Review: Dangerous Delves

Impatient as I am, I journeyed out into the sun yet again in order to procure several sets of Dangerous Delves in order to see for myself what the fuss was about. I shelled out $60 and walked away with the following:

• 2 aboleth slime mages
• 1 unicorn (which are totally cool)
• 1 hippogriff
  
• 1 clay golem
  
• 1 berbalang
• 1 hellstinger scorpion
• 2 goblin sharpshooters
• 1 kruthik young (where the fuck were you a week ago?)
• 3 serpent swarms
• 1 githyanki warrior
  
• 1 foulspawn grue
  
• 1 arbalest
• 1 orc eye of gruumsh
  
• 1 grimlock minion
• 1 gnoll huntmaster
• 1 yaun-ti fangblade

Aaand I'm content with what I got. Granted, the paint schemes arent all the best, but then I can paint things extremely well. What I was expecting was something that would be acceptable and work at the game table, and I think I got a great deal for what I paid for considering that I saved myself an assload of time and money on supplies.

Getting into specifics, the aboleth slime mage doesnt look bad. It looks alright, especially considering that its a visible and runs for about a quarter of the price of the entire box on Ebay, and thats not even taking the shipping and handling into account. I dont know why people are bitching about the paint job, as whatever they did gives it a dirty, mottled look, which is what I'd expect from an ancient fish monster that spends most of its time covered in slime, living in dark caves, and bossing fungus people around.

Seriously, how much would I expect to pay for a metal mini of the same thing? If GW has anything to say about it, anywhere from 15-25 bucks, and thats for an unassembled, unpainted, metal miniature. Reaper charges you around $5 a pop for a normal, unpainted humanoid, which is around double what the slime mage goes for. Now if you want them painted, you can tack on around twenty-or-so dollars to the price just so you can sit down and get painting.
Of course, you're end results will be far superior since apparently blind children can paint better than anything you get from Wizards.

A few of them have very questionable paint jobs, but then this is what I would expect for Common mook minis like the grimlock minion: its passable if you compare it the "bare minimum" by Games Workshop, and really I'd rather shell out the buck myself if it allows me to side skip the entire sweat-shop operation.

A few nitpicks to make:

• The githyanki warrior has flash/sculpt lines. Not a big deal from a distance, but still there.
  
• I would have liked to see a fur furrier texture on the gnoll huntmaster.
• The pose on the foulspawn grue looks kind of lame and distorted: I think it should have had a more hunched over pose instead of having one arm jutting to the side like its surfing.
  
• The yaun-ti fangblade details look a bit undefined, but it might be a case of too much paint applied.

All things considered, many of them are alright or even daresay good (such as the orc eye of gruumsh). Maybe I'll have something more negative to say when the case I ordered shows up tomorrow, but for now I think its at the least a good deal for your money.