Does anyone have much experience of Wildspire Miniatures?
My son is hankering to play D&D and I was preparing to sacrifice a kidney to get some basic miniatures, being very used to Warhammer prices) when I found Wildspire. https://wild-spire.com
I’m guessing that they’re 3D printed but at less than £1 per miniature and given they’re going to have to survive 10yo boys, I guess they might be okay?
I haven’t, but I will see that the official D&D miniatures line (Noz… something…) are quite reasonably priced for their quality. $5.99-8.99CAD for most pairs of human-sized minis (unpainted), and the quality is pretty good. $3/mini feels about right.
Their monsters and prepainted stuff… less so. But tokens exist for those, and they are pretty good. And even the prepainted stuff isn’t hideously expensive (compared to getting a commission painter who will do a much better job but also charge more).
The reason I’d like to go 3D is because when we’re playing, he’s likely comparing the game to a computer game. So something more tactile was my first thought to really play up the difference.
But thank you for the link - I’ll definitely check them out.
Maybe the prices have spiked in the year since I worked at a game store, but… yeah, that’s too much. They’re mediocre minis… not bad, better than Gloomhaven but that’s saying absolutely nothing (GH and FH minis are awful).
Maybe check a FLGS? Amazon pricing tends to be… chaotic. Maybe they are really expensive through The Devil Company bit cheaper through other means?
I wonder if competing with computers is part of it would you maybe be better off going all pen and paper? No tokens at all and get him using his imagination purely?
All many years watching kids come and go or stay from GW stores that actually leaning on to differences was better than replicating something.
Unless you want them to get crafty and enjoy building/painting miniatures? I also thinking by not using miniatures you can do for him all the conceptual stuff which can be a barrier so you could lower it
Edit: I say this as someone who loves miniatures and painting but also all my time at a GW store showed me that kids need to show inclination for it be a draw.
Some really good points. He needs some kind of fidget device to be able to sit still and focus though, and while he’ll have dice, I did think about it.
Not sure he’d be into painting, but that’s another reason to start with something relatively cheap, which no one cares if the paint job isn’t great. And if he’s not into it, there’s every chance his sister might be!
Thanks for the perspective though - definitely worth thinking through.
If you need a fidget thing then I’d be worried about the fragility of a 3d printed mini. Plastic is your best bet as poly cement really welds it together.
Archon Studios has a range of plastic figures (and tile sets) called Dungeons & Lasers that are pretty affordable on a per figure cost, albeit sold as quite biggish sets rather than individual figures.
I’ll also second DrBob’s recommendation of considering standees. You can find a lot of very affordable options, some full colour, some line art that your children can colourise. One of my favourites is Zhu Industries.
