# Animal miniatures?



## farscapesg1 (Jul 26, 2005)

Can anyone point me to some good animal miniatures?  I'm currently playing a Conjurer and I'm getting really sick of having to always use tokens or the same wolf miniatures for all my summoned creatures.  I'm not real familiar with Wizard's line of plastic pre-painted miniatures, and unfortunately I don't have a local gaming shop that I can shop at.

I've always been a fan of Reaper's miniature line, but WOTC's pre-painted ones seem to do a better job of holding up against uncaring/abusive players moving things around and bumping miniatures into each other.

Any other miniature companies I should look at for this?  I haven't found much on Reaper's website for animals, but honestly I haven't spent that much time looking yet.


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## Thunderfoot (Jul 26, 2005)

You've already listed the two best sources I can think of... however, if you get a little creative, go to your local dollar store.  Every so often you can find some really craptacular plastic toys (farm sets) but with a little X-acto work and a new paint job, viola, 20 new animals for $1 + paint and time. (Also a great place for giant lizards, spiders and bugs)

For the WOTC figs, E-bay is a great place for singles, but the shipping is horrible for only a few, so shop wisely.
Hope this helps and happy gaming!


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## Morpheus (Jul 26, 2005)

Go here and check out the D&D Minis singles. If you buy a bunch, shipping won't be so bad...


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## Glyfair (Jul 26, 2005)

I had a lot of success with irregular miniatures.  The quality wasn't amazing, but they were cheap and the breadth was very good.  Discount Hobby used to carry them in the U.S. but I don't think they do anymore.

I don't know anyplace else where you can order "8 assorted poultry" 

http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/25mmRanges/25mmAnimals.htm


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## kenobi65 (Jul 26, 2005)

farscapesg1 said:
			
		

> Any other miniature companies I should look at for this?  I haven't found much on Reaper's website for animals, but honestly I haven't spent that much time looking yet.




Reaper does have several packs of "familiars", which would give you smaller critters (the biggest ones are usually dogs or wolves).  The catalog numbers are:
Familiar Pack 1: 2018
Familiar Pack 2: 2399
Familiar Pack 3: 2593
Familiar Pack 4: 2756
Familiar Pack 5: 2848
Warlord Familiars 1: 14041
Warlord Familiars 2: 14087

Reaper also has:
- 2 apes (2454, 2466)
- Acid beetles (2844)
- Dire boar (2527)
- Giant eagle (14086)
- Giant frogs (2665)
- Evil-looking dogs (2522, 2817)
- Rats (2353, 2544)
- Scarab beetles (2492, 2564)
- Giant scorpion (2182)
- Giant snake (2675)
- Giant spiders (2417, 2784)
- Sabretoothed tiger (2480)
- Wolves (2415, 2649, 2830)

You might also want to check out Fiery Dragon's Counter Collections, or Steve Jackson Games' Cardboard Heroes; I've seen "normal" animals in both.


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## KenM (Jul 26, 2005)

http://www.reapermini.com/store/customer/search.php?substring=familiar+pack

  I have the first 3 packs, very good, IMO. The animal minis I'm looking for are pack animals, mules, horses, ect. Not counters but minis.


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## kenobi65 (Jul 26, 2005)

KenM said:
			
		

> The animal minis I'm looking for are pack animals, mules, horses, ect. Not counters but minis.




Might want to look into historical / wargame minis for those.


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## thalmin (Jul 26, 2005)

KenM,
Mega Miniatures has three packages you might want to look at.
#20020 Pack Horses (3)
#20021 Pack Mules (3)
and #20022 Pack Camels (2)


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## seankreynolds (Jul 26, 2005)

Try Foundry's "animal best sellers" -- pack mules, pack horses, oxen, sheep, and livestock, as well as lions, bears, and gorillas.


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## Ogrork the Mighty (Jul 26, 2005)

Buying D&D minis off Ebay is your best bet. You can probably get piles of useful animal types for pretty cheap. Just make sure to buy in bulk to save on shipping.

Doing this, I've accumulated:
- 20+ hyenas
- 3 timber wolves
- 10-15 zombie wolves
- 2 fiendish preying mantis (large)
- 3 dire bears (large)
- 2 dire lions (large)
- 1 dire ape (large)
- 5 celestial bears
- 5 abyssal skulkers (make great lizards)

I already have a pile of metal rats, a dire boar, a dire bat, scarab swarms, a couple huge scorpions, and piles of spiders. Most of these are from Reaper. For stuff like spiders and scorpions, Reaper may be the way to go b/c they're Rare D&D minis and won't be that much cheaper than buying the metal ones in the store. There are also plenty of elemental minis, both from Reaper and WotC, that can be used for summoned elementals.


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## Vraille Darkfang (Jul 26, 2005)

For horses,

Look up mounted warriors.  I got 2 Reaper figs mounted on horses.  You can also take a unicorn & saw the horn off.

Reaper also has a bunch of dwarves riding bears.

One of my favorite animal minis is an old Ral-Partha Hippo my wife painted for me.

That's right a vicious war-hippo.  Fear the War-Hippo!  Worship the War-Hippo!  Be the War Hippo!


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## haiiro (Jul 26, 2005)

If you're not dead set on minis, you might consider Fiery Dragon's Counter Collection 5: Summoned Creatures set, which includes every beastie on the lists for SM I-IX and SNA I-IX for $20. Their counters rock.


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## Shadowdancer (Jul 26, 2005)

I was having the same problem with my sorcerer character, which had the Summon Monster spell. Then I started using D&D Miniatures, and they work pretty well. At each level of the spell, I picked the two monsters from each level of the spell which would be most useful in combat in most situations, and bought minis which could represent those monsters. It works out pretty well.

Now the player of our party's cleric, who also has the Summon Monster spell on his spell lists, is doing the same thing.

Some of the minis I bought on E-bay. Others I found at various on-line sites which sell individual minis.


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