streak continues, yes?
Until next week.
Questions to Ponder: How many boosters will you buy? Who do you order from? Did any minis arrive broken? Did we get our top or bottom five wrong? How so? Do you only buy singles? Can WotC successfully re-enter the market or have they missed the boat?
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