Review Category: Merch

Pathfinder is sort of Dungeon and Dragon’s little brother; it’s a fork from a previous edition of the game and it’s much loved by the sort of people who like lots of rules that you can ignore, complicated concepts that you can’t ignore and intricate world building that you’ll hardly use.  It also relies on models a lot more than D&D Fifth Edition, should you want to use miniatures in the first place.

The most recent setting for Pathfinder is the Mwangi Expanse, stories heavily inspired by real-world African mythology. It’s a great setting, and Pathfinder Battles  The Mwangi Expanse Booster range brings together 42 different pre-painted plastic monstrous beasties that you can use to surprise you players.  It’s safe to say that this range is unlike anything most miniature collectors will have seen before, which means they are load of very cool creates in the booster boxes. (And yes, these come in booster boxes; if you want to a specific model you’ll have to look on the second hand market.)

For example, the Aigamuxa is a person shaped monster with eyes on it’s feet that runs on it’s hands. The model for this creature is a bit wild, and will certainly have an impact when placed on the table-top. The piece is available in both running and handstand form.  As you might imagine, it’s pretty eye-catching, and the other 42 models in the set are equally fun.

Arachnophobes should be careful, as they are spider monsters in this set (they’re actually rather cute), and we get some unique beasties such as an ant gnoll and the Goloma, which is a humanoid horror that’s mostly teeth and claw. The Eloko is  kobold like lizard/crocodile creature with a machete,  the Asanbosam is a werewolf/sloth thing balanced on a tree. Unlike other Pathfinder miniature sets, this range is quite specific, but they are fun and if you want to surprise your players, this will do the trick.

Other highlights include the Arboreal Warden (a tree person, and a bigger one is available) and the Jungle Drake, a really cool mini for when your party isn’t quite ready for a dragon.

Pathfinder Battles  The Mwangi Expanse is a great series to collect if you’re looking for something a little new, and very much worth a look if you’re running the Mwangi campaign or

Wizkid’s range of models for Pathfinder’s Mwangi Expanse setting has produced some  interesting pieces for very specific table top roleplay adventures. The Mwangi setting is heavily influenced by myths and tall tales from Africa, a vein of inspiration that is not used as often as you might expect.

In the real world, The Mamlambo is a river deity that forms of part Zulu mythology; in Pathfinder it’s a magical river dinosaur that eats people. This is the sort of monster that ends campaigns at low levels,  thanks to it’s hypnotic Luminous Lure attack and ability to grapple adventurers and drag them down to a murky doom.

The pre-painted model is appropriately weird and creepy. Wizkids have used a translucent base to lend the piece a thrashing in a water style look, and the model is poised in a dynamic way, as if it is crashing it’s way out the river to attack it’s victim.  It’s a weird looking snake/crocodile/bizarre monster thing and it’s a very cool and striking piece.

If you’re looking for a river monster for your fantasy games (and this would also make a great Loch Ness style monster), this is probably the thing you’ve been looking for.

The range of unpainted, single pose models inspired by Magic the Gathering has yielded some interesting results. Wrenn and Seven is an eye-catchingly weird tree-thing, the Avacyn model is one of the best angel model’s we’ve seen. The Blighsteel Colossus is an equally interesting choice.

In the card game, this is a powerful creature from Phyrexia, a hellish world that blends machine with flesh to create some truly nightmarish things. This Giger-esque realm spawns countless monsters, who seek to destroy and consume everything across existence until every resembles itself.

The Magic The Gathering – Blightsteel Colossus model is unpainted and appropriately huge. It’s legs are scultpted to be a weird mix of machine and bone. The rest of it is a bizarre blend of ornate, chaotic armour and biomechanical horror. The piece has been primed; there’s a thin coat of paint on them which makes it easier to paint, but we found it’s worth using a light primer anyway, especially if you’re planning on something a bit different, paint-scheme wise.

The detail is okay; it’s not too fine and the plastic itself is tough; if you’re planning on kit-bashing this model be prepared to work for it.  The models design certainly does spark the imagination. Though canonically this is a mix of magically rotten steel and lava, the model’s design lend itself to more organic paint-schemes. It could be easily converted for space fantasy games such as Warhammer 40,000 or various other games with weird monsters in them.

If you’re looking for a unique big-bad for your games, or just a slightly unusual project, this is worth a look.

Ao The Dawn Sky is a legendary dragon spirit from Magic the Gathering’s Kamigawa setting. It’s essentially a big flying snake, sort of resembling a loong or Chinese dragon.  In the card game,  Ao is the reincarnation of the divine dragon Yosei, who died in a legendary battle for the soul of the world.

The model itself is posed as a flying creature, though it has no wings. In the fiction of the game,  it’s writhing form coils and extends through the air, using mystical energy to keep it aloft. The actual miniature just uses a U-shaped piece of translucent plastic and a clever base design make it look like it’s flying. Translucent plastic ‘flowers’ can be attached to the model, so you can posed the model as if it’s summoning some sort of magic power.

The piece is not pre-painted, simply primed so paint goes on easily. It’s face has impressive ‘mustache’  and the back if it has have a fan-like structure making it look more  lizard like’. This weird snake-like beastie is very specific in terms of use, but it is lovely to paint and all the prep-work has been done. A fun, if slightly odd, piece.

Dungeons and Dragons is a fantasy game that requires quick-wits and an ability to make up believable nonsense on the spot. D&D can be described a fun, and immersive game where people indulge in fantasy and imagine a world in which versions of themselves have magical powers. If one was being unkind (and a little bit cynical), one could say the same of Tarot Card readers.

The Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck is an officially licensed deck of 78 cards, heavily themed towards the many worlds of D&D. Though a common use for Tarot cards is fortune telling (a game where one pretends to know the future by examining the images on the card), the Tarot has, over the years become its own visual language.

Except, weirdly, in the case of The Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck. These cards are a bit of a curate’s egg. For a start, they’ve stripped away the traditional suites you find either playing cards or Tarot cards. Instead we have Strength, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Charisma. In the table top game of D&D, these attributes have a clear purpose. In Tarot, this is just confusing.

There’s no way to tell if one card is intended to be the three of cups or the four of coins without checking the (badly formatted) booklet provided. Some of the cards look like they were intended to be more traditionally designed Tarot cards; so you may see four swords on a card, but that doesn’t mean that card is meant to convey the traditional meaning of the four of swords.

This is a huge shame, as Tarot cards are a great story-telling tool. Any normal pack of Tarot cards can be used to create off-the-cuff stories. This is because the system they used to ‘predict the future’ can also be used as a narrative shorthand. For example you can summarise the plot of Star Wars with a four or five major arcana cards and a couple of minor cards; we’ll leave which ones as an exercise for the reader. If you’re stuck for a dungeon, just pull out some tarot cards and read them; as each card is it’s own little story this should be enough to improvise an adventure.

Alas The Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck doesn’t really do this; they’ve stripped away anything that might make using these cards easy. The art itself is very, very nice and in some cases very specific to D&D. There is some lovely multiverse inspired art, including a version of the Lady of Pain, Modrons, some really cool looking Tieflings and so on. They’ve dug in deep to the lore here, which again might confuse a casual fan.

The major arcana fare better here; they’ve at least tried to follow the brief and those images do look stunning.  Alas, they’ve designed them in such a way that they don’t work ‘reversed’. In more competently produced tarot cards, reverse meanings can be derived if the card is drawn upside down. In this set, they simply haven’t bothered.

The Dungeons & Dragons Tarot Deck is a lovely looking bit of D&D memorabilia that is utterly useless for its intended purpose. We’d be fascinated to learn what happened during the design process as clearly the cards where originally intended to be more useful and then at some point, radical design choices got made.

If you’re after a fortune telling game, they are better cards and toys out there. If you’re after a deck of story prompts for D&D, you’d probably be better off drawing Battle for Baldur’s Gate Magic The Gathering cards.  But if you want something pretty to look cool on your desk; this is for you.

In world of Magic the Gathering,  the character of Wrenn is a planeswalking dryad who can bind her form to treefolk. She hails from the spooky world of Innistrad, a gothic inspired plane. Wrenn has mastery of fire, and her lanterns are particular notable. The problem of course, is that she needs to bond with trees to survive.

The wizkids miniature Wrenn and Seven is a 3D version of Wrenn bonded with her seventh sentient tree. The model is unpainted, but coated in a thin greyish primer which will take most model paints. You may still want to re-prime this particular model depending on your intended colour scheme, but you usually can’t go wrong with grey.

The model depicts Wrenn bonded with a tree-like creature. Her arms are raised, as are the arms of the creature. Branches covered in leaves work as a back-banner of sorts. Lanterns hang from the limbs of the tree. These are rendered in see-through plastic, so be prepared to use  translucent paints.

This is a tall but cleverly balanced model. Wrenn is depicted as an almost wraith like creature in the game, combing the power of nature with flame and magic.  The model is a good place to start, but getting it right will be a fun challenge for an experienced hobbyist.

Wizkids range of models inspired by Magic The Gathering bring key parts of the hihly detailed setting physical form. Magic is a highly visual setting; every single card has an illustration on it and they all tell some sort of story.

The Archangel Avacyn is a particular interesting character. Magic The Gathering has a lot of angels in it’s lore, but Avacyn hails from the Innistrad, the horror themed plane. Created by vampire planeswalker Sorin Markov, she exists to protect and bring balance to Innistrad, and she’s a key figure in many of the stories about that place.

The unpainted model is at the standard 25mm scale, and looks like she’s leapt straight out of one her cards. The model is primed; a thin layer of grey paint coats the model, and most standard modelling paints easily pick out the detail on the piece. The angels wings are thick and solidly done, as if they are many feathers stacked on top of each other.  They are sculpted as if they are just about to take flight. Her moonsilver spear is thrust out into the sky and her hair and robes whip about her.

This is a fun piece with quite a bit of utility; it’s a more interesting sort of angel and there’s a lot of fun to be had for the canny hobbyist.

One of the nice things about Wizkid’s Icons of The Realms range is that they tend to be comprehensive in their offering.  You can chase after the models via the Booster packs, or pick up a starter set. But if you want to represent some of the key characters from the main adventure, you may not want to have to collect boxes of boosters.

The Witchlight Carnival box contains ten key models, each at the standard D&D scale, finely detailed and well painted.  As the name suggests, they’re the folk you’ll meet at the Witchlight carnival, a major part of the adventure. Many of these models come sculpted with lovely little translucent fairy wings,

First off there’s Thaco, the Clown. This NPC is bit of an obstacle in the campaign and a sort of villain. He’s a warning about getting too deep in nostalgia (and his name his a nod to D&D’s history.). It’s nice clown model. His rival, the bugbear Burly, is also here. He looks dashining in his dungarees and beard.  This is a model you could use as a bouncer in another game if you wished.

Kettlesteam is a Kenku warlock and master of disguise, and a pretty risky encounter as low levels. His model has him a majestic pose wielding eldritch flame. It’s a Kenku it’s nicely done. He steals the voice of Candlefoot, a human mime which can also be found in this set. The sculpt is a little gaunt for a human,  but works nicely for a weird fairy thing.  Northwind is a junior treant with a pet squirrel called Red. It looks a lot like Groot with a canopy of leaves for hair and a cute rodent sitting amidst it all. It’s a charming piece.

The mermaid Palasha comes with her own personal gold-fish bowl. These are two pieces.  Palasha her self is a slinky, shiny blue model. The base clicks into the see-through bowl, which can be detached from it’s base.  Most models in the range with fit in here, in case you really want something else in there.  Dirlagraun is an elderly displacer beast with massive butterfly like wings. It’s a gorgeous model, very well painted and eye-catching.

Finally we get Mister Witch and Mister Light.   The former is very much the business man in his top hat,carrying a cane and he is checking his watch. Mister Light is dressed as a harlequin and wields a magical weather vane.

One of the fun little surprises that turns up in the  The Wild Beyond The Witchlight is that characters from old school Dungeons and Dragons turn up. Two factions, Valor’s Call and the League of Malevolence are eerily familiar to anyone who remembers the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons action figures from the 80s.  Some of these weirdoes even appeared in the old school Dungeons and Dragons cartoon (the one with Bobby the Barbarian and Hank the Ranger which UK readers will recall as being one of the best things about TV show Saturday Superstore).

Wizkid’s have produced two ‘starter sets’, which are really an excuse to create pre-painted minature versions of these memorable figures. Of course, these are non-posable 25mm scale models, rather than the action figures from the 80s. (Though given that Dungeons and Dragons is now owned by Hasbro, surely action figures are sort of inevitable.)

 Valor’s Call are meant to be a noble adventuring party.  The set contains five models. Elkhorn is a powerful, short-sword wielding dwarf , wearing a horned helmet and carrying a long sword and shield. The paint-job is okay and the sculpt looks a lot like the one from the book.  He’s accompanied by Mercion, the human cleric who has had a bit of a redesign since the 80s. This red-haired cleric looks like they’re about to start a fight at any minute, and is dressed a medieval warrior. It’s nice enough to be a hero piece for various campaigns.  You can’t have an adventuring party without someone who can pick locks, and Valor’s Call has Molliver, a dagger throwing bad-ass. Again, the model strikes the right balance between being an iconic figure yet also generic enough to be useful at the table.

Ringlerun the wizard has a staff, a very long beard and big white robes. Again, he’s what you imagine when someone says ‘good wizard’ to you (after all, all these pieces where originally action 80’s action figures. Finally we have Strongheart, a noble knight with blue and silver armour. He’s a great hero model and a nice dose of nostalgia.

It would be lazy to describe the League of Malevolence as like Valor’s Call, but evil, but it’s not an inaccurate description. Kelek is an evil wizard and sort of a mirror to Ringlerun. He has a big white beard, but a much better mustache and really cool black robes. His staff is nicely wicked looking.  Skylla is a warlock with heavy ‘evil soreceress’ vibes. She wears a monster’s skull on her head and is firing purple energy from her staff. (This is a translucent plastic.).  It’s a very detailed sculpt.

Zarak is an evil orc in a blue hood. He looks like a menace and a good interpretation of the action figure it is inspired by. Zargash is an evil human cleric. Purple robes, snake head staff,  condescending look. Finally we get Warduke. Famous for his winged helmet and scary looking sword and shield, he’s a great counter to the noble Strongheart.

Both sets are a great bit of nostalgia and eyecatching enough to fit into any D&D campaign you can think of.

Wizkid’s Warlock Tiles range has mostly provided dungeon and tavern style settings for your generic tabletop fantasy gaming experience. (But let’s be honest, it’s mostly Dungeons and Dragons because that’s the game everyone is playing right now.)

Cavern systems are an inevitable extension of a dungeon and they’re a solid feature of many a classic tabletop scenario.  They’re also perhaps the trickiest to pull off in 3D, after all, caverns are meant to be enclosed and that would make placing the models a little more difficult.

Wizkids have fixed this by providing a cavern system that includes all the different types of spikey rock you find in a cave. Stalactites & Stalagmites is a collection of rocky out-croppings (made out of plastic), designed in such a way that you can have you party dealing with things swooping down from the tops of the cavern or hiding behind strange pillars.

The set is designed to integrate with their base Caverns set,  which similarly features orangey-brown rocky bits that can be configured into a variety of layouts for your adventurers. An accessory set with the usual limpid pools and mushrooms you’d expect to find in such a layout can also be picked up.

The main problem with this section of the range is the fact that cavern complexes are so diverse that it’s often tricky figure out exactly what the lay-out should be. Savvy Dungeon Masters are better advised to consider getting a ‘cavern effect’ mat or map and then adding these pieces as scenery; using them to block line of sight and provide cover for monsters and adventurers. Unlike the rest of the range, these pieces do not lend themselves easily to impressive dioramas.

A useful set, but not as flexible as the tavern or dungeon range.