Do you ever wish you could travel back in time to when fantasy art and games were still fresh, miniatures were still made of lead, female warriors had more protection than just plate bikinis, and they didn't cost exorbitant amounts? Well, sadly, you can't but the good news is, you can buy re-casts of miniatures from days past starting at $1.89 (as per the date of this review) per human-sized figure from
Mega Miniatures! Not many can claim that these days.
Mega Miniatures is a company that has a huge selection of both fantasy and sci-fi miniatures. In this review I'll be covering only the fantasy selection, as I haven't purchased any of the sci-fi miniatures.
I randomly came upon their
E-Bay Shop searching for vintage miniatures and boy did I come across a gem! It wasn't long before I had amassed several auction purchases and was eagerly awaiting my order. Later I came across the
Shopping Cart Store where the buyer gets an extra 5% off, which doesn't seem like much but hey, the more you save, the more you can buy! For convenience sake, customers can pay with PayPal, check, or money order. Ok, on with the miniatures!
Firstly, I'd like to say I was very impressed with the casting job of the miniatures. They have about average mold lines for miniatures these days, so not too bad, and any good file and hobby knife will clean them up quickly. They are all cast in tin, which keeps the cost down but the quality still high. The two miniature lines that I focused primarily on were the re-castings of
Julie Gutherie's Personalities (by Grenadier) and
Metal Magic, which are both 25 mm scale, although, as you will see in the following pictures, the Personalities miniatures are a bit smaller. Both of these miniature lines are from the late 1980's to early 1990's, which is pretty neat if you ask me! I was just a pup back then and having access to miniature history is great.
As you can see here, I've taken some pictures to show the size of both the Metal Magic and Grenadier miniatures compared to more modern miniatures by Reaper and a Games Workshop (Lord of the Rings figure). The Grenadier, as I said earlier, are a bit on the small side, so keep that in mind when buying them for specific purposes. I will say this though, they are extremely detailed and most sculpts ooze personality! The Metal Magic miniatures are a little bigger but still slightly smaller than Games Workshop and, again, quite smaller than Reaper. I'm not sure at what point they decided to increase the 25 mm scale size!
And here's another example of "non-humans" just to give some scale. The sizes are pretty comparable, I think. Poor Gimli looks like the weakest of the bunch!
And finally, some monsters. The Metal Magic ogre is quite robust compared to the Grenadier Ogre Champion whereas the Grenaider minotaur is rather...beefy, pun intended! The other minotaurs though are basically human-sized, so don't expect all the minotaurs to be so huge (not that it makes them any less cool).
Mega Miniatures is a godsend for people like me who just enjoy painting miniatures. It's also an excellent place for beginners who don't want to commit to a huge investment in a hobby they're just starting. Gamers who need to flesh out their dungeons can also find a HUGE selection of monsters, furniture, animals, etc.
The customer service is pretty good too. They ship within five days of your order, as occasionally they will have to cast more product depending on the order. Shipping prices are also reasonable. As I said before, you can buy through their
E-Bay Store or through the
Shopping Cart Store. You save 5% ordering through the Shopping Cart Store, so keep that in mind too!
I've been 100% satisfied with Mega Miniatures and I'd highly recommend them to anyone looking to find some cool minis to paint! You'll be reliving your old fantasy glory days or discovering some old but really great miniatures and amass a huge collection like myself. I've probably got over 350 by now! That's a lot of painting ahead of me but I'm excited to do so.
Until next time, fantasy enthusiasts!
