Sunday, May 30, 2004

Highlights of Giants of Legend

Freakin Canadian posted the following on the Wizards boards:

So I got a preview of the set from a retailer early this week. She read the set list to me - and I've seen a few pictures of some of the minis.

Here are my highlights of GoL, without revealing too many details and annoying the mother ship:

1. It's a good set. The quality of the sculpts and painting are the best we've seen so far.

2. It's a good set. There was attention paid to some very classic foes and monsters in this set - and each one was given tender loving care in how they were portrayed and sculpted.

3. It's a good set. There are monsters/foes we've seen before. Iconics we've seen before, humanoids/undead we've seen before etc. That might detract some people, until you see them up close. You'll realize WOTC took a step "up" in the quality of their painting and sculpts and decided to reapply to it to some of the classics, personally I am glad they did.

4. It's a good set. There is plenty of new content too, in fact the vast majority is new content. But the new content is still very much classic D&D. As it has already been revealed the set features a Manticore, that's just one example of a D&D classic beastie that is making its debut.

5. It's a good set. It has quite a few larges. I am not sure the exact count, but there are a lot of large minis in this set, all of them rare and for the most part, they are all really great. There are one or two rares that will dissapoint people greatly, but for the most part, all the non-huge rares are real winners.

6. It's a good set. We see the debut of the first tiny (the Quasit), we see another baby dragon, we see uncommons that look as good as rares in previous sets.

7. It's a good set. The Huge Gold and Red Dragon are the kind of pieces you want the whole world to see. I know if get a Gold Dragon it's going right on top of my monitor at work, it looks that good.

8. The set has flaws. Some of the Huges, are for me, very dissapointing. My summary of thoughts on this is that this is WOTC's first attempt at Huges and just like its first attempt at plastic minis as a whole (Harbinger), there were some deficiencies.

9. The set has flaws. Some of the rare minis that I thought would be spectacular when I heard their name, wound up being very dissapointing. Some of the choices of Huges, are for me personally, questionable - and I believe, some were quick replacements when the more ambitious Huges simply did not work out in manufacturing.

10. It's a good set. Overall, I must concede and offer praise. In fact, I think one reason this particular retailer "let me in", was to convert me. She knew I had purchased a lot before and wanted me to see what WOTC was asking me to pay extra for in this set.

I have to say, I think I'm converted. Last night, I hung out with a gaming group, that included someone who works at this store. I was converted enough from the little I saw (which I guess came as a random sample from someone within WOTC to encourage THEM to preorder more).

I was converted enough to buy a case (12 packs, preorder), on top of the 4 I had already pre-ordered. I got a deal, paying basically 13.00 per pack - and at that price it's a worthy investment.

The set isn't perfect - and I'll continue to gripe about some of the detail and minutia, I thought could have been improved. But as I held a particular common in my hand, one that is iconic in my campaign for a particular character, I realized...

WOTC has done a great job, D&D has never looked so good...

So yeah, I'll gripe about the dinosaur (which looks terrible up close), I'll gripe about winding up with 4 Nightwalkers that look like they were painted in 10 seconds, but like I say, overall...

...D&D has never looked so good.