Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
New Rules are Good, New Packaging Isn't, April 9, 2008
When I first heard that D&D minis was going to be revised, I was at first very upset. Why, after so many years of being just fine, was the game being totally changed? After reading the new rules and getting used to the idea, I started to be ok with this change. And I was not wrong. But there are two aspects to this release: the Good and the Bad.
THE GOOD - the good things about this product are just marginally better than the bad. The new rules are very interresting and, I think, balancing. You no longer have to worry about losing a 60 pt piece to a bad morale save. The game also is trying to come more in line with D&D 4th edition, which to some people will be a plus as well (I could care less). The new models themselves are amazingly sculpted and the plastic seems to be of a good quality. I've not gotten any "leaning" pieces that I did with previous sets, the the boxes are more managable and harder to steal from (and, as a customer of this product from a store that is almost always ravaged, this is a good thing). The new cards are also very sharp, and the layout on the cards is mostly logical. So, with all this, why did I rate the product only 3 of 5?
THE BAD - the main thing I hate is this: in the set, there are only 11 commons, but 25 uncommons, and 24 rares. Each pack comes with 1 rare, 3 uncommons, and 4 commons. This means that, at least, you have to buy 22 packs to get all the rares. It also means that you're going to have 88 commons, out of a pool of 11 different ones, which means you'll have at least 8 of each common. The packaging is horrible, I hate it. Another minor complaint is the paint jobs. They're only sub-par most of the time. Some times they are good, but not often enough to get a good mark.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great for new players wanting to expand their collection, April 29, 2008
My friends and I just recently got hooked into the wonderful world of D&D miniature gaming. We got the D&D miniature Starter Kit that came with the new revised rules (called Dungeons of Dread rulebook), and we had a blast. After having so much fun with the starter kit, we decided to buy some boosters and we picked up several of these Dungeons of Dread packs and really liked them.
What's nice about the Dungeons of Dread boosters is that they come with updated stat cards that use the new rules, so you can immediately play them with your starter kit (if you bought the recent version). These new stat cards are in full color and look better than the old stat cards, and apparently they will tie the game closer to the new 4th edition D&D RPG game. I don't play the RPG game, but I may plan to in the future.
Like others have mentioned, these boosters do recycle some miniatures from older booster sets so veteran collectors may be unhappy about this, but this was done to help new players so they won't have to search to find old booster sets, which go back as far as 15 expansions back. As a new player, I think this is great way to introduce players into the game.
I also bought some boosters from the older series like Desert of Desolation, Night Below and Unhallowed, so I was able to compare the quality of the minis. I thought Dungeons of Dread overall had a better consistency in quality and paint job than Desert of Desolation. While both Desert of Desolation and Dungeons of Dread has some mediocre minis, I found Dungeons of Dread to a bit better. Night Below however seemed the worst, while not horrible, it was not as good as Dungeons of Dread or Desert of Desolation. Unhallowed however, was the best with consistently good paint jobs and the minis tended to be larger.
Important: one thing to be aware is that if you buy older booster sets (anything pre-Dungeons of Dread), is that the packaged stat cards were designed to be used with the original (now called "vintage") rules. But fear not, you can go online to the publishers website, Wizards of the Coast, and download the updated stat cards in PDF format for printing. As of this writing, only Desert of Desolation and Night Below have been updated. Unhallowed will be updated in May/June 2008. The other booster sets will be available later.
So if you're new to D&D miniature gaming, I think these are great introduction, and overall I've been pretty happy with them. They use the newer stat rules that help to streamline gameplay, so it's a great time to jump in and learn the game.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed Bag, not as good as previous releases, May 21, 2008
The latest D&D miniatures release is so-so. Some of the miniatures are pretty nice, such as a young red dragon, a vrock, and an ettin; all of which were too expensive to buy from previous sets, and the sculpts and paint are good.
Other miniatures are horrible in not only concept, but the sculpt and paint is just staggeringly bad. The hydra is no longer a multi-headed dragon like creature, instead it has reverted to the medieval representation and looks like a gaggle of snakes had a superglue accident. While I could get over the change to the appearance the sculpt of the hydra is slightly less well done than the 1982 bendable version TSR put out, and the paint job of muted green with a dab of muddy yellow is less than stellar.
There are a lot of good miniatures in the set for RPG purposes, and the new DDM rules are actually pretty good. Spiders, hook horror, drow, dire wolf, etc. The main gripe I have is the sculpts for many of the miniatures are really horrible. The new grick is...I don't have the words for how bad it is.
The griffon, while a decent piece, is monochromatic. The troglodyte is not only a solid grey color, but almost looks like it is curled into the fetal position, since they didn't make the weapon or tail separate from the body.
The new bulette is very nice looking, but the dire wolf no longer has spines, and the magma brute doesn't even have a discernible head. The new hag is wonderful looking, but neither the gnoll or orc are even close to the sharpness of the ones from Night Below.
[...]
Still love D&D, just don't think this was their best effort.
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by Wizards Miniatures Team
by Wizards RPG Team
by Bruce Cordell
